THE following was the population of Newfoundland at different periods.
1763 13,112 Winter population.
In 1836, the population was as follows :
District of St. John’s 18,920
“Conception Bay 23,215
“Trinity Bay 6,803
Bonavista Bay 5,183
Placentia and St. Mary’s 4,701
“Fortune Bay 3,129
RELIGION.-The population of the Island consisted of nearly equal numbers of Roman Catholics and Protestants there being, of the former, 37,718, and of the latter, 37,376-of whom 26,740 were Episcopalians, and 10,636 Wesleyans.
According to the Returns of 1845, the population was :
District of St. John’s 25,196
“Conception Bay 28,026
Trinity Bay 8,801
Bonavista Bay 7,227
Placentia and St. Mary’s 6,471
Fortune Bay 5,100
Extreme West 2,200
Church of Rome 46,983
Church of England 34,294
Wesleyan Metholists 14,239
The Roman Catholics are Irish and descendants of Irish , the Episcopalians, Methodists, and Congregationalists are English and the descendants of English and Jersey ; the Presbyterians are principally Scotch and their descendants.
POPULATION, &C., IN 1869 146,536-consisting of Roman Catholics 61,040 ; Church of England, 55,184 ; Presbyterians, 974; Congregationalists, 338 ; Wesleyan Methodists, 28,990 ; other denominations, 10. Number of churches, 235.
POPULATION IN 1874.
The Electoral Districts 148,919
French Shore 8,651
Twellingate and Fogo Undertaken 1,450
Total 161 436
The following is a brief sketch of the rise and progress of the different religious bodies of Newfoundland:
CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
Mr. Aikins says :
” The missions of the Church of England in the present British North American Provinces were set on foot, and sup-ported principally by the agents of the Society for Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. This Society, originating in the pious efforts of Dr. Bray, was incorporated by Royal Charter, from William III., in 1701, with the avowed object of providing for the maintenance of ministers of the Church in the different ‘Colonies, Plantations and Factories ‘ of Great Britain, by means of gifts and contributions to be obtained in England.
The following particulars, gathered from the published proceedings * of this Society, will suffice us in tracing the progress of Church missions in these Provinces from their commencement in the 18th century to the establishment of the first Colonial Bishopric :
” The spiritual destitution of the settlers in Newfoundland was among the earliest objects of the Society’s solicitude. We find the following remarks in their first report, published in 1704 :
” ‘ Newfoundland has several settlements of English, with many occasional inhabitants as workers, mariners, &c., at the fishing seasons, to the amount of several thousands ; but no public exercise of religion except at St. John’s, where there is a congregation, but unable to sustain a minister.’
In May, 1703, the Rev. Mr. Jackson, then residing at St. John’s, who had been previously depending for his maintenance on private subscriptions, was adopted as a missionary of the Society, at a salary of £50 per annum, assigned to him for a period of three years.
” In 1705, a memorial was presented to the Society by several merchants trading to Newfoundland, praying that two missionaries might be sent to St. John’s, and engaging that the people of the country should contribute to their support. The Rev. Jacob Rice was sent out about this time, by the Bishop of London, whether in accordance with this request or not, is uncertain.
” Again, in 1729, we find the inhabitants of Trinity Bay, in Newfoundland, petitioning for a missionary to be sent among them, and at the same time offering to contribute towards his support, and to build a church. The Society sent them the Rev. Robert Killpatrick, with a salary of X30 per annum. After remaining there for a short time, he removed to New York. About the year 1736, he returned to Trinity Bay, where he was welcomed by a numerous congregation, and remained among them till death in 1741. He represented the average number of his congregation at 250 in summer, and that at Old Perlican at 200.
” The Rev. Henry Jones was settled at Bonavista in 1725, and received a gratuity of £30 from the Society that year, which was afterwards continued to him. In 1734, he represented his congregation to be in a flourishing condition, and the number of his communicants increasing. Within the period of eight years, he baptised 114 persons, five of whom were grown-up persons. Mr. Jones was engaged for twenty-five years in missionary labours at Newfoundland. He established a school at Bonavista in 1726, and in 1730, he had nearly completed the erection of a church. After the death of Mr. Killpatrick, he officiated at Trinity Bay until the appointment of the Rev. Mr. Lindsay to that mission in 1749. The Rev. Mr. Peaseley, of Trinity College, Dublin, was appointed resident missionary at St. John’s about the year 1745. Mr. Peaseley officiated to a crowded congregation at St. John’s, and occasionally visited the out-harbours. He was removed to South Carolina in 1750.
” The Rev. Edward Langman, of Baliol College, Oxford, was appointed to succeed Mr. Peaseley, as missionary to St. John’s and the out-harbours, at the request of the inhabitants, among whom he had been residing for some time previous.* On taking possession of his cure in 1752, Mr. Langman found the number of communicants to be thirty. Of the two hundred families which composed the population of St. John’s at this time, forty were of the communion of the Church of England, fifty-two Roman Catholics, and eight Dissenters.T In 1759, he visited Placentia Bay and baptised fifty persons, nearly all adults. In the summer of 1760, he again visited the out-harbours, and by his report it appeared that there were in Reneuse, twenty-five families of whom were Protestants, and the Irish Romanist population 140 souls. In Fermense, nearly the whole population amounting to 100, were Roman Catholics. Ferryland. 64 Protestants and 86 Roman Catholics. During this visit, he baptised 38 children. In 1761, he found at Bay of Bulls, 45 families, of which 37 were Roman Catholics. About 1762, a church was erected at St. John’s, under the direction of Mr. Langman, which was not completed until 1773. This indefatigable missionary continued to discharge these laborious duties until his death, which took place in 1783. His allowance from the Society was £50 per annum, and he represented the little gratuities he received from his flock as being inconsiderable, and that ` he had to go and beg from them as a poor man would for alms.’ He appears to have lived on terms of Christian fellow-ship with his neighbours of other denominations ; several families of Dissenters attending on his ministry, and receiving the holy communion from his hands. He was succeeded at St. John’s by the Rev. Mr. Price.
In 1768, the Rev. Laurence Coughlan, who for three years previously had been residing among the inhabitants of Harbour Grace and Carbonear, was appointed a missionary of the Society, and preached in Irish. His congregation frequently included many Irish Roman Catholics. The natives attended his preaching very constantly, and he administered the sacrament once a month to from 150 to 200 communicants.
” The Rev. James Balfour was appointed missionary at Trinity Bay, with the out harbours of Old and New Perlican and Bonavista, in 1765. In acknowledgment of his services his parishioners, soon after his arrival, built him a house. But after nine years’ labour in this mission, which was not less than forty miles in circuit, he was removed to the more important station of Harbour Grace, left vacant by the resignation of Mr. Coughlan in 1773.* In a letter dated 1778, Mr. Balfour reported the population of Harbour Grace to consist of 4,462 Protestants and l,306 Roman Catholics ; the number of communicants varying from 150 to 200.
” He was succeeded in this mission by Rev. John Clinch. In 1787, a memorial from the inhabitants of Placentia Bay was laid before the Society, stating their willingness to contribute to the support of a clergyman in their settlement. His R. H. Prince William Henry, afterwards King William IV., then in command of a ship of war on the station, contributed handsomely towards the erection of the church, and presented them a set of communion plate.T
” The condition of Newfoundland at the period treated of in the foregoing pages presented dangers and discouragements to missionary enterprise far surpassing any difficulties experienccd by the messengers of the Cross in that country or any other portion of British America at the present day. The population of the island was of a much more fluctuating character than at present : it consisted of a few thousands, principally poor fishermen, thinly scattered among the innumerable bays and harbours of more than a thousand miles of northern seaboard, inaccessible, except by water, from the rough face of the land and th total absence of all roads. The mission ries were compelled to travel great distances by water, passing round headlands and promontaries exposed to the swell of the wide Atlantic, in open boats and small fishing vessels, in order to reach the scattered stations under their spiritual care. In addition to the hardships and privations attendant on the performances of their duties, many of these men had to subsist on the scanty pittance of £30 or £40 assigned to them by the Society for Propagating the Gospel, then in its infancy.
” In 1798, the Society for Propagating the Gospel having taken in consideration the state of the missionaries in Newfound-land, their labours and dangerous duties, were induced to in-crease their salaries, not however in equal advance, but according to the situation and circumstances of each mission. This year we find the Rev. John Harris zealously engaged in forwarding the erection of a new church at St. John’s, the first one having been erected in 1790. The Rev. Mr. Jenner was in charge of the missionary stations of Harbour Grace, Carbonear, and Port de Grave, Conception Bay. Mr. Clinch, then at Trinity Bay, had charge of Old Perlican and several other stations, and Mr. Evans was resident missionary at Placentia Bay. The church schools at Bonavista, Burin, Scilly Cove, and Harbour Grace were in a prosperous condition.
” In 1814, David Rowland was stationed at St. John’s; F. H. Carrington, Carbonear and Harbour Grace ; J. Clinch, Trinity Bay ; the mission at Placentia, vacant. There were also six Church schoolmasters in the island.
” In Newfoundland, the Church during this period can scarcely be said to have kept its ground ; there had been no in-crease in the number of missionaries for ten or twelve years, and for a great part of the time but three resident clergymen in the island. Each missionary had a salary of about £100 per annum, in addition to the Government allowance, and there were also four or five schoolmasters with small stipends. In 1817 two new missionaries came out and the salaries were in-creased to £200 pet? annum by the Society.
” The Bishopric ‘of Nova Scotia had been resolved on in 1784, and Dr. Chandler, of New York, fixed upon to fill the see. He declined the dignity, and recommended his friend Dr. Charles Inglis, formerly rector of Trinity Church in that city, who had for many years taken an active part in the discussions relating to American episcopacy. Dr. Inglis was accordingly consecrated first Bishop of Nova Scotia, in 1787, with eclesiastical jurisdiction over the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick and the Island of Newfoundland.
” On the death of Bishop Inglis, which took place in 181G, the Rev. Dr. Stanser, rector of St. Paul’s, Halifax, was elevated to the Bishopric by the recommendation of the Governor, Council and Assembly, and Dr. John Inglis appointed to the vacant rectory, and, at the same time, made Ecclesiastical Commissary. At the period of the Bishop’s appointment there were but fourteen clergymen of the church in the Province of Nova Scotia, and six missions vacant. During the following seven years the clergy had considerably increased, their number in 1824 being as followsviz., 24 in Nova Scotia, 14 in New Brunswick, two in Prince Edward Island, and one in Cape Breton, all missionaries of the Society.
