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Bible Encyclopedias
Canada, Dominion of.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or The national and religious associations of this, our most important neighbor on the North American continent, are such as to justify the occupancy of more than usual space for their consideration.
I. Physical, Industrial, and Political Aspects.
1. Geography. — The Dominion of Canada comprises all those portions of British America, except the eastern coast of Labrador, that lie' between the United States and the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans. Its area is about 3,500,000 square miles.
2. Geology. — From the Atlantic, along the north shore of the river St. Lawrence, along the north shore of the Ottawa, and even on its southern shore in its western part, along the Georgian Bay and the north shore of Lake Superior, thence north along the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg, and extending beyond the height of land between these lines and Hudson's Bay, is one almost continuous belt of Lower Laurentian, relieved, at wide intervals, by spots of Upper Laurentian, with occasional bands and -spots of Huronian, Cambrian, and Silurian, and, along the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers, a considerable extent of Siluro-Cambrian, or Lower Silurian. The southern coast of Labrador, the southern shore of the St. Lawrence, the country along Lake Ontario, and what is known as "The .Western Peninsula" of Ontario, have the Lower Silurian, rising, between Lake Erie and Lake Huron, through the Upper Silurian into the Hamilton and Chemung series of the Erian or Devonian formation. In the " Eastern Provinces," the strata reach through the Upper Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and, in Prince Edward Island, even to the Trias. West of Lake Winnepeg. the series enters the Cretaceous and Tertiary. The Cretaceous appears also in British Columbia. T he long range of islands skirting the north shore of Lake Huron are Lower Silurian on the north and Middle Silurian on the south, while, on the adjacent mainland, the Huronian prevails, and stretches north-east to the neighborhood of James's Bay. The " Eastern Townships " of Quebec give strata even of the Upper Silurian as their general character. South-west of James's Bay is a vast basin of Devonian; and surrounding this, and extending. northwards, is a great extent of Silurian. Pleistocene gravels, sand, and clay are uniform and abundant in Canada. Terraces and ancient sea-beaches line the rivers and lakes, and contain, as far west- as the Ottawa River, remains of marine shells and fish, at the height of even 450 feet above the St. Lawrence. The relation of these formations to the scenery and products of the country will be apparent.
3. Resources. — In minerals Canada is rich, producing the common metals, with nickel, platinum, antimony, and. bismuth; all kinds of coal, salt, coarse and fine clays, marbles of great beauty, soapstones, building and precious stones. Her western coal-fields, to say nothing of those of the east, yield .from 4,900,000 to 9,000,000 tons to the square mile, as at Horse-shoe Bend, on the Bow River, and at Blackfoot Crossing on the same River, respectively, the beds reaching even to a depth of twenty feet. Her anthracite of the western mountain region has been pronounced excellent. Her wheatfields, of which 300,000,000 acres lie on the Athabasca and Peace Rivers alone, are among the best on the continent. Northern fruits, timber, and fish are abundant; and these, with numerous other products, find markets in' parts as distant as Brazil and the East Indies.
4. Trade, Industry, etc. — According to the Dominion Annual Register for 1881, Canada has 1,310,896 tons of shipping, placing her fourth on the list of maritime powers of the world, England:being first, the United States second, and Norway third. The number of acres owned. in the same year by 588,973 owners was 67,645,162;. the number occupied was 45,358,141. The amount of wheat raised was 32,350,269 bushels; with other products in proportion. The value of the fisheries in 1882 was $16,824,092.34, exclusive of the catch in Manitoba and the north-west territories, from which no returns were made. The value of Canadian lumber exported in 1881-82 was $24,962,652. In 1881, the amount invested in manufactures was $165,302,623, and the products of these amounted to $309,676,068. Canada, in 1882, had 52 railways, with 8069.44 miles completed, and 3189.16 miles in construction. The Canadian' Pacific Railway is pushed forward with great speed, 450 miles having been laid, at an average of 2.6 miles a day. On one day, 4.1 miles were put down.: On her canals, extending over a water-stretch of 2384 miles, Canada, in the year 1882, spent $2,100,000, gaining a revenue of $326,340.71. The Dominion expended on public works, in 1881-82, $1,884,964.07. The public debt in 1882 was $153,661,650, or $34 per head of her population. The banks which furnish returns had assets worth. $229,714,471, and liabilities $152,819,055. The post-offices numbered 6171, and of these 806 were money-order offices. The deposits in the post- office savings bank were $9,473,661.53.
5. Politics. — Canada consists of confederated provinces and provisional districts. The provinces are Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia. The districts are Keewatin, Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Athabasca. Each province has its local government; and, for the north-west territories, or districts, a lieutenant-governor, with a council, stipendiary magistrates, and other officers, holds the reins of government at Regina, Assiniboia. The general government is a limited monarchy, the sovereign of England being the supreme ruler, though the sovereign's functions are generally performed by representatives called governors-general. The Confederation Act provides that the government may be administered by the sovereign personally. The tenure of office by the governor-general is usually for. six years. The chief officer is assisted by a privy council, consisting of persons whom he summons for the purpose of advising him, and any or all of whom he can remove. The lieutenant-governors of the provinces are paid by the general government; and their powers and functions are assigned by the governor-general, who appoints them, the office being held during his pleasure. That pleasure may not be exercised for the removal of a lieutenant-governor during the first five years, except for cause. The three estates of the realm are Queen, Senate, and Commons.: The number of senators is limited by the Confederation Act to seventy-eight.
