Chapter XII. The Bishop's Teaching and Example--Marked Characteristics--Illustrations--Essay on "Good Taste"--Confirmation Tour in 1857--Extracts from Annals of the Diocese

THE life of the Bishop was always one of unceasing activity. In the intervals between lengthened journeyings to the distant parts of the Diocese, his attention was much given to the services and duties connected with his Cathedral. He generally preached there twice every Sunday, and also found time to pay a visit to his Sunday school. All this to him was a work of love. In his letters, he often speaks of the happy hours given up township in the house of God; of the crowded attendance on the Lord's Day, and the increasing number of communicants. As years went on, the Bishop was better understood. Those feelings of distrust to which we have repeatedly alluded were passing away. People began to see that there was no going towards Rome, no danger from Grecian gifts, nothing to be feared either in the Cathedral services or the teaching of the Bishop.

Very great was the influence of his preaching and addresses. Their excellence will be plainly observed in the preceding extracts. There was something wonderfully attractive in his sermons--always something fresh--something original in the way of holy teaching and illustration, which seemed to go straight to the heart and conscience of the hearer. There was displayed profound learning and knowledge of the holy scripture, and yet the language suited the capacity almost of little children. Those who had listened most frequently to his addresses to those confirmed, could hardly ever find a repetition of what had previously been said.

Once during the season of Lent, in the city of St. John, the Bishop gave a course of instructions on the difficulties in the Old Testament scriptures. He spoke without notes, and engaged the rapt attention of all his hearers in a large and crowded hall. "He spoke," said one, capable of judging, but who had not beforetime fully appreciated the Bishop's ways, "as one inspired." The study of the original text was with the Bishop, constant and unvarying. His Hebrew psalter--frequent companion in his journeys--had his own marginal notes on every difficult passage. His translation of the Book of Job, dedicated to his clergy, displayed accurate knowledge of the Hebrew, and close and careful study.

The example of the Bishop, as a student, had a blessed influence on many, especially among the younger clergy. "With what deep reverence, with what sound, unchanging views did he look upon the word of God! It was a great privilege to hear him read the lessons. He generally read one or both at the daily services in the Cathedral. Both in reading and in preaching there was a quiet simplicity, combined with a softness and clearness of utterance, which reached the ear of the most distant in very crowded assemblies. One filling a high position in social life, who had for many years been an attendant at the Cathedral, said that she received the greatest spiritual strength by the deeply impressive manner in which the Bishop pronounced the benediction.

In imparting information in private, the Bishop had the kindest manner. He was ready to listen with attention to the opinions of others, and then he would give his own, void of all assumption. Upon any difficult passage in holy scripture his explanations were often found clearer and more satisfactory than those imparted by valued commentaries.

What was said of the late Bishop of Winchester, very fully applies to the first Bishop of Fredericton:

He was a man of great learning, and had read very widely, and yet it would not be very easy to find any one so exceedingly modest and gentle in putting forth his learning to others. It would not be easy to match him, in that sweetness of humility, which, even when he was talking to others who had no pretensions to share his very wide acquaintance with the writings of the early church, caused him to be so simple and so gentle in the assertion of his opinions, so ready to listen to what any one else had to say, so singularly deferential in his manner, and so encouraging to those younger than himself.

It was a vast advantage to students in divinity to have recourse to such an instructor, guide, and example. When at home in Fredericton, the Bishop had, once a week, a class for instruction. To candidates for holy orders he ever afforded kindly help. Many were indebted to him for the gifts of valuable works, and others received substantial assistance when it was needed. In the case of the younger clergy stationed in Fredericton, the Bishop was ready to go with them to visit the sick and suffering, and in other cases of difficulty. All through his life, till the later period when physical strength began to fail, he was ever ready with his wise and kindly ministrations to the sick and dying, and no temporal want brought to his notice was left unrelieved. When his mind was preoccupied with weighty cares and difficulties, the Bishop was, at times in these earlier years, abrupt and hasty, especially in his intercourse with those wanting in zeal and love for the Church. If, in this way, offence was given, it soon wore away, and in many instances ended in enduring friendship. Under a manner at times repelling, there was found true sterling worth--the sincere good heart. As the Bishop's teaching and character were more fully understood, people felt he was worthy of the fullest trust and confidence.

