| The following Extract of a speech of the Rev. H. Wilkes, at a meeting lately held in London, in behalf of British and Colonial Missions, will doubtless be interesting to the supporters of our own Missions in that interesting Province. In 1824, there was in Canada, viewed as a whole, not many more than 600,000 souls; in 1848, twenty-four years after, a recent census shows the fact that it is within a few thousands of a million and a half. This advance of population is largely caused by immigration. Various reasons may be given to show that this is the case; and the immigration is chiefly of our own race. The French portion of the population of Canada has not rapidly increased, not at all by immigration. And there has been a migration of the French Canadians into the neighbouring states of America. As a striking illustration of the relative position of the two populations, I may mention that, twenty-four or twenty-five years ago, the city of Montreal contained a population of at least two-thirds of French, speaking the French language, and perhaps hardly one-third speaking the English language. At the present moment, more than two-thirds speak the English language, and hardly one-third the French-showing the advance in this city; and it is so to a large extent, in the whole province, of the Anglo Saxon race, those who speak our language, and act in accordance with our views of social polity. I have recently spent a month in the principal cities of Scotland, and have found, as I dare say I should find here, that a large portion of the families have some connexion or other, nearer, or more remote, within the colonies of our empire. I have been surrounded, wherever I have preached or spoken on the subject, by individuals anxiously inquiring after this or that town, or this or that locality, where they had a brother, a sister, or some near relative, whom they loved, and concerning whose interests, and the institutions amidst which they lived, they, wished to be informed. One thing is quite plain on the face of the case; and were you to journey, as I have done, into the recesses and interior of the country, you would be convinced that what appears on the face of the case is a matter of solemn fact - namely, that unless the institutions of evangelical Christianity are introduced among the people as they settle in the different townships or localities of that rising country, the population goes back - ("hear hear") – goes back educationally, goes back socially, goes back morally, goes back in all that elevates man, in all that will act favourably upon him in respect to the interests of the present life, and most of all in respect of the interests of the life that is to come. It is quite plain, that when individuals, emigrating from this country, enter upon their new sphere, the mind, especially of the man, is at once tasked in relation to the material interests of himself and his family. His first object is to get a house and a plot of ground from which sustenance can be derived, that first the necessities, and afterwards the comforts of life may be supplied. Prior to his entrance in the colony, a process has been going on somewhat damaging to him and his family. They have six or eight weeks at sea; they have been thrown into new and exciting circumstances in their journey into the interior. Their habits have been and, perhaps, injured or almost lost. Those solemn teachings, and those powerful impressions by which they were influenced at home, in their congregation or Church, or the society in the midst of which they have moved, have been shaken and damaged by coming into new scenes, mixing with new people, and being exposed to influences, most of which are alien from spiritual impressions, and that which would promote spiritual progress. They then go, with this somewhat injured state of mind, in to new circumstances; and the bent of the mind then is, directly and strongly, to what has to be done, what is to be ate, drunk, and worn. And if there be not the introduction, simultaneously, of the institutions of religion; if they must remain there one, two, six, eight, or ten years without them, what is the effect? Anything good in their old habits has gone. Habits, the opposite of what is good, have been created in themselves and their children. Mammon has become all but their god: they have thought, and become habituated to think, merely of the things of this present life till they have lost impressions and affections, in relation to the things which are unseen and eternal. And, Sir, it will cost you ten times the effort and the money, apart from those solemn interests, that have been sacrificed, and those souls that may have been eventually ruined and lost, to bring that people back to an attitude prepared for the vigorous working of the institutions of religion, ten times more than if you had gone with them when they entered into their new sphere, planted your religious teaching there, and allowed it to grow with their growth, and strengthen with their strength. Sir, it is bad economy to hold back in this case; on the other hand, it is wisdom and good economy, as the population is thus extending - as our countrymen, our loved ones, occupy their new fields, to go