energy and patriotism which gathered
together in this city specimens of Canadian industry, from all parts of
the Province for the World’s Fair, and which has been the means of
rendering the magnificent conception of the illustrious Consort of our
beloved Queen more serviceable to Canada than it has, perhaps, proved to
any other of the countless communities which have been represented there.
And I shall forget—but no—what I might have had to forget is forgotten
already, and therefore I cannot tell you what I shall forget."
(Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl
of Elgin,
Edited by Theo. Walrond,
1875.
(See Page 41.)
To His Most Excellent Majesty, George The Third, by
the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
King, Defender of the Faith:
May it please Your Majesty:
The Humble Petition of Your
Majesty’s Faithful subjects of the Congregation of the Church of Scotland,
in the City of Quebec, in the Province of Lower Canada,— Humbly Sheweth:
That Your Majesty’s Petitioners
having been educated in the Principles of the Church of Scotland, and
being attached to the form of Worship and the Rites and Ceremonies as
established in that Church, have supported and paid during the last
thirty-six years, a Minister regularly ordained of the Church of Scotland
to perform public worship for them, though as your Petitioners have not
had any appropriate place of Worship, nor any particular fund from whence
to draw the necessary expense, they have been reduced to the necessity of
an annual subscription for that purpose, which, besides being subject to
variation, they consider as an improper mode of support for a Church.
That your Petitioners have always
had in view to build a decent, plain Church for their public Worship, but
as in such an undertaking, they expected they would be obliged to depend
principally on their own resources, they have been, from several reasons
and circumstances, compelled to defer it.
Your Petitioners, judging the period
of the restoration of Peace (1802), favorable to their plan, have resolved
to make the attempt, and they have hopes that, with a very little
assistance, they may now attain the great object of their wishes—a decent
place appropriated to Public Worship. Your Petitioners desire to be known
to Your Majesty, and to be considered by Your Majestys Government as
members of and united to the National Church of Scotland. Your Petitioners
therefore kindly hope, from Your known regard and zeal for all the
Interests of true Religion, that they may receive some small mark of Your
Majesty’s attention and favor, to assist them in their purpose of