What we are speaking of may he illustrated by one marked instance. Among the opponents of the Bishop in the earlier years of his episcopate was a leading member of the bar and the legislature. He afterwards filled the highest judicial post in the Supreme Court of Canada. When this gentleman had learned to know more of the Bishop and of his work, he came forward manfully, and, to his honour, at a meeting connected with the work of the church, said that he desired to express his regret publicly for the line of action he had previously taken. "I have discovered," he said, "that your lordship was right and I was wrong."

In Church music the Bishop took great delight. His proficiency and good taste are generally known and highly appreciated. The reader will see this point well set forth in a valued letter written by Colonel Maunsell, which appears farther on.

A Diocesan Hymnal had been compiled in 1855 by the Bishop, with the assistance of a committee of his clergy. This was a great improvement on the old metrical version of the Psalter by Tate & Brady. Soon this hymnal was found too meagre, and, at the recommendation of the Bishop, Hymns Ancient and Modern was very generally adopted. In nothing was there a greater improvement gradually brought about in the churches in the Diocese than in all that relates to public praise in the services of God's house.

In the Bishop's lengthened and frequent journeys, before the existence of railways, he came in contact with all sorts of people. They invariably treated him with the greatest respect. He would, however, often tell of many most amusing incidents, and of jokes, sometimes at his own expense; for, with all his seriousness, he had a keen sense of the ludicrous, and a peculiar delight in anything quaint or odd. This vein of humour made him charming in social life, when surrounded by his friends, and the cares of his office laid aside for awhile. He was so quick to see the humorous aspect of things or persons, and his way of speaking of them was inimitable, always taking care to keep back what would injure or hurt the feelings of others.

The Bishop was at one time on his way to England, probably on his second visit. On board the steamer was a very active, forward lady, who was seeking to obtain autographs of any distinguished passengers. After repeated solicitations she persuaded the Bishop to sign his name in her book, "John Fredericton." This was not sufficient. "I want you to say what you are." The Bishop complied with the lady's request, and wrote beneath his name, "A miserable sinner!" At one time he was waited on by a clergyman who was ready for employment in the Diocese. "To be very candid," the reverend gentleman said, "you must know, my lord, that I am a very low churchman." The Bishop replied: "I only hope you are a very humble one."

We have already noticed the Bishop's chief joy in the public service in the house of God. This was especially marked in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. On such occasions it would seem as if his whole mind and spirit were absorbed in worship and adoration. In his constant private devotions also, "he strengthened himself in God." Nor did he pray for himself alone. We have already called attention to the prayers of his mother in her son's behalf in his early boyhood. In the notes kindly furnished by Mrs. Medley, she adds:

A prayerful mother made a prayerful son, as the following testimony from one of his clergy will show:

"Few of us know how much of our dear Bishop's work was done upon his knees. Through all his long episcopate he daily prayed for every clergyman in his Diocese, remembering each one in turn before the throne of God, not by name only, but as to his own special needs and the circumstances of his individual work. As the years passed on the list became a long one, for though many went to other spheres of labour, and many, we trust, to the rest of Paradise, yet their names were neither struck off nor forgotten. Whether in other lands or in other mansions of the Heavenly Father's house, they were still commended to God's care and blessing, and as the task grew longer the love grew stronger to perform it. Can we doubt but that this was one secret of the almost unbounded influence he had among his clergy. Their work was his, and while he helped it with sympathy and counsel, and by open-handed liberality, he helped it still more by his secret prayers."

The earnest desire of the Bishop when a boy, "that he might be able at some time to compose what might really be called sermons," was granted in full measure, as years went by, as the following testimony will show:

A warm personal friend of the Bishop's, a Canadian, had some literary business with one of the law lords of the House of Peers in London. When the interview was closing, Lord H. spoke of Fredericton, and said he was on the western circuit nearly fifty years ago, when Mr. Medley was appointed to the Diocese, and accompanied Judge Patteson to St. Thomas' to hear his farewell sermon. The church was densely crowded, and it was evident that it was no ordinary tie of love and esteem that bound the people to their pastor--every one present seemed to feel the parting as a personal sorrow. The sermon was plain, earnest, practical, but with a tenderness of appeal, a spirit-stirring earnestness that could never be forgotten. The fifty added years of a busy life had not erased the distinct impression of it from his mind.

The Bishop's friend said something of his later life, and that he was as deeply loved and revered by his Canadian as he had been by his old English friends. Lord H. at once quoted those beautiful lines

Upon his mother's knee, a new born child
Weeping it lay, while all around it smiled,
So live, that sinking to thy last long sleep
Thou, then, mayst smile while all around thee weep."

