1787]

THE MISSISSIPPI.

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would cease, and that the independence of the western communities should be asserted. Thus an untrammelled trade intercourse with Canada could be established and the possession of the Mississippi mouth assured. Indeed, the sentiment was by no means contracted in the theory that the legitimate relationship lay more with the British provinces than with New England, and that the political communities forming in the west would find by a union with Canada an identity of interests more conducive to their prosperity and well being than would be assured by participation in the distracted condition of the United States. For these were the years during which there was great anxiety as to the future stability of the newly constituted nationality.

Early after the peace, a numerous emigration was directed to the Ohio and to Kentucky; in a short period, the population was counted by thousands. The uncertain relations with the Indians did not depress the spirit of adventure which led many to cast their fortune in the newly-opened territory. Every influence was in its favour; a climate in all respects healthy, the most fruitful soil, streams in every direction, with well timbered forests. The one point exacting consideration was its communication with the seaboard, to which the only solution that offered was the free navigation of the Mississippi.

By the force of its current downwards the distance could be easily accomplished. The ascent was marked by so many impediments that it was preferable for the craft engaged on the river to be so constructed that they could be sold as lumber on their arrival at New Orleans. The return route available was for the crew to pass by water to the Atlantic cities, at which the manufactured goods required with the necessary supplies could be purchased, to be carried overland for distribution, across the mountains to the valley of the Ohio. The time required, the fatigue to be undergone and the cost of this exacting journey by land had directed attention to the water route of the Saint Lawrence through Canada to the ocean.

The same geographical disadvantages were strongly felt in the state of Vermont; lake Champlain, having its outlet in the Saint Lawrence, that river furnished the natural channel by which the ocean could be reached for those whose homesteads were in the neighbourhood of the lake. Even if no political influence had prevailed to interfere with the passage of produce and merchandize to the Saint Lawrence, the rapids which intervene between Saint John's and Chambly, a few miles from the outlet of lake Champlain, presented themselves to impede the continuous unbroken transport, and vessels had to discharge their cargoes at Saint John's, for the freight to be reloaded at Chambly basin.

This condition early awakened the attention of Vermont and an appeal on the subject was made to the British government, immediately after the peace, by Silas Deane through lord Dorchester before he left England for Quebec. Deane's first memorandum was written in 1785. Dorchester forwarded it to the secretary of state, lord Sydney. The canal proposed by him became a matter of considerable attention during 1788 and 1789, and Deane furnished elaborate memoirs on the subject. His argument was that the work was a necessity, that it would create friendly relations between the states whose interests had been consulted by its construction, and that it would form a profitable return for the money invested. It would be of little benefit to repeat the arguments advanced at that date, for they are no longer of force; the trade is carried on by railway and canal, owing to the construction by the state of New York of the Champlain canal, connecting lake Champlain with the navigation of the Hudson. The main result hoped for was the establishment of a West Indian trade with Vermont. steps were, however, taken at this date to begin the work.+ [Can. Arch., Q. 28, p. 160, 24th of Oct., 1787.] For Silas Deane's relation. ship with Beaumarchais, vide ante., VI., p. 419. His name was also freely mentioned when he was in France as having employed Jack the Painter to burn Portsmouth dockyard in 1776.

No

The Chambly canal was opened for navigation in 1843. Its length is twelve miles, with nine locks, 120 feet in length and 24 in width and seven feet

1787]

FIRST BISHOP OF NOVA SCOTIA.

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An event occurred in 1787 which has some significance from the fact that it was the first instance of a prince of the present royal family visiting Canada. On the 14th of August H.M.S. "Pegasus" arrived, the commander being prince William Henry, the third son of George III., afterwards William IV. He was received with great ceremony and enthusiasm. He ascended the Saint Lawrence to Montreal, stopping at Sorel. The population of this small place, in honour of his visit, unanimously resolved that it should hereafter be called "William Henry." Although officially so recognised for some forty years, the name fell into disuse and the place is only now known by its former designation, Sorel. The prince left Quebec in October with the fleet under commodore Sawyer. One effect of his visit was that, owing to the lateness of the season at his departure, it occasioned lord Dorchester to postpone the visit he had designed to the maritime provinces.