The Canadian Almanac for 1884 shows seventy-two in office. Senators hold office for life, unless judged by the Senate disqualified by absence, removal from the country, bankruptcy, or treason. Senators cannot sit in the Commons. The basis of representation from the provinces in the Commons is population, as determined by the decennial census, Quebec having a fixed number of members, sixty-five, and the other provinces having more or fewer in the proportion to their population that sixty-five bears to that of the province of Quebec. The House of Commons chooses its own speaker, and may, at any time, be dissolved by the governor-general; or a new election must-take place every five years. The speaker of the Senate is appointed by the governor-general, and has a vote, but no casting-vote. The speaker; of the Commons has a casting-vote only. Money-bills originate in the Commons, and relate to no subjects beyond those mentioned in the governor's message. Two years are allowed the queen in which to veto any bill, even after it has been passed by both houses and signed by the governor-general. The members in the several executive councils of the provinces vary, as do the houses in each, Ontario having but one house, the Legislative Assembly, and Quebec having two, the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly. The local parliaments of Ontario and Quebec sit for four years. Those of the maritime provinces have regulations which existed prior to confederation.
Military matters, marriage and divorce (except such matters as licenses to marry, the persons allowed to keep registers of marriage, etc.), banking, criminal law, and, in general, all matters relating to the whole country, are in the hands of the central government. Education is a local matter. Agriculture and immigration are not confined to either the local or the general government. Judges, except in courts of probate in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, are selected from the bar of the provinces they are to serve, are appointed by the governor-general in council, and are paid by the Dominion Parliament. That parliament takes the revenues and assumes the debts of the provinces, as they were before confederation, and pays these provinces fixed sums yearly to enable them to meet their burdens. In the Dominion Parliament debates may be in French or English: both languages must be used in records, journals, and printed acts in the province of Quebec. The Dominion capital is Ottawa; the capitals of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New, Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, and 'British Columbia, respectively, are Toronto, Quebec, Halifax, Fredericton, Charlottetown, Winnipeg, and Victoria.
II. Population. — The number of inhabitants of the Dominion, in 1881, was 4,324,810. In 1882 there arrived 160,449 immigrants who declared their intention of remaining in Canada. The immigration of 1883 was 133,000. Hence, the population of Canada, at the close of 1883, was 4,618,259. Of the 4,324,810 given in the census of 1881, those of French origin number 1,298,929. Of the full number, 3,715,492 are native Canadians, Ontario containing the largest proportion of these, and Quebec the next. Divided according to religions, the .Methodists number 742,981 adherents; Presbyterians, 676,165; Church of England, including 2596 Reformed Episcopalians, 577,414; Baptists, including 21,234 Mennonites of Ontario and Manitoba, 296,525; Congregationalists, 26,900; Disciples, 20,193; 'Lutherans, 46,350; Plymouth Brethren, 8831; Adventists, 7211; Quakers, 6553; Protestants (so-called), 6519; Universalists, 4517; Unitarians, 2126;. other denominations, 14,269: total Protestants, 2,436,554; Roman Catholics, 1,791,982; those of "no religion," 2634; those giving no returns of religion, 86,769; pagans, 4478.
III. History.
1. Political. — Canada was first settled by the French, who gave it its present name from an Indian word meaning "'a village." The first brick house of which we have any record was built by Pere Buteux, in 1644, at Tadoussac, or, as the Indians called it, also, Sadilege. This trading'-post lay at the confluence of the Saguenay and the St. Lawrence, and gained its name from the Indian (Ojibwa) Dhiudhosh, plural Dhodhoshuig, a female breast, the surrounding hills and an island some distance up the Saguenay having a resemblance to the breasts of a woman. In 1663, Canada became a "royal government," with a governor and a council, with the Custom of Paris as a legal code, and with a modification of feudalism. The cession of Canada to England, by the treaty of Paris in 1763, found in the colony about 65,000 souls. The "Quebec Act"' of 1774 was unjust to the English, depriving them of the right of habeas corpus. In 1793, Upper Canada abolished slavery, and Lower Canada did the same in 1803. - The constitution of 1791 divided Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada. The virtual suspension of that constitution by the English Parliament led to the rebellion of 1837. In 1841 the two provinces were united under a new constitution, framed on the English model.
The confederation:of all the British American provinces had been advocated by chief-justice Sewell as early as 1814; was brought prominently before the public in 1857 by the present Sir Alexander Galt; and was accomplished for Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, on July 1, 1869; for British Columbia in 1871, and Prince Edward Island in 1872, Newfound and alone now refusing to enter the Dominion.' In 1870 Canada consummated the acquisition of the Hudson's Bay Company's territories, and so laid the foundation of her future nationality. The relative progress of Canada may be seen from the following statement. In 1812, the year of the "American: war," the population was 400,000: that of the United States, according to Mackenzie's History of America,; was 8,000,000. Putting the present population of the latter at 55,000,000, the population of Canada ought to be, if: the same rate of progress had been maintained in both countries, 2,750,000. The actual population, however, is above 4,600,000; that of Quebec and Ontario, " Old Canada," alone, being 3,282,255.