” About the year 1h22, the Rev. Robert Willis, Rector of St. John, was appointed Commissary of New Brunswick, and the Rev. John Leigh, Commissary of Newfoundland. Each made a tour of visitation through the various missions under his superintendence.
” Bishop Stanser’s health declining shortly after his appointment, he went to England, and the care of the diocese devolved on Dr. John Inglis, Ecclesiastical Commissary of Nova Scotia, who was appointed bishop in 1825, on the retirement of Bishop Stanser from the See.
” The new bishop immediately divided his diocese into four Archdeaconries. The Rev. Dr. Willis was appointed Archdeacon of Nova Scotia and Rector of St. Paul’s, Halifax ; the Rev. Mr. Best, Archdeacons of New Brunswick ; the Rev. A. G. Spencer, Archdeacon of Bermuda, and the Rev. George Coster, Archdeacon of Newfoundland. The latter gentleman was after-wards removed to N w Brunswick.”*
In 1827, Dr. Inglis the Bishop of Nova Scotia, visited Newfoundland. It was the first tinte a Protestant bishop ever was in the country. The tinte of the bishop’s visit there were 600 communicants, 23 schoolmasters, and the following clergymen :Venerable Edward Wix, Bonavista, Archdeacon of Newfoundland ; Rev. P. Perring, Ferryland ; Rev. Allan Coster, Green’s Pond ; Rev. John Burt, Harbour Grace and Carbonear ; Rev. Charles Black-man, Port-de-Grave ; Rev. F. A. Carrington, St. John’s ; Rev. William Bullock, Trinity Bay ; Rev. Otto S. Weeks, Assistant; Rev. John Chapman, Twillingate ; Rev. James Robertson, station unassigned.
Newfoundland was erected into a separate diocese, including the Bermudas, in the year 1839, and Aubrey S. Spencer, Archdeacon of Bermuda, consecrated to the new see. Bishop Spencer came from England to Newfound-land as a missionary about the year 1819. He was appointed Archdeacon of Bermuda in 1827.
” At my consecration,” says Bishop Spencer, ” to the See of Newfoundland I found only eight clergymen of the Church of England in the whole colony ; the Church itself in a most disorganized and dispirited condition ; the schools languishing, many of them broken up. The clergy of Newfoundland are maintained mainly by the noble Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, but the people are called on by the bishop to provide a house and a small stipend, according to their respective means, for their several missionaries.”
On the arrival of Bishop Spencer, he immediately established a Theological Institution for training young men for the ministry. He also divided his diocese into three rural deaneries Avalon, Trinity and Bermuda. In his letter to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in 1841, the Bishop says :
” In the course of my visitation during the present year, I have travelled by land and water 1,118 miles ; visited 35 stations ; confirmed 1,136 persons ; consecrated six churches ; originated or assisted in the building of 21 new churches ; ordained two priests and eight deacons ; and founded or restored more than 20 day-schools and Sunday-schools.”
In Bermuda there is a school-house in every parish, principally designed for the instruction of the coloured population. Four clergymen receive assistance from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel ; five are paid by the Local Legislature, and three are paid as chaplains to the convicts and dock yard.
On the 21st of August, 1843, Bishop Spencer laid the foundation stone of a Protestant Cathedral.* Towards the erection of this building the sum of £4,000 was raised in St. John’s, and £2,000 in England. In 1843, Bishop Spencer was removed to Jamaica, and left St. John’s in Sept. of that year, the see remaining vacant until 28th April, 1844, when Dr. Edward Field, of Queen’s College, Oxford, and Rector of English Bicknor, was consecrated bishop and proceeded immediately to take charge of the diocese. He arrived at St. John’s on the 4th July following, and the saine season made a visit to some of the distant settlements of the island, in the church ship, a beautiful schooner expressly fitted up in London for the use of the bishop, and the gift of an English clergyman. An account of the bishop’s visitations will be found in various parts of this volume.
Bishop Field increased the Deaneries of Newfoundland from two to six. The bishop spent two winters in Bermuda and greatly extended the interests of the church there. In 1846, after the great fire at St. John’s, Bishop Field visited England, and obtained the consent of the Secretary of State to the appropriation of £15,000 towards the completion of the Cathedral, which had been commenced by Bishop Spencer (St. John’s church having been burnt the same year). The money was collected under the sanction of a Queen’s letter, in the churches of England. The nave of the Cathedral is all that has yet been finished. It was opened for worship by Bishop Field in 1850. It is built of beautiful cut stone, and estimated to cost $200,000. Bishop Field proposed that each member of the church should annually subscribe five shillings, or one penny per week, to assist in the maintenance of the clergy. The church has a beautiful cemetery at the head of Quidi Vidi lake ; at the entrance is a little chapel. In this cemetery repose the dust of the Rev. Charles Black-man, Ven. Archdeacon Bridge and the Rev. G. J. Mountain. The salary is derived from an annual grant of £500 made by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and £500 from the annual vote of the British Government for the North American Clergy, making, altogether, a salary of £1,000 or $5,000 per annum. The schools of ” The Newfoundland and British North America School Society,”established in 1823, are all church schools.
In 1846, some modification of the rules of the society were made, and the society constituted the ” Church of England Society for Educating the Poor of Newfoundland and the Colonies.” The society at this time had 44 principal and branch schools in Newfoundland, with 3,593 scholars. The Rev. T. F. H. Bridge, A. M., was superintendent, and the schools were placed under the control of the bishop. In 1848 the Society appointed a new superintendent, the Rev. Thos. Dunn. In 1853 the Society was constituted the ” Colonial Church and School Society,” with the Rev. Johnston Vicars as superintendent. In 1854 the Society employed the following agencies:Clergymen, 3; catechists and schoolmasters, 28; female teachers, 14. In 1856 the Rev. Dr. Hellmuth, of Canada, was appointed General Superintendent in America, and in 1858 Mr. Marmiott was appointed superintendent in Newfoundland. The following is from the report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel :
” This diocese has been exposed to severe trials and losses during the past year. For nearly a quarter of a century the Rev. T. F. H. Pridge, promoted in 1850 to the honorary Arch-deaconry of Labrador, was the most active and energetic clergy man at St. John’s. He was Vicar-General and Ecclesiastical Commissary to two succeeding Bishops, and took a leading part in every scheme that was set on foot for the moral and religious welfare of the island. This laborious clergyman, whose life was probably shortened by his unsparing devotion to his high, and, at times, overwhelming duties, died on the 28th of February, leaving a blank not soon or easily to be filled.
“It is right that the following tribute to his memory, though printed elsewhere, should he also recorded here. It occurs in a letter from the bishop, dated March 5th, 1856 :
I have just performed the saddest and most painful duty that can fall to a bishop’s lot, by consigning to darkness and inaction his eye and his hand, in the person of the most fond, faithful, and efficient Archdeacon that ever any bishop was served by.
‘The newspapers which I have sent will supply all necessary information, and spare me the pain of enlarging on a subject so distressing.
” ‘ I had gone (on the 10th ultimo) to take the place of one of my overworked clergy to the Mission of Island Cove and Conception Bay a mission with four churches and 2,000 souls, left without shepherd and without service. The missionary (C. Walsh), who had been laid up for two months with a dangerous sprain, was removed to Harbour Grace for rest and medical attendance. I had purposed to remain, if necessary, till Easter, in the fisherman’s cottage in which Mr. Walsh resides when at home. I had, however, scarcely been absent from St. John’s a fortnight, when I was summoned back by a report of the Archdeacon’s dangereous illness. I arrived on Monday the 25th ultimo, and had the melancholy satisfaction of watching by his bed three clays and three nights, till he passed, I trust, into that day which is not succeeded by night.
” ‘ Never was a more real case of a man worked to death. Finding that he could no longer afford a curate (and, if he could, I know not where he could have procured one), he labeured more abundantly and unceasingly than ever ; for nothing could prevail with him to lay aside a single service or duty once entered upon. The consequence was foreseen, I believe, by many, and foretold by more than one ; and by myself represented to him repeatedly, but to no purpose. His sun has gone down while it was yet day. It is impossible to describe the sensation, the grief, and distress, caused by his death, though you may gather something from the account published in the paper.’ ”
The Society now employs (1873) thirteen catechists and teachers, sixteen female teachers, and five trained pupil teachers.
Schools in operation :
St. John’s 3
Total number of pupils on the books :
The following is an extract from the report of the Education Committee of the Legislature :
” The Committee learn from the report of the Local Association in aid of the Colonial and Continental Church Society (formerly the Newfoundland School Society), that it has completed the fiftieth anniversary of its establishment in this colony. To that Society the people owe a debt of eternal gratitude, as it was the pioneer of popular education in this land, and admitted to its schools the youths of both sexes and of all classes, at
time when no public provision was made for any kind of public schools. Instituted by benevolent founders in the old country, it supported, unaided, for many years, the cause of popular education here ; it continues to contribute to the colony nearly $6,000 per annum, and expends those funds, supplemented by a grant of £500 sterling from the Legislature and private subscriptions (in all nearly $ 10,000), in a more successful manner than any local institution. Its schools are attended by nearly 2,000 pupils.
” The Committee desire to draw special attention to these facts in connexion with the above-named Society, so that any step may be carefully avoided which may tend to detract from its usefulness and value to the colony.”
” In answer to the bishop’s appeal in behalf of the widow and children of the late archdeacon, a sum of X250 was voted as a contribution to the fund which has been opened, both at St. John’s and in this country, for the benefit of the family ; a vote which has been acknowledged by the bishop ‘ with sincere and deep gratitude,’ in his own name and in that of all the parishioners of St. John’s, as well as, more especially, of Mrs. Bridge and her family.
” About the same time that the church in Newfoundland was deprived of the services of Archdeacon Bridge, another missionary, on the opposite side of the island, was lost to the church in a manner still more awful. It is thus that the bishop announces this sad event :
“June 25, 1856.”
With wearied hand and eyes, and a heavy heart, I have now to inform you of another sad vacancy in our small missionary band. Poor Mr. Boland was caught in a drift, some time in the month of March, and frozen to death.’
” The Society has anticipated the usual application, and re-solved that Mr. Boland’s salary be continued to Midsummer, and that a gratuity of £100 be made to his widow.
” A third death, though not of a person in active missionary service, remains to be recorded that of Kallihirua, a native Esquimaux, brought five years ago from Baffin’s Bay to this country, by Captain Ommancy, and placed, by the liberality of the Admiralty, at St. Augustine’s College, and transferred, in. October last, to the Theological Institution of St. John’s, where he died on the 14th of June of this year. ‘ We miss him,’ says the bishop, ‘ greatly ; he was so gentle, kind, and submissive ; so regular in his devotions, that he spoke by his actions what he could not express by his tongue.’
