•.'(■ PERSECUTION '« ••'•-' i^r OIF THE ScoTGH Church .''V ' ;.'», CANADIAN LEGISLATURES. A LETTEE TO TPIE '* I » f ;: ,. 1 ' 1 * - « - . , ."• ■ ' ffij^^f Honorable the' Prfi^y' Council of ^s^M^nilini/^piC:^ By the Author of Presbytkrian Tradb-Union, oa The Plot to rob the Kirk of Scoti^sd in Canada. HURON EXPOSITOR PRINT, SEAFORTH, ONT. p ^ll. 'X /, «^ tfW«fw- 1- y' •i ^ ■**^ ; t V CJ. .-r t • • I •":;•..> .,,< ^. •> <• •£ i i. \ t *:" ,>;.,;.; .-**.< Ml.-^" 'vt,;;^?. -n: ,-f. cO' • : i ■ -. •-:■. -ly^* I'-^fi •J .V "-(T '/•■-' "f'' ■V\^-^ •7%v':i /rr.,;:r - 'Vvv . :r. y- 8al. It is the same thing as if the children of a beloved mother were tempted to leave ' her — as if they were asked whether they would be dutiful or nndutiful to her — whether they would retain their oum mother, or take » strange woman ! W hat must be th8 coarse brutal feelings of those who could pass such Acts and those who approve them, I know not, and pray God I may 7 never know. " My soul come not thou into their AsBembly." When the insulting clause met my eye exposing the venerable Church of Scot- land, with all her blood'bought privilec^es to the hap-hazard of a vote, my blood boiled with.itidignatiot), and my advice was for her members to take no notice of the Act whatever since it was an unconstitutional in- terference of the civil power .with the Church oi Christ, and an edict of persecution. To vote on the question of retaining or ahandoniny a religion more sacred to us than all the things of this world — of proving fahe or standing true to principles for which our fathers bled and died, and which our Holy Religion has taught us from infancy to regard as dearer than life itself, I considered an insult and outrage to our feelings of love and veneration for our beloved Mother Church. It was, indeed, a fiery trial ; yet not to lose their Churches, and have old and young deprived of the benefits of a public ministry in con- nection with the Church of Scotland, many congregations, in terms of the tyrannical Acts, submitted to the levolting measure of voting irfietlier they ivouUl he true to their Kirk or hetraij her ! How the hearts of our brave countrymen heaved with indignant sorrow at being reduced to this degrading step ; and how the heart of Scotland will heave with indignant wrath when she hears of it, I need not describe. And how did our Church stand the fiery ordeal ? In her long and glorious history she has passed through many trials, but this was the most degrading ! It will be scarcely credited out of Canarla that one of a majority of her oponents, though obtained by bribery, could decide the fate of her property — to ob- tain which every species of corruption, false oaths, falsehood, and viol- ence was employed by the Unionists, under whose threats many unthink- ing people were driven like cattle into the Union, part believing they would still be the Church of Scotland and part they would be the Free Church ! To secure the vote on their side, and prevent it on ours, every disgraceful low trick was practiced by the Union men. When the vote went in their favor it^cas all right, when in ours it was all torong ! and lawsuits immediately entered against us ! Everything we did was objected to. If female communicants' votes were taken, it was pro- nounced illegal— ii only male votes, it was the same thing f In short, the Unionists boasted they were backed by the Legislatures, and whatever they did, however wrong, would be declared by the Law Courts to be rights and that whatever we did, though perfectly fair, would be pro- nounced illegal, for the jxtrtif in power (Grits) were determined to destroy the Church of Scotland, and exterminate British national feeling in Canada. Time does not permit me to dwell on all the cases of oppression en- dured by our Church over the length and bfeadth of Canada, and the be«rt burniDgs and hardships of our people driven out of their own Churches, and plundered of their K tnds, and having no place for the as* sembling of themselvea together- (Scotch Church services, prayer meet- ings, and Sabbath Schools are all broken up, the aged m«n almost brought to the grave with sorrow at losing the Kirk, and the young children ask- ing when the Sabbath Schools of their beloved Kirk would be opened again ! Sighing and lamentation are heard over the whole laud at the desolation of our beloved Zion. In some cases the Union sect, ere it was one month old, acteu the tyrant and oppressor towards the venerable Church of Scotland.