revolution be long prevented, if laws were retained on
the statute book condemned by three-fourths of the Commons, and more
than three-fourth of all classes of people in the land, and those
statutes involving religious questions? And is that to be perpetuated in
Canada which would not be retained in England for a month?

6. Into the origin and progress of the controversy connected with the
clergy reserves, it is needless for me to enter. They are sufficiently
stated in the Address of the Legislative Assembly of Canada to the
Queen, a copy of which is herewith annexed, together with the majorities
by which each of the thirty-one clauses of the Address was separately
voted. It will be seen that the first twenty-three clauses of the
Address were carried by a majority of 52 to 18; the 24th clause by 51 to
20; the 26th clause by 48 to 19; the 27th and 28th clauses by 47 to 20;
the 29th clause by 36 to 34; the 30th clause by 40 to 28; the 31st
clause, containing the prayer of the Address, by 45 to 23. The only
clause of the Address, therefore, in favour of which the majority of the
Assembly was not large and decided, was the 29th; and in a vote to that
clause, I have shown that the smallness of the majority was occasioned
by objections to different parts of the clause upon quite opposite
grounds, of three classes of members--the sixteen supporters of the
present pre-eminence of the Churches of England and Scotland, a section
of the Roman Catholic members, and what in England would be called the
extreme dissenters. In the vote referred to, I have explained the ground
of the opposition to this clause by each of these three classes of
members. It will be seen that the 29th clause is rather speculative than
practical, and does not affect the character and completeness of the
Address, every other clause of which was carried by a large majority. It
is, however, curious to remark, that while the supporters of the present
exclusive privileges of the Churches of England and Scotland are
indebted to the assistance of Roman Catholic members for the only vote
in which the minority was large; yet in England some of these same
parties represent the Address as having been carried chiefly by Roman
Catholic votes, with a view of destroying all Protestant institutions in
Canada.

7. No enlightened and candid person can look at the religious history
and social state of Canada and desire the perpetuation of the Imperial
Act 3 and 4 Vic., ch. 7