” The Rev. Jacob G. Mountain was called away last October (1857), from the midst of his unsparing ministerial labours, at the early age of thirty-seven. He died of fever, caught in the fulfilment of his ministerial duty as Rector of St. John’s, in which charge (after seven years of solitary and self-denying labour on the rugged shores of Fortune Bay), he succeeded Archdeacon Bridge. Never did any one devote himself more simply to the toils and privations of a missionary life than Mr. Mountain ; and short as that life was, it was rich in evidences of devotion to God’s service. It is needless, however, to dwell upon this subject, as the Society has recently published a narrative of his missionary labours, drawn up by himself, together with a very touching memoir written by one of his intimate friends.
” The bishop was not only weighed down by sorrow at the loss of so dear a friend, but also much embarrassed by the difficulty of supplying his place, both in the parish and the college. Ultimately, Archdeacon Lower, of Montreal, accepted the Rectory of St. John’s ; and the Rev. H. Petley, M. A., of Wadham College, Oxford, was sent by the Society to fill any of the vacant missions for which the bishop should consider him best suited: The bishop held an ordination on Trinity Sunday, when the Rev. Josiah Darrell was ordained priest, and Mr. W. W. Le Gallais, deacon. Both had been students of the Theological Institution of St. John’s. The Bishop, at the date of his last letter (June 11th), was about to embark in long and perilous visitations by sea. He proposed taking with him the Rev. Messrs. Grey and Le Gallais. The visitation, including the missions on the Labrador, would involve not only a great expenditure of time, but also of money.
” On both accounts, and for the further purpose of securing a more effective superintendence over every portion of his ex-tended diocese, the bishop strongly urges its subdivision ; and if this cannot be done by detaching Bermuda, then by the appointment of an assistant or suffragan bishop. The Roman Catholics have already two bishops for the Island of Newfoundland only, and are making arrangements for the consecration of a third.
‘ I need not,’ says the bishop, ‘ point out the immense advantage they obtain by this arrangement, in having their head bishop always at head-quarters, and others at each of the two extremities of this wild country, without roads, and the communication by sea (never very safe or certain) closed for half the year.
‘ The relief, then, which I would suggest and request for my diocese, is the appointment of a second bishop (call him suffragan or coadjutor, or any other naine most correct and orderly), not in the least with a view to my absence from the diocese, but rather for multiplying, if I may so speak, my episcopal presence, as in that case the proverb well applies, qui fecit per alium fecit p r se. A suitable person might probably be found in one or other of the North American Colonies, and he might be consecrated at Quebec, or Montreal, or Halifax, by three bishops of those provinces.
‘ I should he quite willing to give up for his support all I now receive from the Society, £500, or, if necessary, all I receive from the Society and Government, £ 1000 a year. Or I should he quite willing, and in some respects prefer, that another bishop, as Bishop of Newfoundland, should be appointed, and I act as his coadjutor or assistant, retaining the place of Rector of St. John’s (which I have assumed) without any stipend, except that of a missionary, and what I could obtain in addition by fees and assistance front our Church Society.’
Whatever may be the result of the bishop’s efforts to bring about a subdivision of his diocese, it is impossible not to admire the noble generosity of the proposal.”
In 1859, the Report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel again says
” Long journeys in dog -sleighs over ice, or on foot through swamps and across brooks, sometimes for the sake of visiting a single sick person, are frequent incidents in the life of a Newfoundland missionary. But their labours are not in vain in the Lord ; and the kind welcome of the poor fishermen, as well as their readiness to assist in the work of building new churches and school-houses, attest the real value which they set upon the ministrations of the Church.
” The best evidence, however, of this is to be found in the largely-increased contributions to the funds of the Diocesan Church Society, which, as will be seen by the following extract from a letter of the bishop, written while he was recently in England (April 25th) was far from representing the whole of the moneys raised by the people themselves :
” ‘ When I first went to Newfoundland ‘ (1844), says the Bishop, ‘almost all the Society’s missionaries were receiving £200 a year from the Society ; a few, some three or four (deacons, I believe), only £150. The late bishop (Spencer) had insisted upon this (the larger amount) as necessary, and I am not pre-pared to say he was wrong. But the sums contributed by the congregations were wretchedly small. Since 184G no fresh missionary has received from the Society more than £100 a year ; and the general contributions of the people have risen from between £400 and £500 a year, to upwards of £2,000 This reduction was made by the Society, and these contributions required of the people, on the understanding that the sums saved by the reduction should be applied to the creation and support of new missions ; the contributions of the people going to make up the missionary’s income. And this has been faith-fully acted upon. New missions have been formed, and missionaries placed and supported (without, I think, any additional drain upon the Society’s funds) at Channel, La Poêle, Hermitage Cove, Harbour Breton, Burin, Portugal Cove, and Her-ring Neck in Newfoundland, and at Forteau and Battle Island, on the Labrador. New churches have been built and consecrated at all those places, and many (sixteen or seventeen) others. Parsonage-houses have been built, or purchased, at Channel, Hermitage Cove, Burin, Portugal Cove, Port de Grave, Bay Roberts, Bay de Verd, Heart’s Content, Catalina, Herring Neck, Moreton’s Harbour, Forteau and Battle Island. A new school is just completed, and ready for consecration (at a cost of £3,000), in St John’s, and a house for the clergyman, with some tenements towards an endowment, at a cost of about £1,080. All these works, and others of a like kind, done and doing without any assistance from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, almost entirely by the people, with assistance from my own funds. Thus then we have
“‘ Since 1846Nine new missions; four once served by school-masters, now served by missionary priests.
” ‘ Twenty-five or twenty-six churches finished and consecrated.
Thirteen parsonages built or purchased.
” ‘New stone church built in St. John’s, with parsonage, and partly endowed.
” ‘ College built and partly endowed.’
” The bishop remained only a short time in England ; and found, on his return to his diocese, two or three of his most efficient clergy disabled by over-exertion and exposure. There is, therefore, the most urgent need for an immediate reinforcement of men. One only, Mr. E. Tucker, a student of the Theological Institution, had been added by ordination ; and he was about to accompany the bishop on his voyage round the island. He reports two encouraging events a meeting of the Church Society, at which an increase of income over that of former years was announced ; and the consecration of the new church of St. Mary’s, on the south side of the harbour a church long contemplated and much needed.”
(1.)I believe we have for several years raised in Newfound-land (I omit Bermuda, where there is legislative provision) upwards of £2,000 for Church purposes. The Church Society expects every clergyman to send to the treasurer one-fourth of the amount collected in his mission, as the condition of obtaining assistance frond the Society; but if any choose, as many do, to be independent of the Society, I cannot demand either return or report. But what are £2,000 or £3,000 for all church purposes in a colony and country like Newfoundland, where there are no rates, no endowments, no glebes, no kindly fruits of the earth ; nothing but seals and fish, and of those an uncertain and precarious supply ? If a clergyman with £100 a year from your Society could raise another £100 in his mission, a portion would be required for his church, a portion for his parsonage, a portion probably to help a school ; and perhaps not more than half would remain for his personal use. But £100 is consider-ably above the average raised by each clergyman.
” (2.) There is no synod in this diocese. The difficulty of communication with the capital, occasioned by want of roads and want of means, and the paucity of persons able and willing to assist, have prevented any attempt to form and constitute a synod. The acts of the Church Society consist of grants made at my recommendation. We have lately formed a fund for the relief of the widows and orphans of the clergy, in connexion with the Church Society.
” (3.) There are four clergymen (officiating) entirely sup ported by local contributions (there are no endowments), two wholly engaged in and supported by tuition, and one who re-quires no assistance. When I came to the colony, there was not one supported without aid from your Society.
” (4.) In the year 1843, when Bishop Spencer retired, it appears by the Society’s Report (1844), there were twenty-seven missionaries, receiving together from the Society £4,127; in the year 1860 (by the Society’s last Report, 1861) there were thirty-five missionaries, receiving together from the Society £3,975. There are now forty-one clergymen, seven of whom receive no assistance from the Society. This of Newfoundland. In Bermuda, in 1843, there were five missionaries receiving from the Society £234 per annum ; there is now only one receiving £60 per annum.
” (5.) In Newfoundland and Labrador there are eighty-two churches, forty-seven of which have been consecrated by myself ; about twenty are additional, the others new in the place of old ones. There are five on the Labrador shore, and two parson-ages, where sixteen years ago no clergyman’s voice had ever been heard.
” (6.) The last census was taken in 1857 :Church of England, 44,285 ; Roman Catholics, 56,895 ; Wesleyans, 20,229 ; Kirk of Scotland, 302; Free Kirk of Scotland, 536 ; Congregationalists, 347-Total, 122,594.
” (7.) The increase per cent. has been, in twelve years18451857 Church of England, 29 1/2 ; Roman Catholics, 21 1/2 ; Wesleyan, 40.
” (8.) No immigrants, except youngsters engaged in the fishery some few of whom remain and settle, or rather remain without settling.”
” The want of an Orphans’ Asylum at St. John’s, Newfound-land, in connection with the Church of England, was, until lately, much felt. Perhaps in no other country in the world can be found so large a proportion of widows and orphans, at least, of those who are so by their husbands and fathers being drowned at sea. Instances are constantly occurring, where a vessel sails either for or from Newfoundland, and is never heard of again. And owing to the dangerous nature of the coast the deep water close to the cliffs, which allows a ship in a fog to run unwarned right upon them, owing to the treacherous currents, and the ice which comes down in the spring, shipwrecks are events with which the inhabitants of the country are only too familiar.
As the need of a refuge for widows and orphans was so much felt, the Bishop of Newfoundland purchased a piece of ground near the Cathedral, and on Ash Wednesday, 1855, eight orphans of various ages, between twelve and four years were admitted, under the care of a widow, as matron, into a temporary tenement fitted up for their use. Since then, a substantial stone building has been erected for them, capable of enlargement, which has been now occupied for nearly two years by eleven orphans and two widows, one of them the matron ; near to it is the residence of Mrs. O. Johnson, and a small chapel used for family prayers by the households immediately adjoining it ; beside these is the Bishop’s residence, formerly the Rectory, where the lamented Archdeacon Bridge lived and died. Immediately opposite these four buildings is the northern side of the Cathedral. Behind them is a piece of ground on which will shortly he erected schools for boys and young ladies. On the opposite side of the road which runs past the west front of the Cathedral, and immediately opposite the old Rectory, is the new one, now occupied by the Venerable Archdeacon Lower, Gospel missionary.