to them with the institutions of religion, and let them grow up in the midst of them. We have to contend against this influence in all our colonial dependencies; and in Canada against another, which is particularly potent - I refer to the influence of Romanism. The meeting is aware that Canada was originally a Roman Catholic country; it was first settled by the French nation; and Roman Catholicism was wise in its generation, for it planted, parallel with the settlement of the country, in point of time and of efficiency, the institutions of Romanism. They were endowed with lands and funds by the French king, enjoyed by the Jesuits in the first instance, and thereafter, by the St. Sulpicians. For instance, the island of Montreal, a great add fertile island, and certain other seignories in the province, were given, so far as the seigniorial rights were concerned, to the Romish ecclesiastics, that they might form their funds for missions to the heathens, for education, and for the cure of souls in the province of Canada. These endowments were renewed, when our country took possession of Canada, to Romanism; they have them now; and they are very lucrative, and present to view a very formidable aspect. I suppose that the ecclesiastics are very respectable men, as men, and gentlemen in their manners. In the city of Montreal, the in-come of the St. Sulpicians is computed to be above £25,000 sterling per annum, derived from real estate, besides funds from the fees of the Church, and other sources. They have had all but an unbroken sway. The population of French Canadians, now in the province, may, perhaps, number 600,000 souls; over these they have exercised, until very recently, absolute control, without the slightest interposition from any one. The result, I need not not say, is, not a little superstition, and not a little bondage of mind. Those who look at the system theoretically, will see that its necessary result is, to bind men's minds, and to induce a species of mental bondage and slavery. This is its necessary and natural result; and facts prove this to be the case. It may relieve the tedium of a speech, if, to show their influence on the population, I describe a scene which occurs every year in every city and every village in lower Canada. it is the feast of Corpus Christi, called ,"la f'ete de Dieu;" this festival is observed on the Lord's-day. Late on Saturday evening, the streets of the city, after being swept clean, are lined with boughs of trees, very beautifully, on either side. On the Lord's-day morning, the bells ringing, there issues from one of the large churches a procession, headed by an official, bearing an enormous cross, and on either side, a candle several feet high. Then follow, in Indian file, on either side of the street, rows of boys and girls, nuns and ecclesiastics, and interspersed here and here, a British soldier with his musket; until a procession, between a quarter and a half-a-mile in length, is brought up by the official, bearing the host. He is covered by a gorgeous canopy, supported by four officials, and there march immediately in front of him, four or six priests, clothed in their vestments; two of them have four baskets suspended from their necks, and two holding silver censers. They march to a band of music, and as the procession moves on, they who carry the flowers turn round and worship the host, and scatter flowers on the path. Then they return to the ranks, and the others turn out, throw up incense in front, worshipping the host again, and thus they pass through the city. Behind the host there follow advocates with their black gowns, and other individuals of respectability. Of a population of one million and a half, 700,000, are Roman Catholics, that is, one half of the entire population; and when we consider the deficiency of religious instruction which prevails in that portion of the population, you will at once see the necessity of making an effort to enlighten them. We have now in Eastern Canada 24 churches, and we have about 35 Churches in western Canada, being about 60 in all, for which we ought to thank God. In the district of country in which I labour, we have built 21 places of worship, and all this we have done ourselves, besides what has been done by England and Scotland; and we have expended £8,000 sterling, besides some money that we have not yet paid; and this labour has produced the greatest results. [We understand the income of the Colonial department of this Society, for the past year has been £3,053 10s 7d, and the expenditure £3,063 16s. 4d. ED.] By helping the people of that country, therefore, you are helping those who serve your aid, and who are doing all they can to help themselves. The work in which we are engaged is one of thrilling interest, and those who like me have seen the excess of the population of this country crowding to the west - that west, not blessed with British Churches - would see the necessity of lending a helping hand to instruct those emigrants in the knowledge which surpasses all other knowledge. I hope, therefore, that there will be promptitude on the part of the people of this country, to come forward to aid in extending the cause of British Missions all over the world. |