28 TRINIDAD. 



Simply by being impartial, and by (< rendering to Caesar the 

 things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are 

 God's ; u that is to say, by granting full liberty to the 

 ministers of religion in everything pertaining to religion, and 

 by placing at the disposal of the tax-payers, for ecclesiastical 

 purposes, their full share of the funds they may contribute to 

 the general revenue of the country. 



I do not wish to enter into an examination of the merits and 

 demerits of Church establishments, but I dare conscientiously 

 affirm that in comparatively newly settled countries, and par- 

 ticularly in small communities like ours — impoverished as they 

 are, and struggling for their very existence — State Churches are 

 an invidious and impolitic institution. If tax-payers are entitled 

 to a share of the funds contributed by them, it is to such 

 portion as is applicable to the provision of such wants which are 

 most essential, and to the furtherance of those interests which 

 are dearest to human nature. 



I am aware that some would prefer the system of voluntary 

 contribution, and do away with all aid from the State. But not 

 only are we not ripe for the voluntary system, but the inha- 

 bitants of these dependencies are in too precarious a position to 

 be able to maintain, unaided, a respectable and efficient clergy. 

 The voluntary system has also, in my opinion, the very great 

 inconvenience of placing the minister of religion at the mercy of 

 his flock, and rendering him, to a certain extent, subject to, and 

 dependent on, their pleasure, even in things pertaining to 

 religion. 



At the capitulation of the island, the Catholic Church was 

 the only establishment recognised and supported by the State ; 

 the Governor had the title and exercised the prerogatives of 

 patron. Sir Ralph Woodford, among others, not only readily 

 accepted the title, but actually performed the obligations of the 

 office. At a later period the Church of England became the 

 State Church, and as such secured all the advantages derivable 

 from the circumstance ; it appropriated the largest share of the 

 Ecclesiastical Fund, though the Catholics formed the great 

 majority of the people. They had always protested against this 

 partial arrangement. They naturally enough gave their full 

 support to the measures proposed by Sir Arthur Gordon, with 

 the object of securing equality for all denominations. State aid 

 was proffered to all indistinctively, but was accepted only by the 

 Wesleyan body ; and the Ecclesiastical Fund is at present dis- 

 tributed among the Church of England, the Roman Catholic 

 Church, and the Wesleyan body, according to the number of 

 their adherents, as manifested by the census of 1861. 



Just at the time emancipation was proclaimed in the British 