* Witness the cases of Montreal, Lachine, fieech- bridge, Glengarry, Beauharnois, Glengarry, Dundee, Lancaster, Lochiel, Williamstown, Willian-sburg, Osnabruck, Perth, Ottawa, Hawkesbury, Scarboro, West King. Thorah, Hamilton, Gait, Milton, Binbrook, Aii- caster, Woodstock, Westminster, London, Bichwood, Paisley, Bayfield, and many^otber places where thare were a majority for the Church of Scotland, and especially the cases of Monti cal, London, Paisley, and otherd where there were overwhelming majorities for her, and in such cases as Lachine, Beechbridge, Lancaster, Milton, where they were unanimous for her — still in all these cases, the Union Presbyteries did their utmost to deprive the Kirk of what even ohe wretched Acta allowed her— either breaking up the Scotch meetings by brute force, f or straining every quibble of law to nullify their vote. Thus, even when our Churches sub- mitted to vote and had the vote in their favor, they were often doomed to disappointment— the law being a mockery, it came to the same thing, as if they had disregarded it altogether. London and Bayfield are, perhaps, the most glaring instances of the oppression under which our Church now groans. In the former the Scotch Church, by an overwhelming majority decided three times to re- main true to the Kirk of Scotland, and even*by the oppressive Mowat Act was, therefore, -entitled to hold its property. What follows ? The persecuting Unionists raise a Chancery suit against the congregation, ex- pensive litigations are carried on in order to ruin it, and a Chancellor's decision at last expels from their own Church the whole Scotch congre- gation — interdicts the trustees under penalties of forty-thousand dollars ($40,000), or ten thousand dollars .each, from using the building for be- hoof of said Scotch congregation, and lastly debars the Scotch minister, lawfully appointed, to preach in it, from preaching again the Gospel of Christ in said Scotch Church to the said Scottish audience under another penalty of ten thousand dollars, or fifty thousand dollars in all ! Most infftmons oppression ! Has Bismark, the tyrant oppressor of Christians HJftse of J. C. Smith, Hamilton, perseontiug ths Scotcli Kirk Minister, f Case of H. Cameron, of Kippen, at Bayfiold. in PruMia, come to Canada ? Hoa the spirit of the great German Chan- cellor passed into the small Canadian one ? Fifty thousand dollars' pen- alties against inoffensive Scottish Christians for promulgating the Gospel in their own Scotch Church ! ! ! VVhy, such deeds carry us back to the days of the Charleses and the bloody judge Jefferies, of the 17th century, when the Non-Conformists of England and the Covenanters of Scotland were Hned and plundered in a similar manner, and afterwards condemned to the scaffold, the gibbet, and the stake for no other reason than wor- shipping God according to the dictates ef conscieu'M. " ' Bayfield is another instance of gross injustioe ^nd oppression. Here everything was conducted in the strictest accordance with law, both ec- clesiastical and civil, and eveu more strictly than has been the case at London. None but male communicants were allowed to vote, thJugh the meeting was disturbed by Unionist intruders who demanded the con- trary.* The presiding magistrate declared the Church of Scotland had the majority by a lawful and fair vote— yet, the first Sabbath after, the Church waH taken by the Unioniits by brute forcef in violation of every right and law — this outrage was sanctioned by the Huron Presbytery (Unionist), and though the Scotch Church was entitled in law to the property, that Presbytery iu the most unjust and oppressive manner en- couraged the defeated handful of Unionists to try the case in law. Ex- pensive litigations have been the consequence, which though they have not a shadow of aground of law to go upon, are yet carried on in order to ruin and impoverish the Scotch party, and ultimately drive them into Union. But we have touched only a small point of the tyranny of the Mow- at Act. It provides for the continual filling up of the Union ranks at the expense ol the Kirk, and the continual pulling down of the Kirk without the possibility of restoration. It provides that in all- time com- ing Scotch Chuich people shall be in dread of its consequences, that if, by any means, fair or foul, Unionism steals into a Scotch, congregation, and Union sympathisers at length outnumber the true Scotch members, they can still band over such Scotch Church to the Union ; but no such provision exists in favor of the Kirk, of allowing a Union congregation to vote itself back again to the Churoh of Scotland. The laws of the Medes and Babylonians cannot be altered. Over the portals of the Union temple is written, " All hope abandon ye who enter here, for none can escape !" It is painful and sickening to dwell on the subject, and I feel no in- clination to point out the objectionable character of all the clauses of the "Union Act," and others regarding the seizure of the Temporalities *Oane of J. Seiveright, o( Oodericb, iateirapting tha meetiag. lOsae of H. Cameron, of Kippen, at Bayfkela, 10 and Widows' and Orphans' Funds, and especially that respecting Queen's College, where there is