” on Christmas Eve, in accordance with the ancient charitable custom of the Church, a large quantity of excellent beef (1,616lbs.) was distributed, under the directions of the church-wardens of the Cathedral, to two hundred and fifteen families, with a loaf of bread to each. And on Christmas day a piece of plum pudding to every child, attending the Cathedral Sunday-school, who chose to receive it, immediately after the morning service. The meat, bread and pudding were all distributed in the Crypt of the Cathedral, by a kind lady who takes an active part in all our local charities.
” Several presents of meat, cakes, fruit and preserves were sent at the same time to the children of the Church of England Orphan Asylum, by various benefactors.”
According to the returns in 1857, the number of clergymen belonging to the Church of England was 41 ; churches, 72 ; population attending church, 42,638. French shore, 1649 ; Labrador, 1,000, and three churches. In 1872, the population had increased to 158,417. Members of the Church of England, 54,413 ; communicants, 5000 ; clergy, 55 ; parishes or missions, 49 ; local contributions, 12,360. Colonial Treasury (Bermuda), £900. The expenditure of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, from the general and appropriated funds was 14,478. In 1867, Archdeacon J. B. Kelly was consecrated coadjutor bishop. On the death of Bishop Field, Dr. Kelly became the Bishop of Newfoundland, according to the act of the Synod, which in 1873 secured to him the right of succession. The bishop says
” I am just returned from the consecration of a new church-yard at Topsail, on the south shore of Conception Bay, twelve miles from St. John’s. The church has been built and partly endowed by the liberality of our most kind and excellent friend Mrs. Johnson, who has given a very neat parsonage and £1,000 fo .the support of the clergyman. These gifts are be-sides, and in addition to, £300 towards the erection of the church, which has been brought to completion by the Rev. Charles Palaiser, who has taken charge of the church and district attached.”
The Diocese of Newfoundland (patent 17th July, 1839) comprises the Islands of Newfoundland and Bermuda, and part of Labrador ; it, was funned from that of Nova Scotia. Newfoundland, with Labrador, has a population of 158,717, of whom 54,713 are members of the Church of England, and 5,000 are communicants. Bermuda has a population of 11,461, of whom 9,477 arc members of the Church of England, and upwards of 1,400 are communicants. There are in Newfoundland and Labrador 52 missions or districts, 37 being aided by grants from the Society. Eleven are unprovided with parsonage houses. Seven missions, formerly aided by the Society, are now self-supporting, but progress in this direction is very slow, owing to the poverty of the inhabitants, who are nearly all fishermen. The Bermudas, or Somers Islands, contain nine parishes, under five rectors ; and there are two chapels of ease. Only one clergyman in Bermuda now receives aid from the Society. The Society’s expenditure in the diocese in 1875 was £4,525. Local contributions, £2,300 ; Colonial Treasury (Bermuda), £1,100.
DEATH OF BISHOP AUBREY GEORGE SPENCER
” The memory of this gifted young English clergyman, who so bravely endured exposure to snow and tempest in the discharge of his duties, at the out-harbours of Newfoundland, in spite of delicacy of the lungs, is still cherished by the survivors of those remote times in that inhospitable climate, where he laboured unflinchingly for two years 1819, ’20 until warned by his physician that he must leave the colony or die.
” His next move was to Bermuda, where he still worked as a missionary, sharing the income which he received in Newfound-land, with the Rev. George Coster, afterwards Archdeacon in New Brunswick. Soon after Mr. Spencer’s arrival in Bermuda, he was appointed rector of two of the small parishes of that island, and his being made a member of the Council increased his usefulness as a missionary. Whilst urging on the island legislature, the necessity of educating the poor slaves, he spared no opportunity of advancing education amongst all classes of the colonists, so that, when the blessed day of emancipation came, there were no heart-burnings between masters and slaves the former giving up the vexatious system of apprenticeship, and the latter in most instances returning as hired servants to their former masters. In the year 1825, his nomination as Archdeacon of Bermuda added to his power of doing good. Bishop Inglis, in whose diocese of Nova Scotia, Bermuda was at that time included, placed implicit confidence in the zeal and judgment of his young archdeacon and commissary, leaving all ecclesiastical matters connected with Bermuda in his hands, and availing himself of his services (when on a brief visit to Halifax in 182G), in a journey through Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
” Whilst on this tour he saw many a scene of interest amongst the ` churches in the wilderness,’ but none was ever more striking than the peaceful joy of the 4th of August, 1834, in Bermuda. In a short time, through the aid of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the free labour of emancipated slaves, he built school-houses to serve as chapels for their use, until further accommodation could be provided for them in the churches. His exertions in the cans of religions education called forth warm prais is from the Colonial Minister of that period. He served as missionary for twenty years, till, in the year 1839, he was appointed first Bishop of Newfoundland and Bermuda. Through the generosity of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, he was enabled to increase the number of clergymen in Newfoundland from six to twenty-six, all paid by the Society. In Bermuda, the clergy were provided for by the island legislature. Small as were the revenues of the little colony, a part was set aside for the maintenance of their pastors. The bishop’s first work in Newfoundland was the establishment of a training college in St. John’s, and again the Society placed the means at his disposal for a small building to serve that purpose, granting at the same time assistance to the parents of the scholars for their support. During the four years that he was Bishop of Newfoundland and Bermuda, he divided his time between the two colonies, visiting the distant settlements in Newfoundland (including Labrador) in a large sailing boat, and the nearer out-harbours in sleighs during the winter, braving all the dangerous discomfort of fogs and icebergs during the summer, and of ice and snow drifts in the winter. He collected £7,000 towards a Cathedral in St. John’s ; his idea was to erect a building much less imposing than that since raised by the present indefatigable Bishop of Newfoundland and Bermuda ; still he collected the first money for it.
” In the year 1843, on his return from a visitation of Bermuda, he found a despatch from the late Earl Derby, then Lord Stanley, appointing him Bishop of Jamaica The translation was providential, as he had again been warned that he must not pass another winter in Newfoundland. The bishop passed at once from one diocese to the other, and two years afterwards visited England. At the time of his translation to Jamaica, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel gave generously and freely to that diocese, which included at that time the Bahamas, British Honduras, and the Turks’ Islands. The extension of their labours in other parts of the world has caused the withdrawal of these grants from poor Jamaica, though the cry for help which was wrung from the Church of that colony when suddenly disestablished was responded to. The bishop felt that he could never be sufficiently grateful to the Society, and during his year’s visit to England, he continually pressed its claims in meetings and sermons. It was owing to him that the first meeting for the Society was held at the Mansion House, and on Good Friday, in the year 1846, he preached the first set mon on behalf of the Society in the Church of St. Paul, Knightsbridge, which produced £200, and has passed into an anniversary sermon.
” Years passed rapidly away, and with their wear and tear strength departed ; yet in 1854 he made a thorough visitation of the island, saw all but one of the 112 clergy employed in the 104 churches of Jamaica, and confirmed 8,370 persons in sixty of these churches ; travelled 1,640 miles by land ; consecrated twelve churches and burial-grounds ; held three ordinations, and preached between seventy and eighty sermons, besides ad-dressing the congregations and candidates for confirmation, and examining the pupils in many schools. He returned to England too late to see a beloved daughter, who had entered into her rest, after years of patient suffering, a fortnight before his arrival. Utterly debilitated from the strain of body and nerve in a tropical climate, the bishop prayed for the relief of a coadjutor. With much difficulty this was obtained, and, in 1856, Archdeacon Courtnay was consecrated Bishop of Kingston.
“It was some time before Bishop Spencer, exhausted by thirty-six years of labour in the colonial church, regained sufficient strength to resume work. When able, he took confirmations for Bishop Blomfield. In 1860, after a series of confirmations undertaken for the Bishop of Worcester, his health again failed. He was ordered to Torquay, and was told to abstain from preaching or public speaking for the remainder of his life. This injunction was, however, set aside when the balmy air of South Devon had in some measure restored his health. He gave frequent and valuable help to the then aged Bishop of Exeter. Words fail when I try to express how sincerely and deeply he was loved in Torquay. Long after he had ceased to perform the more exclusively episcopal functions, his voice was heard in its solemn tones from the altar of GOD blessing His people, and feeding them with the Food ordained by Him for their support. Many are the sick-beds which he has soothed and comforted.
The summons came within a few days. The life-long prayer that he might be spared a lingering death-bed, and that his mind might be clear to the last, was graciously granted. The shadows of this changing life had passed for him, for his Lord had need of him. Even so, good Lord.”
THE LATE BISHOP OF NEWFOUNDLAND
” At Bishop’s Lodge, Hamilton, in Bermuda, on Thursday, June 8th, at about half-past ten in the morning, the Right Reverend Edward Field, Lord Bishop of Newfoundland, closed his eyes in death, while the Trinity Church bell tolled forth the sad tidings, which were responded to by the bell of the Parish Church. His Lordship had just reached his 75th year. His death, though not unexpected, will be a sad bereavement, and an event of serious importance to the colony. His suffering had been long and severe. Under it he was remarkably patient, but the summons to the next world was, doubtless, to him a welcome one.
He was educated at Rugby, and afterwards at Queen’s College, Oxford, was ordained deacon in 1826, to the curacy of Ridlington, near Oxford. In 1833 he was Rector of English Bicknor, Gloucestershire, when he was the first Government Inspector in England. He was consecrated Bishop of Newfoundland, in Lambeth Chapel, by Archbishop Howley, assisted by the Bishops of London and Rochester, Sunday, April 28th, 1844.
” The bishop’s character was of the true English type, manly, honest, and courageous never shrinking from duty at whatever cost. There was always visible in him an entire surrender of himself to the work he was sent to accomplish. He paid a minute attention to detail, especially in Divine service, and in a perfect obedience to the rules of the church. He exhibited a perfect sincerity, warmth of affection, a tenderness and courtesy which became more observable in his declining years. The example he set of faithfulness, earnestness and diligence in discharging the duties of his office, showed that he thought not of himself, and had no shrinking back when hard work was to be done. Not only did the duties of his episcopal office receive their proper attention from him, but he was always ready to fill a vacancy which might occur in his large diocese, through the illness or unavoidable absence of the pastor.
” He chose for himself the simplest food, and sometimes the barest necessaries of life, in order that he might be prepared to undergo the fatigues, and perhaps the actual want which might be expected in his long absence from home, and on the perilous voyages in which several months of each year must be spent ; and, also, that he might have to give to them that needed. There was never a good work to be carried on in his diocese but he would offer to help it ; no church or school was built but his contribution headed the list to an amount beyond most of those immediately interested in the work.
