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To which the following reply was made:—
My Dear Sir ALEXANDER,
Yours of the 31st Oct. is before me, and I embrace the earliest possible moment after the adjournment of Council to reply. I thought it better after Conference with my Colleague, Dr. Church, to bring the matter up before the Council, and there to invite the fullest and frankest discussion. I represented that there was a certain portion of the Protestant population who feared that the Roman Catholic Priesthood were assuming an arrogant and intolerant spirit towards the Protestant Minority and that it was feared that the Church as a Church would assume to itself to dictate a political policy and to enforce this policy by means which the Protestant people consider very objectionable, and that in the last result, the rights of the minority would be invaded and overturned. I purposely put the case as strongly as possible, read your letter to me,—and illustrated it by such instances as occurred to me, of what were supposed to be manifestations of such intentions, and particularly referred to the late pastoral letter of Bishop Bourget.
I pretty well knew, from an association of some years with Mr. De Boucherville, and of several months with my other Roman Catholic Colleagues, in what way these representations would be received. They one and all disclaimed any intention to disturb in any way whatsoever the vested Constitutional rights and safeguards guaranteed the Protestants of Lower Canada, pointed out that any such attempt must end disastrously to them or any political party attempting it, and assured me that in no way, directly or indirectly, was it contemplated to legislate away, restrict or alter the present status of Protestants in this Province. That all that might be claimed for the Roman Catholic Church, would be conceded to the Protestant Establishments, and that the present condition of affairs should be maintained in its integrity. The Premier will make a declaration at St. Croix to-morrow on this subject, the