a total upturning of every principle of right and justice. I leave to others the task of unravelling the mazy labyrinth of enactments by which, as with iron grasp, every vestige and shred of onr dear Church's property is wrenched and wrung from her, and she is left naked and desolate. It is dreadful to see the manner in which she has been robbed and plundered. What says the first clause of the Act? That all propirty, real and perfonal, shall, henceforth belong to the veto upstart sect ! Astounding robbery ! gigantic theft ! without a parallel even in America ! Spoliation is too feeble a term to use for such whole- sale plunder. As the unwary traveller is suddenly robbed by the high- wayman, so she is stripped in a moment of all that valuable property, raised by the laudable exertions of her members in Scotland and Canada, and granted by the British Qovernment in recognition of her services in America. The injustice of such an act — which is njanifestly unconstitutional and beyond the powers of the Legislatures— an A.ct to enable enemies to spoil her ; traitors, after deserting her, to hold her property ; and a rab- ble of a packed majority to vote her out of existence at pleasure, and plunder her in all time coming is too evident to need any comment. To alienate or transfer to others property legally deeded to, and st>lemnly vested in trust to the Kirk, and therefore as much her rightful posses- sion as any other in the Dominion is that of its owner, is an outrageous violation of every principle of morality and justice, the law being uni- versally laid down that those seceding from any body, forfeit all right to its property. The Acts, therefore, which throw into the hands of Un- ionists hundreds of churches, manses, and glebes, iuEftitutions, and even colleges specially secured to the Church of Scotland by Imperial Charter — and rob her of trusts, temporalities, and funds for ministers, widows, orphans, and endowments, which were all given and devised to her by the lonors and legators on the distinct understanding of being applied solely for her behoof, and never alienated to another body — such acts are utterly subversive of the rights of property, and are equally disgraceful to those who ask and those who grant them. Things have come to a fearful pass in this Province when British Imperial Charters, Acts of In- corporation, and Trust-Deeds solemnly deeding said property to the ChuFch of Scotland forever, are cast to the winds as so moch waste pa- per by legislative tyros who had far better have minded their rail-split- Hng than slashing to pieces tae \'enerable Church of Scotland ! " The first clause in the Act," as a writer well observes,* "lays the axe at the root of every grant, and at the intention and wish of every ♦Toronto Mai], Jan. 81st, 1876. -...,.. 11 benefactor that has bequeathed auijht to benefit the Church." " It mat- ters not how sacred the trust, how devoted to the particular Church, the sweeping clause carries them off as if they were the merest gossamer ! It deprives every one who has given means for the support of religion of the right to dispose of these means as he may see meet. The intentions of the donors of all the other Funds are studiously set aside, and the condi- tions attaching to their gifts dealt with as cavalierly as the rights of private benefactors." As for the Church of Scotland, the scope of said Act is plainly to rob and ruin her without mercy. Such being the acknowledged fact, wbafe are we here presented with, but religious persecution with a vengeance ! The party in power (Grits) are chargeable with inaugurating a system of persecution unheard of in a civilized country — the confiscation of the property of law-abiding citi- zens, staunch supporters of the Crown, Her Majesty's most loyal sub- jects, the members of the Established (^'hurch of Scotland — such jm Act, therefore, calls for the loudest condemnation on the part of every right- minded man. It is true this persecution affects only one class of Her Majesty's subjects as yet, but still it should be felt by us all. Our reli- gion, whether Protestant or Catholi c, teaches us, at least, all one lesson — not to stand by and see our neighbour wrongfully oppressed. Amid the difficylties and hardships of colonial life, which we must all contend with, we at least expect to be permitted to worship God in freedom, and to be protected by Government in the profession of our various be- liefs. Yet the Mowat Administration, instead of continuing that pro- tection, has violently and without csuse torn it away from, and by con- fiscating her possessions, thereby desolated, to the utmost of its power, one of our best denominations in Canada, the said peace-loving, loyal, and beneficent Church of Scotland. And this persecution is not confined to Ontario, but extends over the length and breadth of the whole