Bishop Medley was always the Bishop. Unconsciously you were made to feel that. But it was the office he magnified and not himself, so that you never found his manner out of place. As it has been written of another:

There was an unconsciousness of outward things, of the furniture of life, which left him freer than most men to face the individual soul that approached him, there was also a fine consistency in his originality; no tampering with the world, no trying to serve two masters. The graveness of his presence was felt by all who approached him; he seemed to be invested by a strange remoteness from the affairs of the world.

His mode of life at Bishopscote was singularly plain and unostentatious. What was largely saved from outward show and expensive living, was added to the funds for the poor or for the benefit of the Church. In this, as in so many other ways, he set a bright and needed example. Nor was there at Bishopscote any want of hospitality and kind, cheerful greeting; and marks of high culture and good taste were evident there. The words of Tennyson, of one of the great among men, might be applied to Bishop Medley in his domestic and social life:

"As the greatest only are,
In his simplicity sublime."

The following incident is given by the Rev. Charles Medley, late rector of Sussex, in his report to the S.P.G., in the year 1869:

One very stormy and bitterly cold Monday in March last, the Bishop started with me for Dutch Valley. We had to break our road through about fourteen inches of snow for nine miles, and then climb up on our hands and knees to the church, which is on a steep hill--a feat not easily accomplished, for underneath the snow was a thick crust of ice, upon which we slid down almost as fast as we crept up. However, after many struggles and efforts, we succeeded in reaching the corner of the church, when a furious gust of wind sent the Bishop and his missionary flying down the hill again, with the Bishop's robe box following. When at last we managed to get inside the church, we found four men for a congregation. On the following day I met one of my most constant attendants at church, and asked him why it was he was not present, especially when the Bishop was there, "Well, sir," he said, "it was such an awful storm, it wasn't fit for a dog to be out."

As an illustration of the Bishop's varied mode of teaching, the following extracts are given from a lecture on "Good Taste," read before the Church of England Young Men's Society, St. John, 1857:

We are all impressed by the past in a far greater degree than we are willing to allow; but we must remember that the past history of mankind is a treasure given us by God for our present improvement. In referring to this history, we ought to endeavour to form a cautious, charitable and discriminating judgment, and we should especially be on our guard against two errors, equally pernicious--a wholesale condemnation and a slavish imitation of past ages.

To refer to the first, our ancestors, and the ancestors of other nations, were men of like passions, beset by like temptations, and possessed of like virtues as ourselves, and in many respects neither much better nor much worse. For the political institutions or religious errors of their times they were not wholly responsible.... But they ought never to be judged by the standard by which we ourselves should be judged, who live in times of liberty, of which they knew nothing, and under the shade of institutions many of which did not then exist....

On the other hand, a servile imitation is as much to be censured, though perhaps, in the present day, not so much to be apprehended. Whatever was noble, generous or wise in the manners, morals or institutions of the past, we should study, and, as far as possible and useful, we may reproduce.... Mere servile imitation is characterized in our tongue by a very contemptuous, but a very forcible and significant term, apishness, which exactly expresses the error I am speaking of.

There is another error of which I have taken note, and which good taste will always eschew. In writing controversial letters, it is astonishing how eager people are to fasten on each other the charge of falsehoods, and to hurl at each other the most vile and contemptuous epithets. Now falsehoods should never be alleged against another without the clearest evidence. All allowance should be made for the mistakes into which the most accurate are prone to fall, and no virtuous or charitable mind can feel a pleasure in the discovery that his former friend, acquaintance or neighbour, is guilty of the sin of falsehood.... The affixing this bad construction is a mark not only of bad taste, but of a very unscrupulous mind. The time will come when one grain of real charity will be more valued than all the clever, bitter things written or spoken; and it is one sad effect of writing to please the lower class of minds, and to humour the caprice of the hour, that such writers appear to be entirely reckless as to what they say, or whom they wound.

In our household arrangements, in our dress, in the social festivities, we shall eschew the extremes of extravagance and meanness, and look upon all things, great and small, as given us that we may discharge the duties belonging to them in the best possible manner. Especially we shall seek to lead the mind of youth from the love of all that is selfish, sensuous and degrading, and to give them opportunities of enjoying real beauty in this beautiful world ... and pleasures which are conducive to their physical and moral health and intellectual growth, and which leave no sting behind.