2. Ecclesiastical.
(1) Roman Catholics. — In 1610 and 1611 Acadia was visited by Recollets and Jesuits. In 1615 four Recollets came to Quebec with Champlain. In 1617 services were held at Quebec, Tadoussac, and Three Rivers. Great interest attaches to the church at Tadoussac, as it was the first church erected in Canada. Up to 1642 it was a bark cabin, with a wooden door, fastened by a padlock taken from the missionary's portmanteau. In 1747 Pere Coquart, a Jesuit, commenced a wooden church. About 1870 some carpenters, while repairing the present church, found, under the floor, "a plate of what appears to be hammered lead," with the following inscription engraved upon it. It is given verbatim et literatim.
LAN 174 Leviticus 16 MAi M.CVGNET FERMiER DES POSTES F.DORE CO.MMiS. MiCHEL LAiOyE FASANT LEGLiSE LE P., CoqV.AT iEsViTE MA PLACE IHS
The early record of Jesuit labors is one of privation, zeal, virtue, superstition, mutilation, and massacre. Ladies of refinement bore their share in the sacrifices made for religion. Francois Laval, vicar-apostolic in 1659 and bishop in 1672, to check the liquor-traffic, first interfered, as an ecclesiastic, with the civil government, and, by his power, made the governors tremble. He gave his name to the university into which the seminary of 1668 developed. The Seminary of St. Sulpice, at Montreal, was founded in 1647. The Grey Nuns were settled in that city in 1737 by Madame Youville. The year 1826 witnessed the establishment of the diocese of Kingston, which included the whole of Upper Canada. Futher divisions took place as the Church progressed, until now, in the Almanach Ecclesiastique du Canada for 1884, returns are furnished from four ecclesiastical provinces containing sixteen dioceses, three apostolic vicariates, and one apostolic prefecture, besides one Canadian diocese, that of Vancouver Island, which is under the control of the American province of Oregon city. The first bishop of Upper Canada was the Rev. Alex. McDonnell, who is said by Dr. Canniff to have been consecrated in 1822. When he entered the country, in 1804, there were only two Roman Catholic clergymen in Upper Canada, and one of them deserted his post.
The bishop had no assistance for ten years, while travelling from Lake Superior to Lower Canada. He lived in Indian huts, and spent many thousand pounds of his private means in building churches and educating priests. He obtained almost all the lands now possessed by his Church in Ontario, and held for years a seat in the Legislative Council. The recent progress of Roman Catholicism in Canada is very marked, and threatens the welfare of the country. The time was when, in the persons of the Recollets, it opened its church-buildings ill Quebec and Montreal to clergymen of the Anglican and Scoteh churches respectively, while a Gallican bishop welcomed the arrival of a Protestant bishop by a double kiss. 'Now, adopting the syllabus and the Vatican decrees of 1864 and 1870, and strengthened by the influx of European Jesuits, it systematically pushes the Protestants out of public offices and the province of Quebec; attempts the suppression of the Protestant press, and the control of the books to be studied in Ontario schools; threatens the destruction of a medical school which has been affiliated with a Protestant university, and openly boasts of its designs on the political and religious destinies of the - whole Dominion. The results which would arise from the predominance of this form of Christianity may be judged from the fact that the latest sources of information at hand show that over 64 per cent. of the non-readers over twenty years of age, and 59 per cent. of the non-writers, of the Dominion, are found in the one province-in which that Church is supreme.
This supremacy arose from the generous grant to the conquered French, by the English victors, of such religious rights as they had possessed up to the time of the conquest, and, also, of the use of the French language. The year 1855 was signalized by the abolition of the seigniorial tenure of land. Prior to this, the seignior was a feudal judge of all crimes except murder and treason; and, from him, the peasant held his land subject to compulsory feudal obligations. The Seminary of St. Sulpice was the seignior of the whole island of Montreal; and, even with its now limited power, it has so strengthened its claims that a large band of Indians, intrusted to it for education, has been driven to seek refuge from its severity in a distant portion of Ontario.
(2) Church of England. — The first clergyman who officiated in Canada was the Rev. John Ogilvie, D.D., a -graduate of Yale; and the first after the conquest was Mr. Brooke, of Quebec, who acted as chaplain at Niagara in 1759.. The Rev. John Doty was a chaplain between 1777 and 1781, and a missionary at Sorel after 1784. The first resident clergyman was the Rev. John Stuart, a United Empire Loyalist from Virginia. He arrived in 1781, and labored between Kingston and Niagara. The United Empire Loyalists, by their assumption of special claims for their Church, afterwards introduced long and bitter contentions into the land which they adopted. The first bishop was the Right Rev. Charles Inglis, of Nova Scotia, who was consecrated in 1787. In. 1793 bishop Jacob Mountain was appointed to Quebec, which meant all that was then Canada. His successor was the Hon. and Right Rev. Charles James Stewart, D.D., said to be a scion of the royal house of Stuart. He was a member of the Executive Council of Canada under the constitution of 1791; and to him and his successors was granted by letters patent the title of "lord bishop," though the Anglican Church is not "Established" in Canada. In 1791 one seventh of the unsurveyed lands was set apart "for the support of a Protestant clergy."