” Like all men occupying high and responsible offices, the bishop was sometimes called to take a step which would probably lay him open to criticism and call forth animadversion and censure ; but when it became evident that it was his duty to act, conscious that to his own Master he must stand or fall, at all hazards he would do that which he thought would best promote the interests of the cause entrusted to him, being those of the church of which he was the chief pastor. He was never deterred by the feeling that it was difficult to himself, or that it was opposed to the opinions and wishes of those whom, under other circumstances, he would have liked to gratify.
” Soon after his consecration, in 1844, as is remarked in the Bermuda Royal Gazette, when he paid his first visit to the Bermuda Islands, every one there was impressed with the appearance of his robust and powerful frame of body, his apparent strength of constitution, and his capability of endurance, which served to fit him in a remarkable degree for the arduous sphere in which his labour lay. And yet so heavy and trying did he find his work in Newfoundland, so apparently beyond the possibility of being performed by one man, that his courage al-most gave way before it, and he consulted the ecclesiastical authorities in England, as to whether they did not think it his duty to resign, and allow the office to be entrusted to some one stronger than himself. But they encouraged him to persevere ; and, with what results, let his faithful and prolonged episcopate testify. In a more favoured spot and climate, but little idea can be entertained of the greatness of the task imposed on him in Newfoundland, of the toil and exposure he underwent in his yearly visitations along those rock-bound coasts. The great and important fruits of his labours have never been sounded forth to the world for purposes of ostentation or display ; but by those who are very familiar with them, they are said to have been very remarkable. We have not material before us, just now, to enable us to speak particularly of the Bishop’s work in his large diocese ; but as we expect to receive them from our correspondents shortly, we hope to be able soon to lay them before our readers.
” Every one who knew the departed bishop was able to speak of his personal holiness and devotedness of character, of his consistent walk with God, of the time spent by him in private devotion, of his exemplary employment of the public means of grace, of his humble trust in the merits alone of the Saviour. We cannot doubt that he is one of those whose works do follow them ; first in the grateful remembrance of those for whose spiritual welfare he so diligently laboured ; and, in the faithful record of the Most High, whose gracious declaration respecting the man who acts from love to Him is this :’ Verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.’ “*
The following account of the late bishop is written by G. M. J., in the London Guardian :
” His Lordship arrived at St. John’s during the summer of the same year of his consecration, the greater part of which was spent in making himself acquainted with the needs of the diocese, and in the performance of duties in St. John’s and its neighbourhood. Next year the bishop entered upon the first of those visitation voyages, in prosecution of which, with few exceptions, the summer seasons of his wide episcopate were occupied, and continued to be occupied, till the appointment of a coadjutor-bishop, in the year 1867. His first voyage was along the south-west shore of Newfoundland, and he was accompanied as chaplain by the late Archdeacon Bridge, then Rector of St. John’s. For several years, his voyages in the well-known Church ship Hawk, given him by the present Bishop of Moray, in Scotland, then Rector of Leigh, in Essex, were literally voyages of discovery not indeed in the ordinary sense of the term, but voyages which led to the revelation of much spiritual destitution, and resulted in the discovery of the means of lessening, if not entirely removing the wants disclosed. To give any-thing like a complete record of what was done by the late bishop would be impossible. This will be never known till the day that shall discover and make all things known. When the writer of this record first came to the colony there were, on the long coast range, west of Cape Race, but three clergymen, where now there are thirteen. On the Labrador shore, the French shore, and in White Bay there were none, nor was any-thing then known about those places. On the northern coast, which alone remains unmentioned, clergy have likewise been increased and multiplied. In St. John’s, during the same time, a cathedral has been built, which, though yet unfinished, is even now second to no ecclesiastical edifice on this side of the Atlantic. During the same time a theological college has been established, good schools for girls and boys in St. John’s, and orphanages for destitute children of both sexes have been founded on a secure basis. Endowment funds have been obtained for the perpetuation of the episcopate, and for the theological college, and man) other works of a religious character, in connection with the church established. It would not be easy to ascertain how many churches and parsonages have been built under Bishop Field’s episcopate, but it may be stated that of the number of ninety-four churches returned at the time of his last visitation voyage, as distributed among the seven deaneries of the diocese, and six additional ones on the coast of Labrador, undoubtedly a very large number were consecrated by him. Under his auspices, also, the very important step has been taken, within the last five years, of establishing a diocesan synod, and, we doubt not, very beneficial results will follow to the church in Newfoundland from this measure, of which, in fact, the benefits are already beginning to make themselves felt in the increased interest taken by the laity in the affairs of their church.
Methodism in Newfoundland was introduced by the Rev. Lawrence Coughlan, a clergyman of the Established Church of England, in connection with the Rev. John Wesley, as appears from the following account given by Mr. Miles, who says:-
” In the year 1765 Mr. Lawrence Coughlan was a travelling preacher in connection with Mr. Wesley. He was in the year 1768 ordained by the Bishop of London, at the request of the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, that he might be qualified for the office of a missionary in the Island of Newfoundland. He accordingly went thither, and for three years and upwards he laboured in Harbour Grace and Carbonear without any apparent success, and in the midst of great persecution. He was persecuted in the chief court of the island, but escaped the fury of his enemies. In letters to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, he was accused of almost everything that was bad. When his enemies found that those methods were not sufficient to remove him. they employed a physician to poison him, who was soon afterwards converted to God, and discovered this wicked design. At length the Lord was pleased to visit this miserable people, and poured out His Spirit abundantly. Many were soon turned to the Most High. Mr. Coughlan immediately united the truly sincere in regular classes. On this the persecution grew hotter ; till at last he was summoned before the governor ; but the governor declared in his favour, and appointed him a justice of the peace, on which the persecution ceased, and he laboured for four years in much quietness and with great success. He then returned to England for want of health.* On Mr. Coughlan’s departure, Mr. Stretton, a local preacher from Limerick, and Mr. Thomay, another local preacher, both in connection with Mr. Wesley, and at that time merchants on the island, undertook the care of the societies which Mr. Coughlan had formed ; but those gentlemen being much engaged in mercantile business, the societies soon fell into decay. Some years after this Mr. Wesley appointed Mr. John McGeary as a missionary to Newfoundland, who went over accordingly. In 1790, Mr. McGeary, who had returned to England wits appointed a second time to that island, with two travelling preachers from the United States ; they were rendered useful to the public. In the year 1791 a favour-able change took place in their behalf. Mr. Wm. Black, who was born at Huddersfield, in Yorkshire, A. D. 1760, visited Nova Scotia. His labours were attended with great success. In the year 1792 he was appointed Superintendent of the whole work in British America.”
” The year 1791,” says the Rev. Dr. Richey, ” was one of the most memorable in Mr. Black’s life. About three weeks after his return from the States, in pursuance it would seem of an arrangement suggested by Dr. Coke, he sailed from Halifax for Newfoundland. The remarkable outpouring of the Holy Spirit which attended his labours, transient though they were in that island, form a new era in the history of his ministerial usefulness, and was among the most refreshing reminiscences with which ` the gay remembrance of a life well spent’ solaced the evening of his days. Fie arrived at St. John’s on the 10th of August, and immediately waited on the Rev. Mr. Joues, the Congregationalist Minister of that place, a man deeply pious and of a very Catholic spirit. After spending a day at St. John’s he repaired to Carbonear, where Mr. McCreary, a Methodist missionary, was then stationed.”
During his visit to Newfoundland, Mr. Black visited Harbour Grace and other parts of Conception Bay. The writer has conversed with several old persons at Carbon-ear, who well remember Mr. Black’s visit.
In the year 1814, Newfoundland was made a separate district, with a superintendent. In 1817 the Rev. John Bell was appointed chairman of the district. About this time several very able ministers were on the Newfound-land District, among whom were the Rev. George Cubit, late editor of the “Wesleyan Magazine and Youth’s Instructor,” published in London ; the Rev. Dr. Richard Knight, afterwards Co. Delegate of the Conference ; the Rev. S. Busby, of the New Brunswick District; the Rev. William Ellis, who died at Harbour Grace, in 1837 ; the Rev. John Haigh, and the Rev. John Richardson, who died in England, while superintending the Third Leeds Circuit, in 1847, and who was for nearly twenty years Chairman of the Newfoundland District. In 1824, the Rev. William Croscombe was chairman of the district, and was succeeded by the Rev. John Pickavant, who held the office until his departure for England in 1843. In 1844 the Rev. Richard Williams was sent from New Brunswick, as chairman, succeeded, in 1847, by the Rev. W. Sprague ; a short time after succeeded by the Rev. Henry Daniel and Rev. S. Peach. The largest church and congregation belonging to the Wesleyans in Newfoundland is at Carbonear. The number of persons belonging to the congregation is about 1,500. The number of ministers throughout the island in 1840, was 14 ; local preachers, 10 ; full members in church fellowship, 2,733 ; Sabbath school Teachers, 170 ; scholars, 2,018 ; day schools, 9 ; the number of persons attending the Methodist ministry, upwards of 15,000.
The following is an extract from the London report :
” The Committee report with much satisfaction that Day-schools connected with the missions at Carbonear, Blackhead, Brigus, Bonavista, Grand-Bank, and other places, constitute a valuable and useful part of the missionary operations of the Society. These institutions are decidedly religious in their character and design, while all possible attention is paid by their conductors to the mental improvement of the pupils. Reading, writing, English grammar, geography and mensuration are taught in them. The Scriptures are daily read, portions of them are committed to memory, and catechetical instruction from the Wesleyan Catechisms is regularly given. The scholars attending these seminaries are of all ages from childhood to mature age, and at Carbonear they amount to one hundred and ninety. The Sunday-schools in Newfoundland, as in all the North American Districts, have been productive of great good to the rising generation, especially in those cases in which Bible-classes have been established.”
The ministers have been mainly supported by the Wesleyan Missionary Society of London. A single man receives an annual salary of £80, and a married man from £100 to £150, according to the number in family. The missions are now nearly all self-supporting. In 1855, the Newfoundland District was incorporated with the Conference of Eastern British America. The Rev. Mathew Richey, D. D., being the first President.
According to the returns of 1857, the number of ministers was 17 churches, 37 ; church members, 20,229. The amount contributed for the Wesleyan missionary in Lon-don was £698. The minutes of the Conference of 1858 says:
” That the thanks of the Conference are due and are hereby tendered to the Hon. J. J. Rogerson, of St. John’s, Newfound-land, for a free passage of the Rev. James A. Duke, to Newfoundland, and for his expressed readiness to give a free passage to any other Wesleyan minister who may at any other time be appointed to Newfoundland, when his vessels are coming out.’
