pected elevations and depressions of the voice irrespective of the
matter, accompanied by long closings of the eyes, and then a sud-
den re-opening of the same. Whenever this preacher ascended
the pulpit, one member of the congregation, Mr. George Duggan,
who had had, it was understood, some trivial disagreement with
the doctor during his incumbency in former years, was always ex-
pected, by on-lookers, to rise and walk out. And this he accord-
140 Toronto of Old. [§ IO ,
ingly always did. The movement seemed a regular part of the
programme of the day, and never occasioned any sensation.
Here the Rev. Joseph Hudson officiated now and then, a mili-
tary chaplain, appointed at a comparatively late period to this
post ; a clergyman greatly beloved by the people of the town gen-
erally, both as a preacher and as a man. He was the first officia-
ting minister we ever saw wearing the academical hood over the
ordinary vestment.
Here, during the sittings of Parliament, of which he was chap-
lain, Mr. Addison, of Niagara, was sometimes to be heard. The
Library of this scholarly divine of the old school was presented by
him en bloc to St. Mark's Church, Niagara, of which he was in-
cumbent. It remained for some years at " Lake View," the private
residence of Mr. Addison ; but during the incumbency of Dr.
McMurray, it has been removed to the rectory-house at Niagara,
where it is to continue, in accordance with the first rector's will,
for the use of the incumbent for the time being.
It is a remarkable collection, as exhibiting the line of reading
of a thoughtful and intelligent man of the last century : many
treatises and tracts of contemporary, but now defunct interest, not
elsewhere to be met with, probably, in Canada, are therein pre-
served. The volumes, for the most part, retain their serviceable
bindings of old pane-sided calf ; but some of them, unfortunately,
bear marks of the havoc made by damp and vermin before their
transfer to their present secure place of shelter. Mr. Addison
used to walk to and from Church in his canonicals in the old-
fashioned way, recalling the Johnsonian period, when clergy very
generally wore the cassock and gown in the streets.
Another chaplain to the Legislative Assembly was Mr. William
Macaulay, a preacher always listened to with a peculiar attention,
whenever he was to be heard in the pulpit here. Mr. Macaulay
was a member of the Macaulay family settled at Kingston. He
had been sent to Oxford, where he pursued his studies without
troubling himself about a degree. While there he acquired the
friendship of several men afterwards famous, especially of Whately,
sometime Archbishop of Dublin, with whom a correspondence was
maintained.
Mr. Macaulay's striking and always deeply-thoughtful matter
was set off to advantage by the fine intellectual contour of his face
and head, which were not unlike those to be seen in the portrait
§ io.] King Street: St. James' Church. 141
of Maltby, Bishop of Durham, usually prefixed to Morell's The-
saurus.
One more chaplain of the House may be named, frequently
heard and seen in this church — Dr. Thomas Phillips — another
divine, well read, of a type that has now disappeared. His per-
sonal appearance was very clerical in the old-fashioned sense. His
countenance was of the class represented by that of the late Sir
Henry Ellis, as finely figured, not long since, in the Illustrated
News. He was one of the last wearers of hair-powder in these
parts. In reading the Creed he always endeavoured to conform
to the old English custom of turning towards the east ; but to do
this in the desk of the old church was difficult.
Dr. Phillips was formerly of Whitchurch, in Herefordshire. He
died in 1849, aged 68, at Weston, on the Humber, where he founded
and organized the parish of St. Philip. His body was borne to
to its last resting-place by old pupils. We once had in our pos-
session a pamphlet entitled " The Canadian Remembrancer, a
Loyal Sermon, preached on St. George's Day, April 23, 1826, at
the Episcopal Church (York), by the Rev. T. Phillips, D.D., Head
Master of the Grammar School. Printed at the Gazette Office."
There remains to be noticed the " pastor and master " of the
whole assemblage customably gathered together in St. James'
Church — Dr. John Strachan. On this spot, in successive edifices,
each following the other in rapid succession, and each surpassing
the other in dignity and propriety of architectural style, he, for
more than half a century, was the principal figure.
The story of his career is well known, from his departure from
Scotland, a poor but spirited youth, in 1799, to his decease in 1867,
as first Bishop of Toronto, with its several intermediate stages of
activity and promotion. His outward aspect and form are also
familiar, from the numerous portraits of him that are everywhere
to be seen. In stature slightly under the medium height, with
countenance and head of the type of Milton's in middle age, with-
out eloquence, without any extraordinary degree of originality of
mind, he held together here a large congregation, consisting of
heterogeneous elements, by the strength and moral force of his
personal character. Qualities, innate to himself, decisiveness of
intellect, firmness, a quick insight into things and men, with a cer-
tain fertility of resource, conspired to win for him the position
which he filled, and enabled him to retain it with ease ; to sustain,
142 Toronto of Old. [§ IO -
with a graceful and unassuming dignity, all the augmentations
which naturally accumulated round it, as the community, of which
he was so vital a part, grew and widened and rose to a higher and
higher level, on the swelling tide of the general civilization of the
continent.
In all his public ministrations he was to be seen officiating with-
out affectation in manner or style. A stickler in ritual would have
declared him indifferent to minutiae. He wore the white vesture
of his office with an air of negligence, and his doctor's robe with-
out any special attention to its artistic adjustment upon his person.