The ambiguity of the term " Protestant clergy" caused a long and bitter agitation, which ended, in 1854, in the triumph of those opposed to a religious establishment. In 1839 the diocese of Quebec, under Dr. George Jehoshaphat Mountain, was divided, and that of Toronto formed, with the Hon. and Right Rev. John Strachan, D.D., as bishop. He was the Anglican champion in the Clergy Reserves agitation. Through his exertions King's College was opened in 1843, in Toronto, as an Anglican institution. On the transformation of this into a provincial university, called "Toronto University," in 1850, Trinity College, Toronto, was begun for the Anglican Church, and opened' in 1852. In 1850 the queen exercised her royal supremacy in the Canadian branch of the English Church for the last time,. by appointing Dr. Fulford as bishop, of the new diocese of Montreal. In 1860 bishop Fulford became metropolitan, after nine years of effort, led by Dr. Strachan, to secure the right of the Canadian Church to create such an appointment. Dr. Lewis, to whose suggestion the Lambeth Conference of 1867 was due, became bishop of "Ontario" in 1862. The issuing of royal mandates for the consecration of bishops ceased with the appointment of Dr. Williams as fourth bishop of Quebec in 1863.
In the meantime, bishops had been appointed to Fredericton in 1845, Rupert's Land in 1849, Huron in 1857, Columbia in 1859, the missionary diocese of Algoma in 1873, Moosonee, another missionary diocese, in the same year, to Athabasca and Saskatchewan in 1874, and to Niagara in 1875. Two new bishops were consecrated in 1879 for dioceses named New Westminster arid Caledonia, formed from that of Columbia; and a new diocese of Assiniboia, as vet without a bishop, has been erected in the north-west. In October, 1830, was formed the "Society for Converting and Civilizing the Indians, and Propagating the Gospel among Destitute Settlers in Upper Canada." Its first missionary was Mr. James D. Cameron, "a half-bred native," who was "zealous even to enthusiasm." The address to the Indians, published in the annual report of this society with the long name, is a charmingly simple presentation of the Gospel of Christ. A committee of the S. P. C. K. of England was at work in York, now Toronto, prior to 1825. The contributions of the Canadian Church to foreign missions are made through the great societies of England. The mission of this Church to the French Canadians is known as the "Sabrevois Mission." During 1883 the various missions of Canada have been consolidated under one central missionary society, and the Church has energetically committed itself to the temperance reform, by the formation of a Church of England Temperance Society, with parish branches and Bands of Hope. The contests between High and Low churchmen have been keen and long, the clergy in the Toronto diocese and the most eastern dioceses tending to the High school, and most laymen leaning to the Low. The Evangelicals have recently secured appointments from their school to two dioceses, one of which is the best in Canada.
(3) Presbyterians.— In 1765 a chaplain of the 24th regiment, the Rev. George Henry, officiated at Quebec, while Mr. Bethune, chaplain of the 84th, founded the first Presbyterian congregation in Montreal. In 1792 was erected the St. Gabriel Street Church, Montreal, the oldest Protestant church-building in Canada. The first presbytery was formed in 1786, in Nova Scotia, where the burghers and anti-burghers had commenced work. The "Associate Presbytery of Nova Scotia" was founded by Dr. James McGregor and two others in 1794. These two presbyteries united in 1817, as -the "Presbyterian Church of Nova Scotia." In 1803 the Presbytery of Montreal was founded by two ministers and one elder. The Established Church of Scotland, or "The Kirk," commenced labors -in 1784, when the Rev. Samuel Russel took up his residence in Halifax. In 1831 the "Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, in connection with the Church of Scotland," was formed in "Old Canada," with twenty-five ministers. These united, in 1840, with the "Associate Church of Scotland in Upper Canada." Prior to that time, the "United Presbyterian Church in Canada" was formed. In 1833 the "Synod of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island" was formed, with seven ministers. The Presbytery of New Brunswick did not enter this synod, but, in 1835, formed the "Synod of New Brunswick." The "Free Church" secession of 1843 led to the formation of the " Presbyterian Church of Canada," in 1844, with twenty- five ministers .This schism has ultimately led to a unity grander and purer, doubtless, in spiritual life, than would have been probable without it. In 1861 the "Free Church" and the "United Presbyterian Church" united as the "Canada Presbyterian Church," with two hundred and twenty-six ministers. The General Assembly of this Church was founded in 1870.
On June 15, 1875, in Montreal, "The Kirk," the "Canada Presbyterian Church," the; Church of the Maritime Provinces in connection with the Church of Scotland," and the "Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces" united as the "Presbyterian Church of Canada." A very few congregations connected with "The Kirk," of which "St. Andrew's Church" of Montreal is the chief, refused to enter the union, and commenced a suit at law for the control of the "Temporalities Fund." This fund had arisen from the consolidation f grants received principally from the "Clergy Reserves.", The suit ended as had a previous one, that of the new "Methodist Episcopal Church " against the "Wesleyans," in the decision that the majority of a Church, in its corporate action, must be considered the Church. While supporting the majority, however, Parliament refused to alter the title of the board which controls the fund; and it remains as "in connection with the Church of Scotland." The claimants who entered the union were twenty-seven; the dissidents, seven.
