n the next year after he had issued his
pastoral appeal for help, the clergy reserve fund yielded an increase,
"and an expectation of a gradual increase annually was officially
expressed." ("Secular State of the Church," page 11.)

The Bishop's complaint against the Provincial Government (Chapter
xlviii., page 379) was that its management of the clergy reserve lands
was wasteful and extravagant. An effort was therefore made, in 1846, to
vest these lands in the religious bodies then entitled to a share in the
income derived from their sale. Mr. Gladstone communicated with the
Governor-General on the subject, with this view, in February, 1846. The
proposal, was, however, viewed with alarm, as well as was the fact that
such efforts being made in England showed that, as in 1840, so in 1846,
the rights of the Canadian people to this patrimony could be at any time
alienated or extinguished by the Imperial Government, without the
official knowledge or consent of the Canadian Parliament.

These two facts, when they became known and appreciated by the people of
Upper Canada, led to the taking of decisive steps to prevent them from
becoming realities. The representatives in the Canadian House of
Assembly of the Bishop of Toronto sought to get an address to the Crown
passed, with a view to vesting a portion of the lands in the Church
Society of Toronto. Hon. Robert Baldwin warned the friends of the Bishop
of the impolicy and imprudence of such a proposition, and pointed out
that if the clergy reserve question was thus re-opened, the former
fierce agitation on the subject would be resumed, which might "end in
the total discomfiture of the Church." His warning was unheeded, and
although the motion for vesting the lands as proposed was rejected, by a
vote of 37 to 14, yet the Bishop in his charge, delivered the next year
(in June, 1847), said:--

After all, our great desire continues to be to acquire the
management of what is left to the Church of the reserves; and why
this reasonable desire is not complied with remains a matter of
deep regret (page 19).

The question thus brought before the Legislature, led to its being
brought before the people, until it became a subject of discussion in
political meetings and election contests. Finally, in 1850, the
Government of the day secured the passage in the House of Assembly of an
address to the Crown, praying for the repeal of the Imperial Clergy
Reserve Act of 1840