regulation. In some cases, this would be a distinction without a difference, though there is in principle a great difference in the imposing a tax for the purpose of revenue, and for the regulating commerce. Difficulties and quarrels have arisen in consequence of clashing rights in this case, and I therefore am inclined to believe that the safest course would be not to concede the power of taxing foreign produce to the provincial legislatures, and to allow it only to the federal legislature of the SYSTEM.* THE CHURCH. In the preceding section I have spoken of the governor as the only connecting link between the mother country and the colony, when at length the colony reaches its destined condition of a PROVINCE. This declaration may excite surprise, and I can fancy some one who has been accustomed to read of, perhaps to think of, and wish to be, a colonial bishop, asking, "Is not the church established by law a link in this happy chain? or do you, in your wild spirit of change and destruction, contemplate a severance of church and state? do you propose to have free trade in religion as well as in corn and other commodities?" My answer is, that for a name I care very little, but that I am not accustomed, though some others are, to connect the idea of a church and religion with profit. I know that colonies are but too often considered as a field for spiritual as well as lay patronage, and that many who have no hope of living by the pro * This question has been raised in many shapes before the Supreme Court of the United States, and the decisions have all tended to place the power exclusively in the Congress. fession of the church at home, still believe that possibly in the colonies some good thing may be obtained. They who think of the matter in this light are not very likely to be particularly anxious in their inquiries about the probable good they may effect in their vocation. But this inquiry I am forced to institute, because the sole object I have in view when treating of this subject is to ascertain the most effective mode of forming a happy colony; and I therefore am bound to ask, will the establishment of a state church in our colonies be a benefit, or the reverse? If the colonists were all of one religion, and likely always to remain so, much indeed might be said in favour of an established clergy in a colony. If by any arrangement, a well-educated man, bound by the very tenour of his duties to watch over the morals of the community, and to preach a humanizing creed, and enforce a pure and exalted morality, could be placed in every parish of the new country, and the public, at the same time, believed it their duty to listen to his teaching, and render obedience to his virtuous admonitions,then, indeed, I should be among the most earnest and eager supporters of an establishment, and more especially in a colony. I say, more especially in a colony, because there, for some years, the tendency is for the inhabitants to degenerate, as respects the courtesies, amenities, and elegancies of life. They who have travelled in America, must often have remarked, in the distant settlements, two and sometimes three generations of one family, under one roof. The old grandfather-the patriarch of the family—a gentleman, perhaps a soldier-probably left his native country comparatively a young man; the next-his son-a youth when his father emigrated, has, since that period, dwelled wholly in the colony-has married there; and the third-his son, who is now a young man. When these circumstances have been found, the traveller is sure to be struck by the manners of the old head of the family. They retain the indelible traces of his early habits, which the rough life he has led in the wilderness has not erased. The ease, composure, politeness—the manners, in short, of a well-bred man-of a gentleman-still remain. In the son, all these traces of gentle manners are fainter: he has acquired much of the roughness to which for so many years he has been accustomed; and his son, the grandson of the house, is like all the rude settlers around, and in nothing to be distinguished from the descendants of the peasant who emigrated with his grandfather. This result is inevitable. Time, indeed, brings matters, in some measure, to the point from which they started. The community thrives; the rude habits of a rude life by degrees disappear; and as generations arise and pass away, the growing wealth of the people induces the wants, and with the wants, the pleasures, and habits, and elegancies of civilized life. The length of the interval depends entirely on the rapidity of improvement, and the increase of the means of the people. In some happy instances, the growth of the new community has been so quick-it has so soon shot up into the condition of a rich as well as thriving state, that time for deterio ration has not been given.* On the other hand, places may be seen where the fight against the difficulties of a new life has been so hard-to win more than a bare subsistence has been so difficult, that every trace of the old stock, and the habits they brought with them from their native country, have entirely ceased from the land, and a rude and boorish race has descended from ancestors of gentle manners as well as gentle blood.† Now, the existence in each parish of an educated pastor would have a strong influence against this downward tendency, and would thus prove a great benefit to the whole community. But unfortunately there are, on the other hand, many counteracting influences. The probability is, that by establishing a state church, among a community formed by any portion of our countrymen, you would establish a source of contention and strife-a never-failing cause of animosity and therefore an efficient check upon all improvement. Dissent in England is so prevalent, and so organized, that you cannot expect to have any body of settlers without finding among them men of various creeds; and these creeds having each an organized ministry ready to take up the quarrel against the church, and to carry bitter dissension into the new community. In this community, where everything has to be begun-where all are equally new to the land, a feeling of injustice is immediately aroused by any appropriation of funds to a peculiar class of the * These fortunate communities are almost all American, and not subject to England. + If any one travel in Upper Canada, he will find instances, and too many, of this statement. settlers, or by any favour shown them. Such a proceeding is thought unjust, and the unfairness and inequality are loudly complained of, and warmly resented. In England, the church was established ages before there was any notion of dissent; and men often bear with an ancient abuse who would rise up in arms were it established to-day. I believe, therefore, that for the sake of peace and true religion, we ought, in every new colony, to allow the voluntary system full play, and abstain from all attempts to impose an establishment upon an unwilling community. A colony, in all things, I have assumed, is to be selfsustaining. I therefore object to any proposal which will have the effect of bringing a charge upon the people of this country-of England-even for the maintenance of a church in the colony. If societies in England voluntarily establish a church, and maintain it in the new colony, no one has a right to complain-nobody would complain. This is no charge on the people of England by act of parliament. If I pay, I do so because I like it, not because I am forced; and as nobody else is compelled to follow my example, no complaint will arise. When the service is left to voluntary efforts, there is seldom any want either of pastors or money. I may, however, be asked whether provision for the clergy may not, without difficulty, be found in the waste lands of the colony; whether, in each parish, it would not be easy to allot a certain portion of land for the church and the clergyman. My answer is, that certainly the thing is easy, but would be deemed unjust. In Upper Canada, every tenth lot of land was reserved, |