The "Presbyterian Church of Canada" makes the Bible the infallible rule of faith and manners, the Westminster Confession the subordinate standard, the catechisms the means of doctrinal instruction, the" Form of Presbyterian Church Government" and the " Directory for the Public Worship of God'" the standards of government and worship. This Church has missions in the New Hebrides, Trinidad, Erromanga, Formosa, and India, be-. sides missions to the French-Canadian Roman Catholics. As a specimen of the early influence of this Church, special reference may be made to the Rev. William Smart, one out of many names connected with pioneer work in Canada. Converted to God in Drury Lane Theatre, London, by seeing the vast audience, and asking himself, "Where will all these people be in one hundred years?" and "Where shall I then be?" he gave himself to study and the ministry of Christ, came to Canada in 1811, and founded the first Sunday-school in Upper Canada; in 1817 established the first Bible Society in Upper Canada; in 1818 founded the first Missionary Society; and originated the first Religious Tract Society in 1820. The early spirit of this Church has not departed from it; but, with great wealth and intelligence, its influence .for good grows steadily.'
(4) Methodists. — This body, the largest of the Protestants, like both Anglicans and Presbyterians, owes its origin in Canada greatly to soldiers. Commissary Tuffey, of the 44th regiment, a local preacher, held meetings in Quebec in 1780; and major Neal, of a cavalry regiment, another local preacher, labored in 1786 along the Niagara river. Philip Embury and Barbara Heck, after living ten years in Lower Canada, came to Upper Canada in 1785. In 1788 came to Ernestown an Irishman, named James McCarthy, a follower of Whitfield. He preached for the Methodists. His enemies had him conveyed to one of the "Thousand Islands," where he was left to perish. His fate has never been generally known; but his son informed the writer of this article that he escaped from the island, and, after making his way towards home, was found by the roadside stabbed in a number of places. The early records of Methodism give the names of Losee, Dow, Bangs, Dunham, Case, the Coates, Pickett, and others, as the pioneers of its heroic age. In 1814 the English Wesleyans .began work in Montreal, and extended it to Upper Canada in 1818. In 1820 Lower Canada was given up to the English Conference, Upper Canada being under the control of the Methodists of' the United States. The Methodist preachers of the West, many of them being from the United States, and not able to take the oath of allegiance, were not allowed to perform marriages, even when that right was conceded to Presbyterians and Lutherans in. 1797, and when, as late as 1823, a bill was introduced into Parliament to give them the desired authority The first conference met at Hallowell, now Picton, in 1824. The. Conference Missionary Society was formed at this period. The "Canadian Wesleyans" arose in 1827, under Ryan and Breakenridge. In 1828 Canadian Methodism became independent of the United States, and, in 1831, its preachers obtained the right to marry. In 1833, aided by the Rev. Dr. Alder, it united with the British Conference, taking its name and form, and abandoning episcopacy. In 1840 this union ceased, owing to the fact that the Canadians refused to be coerced entirely by the English on questions of domestic policy, and make their paper, the Christian Guardian, the advocate of the union of Church and State. In 1834 arose a new Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1847 the English and the Canadians reunited.
Methodism in Nova Scotia began about 1775, in services held by the people themselves, they being destitute of clergy. These led to the conversion of a youth named William Black, who subsequently became "The Apostle of Methodism in Nova Scotia." In 1784 Freeborn Garrettson and James O. Cromwell arrived; and, in 1788, James Wray, an English missionary. Methodism in New Brunswick began in 1791, under the Rev. A. J. Bishop, of Jersey. In Prince Edward Island, the pioneer, in 1807, was the Rev. James Bulpit. In the Hudlson's Bay Territories, the work began with English and Canadian missionaries in 1840. For British Columbia, England provided money, and Canada supplied men-the Rev. Dr. Evans, and Messrs. White, Robson, and Browning, in 1858. In 1854 the Canada East District was united to the Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist Church; and in 1873 Mr. Cochran and Dr. McDonald went as missionaries to Japan. The year 1874 witnessed the union of the Canada Conference with the Conference of Eastern British America and the Methodist New Connection, under the name of "The Methodist Church of Canada." Connection with England then ceased. A general union of all the Methodists, except the colored people and the Albrecht Briider, took place in 1883. Legislative action, confirming this union, has taken. place during the present year, 1884. The amalgamated bodies were the Methodist Church of Canada, the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Primitive Methodist Church, and the Bible Christians.
The new name is "The Methodist Church." The General Conference, composed of ministers and laymen in equal numbers, is quadrennial. Two general superintendents travel through the whole country, and are so appointed as to secure a new election every four years. They are responsible to the General Conference. Their salaries are paid from the General Conference Fund, the Mission Fund, and the Educational Society, in the proportion of one half, one third, and one sixth, respectively. The salaries are $2000 and travelling expenses. The Rev. Samuel Dwight Rice, D.D., and bishop Carman are the general superintendents. Laymen sit in Annual Conferences, which elect their own presidents. Probationers do not sit in conference. A general superintendent, if present, opens the Annual Conference, and presides during the first day, and alternately with the president on following days. The term "Chairman of District" has been changed to "Superintendent of District." Annual Conferences elect their own stationing committees, and ordain their own probationers. In district meetings, ministry and laity are equally represented. Laymen, to be elected to Annual Conferences, must have been of five years good standing as members of the Church, and of the minimum age of twenty-five years. Equitable arrangements are made for the management of the " Superannuated " and ".Supernumerary" Funds, the Missionary Fund, and the transfer of ministers from one conference to another, no conference having the power to transfer a man, without his consent, for more than nine years. The transfer committee is composed of the general superintendents, presidents of conferences, and one minister from each Annual Conference. It has two sections, the Western and the Eastern, the dividing line being the eastern limit of the Montreal Conference. The conferences are named London, Guelph, Niagara, Toronto, Bay of Quinte, Montreal, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. The Church has 157,762 full members, and 12,151 on trial; ministers, 1633; probationers, 219; parsonages, 877; churches, 3159; Sunday schools, 2707; scholars, 175,052. The value of church .property is $9,130,807. There are foreign missionaries in Japan and Bermuda, 14; French missionaries, 9; Indian, 27, besides unpaid agents and teachers; domestic, 350. The amount raised for missions in 1883 was $193,769.
