250 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY: 



la the early days of Canada, a man of capacity was called upon, as -we have seen in other 

 instances, to play many parts. It required tact to play them all satisfactorily. In the case of 

 Dr. Strachan — the voice that to-day would he heard in the pulpit, offering counsel and advice 

 as to the application of sacred principles to life and conduct, in the presence of all the civil 

 functionaries of the country, from Sir Peregrine Maitlaud to Mr. Chief Constable Higgins ; 

 from Chief Justice PoweU to the usher of his court, Mr. Thomas Phipps ; from Mr. Speaker 

 Sherwood or McLean to Peter Shaver, Peter Perry, and the other popular representatives of 

 the Commons in Parliament ; — the voice that to-day would he heard in the desk leading litur- 

 gically the devotions of the same mixed multitude — to-morrow was to be heard by portions, 

 large or small, of the same audience, amidst very different surroundings, in other quarters : 

 by some of them, for example, at the Executive Council Board, giving a lucid judgment on 

 a point of governmental policv, or in the Chamber of the Legislative Assembly, delivering 

 a studied oration on a matter touching the interests and well-being of the whole population 

 of the country, or reading an elaborate original report on the same or some cognate question, 

 to be put forth as the judgment of a committee : or elsewhere, the same voice might be heard 

 at a meeting for Patriotic purposes ; at the meeting of a Hospital, Educational, or other 

 important secular Trust ; at an emergency meeting, when sudden action was needed on the 

 part of the charitable and benevolent : — without faU, that voice would be heard by a large 

 portion of the juniors of the flock on the followng day, amidst the busy commotion of 

 School, apportioning tasks, correcting errors, deciding appeals, regulating discipline ; at one 

 time formally instructing, at another jocosely chaffing, the sons and nephews of nearly all the 

 weU-to-do people, gentle and simple, of York and Upper Canada. To have done aU this with- 

 out awkwardness shews the possession of much prudence and tact.. To have had all this go on 

 for some decades without any blame that was intended to be taken in very serious earnest ; 

 nay, winning in the process applause and gratitude on the right hand and on the left— this 

 argues the existence of something very sterling in the man. Kor let us local moderns, whose 

 lot it is to be part and parcel of a society no longer rudimentary, venture to condemn one who, 

 while especially appointed to be a conspicuous minister of religion, did not decline the func- 

 tions, diverse and multiform, which an infant society, discerning the qualities inherent in him, 

 and lacking instruments for its uses, summoned him to undertake. Let no modern caviller, we 

 say, do this, unless he is prepared to avow the opinion that, to be a minister of religion, a man 

 must, of necessity, be only partially-developed in mind and spirit, incapable, as a matter of 

 course, of offering an opinion of value on subjects of general human interest. 



The long possession of unchallenged authority within the immediate area of his ecclesiastical 

 labours, rendered Dr. Strachan for some time opposed to the projects that began, as the years 

 rolled on, to be mooted, for additional Churches in the town of York. He could not readily be 

 induced to think otherwise than as the Duke of Wellington thought in regard to Eeform in the 

 representation, or as ex-Chancellor El don thought in regard to greater promptitude in Chancery 

 decisions, that there was no positive need of change. " Would you break up the congregation?" 

 was the sharp rejoinder to the early propounders of schemes for Church-extension in York. But 

 as years passed over, and the imperious pressure of events and circumstances was felt, this 

 reluctance gave way. The beautiful Cathedral mother-church, into which, under his own eye, 

 and tlirough his own individual energy, the humble wooden edifice of 1803 at length, by various 

 gradations, developed, forms now a fitting mausoleum for his mortal remains— a stately monu- 

 ment to one who was here in his day the human main-spring of so many vitally-important and 

 far-reaching movements. 



Other memorials in his honour have been projected and thought of, but none have, as yet, 

 assumed tangible shape. One of them we record for its boldness and originality and fitness, 

 although we have no expectation that the aesthetic feeling of the community will soon lead to 

 the practical adoption of the idea thrown out. The suggestion has been this : that in honour of 

 the deceased Bishop, there should be erected, in some public place in Toronto, an exact copy 

 of Michael Angelo's Moses, to be executed at Rome for the purpose, and shipped hither. The 

 conception of such a form of monument is due to the Rev. W. Macaulay, of Picton. We need 

 not say what dignity would be given to Toronto by the possession of such a memorial-object 

 within its precincts as this, and how great, in aU future time, would be the effect, morally and 

 educationally, when the symbolism of that object of art wau discovered and understood. Its 