Prince William Henry was likewise received at Halifax with great distinction and ceremony on his arrival at the end of June, when proceeding to Quebec, and on his return homewards on the 24th of October. The festivities were at that time continued until the 12th of November.

In September, 1787, Sydney informed Dorchester that the province of Nova Scotia had been erected into a bishop's see, and that Dr. Chas. Inglis had been appointed bishop with ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Quebec, New Brunswick and Newfoundland. There had been an intermediary of water on the sills. The cost in 1867 is reported to have been $634,711. In 1818, a company was incorporated to construct it, but nothing was done until 1829, when the legislative assembly of Quebec passed a vote that the work might be undertaken by the government. It was commenced in 1831; in 1835 the work was discontinued from want of funds to complete it. The canal was, however, so far constructed that boats could reach the village of Chambly, but the connection with the river Richelieu, at that point, which called for three combined locks, had not even been begun. This work was undertaken in 1841. The total rise of lockage is seventy-four feet. Owing to the construction of four of the locks the maximum size of the boat passing through the canal is limited to a chamber of 118 feet by 221⁄2 feet. The canal is principally in use at present for the conveyance of plank, square timber and ore.

attempt by the archbishop of Canterbury to supply this void. He had selected the Rev. T. B. Chandler to act in some form representing him in the province. Mr. Chandler had previously been rector of Saint John's Church, Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and had proceeded to England in 1775Owing to ill health he was unable to accept the appointment, and Dr. Inglis was nominated. He arrived at Halifax on the 16th of October, 1787.

I have described, in a previous volume, the bitterness of feeling existing in Massachusetts against the introduction of episcopacy into the provinces, and the strong protest which the supposed creation of bishops for the government of the colonial church called forth.* It was regarded as a "design against civil and religious right." No proceeding could possibly be more unjust than this expression of discontent. The chief object was to create animosity against the mother country, and to add one more wrong to the list of grievances specified by the agitators desirous of accomplishing independence of imperial control.

The reasons for the establishment of bishops of the anglican church in the colonies, as set forth by archbishop Secker in 1740, when bishop of Oxford, before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, are in every respect unanswerable. At that date, from the absence of bishops, the rite of confirmation had passed out of use. The clergy had to proceed to England for ordination, and there was but feeble discipline in the church, if any. The rite of confirmation to men of the stamp of Dr. Mayhew, of Boston, and his co-religionists may have been an "idle and useless imposition," but their views did not determine the matter. Those who had been taught that confirmation is at least a decent and reverent duty, were debarred from performing it. Thus the colonial church was at a great disadvantage to which no other form of organization was subjected, for its ordinances were incomplete, and the difficulty of obtaining ministers was so great that it is a wonder that vacancies *[Ante., Vol. V., p. 324.]

1664]

FEELING IN NEW YORK.

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were in any way filled, and that the church did not perish from inanition. A century and a quarter was to pass before the creation of a bishop; although it was always distinctly advocated that the appointment should in no way encroach upon the functions of civil government.

In 1664 the Dutch were in possession of New York, and the chamber of Amsterdam wrote to the council of New Netherlands that the force sent to America was sufficient for defence. News had been received that the king of Great Britain, "being inclined to reduce all his kingdoms under one form of government in Church and State, hath taken care that Commissioners are ready in England to repair to New England to install Bishops there, the same as in Old England; because we believe that the English of the North, who mostly left England for the aforesaid causes, will not give us henceforth so much trouble, and will prefer to live under us, with freedom of conscience, rather than risk that in order to be rid of our authority, and then again to fall under a government from which they formerly fled." * Moreover, that a force was being fitted out to sustain this design. The council was better informed. The members expressed their doubts that there was any real intention in this respect. A patent in 1663 had been granted to Rhode Island:† "Whereby England's Majesty grants freedom of conscience in spiritual matters to every one, yea, even to the Quakers and Anna-Baptists (sic), who are the most numerous and principal there." The council of New Netherlands considered that the frigates with the troops they contained had been sent against Long island, which had been granted to the duke of York.

After New York had become a British possession, consideration was given to the subject, for Bennet, lord Arlington, wrote to colonel Nicholls, one of the commissioners at New York, to act with caution in the matter of any proposition

*[N. Y. doc., Vol. II., p. 235.] +[N.Y. doc., Vol. II., p. 505:]