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part since my own retirement from public life in 1872. I conceive, therefore, that I was fully justified in writing my letter of 31st May, 1875, to the Hon. J. G. Robertson, already published, and in using the following language:
"On my return from the West, I am much concerned to observe the attitude taken by the Ultramontane Party, not only towards liberal Roman Catholics, but also towards us Protestants. I refer more immediately to the manifesto by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Montreal, but remotely, though not less directly, to the ecclesiastical pressure which has been put upon the press of the country, and the claim advanced, with ever-increasing arrogance, to the right of the Roman Catholic Church and its Hierarchy to control and direct the scope of political action and public law within the Province of Quebec, treating it as their own peculiar domain, and regarding us as strangers and aliens, holding no status of our own, but simply tolerated in their midst."
The extracts given prove in the most authentic manner possible, that the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec extends its demands—
1.—To the general assertion of the superiority of ecclesiastical over civil authority.
2.—To positive interference with both voters and candidates in the Elections.
3.—To the exercise of proscription against the press.
4.—To the condemnation of freedom of speech, in opposition to the judgment of the Privy Council.
And Lastly.—To the extraordinary proposition that the Divine assistance claimed to be given to the Pope alone, when speaking ex cathedra on "faith and morals," descends with undiminished force to the Bishops, Priests and Curés.
Nor is there any excuse for claiming such extreme power, on the ground that justice has been withheld from their Church; for the same Decretum of the