We take the following extract from the report of 1857 :
” Through the liberality of the Parent Committee, the means have been provided and a brother has been designated for our new home mission on the Labrador coast. Every year numbers of families leave the Island to pass the summer on this coast, and these have hitherto left behind them the valued means of grace. Now their own pastors will accompany them, to watch over their souls, and to preach to others who otherwise would perhaps never hear the Word of Life.”
In 1876, there were 50 ministers and 30,000 persons belonging to the Wesleyans in Newfoundland.
The following account was written by the late Rev. D. S. Ward in 1842, who was the pastor of the Congregational Church in St. John’s :
” This church was instituted in the year of our Lord 1778, at a time when there was the greatest imaginable destitution of religious means in this island, as appears from its early records. It is identified with the Independent or Congregational churches in England, by whose benevolent exertions it was originally founded ; it has always been supported by its own pew-rents, and the voluntary contributions of its friends. The first minister ordained in England to take the pastoral charge was Mr. John Jones, who laboured successfully among them for twenty-one years ; and although since his decease it has suffered many vicissitudes, in consequence of its peculiarly isolated situation, it has always maintained a steady and respectable position in St. John’s. Its present minister left a pastoral charge in Devonshire to take the oversight of this church, in the year 1824, and since that period has continued his labours with encouragement and success. There are three public services on the Lord’s day and two in the week. There is an annual fast-day observed, and also a day of annual thanksgiving. The members of this Christian communion are respectable in character and number, and their place of worship is well attended. Their Sabbath-school, supported by voluntary contributions, is large, and well-conducted by respectable superintendents and teachers. It may be but justice to say that several other places of worship, situated in different parts of the district, originated with them, and were mainly erected by their exertions, viz., the old place of worship at Portugal Cove, the place of worship at Petty Harbour, now Episcopal ; the church at Quidi Vidi, raised wholly by the exertions of the minister of the Congregational Church, and constituted the joint property of the Episcopal, Congregational and Wesleyan bodies in this town.”
On the 16th of August, 1843, the death of the Rev. Daniel Spencer Ward took place, after having presided over the Congregational Church, with distinguished piety and ability, upwards of nineteen years. In 1834, the Rev. Daniel D. Evans arrived from England, and took charge of the church until 1848, when, in consequence of his health failing, he returned to England. In 1849 the * Rev. George Schofield arrived from England, as pastor of the congregation. The Congregational church in St. John’s, in 1858 was the only one in Newfoundland, the number of persons attending which was about 400. This church, in addition to the support of its minister, annually raised from X2.50 to .£300 for other purposes out of which .£120 was sent to the London Missionary Society. Mr. Schofield was succeeded in the pastorate of the Queen’s Road Chapel by the Rev. Charles Pedley, who was succeeded in 1866 by the Rev. William Howell, the present minister is the Rev. Thomas Hall. The Rev. George I Farrington has charge of Pendell Harbour, Smith’s Sound, and Trinity Bay. The Rev. J. B. Sear is General Missionary. There are six day-schools in operation.
The first Presbyterian church ever erected in Newfoundland was commenced in 1843, and opened for public worship, according to the doctrine and discipline of the Established Church of Scotland, by the Rev. Donald A. Fraser, A.M., on Sunday, December 3rd, of same year. (This church was destroyed by fire in 1876). On the 7th of February, 1845, the lamented death of Mr. Fraser took place, in the 52nd year of his age and the 31st of his ministry. The congregation was temporarily supplied with ministers of the Church of Scotland from Nova Scotia, and occasionally by the Methodist and Congregational ministers, until the appointment of the Rev. Mr. King in 1849, who was sent out from Scotland, by the Colonial Committee of the Church. He after some time returned to Scotland, and was succeeded by the Rev.
As Mr. Fraser was the first Presbyterian minister ever settled in Newfoundland, (although it is said one lived in Newfoundland in 1777,) the following sketch of him written by his friend, the Rev. John Martin, in 1845, one of the principal ministers of the Church of Scotland in Halifax, N. S., will interest the reader :
” Mr. Fraser enjoyed in early life the important advantages of a liberal and religious education. A native of the Western Islands of Scotland, and a son of the Rev. Alexander Fraser, for many years minister of the parish of Torosay, in the Island of Mull, he received the rudiments of learning under the parental roof and at the parish school, until he entered the University. After passing through the regular course of academical education in literature, philosophy, and theology, he was licensed to preach the Gospel, and soon afterwards ordained, whilst only a very young man, to the office of the holy ministry. He officiated for a short time in different places in Scotland, and gave striking indication, even at that early period of his life, of that powerful and persuasive eloquence for which his future public ministrations were so highly prized. Previous to that time petitions had been sent home, to the mother country, from Pictou, for Gaelic ministers, and recent emigrations from the Highlands and Islands had opened up a very wide field of missionary labour throughout all the eastern districts of this Province. This was the place which the allwise Providence of God had allotted for Mr. Fraser’s ministerial labours, and thither in the course of events, he was soon after-wards led to direct his steps.
” In the year 1817, nearly twenty-eight years ago, a year long to be remembered in the annals of our church, being also the year, if we rightly remember, in which the Rev. Dr. George Burns commenced his ministry in the City of St. John, Mr. Fraser landed on the shores of Nova Scotia, and took up his abode in a humble log cabin, among his countrymen in the thick, and then almost impenetrable forests of McLennan’s Mountain. There, and in the neighbouring settlements in the County of Pictou, he found a great number of warm-hearted Highlanders, from the mountains and glens of Scotland, ready and willing to welcome him, and delighted to meet with a minister of their own church, so well qualified to instruct them in the Gaelic as well as the English language.
” Being the only Gaelic minister of the Church of Scotland at that time in Nova Scotia, he was called to perform not only the work of a stated pastor to his own congregation, he had also to undertake a vast and almost incredible amount of missionary duty of the most fatiguing description, often at an immense distance from his place of residence. From his journals and his baptismal and marriage registers, which we have examined, it appears that in the years 1817, ’18, ’19, ’20, when he stood alone and laboured without assistance, he visited in succession, almost every Gaelic settlement from St. Mary’s to Wallace, and from Salmon River to Merigomishe, and also found leisure to cross the channel to Prince Edward Island. The early settlers in these places, many of whom are still alive, can bear testimony to his zeal and activity in visiting and instructing their families, in preaching the Gospel, and in dispensing the ordinances of religion among them.
“We are not of the number of those who wish to depreciat and undervalue the labours of our predecessors in a past generation, amidst toils and privations of which w e can form no adequate conception, men of no ordinary energy and decision, men of faith and prayer, who have now received the cud of their faith and patience, even the salvation of their souls. Mr. Fraser had his full share of these arduous and self denying, hut honourable and useful labours. If not the first Presbyterian minister settled in Pictou, he was unquestionably the clergyman to whom the Gaelic population felt most attached, and from whom they derived most instruction for many years.
” Presbyterians themselves are not sufficiently acquainted with the extent and utility of his missionary labours, either in that part of the Province or in Cape Breton. From documents now in our possession, it appears very evident that Mr. Fraser was one of the principal instruments in providing the Highlanders of Cape Breton, as well as his countrymen in Pictou, with acceptable Gaelic ministers. His attention was frequently directed to the spiritual destitution which so long prevailed among the Presbyterians in that extensive island, and amidst his varied and multiplied avocations he was enabled to render them no small assistance. We are inclined to believe that he visited the island several times during his residence in Pictou, although we have only the authentic account of one missionary tour which was so useful in itself and attended with such important results to those islanders that it would be improper to pass it over in silence.
” In the month of September, 1828, nearly seventeen years ago, Mr. Fraser, accompanied by the Rev. John McLennan, of Prince Edward Island, proceeded on a missionary tour to Cape Breton, at that time one of the most neglected and destitute spots in British America. Separating from each other at the Strait of Canso, Mr. McLennan proceeded through the settlements in the southern part of the island, whilst Mr. Fraser travelled in a northerly direction through the settlements on the Bras D’Or Lake, visiting in succession River Inhabitants, St. George’s Channel, Baddeck, and Boularderie Island, whence he proceeded to Sydney. After a stay, which was delightful in everything but its shortness, Mr. Fraser returned again by Boularderie and finally bidding adieu to his countrymen in this sequestered spot, who followed him, to use the language of his own beautiful journal, with prayers and tears, he proceeded by water to the head of the north-west arm of the Bras D’Or Lake, visiting in his progress the coasts and islands of that superb expanse of water, and pursuing his journey to the Straits of Canso, where after many toils and pleasures lie once more met with his fellow labourer Mr. McLennan, and accompanied him to Nova Scotia. The lamentable state of destitution in which Mr. Fraser found his countrymen on that visit appears to have produced a very deep impression upon his mind, and his earnest and forcible application for assistance will not soon be forgotten.
” A t a very early period of his life, long before he had arrived at that maturity of understanding and experience which his later ministration displayed, soon after he was ordained by the Presbytery of Mull, in the year 1814, his discourses were not only remarkable for the beauty and elegance of their composition, but for the earnestness and pathos with which they were delivered. But we have seen that Mr. Fraser was much more than an eloquent and accomplished actor ; he was a most. efficient and faithful pastor. The value of his public ministrations in Pictou, where he spent such a large portion of his life, is so well known, and so universally acknowledged, that it is unnecessary for us to dwell at present upon their excellence and fidelity.
‘ As he occupied,’ says one of the attached members of his flock in Newfoundland, ‘ a most important station in society, and was a man of rare gifts, a few brief remarks on his peculiar conformation of mind may not be uninteresting to those who knew him. One of its leading characteristics appears to us to have been a comprehensive power of intellect that made the discussion of religious and philosophical questions at all times easy to him. On every subject that came within the sphere of his public discourses, he would ponder with a deep earnestness that imprinted the leading features with vivid distinctness on his own mind, and fitted him to impart a strong and permanent idea to the minds of others, while the wide range of his mental vision enabled him to expatiate over the whole extent of his topic, leaving no portion of it untouched, and the keen penetration of his thought probed its very inmost recesses. Enriched with the varied and peculiar learning of his profession, and with a keen relish for the classical beauties of ancient and modern writers, he was usually averse to display the extent of his acquired resources ; :rid in discharging the solemn duties of his high calling he never lost sight of the express purpose and intent that of enforcing the truths of Christian doctrine, and of more espceially urging on his hearers to believe, and to conform their lives to the belief, that it is only through faith in the all sufficiency of Christ’s atonement that the sinner can depend for acceptance with his God.’ ”
During the life-time of Mr. Fraser, the question had never been raised, as to whether the congregation should belong to the Free Church of Scotland or not. He has told the writer, however, that if he were in Scotland, he would belong to the Free Church, but that the congregation over which he presided, had all the rights and privileges of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
After the death of Mr. Fraser, the question was agitated as to whether the building which had been erected be-longed to the Established or the Free Church, which was eventually decided by the Supreme Court, declaring that the building belonged to the Established Church of Scot-land, in consequence of the Government having given the land for the site of the building for that purpose. The congregation at that time consisted of about 500, among whom were some of the wealthiest and most influential persons of Newfoundland.
