But the old inveterate jealousy of Anglican ascendency, aggravated, it is said, by the political conduct of Bishop Strachan, who had identified his Church with the obnoxious rule of the Family Compact, was not content with these concessions.  Allying itself with the voluntary spirit, caught from the Scottish Free Church movement in 1843, it took the shape of a fanatical opposition to everything in the nature of a public provision for the support of religion; and the cry was raised for the ’Secularisation of the Clergy Reserves.’  Eagerly taken up, as was natural, by the Ultra-radicals, or ‘Clear-grits,’ the cry was echoed by a considerable section of the old Tory party, from motives which it is less easy to analyse; and so violent was the feeling that it threatened to sweep away at one stroke all the endowments in question, without regard to vested interests, and without even waiting for the repeal of the Imperial Act by which these endowments were guaranteed.  More loyal and moderate counsels however prevailed, owing chiefly to the support which they received from the Roman Catholics of Lower Canada, at one time so violently disaffected.  In 1850 the Assembly voted an Address to the Queen, praying that the Act referred to might be repealed, and that the Local Legislature might be empowered to dispose of the reserved lands, subject to the condition of securing to the existing holders for their lives the stipends to which they were then entitled.  To this Address a favourable answer was returned by Lord Grey; who, while avowing the preference of Her Majesty’s Government for the existing arrangement, by which a certain portion of the public lands of Canada were applied to religious uses, admitted at the same time that the question of maintaining it was one so exclusively affecting the people of Canada, that its decision ought not to be withdrawn from the Provincial Legislature.

A Bill for granting to the Colony the desired powers was intended to be introduced into Parliament during the session of 1851, but owing to the pressure of other business it was deferred to the next year.  It was to have been brought forward in a few days, when the break-up of Lord John Russell’s Ministry caused it to be again postponed; and it was not till May 9, 1853, that the long looked-for Act received the Queen’s assent.

No action could be taken in the matter by the Colonial Parliament for that year, as its session closed on June 14; and when it met again next year a ministerial crisis, followed by a dissolution and a change of Ministers, caused a postponement of all legislation.  Finally, on October 17, 1854, a Bill for the ‘Secularisation of the Clergy Reserves’ was introduced into the Assembly.  The more moderate and thoughtful men of every party are said to have been at heart opposed to it; but it was impossible for them to stand against the current of popular feeling.  The Bill speedily became law; the Clergy Reserves were handed over to the various municipal corporations for secular