202 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION". 



for their future station in life. This little incident 

 forcibly impressed me with a sense of the daily duties 

 and responsibilities which a true missionary may create 

 for himself in remote and barbarous Eupert's Land, even 

 though he occupy the distinguished position of a Bishop 

 in the Anglican Church. In a charge delivered to the 

 clergy of the diocese of Eupert's Land at St. John's, Eed 

 Eiver, on January 6th, 1860, his lordship thus sums up 

 the present condition of his diocese : — 



" With this measure of apparent outward strength there 

 are some causes and hindrances which, I think you will 

 agree with me, tend to cripple and retard our work. 



" There is the very migratory character of our most 

 settled population. This may, in the good providence of 

 God, carry onward the tide of population and scatter it 

 over the wilderness. It may thus ultimately answer a good 

 purpose ; but its tendency at the time is felt by most of us 

 very painfully. It weakens parishes and very materially 

 checks education, rendering it more expensive and diffi- 

 cult to be extended to all. It keeps the mass in a state 

 of greater poverty, and prevents their growth and rise. 

 It lessens the amount of public spirit and local attachment, 

 and perpetuates many of the habits of Indian life. It parts 

 and separates, where, if united, all would be combination 

 and strength. 



" There is, too, the want of a deeper religious life, even 

 amongst the more advanced Christians. Here there is 

 stagnation instead of movement. The Word is heard with 

 joy and received with readiness ; but it is the develop- 

 ment of the rich fruit which the minister looks for, and 

 looks too often in vain. Measuring themselves rather by 

 that from which God hath saved them — the condition of 

 the heathen who know not God — than by the standard of 

 by-gone generations and of other countries, they are satis- 



