despatches of the Secretary of State for the Colonies to a former Lieutenant-Governor in Upper Canada (of the 2nd November, 1831, and 17th June, 1835), have been advanced as a foundation for this farther interference with King's College, because, since those despatches were written, the College has been placed, and is now actually conducted, on the very footing which His late Majesty was pleased to recommend in his Royal communication of 2nd November, 1831, in which his Majesty stipulated in the most earnest terms for the permanent establishment in the College of a Professor of Divinity, upon a secure footing, of the Church of England, declaring it to be a matter of great importance to those of his Majesty's subjects in Upper Canada, who belong to the Church of England; and that his Majesty, as head of that Church, could not be insensible to the duty which belonged to him of protecting it in all parts of his dominions.

"The scheme embodied in the Bill introduced to your Honourable House is cumbersome, expensive, and unwieldy, and has never yet been tried in any part of the world, and must in practice create jealousies and distrust, and destroy every thing like harmony in the working of the Institution.

"Your Petitioner farther represents that the leading feature of the Bill is the express exclusion of all religious instruction and worship, and so jealous do its whole tone and provisions appear on this important point, that they admit not of the slightest reference to this, the basis of all true education, and even proscribe Clergymen or Ecclesiastics from any share in its government. And thus the men best qualified to gain a living influence over the hearts and minds of the youth, are prevented from communicating with them on the most important of all subjects.

"That such an utter interdiction of every thing religious as this bill seeks to establish by legislative enactment, is without precedent among Christian nations, and can never be submitted to by men really serious and in earnest. An institution which drives away all those who, from their living faith, warmth of disposition, and sincerity of purpose, are best qualified to train the young to all that is pure, lovely, and sublime in religion, and noble in science, must become the abhorrence of Christian parents, who can look upon it in no other light than as an Infidel College, dead to all sense of religious truth, and unworthy of the blessing of Heaven.

"That this Bill in its enactment not only exhibits a striking opposition to religious truth, but also implies peculiar enmity to the United Church of England and Ireland, while at the same time the rights and privileges of the colleges of other denominations, which are far more exclusive than the Charter of King's College has ever been, are scrupulously maintained.

"Your Petitioner farther submits that should this measure become law, the noble endowment granted by our late Sovereign for the support of King's College, will be wasted in the vain attempt to sustain a University upon a system which enlightened reason and conscience must ever condemn, which is not sanctioned by experience in any age or

country, nor, as your Petitioner believes, by the feelings and opinions of any considerable number of those (of whatever religious denomination) who can best appreciate the objects of a University education, and who alone are likely to avail themselves of its advantages for the instruction of their children.

"That your Petitioner need scarcely declare to your Honourable House that the United Church of England and Ireland can have no connexion with such an institution; for she is bound by her interpretation of Christian truth, as embodied in her articles and formularies, to repudiate and reject a system of education not founded on religious principles, and he, therefore, most earnestly entreats your Honourable House not to sanction a measure which tends wholly to separate the Members of the Church of England from the Provincial University, and to deprive their youth of all the advantages of a collegiate education, for which the endowment bestowed by the Crown was intended to provide..

"That your Petitioner would deplore this sacrifice the more, because he is aware that while King's College might be preserved in all its integrity, there are most ample means within the power of the Government of endowing Colleges in connexion with other denominations, upon principles which they have all shewn themselves to prefer; or King's College might surrender part of its endowment for the support of a Medical College, and being restored to the position in which it was placed by its original Charter, with such modifications only as would separate it entirely from any thing like political influence or agitation, might serve, though less efficiently than was at first intended, for the Education of the Members of the United Church of England and Ireland.

"Your Petitioner further represents that whatever may be the motive for bringing forward this measure, it will not settle the question, but, on the contrary, furnish new sources of irritation; for its provisions do violence to the plainest constitutional principles, and by indirectly confining the granting of degrees to the proposed Institution, the Queen is restrained in the exercise of one of the most unquestionable prerogatives of her Crown, a prerogative of the Sovereign, as the fountain of honour, which has never been meddled with by Parliament, nor has a Minister ever been found in England capable of proposing any thing so disrespectful to Royalty as what is contemplated by this Bill.

"Your Petitioner submits that this measure attempts to reverse some of the most approved and cherished principles of the present age, for it desires to establish a most rigid and oppressive monopoly over mind, which of all things ought to be the most free, and to impose on the deluded public a mutilated sort of education, far inferior in quality and character to what may be easily attained, had we in this Province, as in England and Scotland, rival institutions.

"Your Petitioner farther represents that this Bill attempts to legislate for a very small fraction of the population of Upper Canada, to the virtual exclusion of the great majority from a collegiate education-a fraction noisy from ignorance, but altogether disqualified from appre

ciating the value of sound knowledge, and which has seldom the means, or inclination, to avail itself of the respectable seminaries of instruction.

"That not only will the members of the Church of England be virtually excluded from all participation in the proposed College, but the Roman Catholics also; from the utter proscription of religion, the substance and marrow of all education, as is declared in their Petition for aid to their College at Kingston, now before your Hon. House. Nor is there any good ground for assuming that either the Presbyterians or Methodists, or any of the other numerous and respectable denominations, will patronize an institution where the name of the Saviour is never heard. And those who have Colleges of their own will cling to them more closely than ever, for the Government can offer them nothing so valuable as that which they are requested to give up. Their Charters place them, in honour, by the side of the British Universities; but were they so regardless of their honour and interests as to listen to the invitations of this Bill, they would sink into deserved contempt. Fortunately they have no power to make a surrender of such rights and privileges, for they are not confined to the officers or trustees of their respective colleges, but belong to all their people. Hence your Petitioner infers, that if the Methodists and Presbyterians retain the power of conferring degrees, the Church of England cannot be long deprived of the same privilege.