More than half of them separated, and commenced service in connexion with the Free Church of Scotland, and in 1848, the Colonial Committee of the Free Church sent them over from Scotland, a young man, the Rev. A. S. Muir, as minister. In 1849, a site having been obtained in Duckworth Street, the erection of a church was commenced, which was opened for worship in 1850. It was built of wood, and said to be one of the neatest churches in the country. It was destroyed by fire in 1876. The number of Presbyterians at present throughout the Colony, is 822, viz. :302 of the Established Church of Scotland, and 520 of the Free Church. Each of the Presbyterian ministers is allowed towards his support annually, £100 from the respective churches in Scotland, in addition to what he receives from his congregation.
The Rev. Mr. Muir, after some years resigned the pastorate of the Free Church, and was succeeded by the present minister, the Rev. Moses Harvey, who has for his assistant the Rev. Neil Forsyth. The minister of the Established Church of Scotland is the Rev. James Patterson. The Rev. Alexander Ross is pastor of the Free Church at Harbour Grace, Conception Bay congregation from 70 to 100 persons. There are four day-schools.
In 1774, Dr. James O’Donnell was sent to Newfound-land, with the title of ” Prefect and Vicar Apostolic ” of the Roman Catholic Church. He was afterwards raised to a bishop. After spending twenty-three years of his life in Newfoundland, he returned to Ireland, where he passed the remainder of his days. In testimony of his patriotic conduct, the British Government, presented him with a pension of fifty pounds a year. In 180G, he was succeeded by Dr. Lambert, as bishop. In 18:30, the Right Rev. Dr. Scallan, who was the successor to Dr. Lambert, died. His kind and condescending deportment, rendered him gene-rally beloved, and his loss was deeply and universally lamented. He was succeeded in the bishopric by the late Right Rev. Michael Anthony Fleming, D. D., as Bishop of Carpasia and Vicar Apostolic. In consequence of the failing health of Bishop Fleming, the Rev. John Thomas Mullock, D. D., was in 1848, appointed co-adjutor bishop. On Sunday night, the 14th of July, 1850, Dr. Fleming expired, at the Franciscan Monastery in St. John’s, after a prolonged illness of two years, which he bore with patience and resignation to the Divine will. He was succeeded in the bishopric. by Dr. Mullock. The following brief notice of Bishop Fleming, will throw some light upon the history of the Roman Catholic Church in this country.
” The Right Rev, subject of this obituary was born at Carrick-on-Suir, in the County of Tipperary, Ireland, in the year 1792 ; hence, was he at the period of his decease in the fifty-eighth year of his age. In early life he was distinguished amongst his school-fellows for an agreeable person, engaging manners, an aptitude for learning, and a mild disposition ; his thoughts were directed towards religion by the instructions of his uncle, the Rev. Martin Fleming, a zealous and pious clergy-man of the Order of St. Francis; and at his sixteenth year he was received as a novice of that Order in the Franciscan Convent of Wexford, at the hands of the Very Rev. Dr. Scallan, then superior of the house, and subsequently Vicar-Apostolic of Newfoundland. Having finished his studies at an early age, he was ordained some months before the canonical time by special indulgence from the Holy See, and placed at the Convent of Carrick-on-Suir, under the government of his uncle ; here he passed some eight years as an active missionary, distinguished by his zeal and earning the love of all around him. While at Carrick-on-Suir he re-edified the old Convent Chapel, replacing the delapidated building by an erection remarkable for the taste with which it was executed ; and although this was the first exertion of his singular architectural abilities, its beauty has hardly been eclipsed by any of his subsequent efforts, however numerous.
” We have noticed before that his former superior, the Very Rev. Dr. Scallan, had been subsequently raised to the episcopal dignity, and was appointed to preside over the Roman Catholic population of this bishopric ; and it will not appear surprising that, finding so few priests in Newfoundland, he should be solicitous to induce a young gentleman, whose progress in college he had witnessed, and who had even then awakened his esteem, to join him ; but although for years he sought to bring about this happy consummation, it was not until the year 1823, that he finally succeeded ; but so tenderly was the Rev. Father Michael Fleming loved, not only by his good and kind old uncle, his beloved parents and family, but by the entire population of Carrick, of every religious persuasion, that in order to save the finer feelings of his nature, he secretly took his leave of his native country.
” In the fall of 1823, therefore, he first set his foot on the soil of Newfoundland, who was pre-ordained to advance in an unmeasured degree, the general interests of the country, and until the year 1829, he continued to win the love of all around him, in the zealous discharge of his arduous duties of missionary in St. John’s.
“On the 28th of October, of the last-mentioned year he was consecrated Bishop of Carpasia, in partibus in fidelium, and appointed Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic of Newfoundland, the Right Rev. Dr. Scallan having previously postulated for him, and shortly afterwards, on that Right Rev. Prelate having died, Dr. Fleming assumed in full the onerous duties of the episcopacy.
” From that until the present period Dr. Fleming lived not for himself but for his people ; for their advantage he put forth every energy ; all his exertions were devoted to the amelioration of their moral, their religious, their social condition ; he was amongst the earliest to arouse by his example the public attention to the importance of agriculture ; his unwearied efforts to procure the formation of roads, when land communication, even between the nearest settlements was all but impossible ; his noble sacrifice in establishing schools, in multiplying the means of communicating religious instruction to his people, even in the most remote districts ; his great untiring exertions to promote a taste for architecture, both civil and ecclesiastical ; his labours to call the attention of distant countries to the condition of long neglected, and almost unknown or forgotten Newfoundland all these testify the deep debt of gratitude due to the memory of this truly great man.
” How could we, in a moment, review his touching letters, teaching all countries the story of the wants, the neglects of our poor colony ? How shall we be expected to delineate the single-minded prelate, attracting to our rude shores, and entirely at his own expense, those pious and gifted ladies of the Presentation Order, and again of the Order of Mercy, to diffuse a sound, a virtuous, a religious, and withal, an elegant education amongst the female portion of the community ? But above all, and be-fore all, how is it possible to impart oven an idea of the sacrifices made by Dr. Fleming in the erection of churches ? Before his time there was not in the entire island an edifice that merited the name ; all were of wood, and, indeed, of the most unpretending character.
” We have seen how, in a very few years, he raised very beautiful churches at Petty Harbour, Portugal Cove, and Torbay ; and how under him rose the exquisite churches of Brigus, Bay Bulls nay, in almost every district of the island. The cathedral, however, has been that building upon which he seems to have staked all ; for, in his zeal for its construction, we have little hesitation in saying, he sacrificed a life so valuable. We have seen him living weeks together at Kelly’s Island assisting the labourers in quarrying building stone, and then, up to his middle in water, helping them to load the vessels with materials ; we witnessed his voyages across the Atlantic, wherein he sailed over sixty thousand miles of ocean for its accomplishment. Could all this have been, and not wear down even an iron constitution ? He has at length failed under these super-human exertions ; and when he insisted on being brought to assist at the public opening of this magnificent temple, in January last, we saw, bowed down before his time, and as if seeking a place to deposit his remains, the wreck of him who had sacrificed all for the good, the welfare, and happiness of his people, for the promotion of the knowledge of his heavenly Master. Shortly after this he resigned all the temporalities of the See into the hands of his distinguished coadjutor, the Right Rev. Dr. Mullock, and retired into the beautiful monastery which re-mains as an additional memorial of his piety and taste. And now it only remains for us to turn to profit by all his instructions, and to endeavour to fulfil his wishes, by lending our cordial co-operation to the successor he has especially chosen a prelate distinguished alike in religion and literature.
” The remains of the Right Rev. Dr. Fleming, after lying in state in the cathedral this day and tomorrow, will, on Thursday next, at half-past one o’clock, be borne to his vault in that edifice, after having been carried in procession through the city by his congregation.”
The Roman Catholic Bishop of Newfoundland was allowed X75 per annum by the British Government, but on the recommendation of Mr. Sheil, M.P., some years ago, it was increased to £300 per annum. In 185G, the north-ern part of the Island was formed into another diocese, when the Rev. John Walton, D.D., was constituted the first Bishop of Harbour Grace the new diocese and was succeeded by the present bishop, the Right Rev. Henry Carfagnini, D.D. In addition to the schools established the Local Government, the Catholics have five principal schools, two of which are conducted by monks and nuns, and contain a great number of scholars. In 18.50 the number of clergymen in that Island was 30 ; churches, 45; the number of Catholics upwards of 47,000. There w ere 6 monks of the Franciscan Order ; 13 nuns of the Presentation Order, and 8 of the Order of Mercy.
The following is an account of the death of Bishop Mullock, taken from the St. John’s Chronicle of March 30th, 1869.
” The melancholy duty devolves upon us of noting the sudden death of his Lordship, the Right Rev. Dr. Mullock, at half-past eleven o’clock yesterday morning, in the 62nd year of his age. Though his Lordship had been ailing for a considerable time, his sudden demise was altogether unexpected. He slept unusually well the previous ,night, and took a hearty breakfast yesterday. Soon after ten o’clock he visited the Presentation Convent to make arrangements in reference to some ecclesiastical business, and proceeded thence to the Convent of the Sisters of Mercy. After remaining there a short time, he stated his intention of walking into town, and proceeded leisurely down the hill in front of the Mercy Convent. He then con-tinned on towards the Orphan Asylum, when finding himself growing weak, he abandoned his intention of going into town, and walked slowly up Garrison Hill towards his home, on reaching which, and being assisted up stairs, he in a short time became convulsed, and soon expired, living just long enough to receive the last sacraments of the church.
” His Lordship was a most kind and generous-hearted man, and was truly and sincerly beloved by his congregation. He was a man of remarkable erudition and sound judgment, and possessed of great energy of character. In losing him his people lost one who had their interests continually at heart all his thoughts being how best to benefit them.”