(5) Baptists. — The earliest history of the Baptists in Canada is connected with the Maritime Provinces. Baptist principles became the nucleus around which, during times of revival, persons originally Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Baptists associated together. At first, mixed communion prevailed in many places, yielding, finally, to close communion. Strange speculations, mystical explanations of Scripture, and the confounding of emotional impulses with .the action of the Holy Spirit, marked many of the early Baptist preachers, and doubtless contributed to arouse prejudices seriously affecting the subsequent history of the body. Henry Alline, a "New Light" Congregationalist, and David George, an escaped slave from Virginia, both illiterate men, as early as 1760 and 1792, contributed to Baptist interests by preaching to both blacks and whites. The latter lived in a hut of bark and poles, baptized converts in a creek, was forced to go to Sierra Leone, and on his return found his church at Shelbourne broken up, and was saved from further persecution by being formally licensed to preach to the blacks by governor Odell, in 1792. In 1763 a Baptist congregation from Massachusetts came, with their pastor, Mr. Nathan Mason, to Sackville, N'. B. Others from the same place came to Nova Scotia. Shubal Dimock, a Presbyterian of Mannsfield, Conn., was persecuted and plundered. He removed to Newport in 1771, was immersed in 1775, and formed a church in 1779. Churches were formed in Cornwallis, in 1776; Chester, 1778; Halifax, 1795; and Argyle, 1806.' The first Baptist .church erected in the Maritime Provinces, or, perhaps, in Canada, was either that of Sackville, in 1763, or, as seems, more:strongly supported, that of Horton, in 1778., In 1797 four ministers devised a plan of an association, six churches, partly Baptist and partly Congregational, uniting.
The first minutes were published in 1810. Great progress was made by revivals in 1828, in which year the association was strengthened by the addition of a congregation partly composed of seceders from the Church of England. This secession, is credited to the opposition of the rector, afterwards bishop Inglis, to "evangelical" preaching and conversions, The "Fathers" of the Baptist churches in the East were Theodore and Harris Harding, Chipman, Edward and James Manning, Ansley, Dimock, Burton and Crandall. Gilmour, Cramp, and Davidson are names most prominent in the West. The first Baptist congregation of "Old Canada" was that of Caldwell's Manor, in Lower Canada, formed in 1794 by Rev. E. Andrews, of Vermont. The Montreal Church began in 1831. The Canada Baptist Union was formed in 1800. The Grande Ligne Mission began in 1835. The Maritime Provinces have seven Associations, with 218 ordained ministers and 38,430 communicants, two thirds of whom are in Nova Scotia. The Baptist Convention for the Maritime Provinces meets annually for the management of home and foreign missions and for education. These departments are managed through three boards. Among the Telugus of India are three stations, eight missionaries, four men and four women, with ninety-one communicants. The mission property of the Eastern Baptists, among the Telugus, is worth $12,500. The disbursements for the year ending August, 1883, were $8331. The Home Mission Board, which meets at Yarmouth, spent, last year, $4400 for forty-nine missions and fifty-two men. There is also a French mission above Yarmouth, near Digby. In Ontario and Quebec are two home mission conventions, combined in one foreign missionary society, organized in 1866. This society, also, has a mission among the Telugus, with the same number and kind of stations and missionaries as the Eastern society, and. about eleven hundred communicants. The Western Baptists number 27,066.
(6) Congregationalists. — In 1759 New England Puritans settled in Nova Scotia under a provincial enactment, which gave "full civil and religious liberty" to "Protestants dissenting .from the Church of England." After this, Congregational churches gradually increased in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Some Christian soldiers at Quebec secured, in 1801, from the London Missionary Society, a pastor, Rev. Mr. Bentom, who supported himself mainly by the practice of medicine. He was fined and imprisoned for the publication of a pamphlet protesting against the arbitrary suspension by the authorities of the act granting power to Congregational ministers to keep registers of clerical acts. This deprived such ministers of their legal status for thirty years. Mr. Bentom's Church eventually joined the Presbyterians. Prior to doing so, however, they began the Quebec Auxiliary Bible Society in 1804, and organized the first Canadian Sunday-school in 1806. In 1811, a graduate of Dartmouth College, the Rev. John Jackson, came to the "Eastern Townships," and labored with almost no pecuniary reward for ten years, retiring through failure of health. In 1815, a graduate of Middlebury College, the Rev. J. Taylor, came to Eaton; and in 1816 the Rev. Thaddeus Osgood came to Stanstead and formed a Congregational Church. Congregationalism was, introduced into what is now Ontario by the Rev. J. Silcox, of Frome, England. In 1831 was formed Zion Church, Montreal, which, under the pastorate of the Rev. Dr. Wilkes, has, perhaps, done more for Congregationalism in Canada than any other church. In 1833 the illegal decree before mentioned was rescinded.