Thus, while we carefully guard the sacred deposit of truth from all adulteration, and found our religion strictly and soberly on God's most holy word, good taste will preserve that religion from sourness and self-complacency, and will make it gracious and acceptable to all who have sufficient candour to appreciate our intentions, and generally useful to the world.

As illustrating the Bishop's devotedness to his work, and also the simple, homely way in which he went in and out among his people, a few extracts are now given from the very interesting summary of a recent confirmation tour which he read before the anniversary meeting of the Church Society, February 11th, 1858:

I left Fredericton on St. Barnabas' day, June 11, for St. Andrews, On Sunday, the 14th, I confirmed twenty-nine and preached morning and evening. The congregations on both occasions were large and attentive. Dr. Alley, who has held the rectory between thirty and forty years, is still able, by the blessing of God, to perform three full services on Sunday, one of them at a village three miles distant, a duty which very few at his advanced age could perform.

June 16th, I proceeded with Dr. Alley to St. Stephen, and on the 17th confirmed eleven. It was a great satisfaction to me on this occasion to be assisted by the Eight Rev. Dr. Burgess, Bishop of Maine, who very kindly preached to us, and gave us a most earnest and instructive discourse, useful alike to young and old, which I enjoyed exceedingly. He was accompanied by his valued friend and presbyter, Rev. G. W. Durell, of Calais, who has been of signal benefit to this Diocese. The church at St. Stephen has been greatly improved by the addition of a new chancel, an excellent organ, a. better arrangement of the pulpit and desk, a new communion table and chair (carved, I believe, by Mr. Durell's own hands), and by being painted throughout. The singing also was much improved. For many of these additions to the church, and for much of its life and spirit, we are indebted to the zealous liberality of a young layman, whose modesty might perhaps be pained if I mentioned his name, but whose kindness will not be forgotten by his blessed Master..

June 18th, I proceeded to St. Davids; confirmed nine, and preached. There was a large and attentive congregation, though the day was wet. The church, as a whole, is one of the best of our country churches, and reflects great credit on the zeal of its pastor, Rev. J. S. Thomson.

June 19, Mr. Thomson drove me to St. Patrick, distant thirteen miles. It was a wet and fatiguing day. I confirmed seven persons there, and preached. Mr. Carson extended to us his usual kind hospitality.

On the 20th I went to Campobello, to a house where hospitality always makes a welcome, and on Sunday, 21st, confirmed five and preached twice in St. Ann's Chapel, lately built by the exertions of Hon. Captain Robinson, aided by the S.P.C.K., the D.C.S., the parishioners, and a few friends. The Rev. J. S. Williams assisted me and accompanied me in walks to visit some sick and suffering members of the congregation and some young and old persons.

On Saturday, the 27th, I left in the packet, accompanied by Dr. Alley, and with some difficulty and not a few curious adventures or misadventures, we reached the parsonage at Grand Manan after dark, very much disposed to retire to rest. The next day (Sunday) I confirmed four and baptized an adult, and preached again in the afternoon. Mr. Carey, at my request, rode five miles to take his usual afternoon service, but all his flock had come up the same five miles to hear the Bishop, so that his labour was lost. The congregation was very attentive, and I saw with pleasure many old familiar faces and heard them join heartily in the prayers, and some of them still more heartily in the singing. Mr. Craig, who seems to be elected church warden for life, was at his post as usual. The next day I went to Seal Cove and held services there and preached. Thence over a very rough road to Southern Head, where I baptized Mrs. McCaughlan and three infants, and confirmed Mr. and Mrs. McCaughlan. As they reside on Gaimet Rock, eight miles from shore, and perfectly inaccessible for three-fourths of the year, my visit was timed very seasonably. I have since sent them a little present of books, as they have a great deal of time for reading.

Sunday, July 5th, I confirmed thirty-nine at St. George, a very considerable number, considering that there is also a Roman Catholic, a Baptist, and I believe a Presbyterian congregation there. There is a good Sunday school and an excellent day school in the place. In the afternoon we went to Pennfield, where I confirmed twelve. The congregation was crowded. It is riot too much to say of this mission, that I never visit it without fresh evidence of the zeal and usefulness of its pastor, and I never leave it without being strengthened and refreshed.

On Tuesday we drove to Lepreaux, and thence thirteen miles, happily accompanied by a guide--for otherwise in crossing the tide-harbour, we should probably have got a good wetting, or worse--and reached Lepreaux light-house in the evening. Here Mr. Thomas hospitably received us, and the next day I confirmed ten, baptized a child, administered the Lord's Supper, and preached in the little church at Dipper Harbour, three miles distant. At Musquash the next day I confirmed six, preached and administered the Lord's Supper. The church at Musquash has been much improved, and a chancel has been built. The congregation are remarkable for their excellent way of responding, the two church wardens and their families setting them a good example in this respect. The singing also is hearty and general.