Bishop Mullock says :
” Newfoundland is at present divided into three ecclesiastical districts the diocese of St. John’s ; diocese of Harbour Grace; and Prefecture Apostolic of St. Pierre’s and Miquelon. The number of clergy in St. John’s is 29 ; in Harbour Grace, 6 ; and in St. Pierre’s 3, of whom one is Prefect Apostolic. In this Prefecture, there is a large convent of Soeurs de Charité, and there is also an establishment of Frères des Ecoles Chretiennes, both supported by the Imperial Government of France, which also sends two priests annually to the French shore one stationed at Le Seie, and one at La Conche are also in operation in the island. In St. John’s we have one college, twelve convents, and over fifty churches and chapels ; in Harbour Grace, there are two convents, and over fifteen churches and chapels.”
In the rear of the City of St. John’s, the Roman Catholics have a large and beautiful cemetery, in the centre of which stands a neat chapel.
According to the census of 1857, the number of clergy-men was 32 ; churches, 61 ; and the number of Catholics, 55,309. In 1869, 61,040. In 1874, 64,018. (For a view of the churches of the different denominations, see ” Wandering Thoughts,” published by the author in 1846.) The following are the stations of the clergymen in 1876 :
Bishop.Right Rev. Dr. THOMAS JOSEPH POWER. Vicar-General.Very Rev. THOMAS O’CONNOR, P. P. Dean.Very Rev. PATRICK CLEARY, P. P.
St. John’s (Cathedral).Very Rev. T. B. McGrath, Adm., Rev. W. Forristal, Rev. Patrick Delaney.
St. Bonaventure College.President, Very Rev. P. A. Slattery ; Dean, Rev. William Fitzpatrick.
St. Peter’s Chapel (Queen Street).Rev. John Scott. St. Patrick’s (River Read).Rev. John Ryan.
Petty Harbour.Rev. John Walsh.
Portugal Cove and Torbay.Very Rev. T. O’Connor, P. P., V.G., Rev. M. J. Clarke.
Witless Bay and Bay Bulls.Very Rev. Dean Cleary, P. P., Rev. N. Roach, Rev. M. O’Driscoll.
Ferryland and Cape Broyle.Rev. M. A. Clancy.
Fermeuse and Reneous.Rev. John Walsh.
Trepassez.Rev. Thomas Hennebury, P.P.
St. Mary’s and Salrnonier.Rev. Richard O’Donnell, P. P., Rev. John St. John.
Great Placentia.Rev. Charles Irwin, Rev. James Whelan. Little Placentia.Rev. R. Brennan, Rev. M. MacCnllow. St. Kyran’s.Rev. L. Vereker.
Burin.Rev. William Born, P. P.
Oderin.Rev. M. Morris.
St. Lawrence.Rev. William Doutney.
Lainal i ne. Rev. James Walsh.
St. Jacques.Rev. Vincent Reardon.
St. George’s Bay.Prefect Apo_tolic, Very Rev. T. Sears.
St. Jukn’s.Presentation Convent, Military Road ; Mercy Convent, Military Road ; Presentation Convent, Patrick Street ; Mercy Convent, Belvidere.
Will a Bay.Presentation Convent.
Burin. Mercy Con vent.
St. Lawre ce.Mercy Convent.
St. Mary’s.Presentation Convent.
Harbour Breton.Presentation Convent.
An Orphanage for girls, at Belvidere ; Orphan .syluin School, Cathedral llill.
DIOCESE OF HARBOUR (RACE.
The Right Rev. HENRY CARFA(NINI, D. D., O. S. F., Lord Bishop of Harbour Grace.
Very Rev. Jeremiah O’Donnell, Vicar-General of the Diocese. Ilarlorrr Grac .Very Rev. D.
In 1835, the Local Government passed an Act for the encouragement of education, but, owing to the objection of the Roman Catholics to the reading of the Scriptures, in many places the schools failed.
In 1844, the late Mr. Barnes, a leading member of the House of Assembly, introduced an Education Bill, which gave great satisfaction. The Bill passed into law. It provided that the Roman Catholics should receive half the Education Grant, and that Roman Catholic Boards should be appointed to manage their own schools.
Education in Newfoundland is not yet fully appreciated by a considerable majority of the population. The common school system was miserably defective. Persons possessing a mere smattering of the rudiments of learning, and fit for nothing else were considered competent to con-duct the common schools. Too frequently the schools were made a refuge from destitutionthe lost hope of the unfortunate. And many of the teachers felt and acted the veritable saying of the English dame, ” It is but little they pays me, and it is but little I teaches them.” One obstacle in the way of obtaining competent teachers was inadequacy of compensation. Another was the low estimation, in which the occupation was held, especially in the common schools. The establishment of a Normal School is greatly needed in order to prepare teachers for the common schools of the Island.* For several years the Local Government attempted to establish a College, but, owing to the conflicting interests of the different religious bodies, nothing was done. In 1845, however, an academy was established in St. John’s, presided over by three teachers, each having a salary of £300, £250 and £100 per annum. Secretary, £60 per annum. In 1848, there were sixteen pupils in the academy, each of whom payed an annual fee of £8. In 1849 the fee from each pupil was reduced to £ 5 per annum. There was, however, no in-crease of pupils. The pupils in the academy were taught writing and arithmetic, geography and mathematics, French, Greek, and Latin. The academy was a complete failure.
It is a great mistake to suppose that well-informed men must, as a matter of course, be capable schoolmasters. Experience has proved otherwise. It is necessary to inquire not merely, ” How much does he know ?” but ” How much can he impart ? ” and “How well can he impart it?”
The efficiency of the teachers of the academy, however, had never been questioned. Its failure may be attributed to the following circumstances the head-master was an English Episcopalian, who had only been a month or two in the country before his appointment, on the recommendation of Bishop Field. To this most of the other de-nominations of Protestants had strong objections. The second master was an Irish Roman Catholic who had resided some years in the colony, and had been a member of the House of Assembly, who is said to have been recommended to the appointment by the Roman Catholic Bishop. To his appointment the majority of Protestants of all denominations were strongly opposed on the ground of the course in politics which the second master had pursued. The third master was an Irish Catholic ; and the Secretary was an Irish Episcopalian, who had been but a few weeks in the country before his appointment.
The great majority of the native population objected to the Board of Directors, amongst whom was not one native of the country. And the Roman Catholics objected to send their children to a school having a Protestant as head-master. And in addition to all this was the fee of £8 for each child. Under these circumstances it was impossible that the institution could prosper.
In Newfoundland, education has now become wholly denominational.
In 1850, the St. John’s Academy was broken up, and three academies formed one for the Roman Catholics, one for the Episcopalians, and the other between the Methodists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians.
The number of schools throughout the island in 1836 (the returns being made up previous to the establishment of schools under the ” Act for the Encouragement of Education in the Colony “) is stated at 7959 of which were in the districts of St. John’s and Conception Bay. At these schools there were 4,614 pupils, being about a sixteenth part of the whole population. In St. John’s district about 1 in 8 of the population attend the schools ; in Conception Bay and Ferryland districts, 1 in 21 ; in Trinity Bay, a fractional part more than 1 in 24 ; in Bonavista Bay, 1 in 20 ; in the district of Fogo (there being only one school), 1 in 57; in Placentia and St. Mary’s, 1 in 26 : in the district of Burin (1 school only), not 1 in 150. In the extensive district of Fortune Bay, not a single school.
Nearly all of the above schools were private schools.
The teachers of the common schools receive from £18 to £80 per annum, in addition to which a fee of five shillings per annuli’ for each child is required.
In addition to the General Education Grant, the local Government annually votes £500 to the schools of the Church of England School Society for Newfoundland and the Colonies ; about £250 to the Methodist schools, £40 to the Presbyterian school ; and the following Roman Catholic schools :£100 to the Orphan Asylum School ; £100 to St. Patrick’s Free School (Harbour Grace), and £100 to the Presentation Convent School. Commercial School, Placentia, £40. The Governruent also supports two very efficient academies at Harbour Grace and Carboncar.
A Mechanics’ Institute was established in St. John’s in February, 1849, and a course of lectures commenced in the fall of the same year.
There were eleven newspapers published in the island, viz.:
In St. John’s, The Royal Gazett’, the first newspaper published in the island, in 1807. It is a weekly newspaper, and published by the late John Ryan, Esq., who was the father of the press in the British Colonies. Mr. Ryan was an American Royalist, who, at the commencement of the American Revolution, was the proprietor of a paper in New York ; shortly after which he removed to St. John, New Brunswick, and established a Royal Gazette there, and became King’s printer. But on the removal of the local Government from St. John to Fredericton, Mr. Ryan resigned, and removed to St. John’s, Newfoundland, where he was the Government printer till the time of his death, in 1847. A few years previous to his death, Mr. Ryan took into partnership Mr. Withers, who still con-ducts the paper.
The Public Ledger, a semi-weekly paper, established about 50 years, and conducted with great ability by its late editor and proprietor, H. W. Winton, Esq., who was succeeded in the proprietorship by his son Henry.
The Times, a semi-weekly paper, established about 35 years.
The Patriot, a weekly paper, established about 35 years.
The Morning Post, established about 17 years ; defunct.
The Morning Courier, a semi-weekly paper, established about 30 years ; The Newfoundland Express, a semi-weekly paper, established about 25 years ; Commercial Journal, containing prices current, and shipping list, published on the arrival of every mail packet. The Telegraph, a weekly paper, established about eight years.
In Conception Bay, at Harbour Grace, the Standard, a weekly paper, .established about 10 years. Several other papers have been established, both at St. John’s and Harbour Grace. The Rising Sun, Mercury, Herald, Conception Bay Man ; and at Carbonear, The Star, and The Sentinel, all of which are now defunct. The above papers, together with the Newfoundland Almanac, and Temperance Journal, published monthly, are the only publications issuing from the Newfoundland press. Of the editors, several are natives, two English, one Scotch, and one N ova Scotian. The following are newspapers published in the colony, 1876:-
AdrertiserPublished every Wednesday and Saturday mroning.
CourierPublished every Wednesday and Saturday morning.
Commercial JournolPuldished every fortnight, immediately previous to the closing of the Mail per Halifax steamer.
ExpressPublished every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning.
Morning ChroniclePublished every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
NewfoundlanderPublished every Tuesday and Friday morning.
North StarPublished every Saturday morning. Put, PatriotPublished every Monday morning.
Royal GazettePublished every Tuesday.
Weekly ChroniclePublished every Friday morning. Standard (Harbour Grace)Published every Saturday morning.
TimesPublished every Wednesday and Saturday morning.
Temperance Journal- Published on the 1st and 15th of every month.