Dr. Wilkes, after educating himself in Glasgow for the ministry, came to Canada in 1836. The feelings aroused by the rebellion of 1837 caused many pastors from the United States to return thither, leaving the congregations to struggle alone. In that-year the missions were supervised in the East by Dr. Wilkes, and in the West by Mr. Roaf, Kingston being the dividing point. This kind of Congregational: episcopacy ended in 1851, but .has lately. been revived under the Rev. Thomas Hall. The Congregational Union of Ontario and Quebec was .formed in 1853, from separate organizations in these .provinces. The Congregational Theological College, formed by a union of schools in 1846, was removed from Toronto o Montreal in 1864, and affiliated with McGill .University. .Among other benefits conferred on Christianity by this college, not the least has been the gift to the Church of England of the Rev. John Cunningham Geikie. Canadian Congregationalism is organically weak and numerically small, yet true to a sound but large-hearted Christianity. Besides the Congregational Union of the West, there is a similar union for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The returns for the West for 1882-83 are, members. 6047; Sunday-school scholars, 7260; preaching-stations, 107, of which 5 are in Manitoba, on missions started by the Rev. Mr. Ewing; Sunday-schools, 80; additions by profession, 398; baptisms, 403, of which 43 were of adults. The returns for the East are, members, 1284; Sunday-school scholars, 755; preaching- stations, 27; Sunday-schools, 13; additions by profession, 19; baptisms, 44, of which 5 were of adults. The organ of' this body is the Canadian Independent, of Toronto, of which Rev. John Burton, B.D., is editor.
(7) The Evangelical Association. — This body, founded by Jacob Albrecht, of Montgomery County, Pa., commenced in Canada in 1839, under two missionaries in Welland and Waterloo, the Revs. M. Eis and C. Hall. Their work, at first among Germans, has become partly English. The body is connected with. the Church of the same name in the United States. In 1864 a separate conference-for Canada was formed. Missions exist on the Ottawa, in Muskoka, and at Parry Sound. In April, 1883, there were 5066 members, 55 preachers, 75 churches, valued at $118,400, 25 parsonages, worth $28,225, with 82 Sunday-schools, 5320 scholars and 1007 teachers. The Mission Fund amounted to 70000.
(8) Christian Disciples.— This body maintains the same principles as the followers of Campbell in the United States. It arose, apparently,. from the labors of Scotch Baptists and followers of the Haldanes. .The pioneers were Stewart, Stephens (both students of Haldane's College), Weir, Hutchison, Oliphant, Menzies, -McLaren, McKellar, McVicar, Sinclair, Robertson, and 'Barclay, with Mr. James Black, of Eramosa, who came to Canada in 1825, and still lives, at the age of over eighty. The body is not numerous.
(9) Unitarians. — There are but three congregations of this body in Canada, so far as is known. These are in Montreal, Toronto, and St. John, N. B. The Montreal Church was organized in 1842, and served for. some months by the Rev. Henry Giles. The first pastor was the Rev. Dr. Cordner. For ten years the Church was connected-with the Remonstrant synod of Ulster, Ireland. In 1856 it became independent. In the strife and opposition of its first years, it grew.' With the repudiation of such irrational interpretations of orthodox doctrines as alone furnish a legitimate ground for objections against these doctrines, the orthodox churches gain such a hold on the masses that Unitarianism makes but little progress. The Unitarian Church in Toronto was founded in 1845. That in St. John appears to have no settled pastor. The congregation in Montreal is of the moderately conservative wing, and seeks to be definitely Christian. The radicals, who neither reject the supernatural, or call themselves Agnostics, have drifted into the "Free Thought Club." The body numbers 2126.
(10) There are other small bodies, Lutherans, Quakers, Swedenborgians, etc.; and small communities of Jews exist, to the number of 2393. "Free- Thought" clubs exist in some of the leading cities, chiefly in Montreal.
IV. Languages, Literature, and Education. — German prevails in some localities, but is gradually giving place to English. French is spoken by 1,298,929 persons, chiefly ins the province of Quebec, and promises to increase in extent and influence. Canadian French is not a patois, but is mainly the French of the age of Louis XIV, preserved, by distance, from the effects of the revolutions of France, and exhibiting trifling local varieties in vocabulary, with occasional Anglicisms. In the writings of Garneau, Sulte, Chapman, Lemay, Faucher de St. Maurice, Marmette, Bibaud, Frechette, and many others, a style is found that would do no disgrace to Paris, the last-named having been made laureate by the French Academy. The intonation of Canadian French lacks the refinement of Paris; but that of Canada does not give the harsh burr to the letter r which is so. often heard east of the Atlantic, and is wholly devoid of dialects.' Canada supplies, in increasing numbers, her own school text-books; and royal societies of art and literature, founded under the auspices of the marquis of Lorne, promote the growth of an educated taste. The table below shows the publications of the country that publish advertisements.