seven Provinces of British America, under their respective Legislatures ! Under all this oppression our brave Scottish countrymen are uncom- plaining and silsnt, but not the less deep is their sense of injury and wrong. The heart of the Scottish people, from these borders of the Far- west to the eastmost shores of the Atlantic, is heaving with indignant sorrow— a sorrow like that which, in the days of the Covenant, first found relief when it hurled an ungrateful dynasty from the throne. And this cruel sense of injury and oppression may yet have relief in a way that will ma&e our petty tyrants tremble — when once the blood of High- landers and Lowlanders is fairly roused at the dastard plot to rob thetu of their religion and Kirk. . For my part I call upon all her children — on all true Scotsmen in Canada to rise in defence of their National Kirk. X recognize the right or the power of no body, civil or ecclesiastical, to legis* 12 . late away the privilegea of my Church. Let her true sons and daughters now rally around her as in the days of yore. Think, my frienda, think of the everlasting interests that are at stake. Think of the unspeakable blessings which you and your forefathers have reaped from her com- munion. Be faithful then to the Kirk of Scotland, which is the Kirk of Christ — " be faithful even unto death, and Christ will give you a crown of life." , Our only help is in God. We have little prospect of getting justice in Canada, but our dear Motherland will give us it. While giving all praise and glory to God, and asking Hita for the blessing, we must use the means — we must apply to the kindly Motherland for safety and de- liverance. Earnestly do T pray that some would carry the story of our wrongs.and sufferings to the Old Land, and memoralize Imperial Britain for redress. She will listen attentively to the sighing of the captives — the groans of the Scottish Kirk in Canada. Our oppressions and suflfer- ings must no longer be concealed in this distant outskirt of the Empire. It is right and proper that the story of our wrongs be told to Britain — it is a duty we owe to the whole Church of Scotland, both at home and abroad. To be silent in such circumstances is a crime. Public indigna- tion, both in Canada and in Britain, must be roused on the 'subject. Publish it far and wide, over every parish in Scotland, that the tens of thousands of pounds they sent to promote the Scotch Church here, have, with all her other property, been confiscated to the use of her enemies — tell Scotland that her best men in Canada, her steady, industrious, per- severing, moral and religious sons, who were the very pioneers of the country, and in clearing the forests bore the heat and burden of the day, and made Canscda really what she is — and who, out of their hard-won earnings, and amid great privations, reared Houses of God where they expected to enjoy one blessing— making them forget their exile — that of worshipping Him with those they loved, according to the sound doctrines of their National Kirk — tell Scotland that these venerable men — whose heads are now whitened with the snows of many winters — are now ruthlessly driven from their own churches to worship God in the woods and wilds — their churches seized by adherents of a new sect, th§ir lawful trustees and ministers interdicted, (as in the times of Clavers' per- secution,) from using said churches under the heaviest penalties, and the beloved Church of the Covenanters placed under ban and pro- scription — tell this, 1 say, far and wide over the land of the brave and the free — and, I think, the ears of Britain will tingle when she hears of it ! How surprised they will be in England to hear of the persecution that has broken out beyond the seas — how startled to hear that the 13 whole power of seven Legislatu^es has been exerted to accomplish it — that ever since their Acts passed, nothing has been benrd but deeds of violence and injustice, and the coniJscation of property to the value of millions — that the persecution proceeds not from pagans or heathens, bat from the nominally" Christian Legislatures of Canada — which are no few- er than seven ! — from those v^ry bodies expected by the Queen to pro- tect her subjects in the exercise of their religion — and that i is directed not against rebels or fanatics, but against the loyal, conservative, peace- loving and orthodox Church of Scotland — and that this atrocious robbery and infringment of the rights of British subjects, is done in the honored name of Her Majesty ! Undoubtedly Great Britain will demand an answer to the question. What is the cause of this persecution ? Are the Scotch Church people rebels, that Canadian Legislatures have confiscated their property ? Are they not, on the contrary, the most loyal of Her Majesty's subjects ? the most peaceable aud industrious ? Has not