On Friday, July 17th, I went up to Hampton in the steamer, and on Sunday confirmed thirty-seven in the Parish Church, and addressed a congregation so crowded that sixty or seventy persons could not find seat room. In the afternoon I proceeded to Norton, where I confirmed eighteen and preached. The singing was excellent, and staying to practice with the choir the time passed rapidly away. I did not return till eight o'clock.

On Monday, 20th, Mr. DeVeber drove me to his parsonage at Upham. Mr. Walker accompanied us, and at his request I turned aside from the road to visit and confirm a blind woman, aged eighty-four, in her own house. She appeared very devout and very thankful for my visit. On Tuesday we went to Quaco, distant twelve miles, but from the extremely hilly nature of the road, one hill being nearly three miles long and another two miles long, it appears much further. The mission of Quaco for a long time was in a very doubtful state, and the people were very apathetic. By perseverance, however, progress has been made; the building purchased from the Methodists has been gradually converted into something like a church; it is floored and ceiled, and has rough benches. The congregation are very steady, and though the day was very unfavourable more than one hundred were assembled. I confirmed eight. On the 23rd we drove to Londonderry, a settlement eighteen miles distant, among the hills which are crossed on the new road to Albert County from St. John. The little chapel was now consecrated by the name of St. Paul. It was crowded to its utmost capacity by a most attentive body of worshippers and hearers, who drank in every word, though I spoke for nearly an hour; and I am sure I felt as happy as they appeared to be. Some curious proofs were related to me of the readiness of some of these rough soldiers of the Cross, to defend the Bishop, not only by word of mouth, but if necessary by more powerful weapons. On the 25th, I confirmed nine at the little hamlet of South Stream, and on Sunday I confirmed eighteen at the Upham Parish Church, and preached morning and evening. Among the numerous congregation in the morning was an aged woman of eighty, who forty years since was an inmate of His Excellency General Smythe's family, and who, though living in the bush, had remained steadfast in the communion of the Church. She had walked three miles to church this summer, and now the missionary went ten miles to fetch her, and brought her back full of a trembling joy, to receive the rite of confirmation. This is one of the most laborious missions in the Province; too much so indeed for any one man, or I may say for any one horse, but it is well served and the fruits are apparent. And though this mission always gives me a laborious round of work, yet I never leave it without comfort and satisfaction. Mr. DeVeber kindly drove me to Springfield on 22nd July, and though by miscalculation I arrived a day before my time, yet the people cheerfully left their work and came to the church in considerable numbers; twenty-four were confirmed. .....

September 22nd I left Fredericton with Rev. J. B. Medley for Prince William, where I confirmed seventeen, and the next day forty-two at Magundy, among the rest an aged man of eighty-nine, with his two children, daughters-in-law and five grandchildren. The present rector has been most kindly received, and is indefatigably engaged in the good work. His accession to our little band lays us under a second obligation to St. Augustine's College, Canterbury, of which my dear and valued friend, Bishop Coleridge, was the first warden. From Prince William we proceeded to Woodstock, where, on Sunday, the 27th, I confirmed thirty-five, and administered the Lord's Supper, assisted by Mr. Street and my son, and I preached again in the evening. In this thriving and populous neighbourhood there is quite work enough for a third clergyman.

The clergy who have hitherto assisted Mr. Street, though very kindly treated by himself and his parishioners, are not ambitious to end their days as curates of Woodstock, being very hardly worked and very poorly paid. The parishioners presented their rector with a new wagon the morning after my arrival.

October the 24th I visited Kingston, and on the following day confirmed in the church at the Reach (the Parish Church being under repairs) one hundred and seven persons, being the largest number ever presented to me for confirmation at any one place in the Diocese. I am still more gratified to find that this confirmation has added largely to the communicants, one hundred and thirty-five, all parishioners having communicated on Christmas Day, at Kingston, when the Parish Church was re-opened for divine service, having been almost rebuilt. It is much improved by a central passage, a small chancel, and by the removal of two most unsightly desks; and the whole expense being, I believe, more than £900, is met without any application for aid to the Diocesan Church Society, though I am afraid an undue proportion will fall on the rector. Kingston is an instance of what indefatigable parochial visiting will do to keep together a flock long united to the Church by loyal and hereditary affection. May its worthy rector long be spared to carry on the work which his father and grandfather so happily began.