Education is under the control of the provincial governments, and, consequently, is not uniform. In Ontario and other provinces, the system is unsectarian, yet Christian, provision being made for opening and closing prayers, though permission to be absent from these may, under certain circumstances, be given. There is provision for Roman Catholic separate schools. In Quebec, education is sectarian and Roman Catholic, with provision for Protestant dissentient schools. In Manitoba, the schools are partly Protestant and partly Roman Catholic. The Ontario system, developed by the late Dr. Ryerson, is the model, to which the best remaining systems are similar, with local peculiarities. Under that system, the various grades of schools are public schools, high schools, collegiate institutes, and the university, with a special institution named Upper Canada College, founded in Toronto. and endowed on the model of the great public schools of England, and with model and normal schools and an agricultural college. The public schools are free, as are most of the high schools and collegiate institutes; and education is compulsory. There are military schools at prominent places, and a military college at Kingston. These are under Dominion control, there being no provincial militia in Canada. The chief non-denominational colleges are Toronto University, McGill University, and the University of New Brunswick. The expenditure for education in Ontario alone for 1880 was $2,822,052.
The Roman Catholics have one university, Laval, in Quebec, besides numerous colleges and convent-schools.
The Church of England has, of universities, Trinity, Bishop's, the Western, King's College, and St. John's, in Toronto, Lennoxville, London, Windsor, N. S., and Winnipeg, respectively. There are, also, in Toronto, Wycliffe Theological College, and, in Montreal, the Diocesan Theological College, to meet special wants, besides other colleges and schools, some of which are for ladies only, and the Sabrevois Mission College of Montreal.
The Presbyterians have Queen's and Dalhousie Universities, with Manitoba and Morrin Colleges, besides 'Knox Theological College, of Toronto, and the Presbyterian Theological College, of Montreal, and other schools, some being for ladies.
The Methodists have Victoria and Albert: Universities, which, under the union, are to be consolidated under the name of the former, Albert becoming a highclass school. They have, also, Mount Allison University, with theological schools in Cobourg, Montreal, and Sackville, besides ladies' colleges at Hamilton, Whitby, and Sackville, and various other schools. "The Baptists have Acadia University, with Horton Academy and Acadia Seminary, with a first-class theological college, McMaster Hall, in Toronto, and a college in Woodstock, Ont.
The Congregationalists have a theological college in Montreal.
The medical schools of Toronto, Kingston, and Montreal are of a high character. Schools for the blind, for deaf mutes, for Indians, and reformatory schools, with scientific, literary, and art societies, abound. Two medical schools fordladies have recently been opened in Toronto and Kingston. Wealth begins to show its power in the erection and equipment of buildings not surpassed upon this continent. The result is seen in the fact that Canadian names, both French and English, are honorably quoted in Europe even while Canada is, politically, not yet a perfect nation, but is in a state of transition from a position difficult to define to one more definite but, as yet, unseen.
V. Authorities Consulted. — Canadian Almanac, 1883, 1884; Rollaald's Catalogues; Hodgins, Hist. of Canada; (Contemporary Review, Nov. 1880; Miles, Hist. of Canada; Watson, Constitutional Hist. of Canada; Cong. Year-book, 1880-84;. Reports of Society for Converting and Civilizing the Indians, 1831, 1832; Reports of Rome District Com. of S. P. C. K. 1827; Bishop Strachan's Charge of 1860; Canons of Synod of Toronto, 1851-71 Atlas of Geological Survey of Canada, 1863; Philadelphia Exhibition Catalogue of Canadian Minerals; Minutes of Canadian Methodist Conference, vols. i, ii; Canniff, Settlement of Upper- Canada; Melville, Rise: and Progress of Trinity College'; Taylor, The Last Three Bishops Appointed by the Crown; Relations des Jesuites; Report of the Canadian Pacific Railway, 1877; Encyclopcedia Britannica; Galt, Church and State; Garneau's Hist. of Canada, by Bell; Report of Church of England French Mission, 1881-83; Morgan, Dominion Annual Register, 1880-82, Ryerson, Hudson's Bay Territory; Debates on Confederation, 1865; Cornish, Cyclopcedia of Canadian Methodism; Carroll, Case and his Contemporaries; Report of Toronto Conf. Miss. Soc. 1881-2; Journal of the United General Conference, 1883; Parkman, Pioneers; Miles, Prize Questions on a Canadian History; Boyd,:Hist. of Canada,; Roy, list. of Canada; Mackenzie, Hist. of America; Ryerson, Story of my Life; Census of Canada, 1871, 1881; Bliss, Clerical Guide, 1879; Russell, Champlain's Astrolabe; First Prcsb. Council Proceedings, 1877; Croil, Dundas; Presb. -Year-book, 1876, 1878; Life of Dr. Buns ms; Government Mcaps of Canada; Lord. Dufferin's Administration in Canada; Lovell's Geography; Huyshe, Red River Expedition; Picturesque Canada; Moister, Hist. of Wesl. Missions; Playter, Hist'. of Methodism iii Canada; Memoir of Bishop G. J. Mountain; Annuaire de l'Institut Canadiende' Quebec, 1878; Revue de Montreal, Dec. 1877; Ayer, American Newspaper Annual, 1882; Bill, Fifty Years with' the Baptist Ministers; Official Postal Guide, Oct. 1882; Rolland's Almanach Ecclesiastique du Canada, 1884; Dawson, Geological Report of North- west, in Toronto Globe, Oct. 30, 1883.. (J. R.) See additional article on p. 994 of this vol.
These files are public domain.
McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Canada, Dominion of.'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/c/canada-dominion-of.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
