Page:Letter from L. J. Papineau and J. Neilson, Esqs., Addressed to His Majesty's Under Secretary of State on the Subject of the Proposed Union of the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada.djvu/25

 Canada, has been severely felt in a country in which that language unquestionably was mainly instrumental in preserving the Colony to Great Britain at the period of the American rebellion.

The 25th clause, when taken in connexion with the preceding one, has perhaps been misunderstood. It has been considered as a covert attack on the liberties which the Roman Catholic's have hitherto enjoyed under the British Government of Canada; and which are secured to them by the capitulations, the Treaty of Cessions, Acts of Parliament, and the liberal practice of the British Government. The Roman Catholic Church in Canada has at its head a Bishop, approved of by the Crown, previous to his canonical institution by the Pope; the state is thus secured against the danger, could any possibility exist in the present age, which might be apprehended from an improper person being placed at the head of that Church in the Colony. With no further control the Government has, in every instance, found the Roman Catholic Clergy devoted to the connexion of the Province with the British Empire, and exercising all their influence to maintain that connexion. The Bishop and all his predecessors have uniformly appointed to, and removed from, the Cures. The King of France, by an order in Council, dated the 27th of May, 1699, declared the Bishops of Quebec to be possessed of this right, emphatically, stating it to be