On the 27th October I returned to Fredericton, having, by the blessing of God, travelled twelve hundred and fifty-five miles, confirmed eight hundred and ninety-six persons, and having had abundant evidence that our Church is, on the whole, at least, holding her ground, laying her foundations deeper, and that whilst her clergy can claim no exemption from the infirmities and imperfections common to their brethren, they are, as a body, striving to do their duty in the responsible office to which God has called them.

The mission of our Church in this Province appears to me to be a most important one, both as regards the laity and the clergy.

We have to prove ourselves the worthy successors of those noble and consistent men who sacrificed all their worldly prospects to what they believed to be their duty to their king and country, and brought with them an invariably strong attachment to the British Constitution in Church and State.

We have to prove ourselves the worthy descendants of those still nobler spirits who bequeathed to us the Reformation, whose efforts guaranteed to us freedom from persecution, from doctrinal corruption, and from the Roman yoke, and whose judgment and sagacity, aided by the assistance of wisdom from above, designed to reject only the evil and to retain only the good.

We have to prove ourselves worthy of the Church which numbers among its members a Ridley, a Leighton, a Hooker, a Taylor, a Pearson, a Kerr, a Wilberforce, and a Howard. We have to prove ourselves worthy of a Church which rejoices in the circulation of the Scriptures, because it acknowledges the Bible as its rule of faith; which clings to the decisions of primitive antiquity as the surest bulwark against ancient and modern heresy; which has nothing to fear but everything to hope for from the progress of science and the spread of learning, and which desires nothing better than that its doctrines should be known, examined and sifted.

Some idea of the course of events during the next few years may be gathered from the following extracts from the Annals of the Diocese:

1860, August 4, Saturday.--His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, accompanied by the Duke of Newcastle, Earl St. Germains, General Bruce, etc., arrived at Fredericton. On Sunday they attended the Cathedral at eleven o'clock.... The Cathedral was crowded to overflowing, but the congregation, though a very mixed assembly, were very orderly.

The Bishop went to the west door to receive the Prince, the whole congregation rising, and God Save the Queen was played by Mr. Hayter, who ably presided at the organ.

The Bishop dined at Government House on Monday, and presented an address in the name of the clergy at the levee.

September 2. The new organ, presented by the Bishop to the Cathedral, was used for the first time.

December 25. Observed as usual, and a midnight service, well attended, in the Cathedral on New Year's Eve. Three hundred and fifty-two persons communicated between Christmas Day and the Epiphany inclusive.

Confirmed this year, eight hundred and twenty-two; travelled fourteen hundred and fifty-one miles; consecrated two churches, one burial ground, one rural cemetery; ordained two priests. All praise be to God.

1861, May 31. His Royal Highness Prince Alfred arrived in Fredericton, and stayed till Thursday, June 6th. He attended divine service in the Cathedral on Sunday morning, June 2nd.

On Monday he inspected the Cathedral, the clock, bells, etc. His visit was without state.

In the year's summary it is stated that the Bishop travelled two thousand nine hundred and fourteen miles.

1862, January 18. The Bishop went to St. John and stayed two Sundays, preaching to some of the troops sent from England in consequence of the difficulty respecting the "Trent" with the American government The soldiers assembled in the Mechanics' Institute. ...........

On the 28th he returned to Fredericton. Five thousand troops, with artillery, passed through the Province on their way to Quebec and other places in Canada.... Some were landed at St. Andrews, and went by the railway to Canterbury, and thence to Woodstock. The travelling was very good, the troops were well provided with warm clothing, and they travelled on sleds holding eight men besides the driver, by stages of about thirty miles a day, in companies of one hundred men, and later of one hundred and sixty.

The inhabitants of St. John provided a series of entertainments for the troops, where they were most plenteously feasted. They were extremely pleased at their reception.

The records in the Annals for the next few years are mostly of a routine character. Every year speaks of an increased amount of work. Most touching notices are given in the case of the death of any one of the clergy, and read expressions of deepest sorrow, in the happily rare instances of misconduct.

In the year 1872 the summary states:

Confirmed eight hundred and one; ordained deacons, two; priest, one; consecrated churches, five; burial grounds, four; travelled three thousand four hundred and ninety-nine miles, during which the Bishop enjoyed almost uninterrupted health. All praise be to God.

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