that Church been for gener- ations the greatest blsssing to the colony, promoting that great evan- gelical work for which Canada may bless Scotland to the end of time. In a word, has not the Kirk been the best and truest friend of Canada ? true to her people, true to her government, true to her Queen ? And is this the Church, Canada's best friend, and with so many claims to her regard, that, by obnoxious Acts, her Legislatures have now devastated, raising in her stead a spurious, unsound Preabyterianism — Canada's greatest foe ! Let the csuie then be carried to Great Britain without dc lay, and we shall then see what right Provincial Legislatures — which may only be compared to petty sessions in England — have to interfere .with our liberties and property, as has been done ; what right they have to confiscate that property, without even alleging a single crime against us ? What right have Legislatures to meddle with religious matters at all ? They lie entirely out of their way. Above all, what right has a small subordinate Provincial Legislature, like that of Ontario, which has scarcely power to make roads and bridges, to tamper with British Im- perial Acts, and even presume to confiscate the possessions of a British Established Church, which is altogether independent of it ? What right has an upstart sect, unknown to history, the creature of Ontario's creation, to seize the property and privileges of this ancient Church ? What has the noble, historical, time-honored Church of Scotland, with its long roll of great and illustrious names, martyrs, patriots and con- fessors, extending over many centuries, to do with a few months' old crea- ture of Mowat ? Astounding presumption for the iporioui offshoot to serve itself heir to the great and noble ! for the son of the bondwoman to step in the place of the son of the free ! for the base deserter to ap- ■A :.ul4' ...1 propriate the hoaors of the faithful soldier ! and seek to plunder him of his rigstfal property. " But as then, he that was bom after the flesh, persecute*? hiin that Was bora after the Spirit, even so it is now !" But what saith the Scripture ? "Cast out the bondswrnan and her son!" Yes, the day of retribution will come when the oppressions they have heaped on us will fall upon their own heads— when they who can now rej«ice at the afflictions of onr Zion will bitterly lament. The instiga- tors of our sufferings — ^those treacherous Edomites who shodted ^o our foes, " Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof," — God will re- member them ! They who rejoice to see our ministers and congregations ejected from their churches, ordinances suspended, and penalties to the amount of fifty thousand dollars hanging over their heads, will soon themselves be tnr&ed out of the Churches they have so surrepticiously usurped. Wait a little, and the command of England's Privy Council will soon decide that matter. Yes, they shall soon hear in England of car oppressions and afflictions, our ejiections, spoliations and penalties. Are such things done in Canada, a professedly free Province of the Em- pire? Yes J in Canada ! "Tell it not in Gath, &c." Yea ! tell it all the way from Ottawa to Edinburgh, and from London in Canada to great London in England. Tell it round and round the British Empire, till the blood of every .Scotsman, Englishman, Irishman, and every true British subject boil with wrath at such mon- strous oppression, and the loud voice of British indignation hurl it into destruction. Let it reach the ears of our good Queen Victoria that her most loyal and faithful subjects, the ministers, elders, and members of the Church of Scotland (that Church she so loves and maintains) are persecuted in such a manner by the Legislative min- ions of Cana'da, and the myrmidons under their si;^ay, and she will very soon give them the punishment they merit. If, indeed, the Acts for the confiscation of Scotch Church property, taken in connection with the creation of a Supreme Court, specially created to deprive British subjects of theiv tight of appeal to England when groaning under such oppressions —it these bo a sample of the legislation, we must expect under the Con- fedetation Act, then the sooner it is abolished, and that Great Britain takes the Government of the Colonies again into her own hands, so much the better. Meanwhile we can afford to wait patiently till the day of retribution ^wii— tin the noble Privy Council of England (above American bribery and corruption) upsets the unrighteous confiscation Acta of Canada, and restores to us all onr rights and privileges, and possessions. And when that day — not far distant — dawns, what an overturning there will be of our foes ! How speedily they will require to disgorge their ill-gotten gain, 15 and rest(H-e the spoils of our plundered Church, and lament their degrade • • . • * v • *. .