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lar, we observe that already free thought and free speech have been anathematized in the case of the Institut Canadien, and its member, the late Joseph Guibord. The Press has been placed under ecclesiastical ban in the case of the Montreal Witness, and in ominous warnings to other French-Canadian journals. The Clergy have also succeeded in drawing under their own control the expenditure of most of the public money voted for Charities, Reformatories and Asylums, also for Colonization; and, in the case of Education, have obtained, last Session, the entire management of this most important subject, as regards Roman Catholics. The influence already exerted over the consciences of the simple and trustful French-Canadian peasantry is already most marked and we may readily conjecture what it will become when the education of the masses is all entrusted to the same hands. Power is now given to the Roman Catholic Bishops to divide the whole Province into ecclesiastical parishes; and we know that this is being done irrespective of, and, in many instances, against the wishes of the Roman Catholic parishioners. The action of the Privy Council in relation to Guibord has been provided against in the future, by legislation obtained this year—giving full control of burials to the Clergy. And probably, for the first time within any British Province, the authority of a foreign potentate is cited as necessary for the due execution of the law: the Quebec Act, 38 Vic., Cap. 29, respecting the erection of certain Parishes at Montreal, contains the following extraordinary clause:—
"3.—Each Parish thus recognized is so recognized, subject to the provisions contained in the decree of erection relating to it, as amended by the Holy See, and published in 1874 in such Parish."
And the marginal note in the Statute is significant of the future: "Decrees amended by our Holy Father the Pope are binding."