"Your Petitioner most respectfully submits that the operation of this measure reverses the received axiom, that legislation should be for the benefit of the greater number. By the last census the population of Upper Canada is

721,000

The Church of England, which cannot connect itself with

The Wesleyan Methodists, who do not require it, having a

College of their own

90,363

The Kirk of Scotland, ditto

67,900

Those who will not profit by the proposed College.

453,721

Leaving to profit by this measure

267,279

"Even this is too much in favour of the measure, for the Scottish Free Church, and your Petitioner believes the Congregationalists, disapprove of the principle of excluding religion from education, in which case they will soon have Colleges of their own. Scottish Free Church

Congregationalists

64,729

20,372

To be farther deducted

85,101

Leaving to profit by the proposed College.

182,178

"But even from this must be deducted many denominations who disregard universities, and such knowledge as they impart. Hence the Bill legislates for less than one-fourth; and as half of these will not use the privilege, the legislature will, by passing the measure, sacrifice the feelings and interests of the great majority of the inhabitants of Upper Canada to a small and clamorous fraction.

"Your Petitioner further submits that a still more perfect test of the classes which more especially employ colleges and seats of learning, would be found by ordering a return of the Students attending such İnstitutions, and of the denomination to which their parents respectively belong. This beyond every other argument would show the impolicy of this Bill, and the great injustice which it inflicts.

"Your Petitioner further represents that the argument used by some to defend this measure, on the ground that it is similar to that which was adopted in the Parent State for the foundation of certain Secular Colleges in Ireland, is altogether fallacious, since whatever may be thought of the principle there adopted, it did not sacrifice the interests of the National Church as this measure does. No class could complain of injustice, however much they might deplore the avowed indifference manifested to the Christian religion. But the Bill before your Honourable House not only adopts all that is evil in the Irish measure, but farther deprives the members of the Church of England of their rights and College endowment, and gives to the Bill a revolutionary. character.

"Your Petitioner begs permission, in all due respect, to request your Honourable House to consider how the Government and people of England will reason, when they learn that the Legislative Assembly in Canada, a great portion being Roman Catholics and Dissenters, gave Presbyterians and Methodists Charters establishing colleges, and also pecuniary assistance to a considerable amount, while the same legislative body not only deprived the Church of England of the Charter of King's College, granted to her by our late Sovereign King George the Fourth, but despoiled her of the whole of the endowment, the gift of the same Sovereign, and refused to allow her to retain even the smallest portion of her own property, to enable her to educate the youth of her Communion for the different professions, and the continuance of her Ministry, and to supply vacancies continually happening in that Ministry, and extend her blessed ordinances to the destitute settlements of the Province. In fine, from the injustice of this measure, which seeks to crush the National Church, and peril her existence, may be seen her imminent danger, and that the most cruel of all oppressions, that of shackling the mind, and withdrawing the means of acquiring a liberal education for their children, is impending upon more than one-fourth of the inhabitants of Upper Canada: this, it would appear, from no other reason than that they belong to the established Church of the empire, which the Sovereign has sworn to maintain inviolate.

"From all which your Petitioner, with all due respect to your Honourable House, enters his most solemn protest in behalf of the

Church of England against this Bill, and the provisions thereof, as most injurious to her interests, and subversive of her just rights and privileges as unconstitutional, and pregnant with future evils both to Upper and Lower Canada.

"All which is most humbly submitted, and your Petitioner, as in duty bound, will ever pray. "JOHN TORONTO."

We regret to add, from intelligence received while these pages have been passing through the press, that the third reading of the Bill has been carried in the House of Assembly by a majority of 43 against 10.

Destruction of the Cathedral-A serious calamity has befallen the Diocese of Toronto, in the destruction, during the conflagration of the 7th of April last, of St. James's Church, used as the Cathedral. It was insured to the amount of 8,500l., but there is a debt upon it of 3,000l. The organ, library, and every thing moveable were rescued.

CAPE.-Increase of the Clergy.-It appears by letters recently received from the Bishop of Capetown, that in the course of a single year fourteen additional clergymen and ten additional catechists have been appointed in that diocese. Several more are expected from England; and when all those that have been written for shall have arrived, and the candidates for orders have been ordained, the number of the clergy will be increased from fifteen to forty, that of the catechists from one to eight. Efforts for the erection of churches are being made in at least twenty different localities. A Collegiate School is about to be commenced, intended to be transformed hereafter into a Theological College, with a Grammar School attached to it. Several addresses, acknowledging the spiritual benefit bestowed upon the colony by the foundation of an episcopal see, have been transmitted to Miss Burdett Coutts.

Distribution of the Government Grant.-The following are the proportions in which the Government grant is distributed at the Cape, according to an official return :—

The Wesleyans have presented a memorial to the Governor, in which they complain that they are not receiving such a share of the grant, as they consider themselves entitled to in proportion to their numbers.

The Romish Church at the Cape.-In compliance with the request of Dr. Devereux, vicar-apostolic of the eastern district of Cape Colony,