A technical precisian in modern popular theology would pronounce
him out now and then in his doctrine. What he seemed espec-
ially to drive at was not dogmatic accuracy so much as a well-
regulated life, in childhood, youth and manhood. The good sense
of the matter delivered — and it was never destitute of that quality
— was solely relied on for the results to be produced : the topics
of modern controversy never came -up in his discourse : at the
period to which we refer they were in most quarters dormant, their
re-awakening deferred until the close of a thirty years' peace, but
then destined to set mankind by the ears when now relieved from
the turmoil of physical and material war, but roused to great in-
tellectual activity.
Many a man that dropped in during the time of public worship,
inclined from prejudice to be captious, inclined even to be merry
over certain national peculiarities of utterance and diction, which
to a stranger, for a time, made the matter delivered not easy to be
understood, went out with quite a different sentiment in regard to
the preacher and his words.
In the early days of Canada, a man of capacity was called upon,
as we have seen in other instances, to play many parts. It re-
quired tact to play them all satisfactorily. In the case of Dr.
Strachan — the voice that to-day would be heard in the pulpit, offer-
ing 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 Maitland to Mr. Chief Constable
Higgins ; from Chief Justice Powell 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 be heard
in the desk leading liturgically the devotions of the same mixed
§ io.] King Street : St. James' Church 143
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 policy,
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 fail, that voice would be heard by a large portion of the
juniors of the flock on the following day, amidst the busy commo-
tion of School, apportioning tasks, correcting errors, deciding ap-
peals, regulating discipline j at one time formally instructing, at
another jocosely chaffing, the sons and nephews of nearly all the
well-to-do people, gentle and simple, of York and Upper Canada.
To have done all this without 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 exis-
tence of something very sterling in the man.
Nor 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 functions, diverse and multiform, which an in-
fant 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 imme-
diate 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
144 Toronto of Old. [_§ 10.
could not readily be induced to think otherwise than as the Duke
of Wellington thought in regard to Reform in the representation,
or as ex-Chancellor Eldon thought in regard to greater prompti-
tude in Chancery decisions, that there was no positive need of
change.
" Would you break up the congregation ? " was the sharp re-
joinder 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 through 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 monument 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. 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 the whole of Toronto by
the possession of such a memorial object within its precincts as this,
and how great, in all future time, would be the effect, morally and
educationally, when the symbolism of the art-object was discovered
and understood. Its huge bulk, its boldly-chiselled and only parti-
ally-finished limbs and drapery, raised aloft on a plain pedestal of
some Laurentian rock, would represent, not ill, the man whom it
would commemorate — the character, roughly-outlined and incom-
plete in parts, but, when taken as a whole, very impressive and
even grand, which looms up before us, whichever way we look, in
our local Past.
One of the things that ennoble the old cities of continental Eu-
rope and give them their own peculiar charm, is the existence of
such objects in their streets and squares, at once works of art for
the general eye, and memorials of departed worth and greatness.
With what interest, for example, does the visitor gaze on the statue
§ io.] King Street : St. James' Church. 145
of Gutenberg at Mayence ; and at Marseilles on that of the good
Bishop Belzunce ! — of whom we read, that he was at once " the
founder of a college, and a magistrate, almoner, physician and
priest to his people." The space in front of the west porch of the
'Cathedral of St. James would be an appropriate site for such a
noble memorial-object as that which Mr. Macaulay suggests — just
at the spot where was the entrance, the one sole humble portal, of
the structure of wood out of which the existing pile has grown.
Our notice of the assembly usually to be seen within the walls
of the primitive St. James', would not be complete, were we to
omit all mention of Mr. John Fenton, who for some time officiated
therein as parish clerk. During the palmy days of parish clerks in
the British Islands, such functionaries, deemed at the time, locally,
as indispensable as the parish minister himself, were a very pe-
culiar class of men. He was a rarity amongst them, who could
repeat in a rational tone and manner the responses delegated to
him by the congregation. This arose from the circumstance that
he was usually an all but illiterate village rustic, or narrow-minded
small-townsman, brought into a prominence felt on all sides to be
awkward.
Mr. Fenton's peculiarities, on the contrary, arose from his intel-
ligence, his acquirements, and his independence of character. He
-was a rather small shrewd-featured person, at a glance not deficient
in self-esteem. He was a proficient in modern popular science, a
ready talker and lecturer. Being only a proxy, his rendering of
the official responses in church was marked perhaps by a little too
much individuality, but it could not be said that it was destitute
-of a certain rhetorical propriety of emphasis and intonation. Though
not gifted, in his own person, with much melody of voice, his
acquisitions included some knowledge of music. In those days
congregational psalmody was at a low ebb, and the small choirs
that offered themselves fluctuated, and now and then vanished
wholly. Not unfrequently, Mr. Fenton, after giving out the por-
tion of Brady and Tate, which it pleased him to select, would exe-
cute the whole of it as a solo, to some accustomed air, with graceful
variations of his own. All this would be done with great coolness
and apparent self-satisfaction.
While the discourse was going on in the Pulpit above him, it was
his way, often, to lean himself resignedly back in a corner of his
pew and throw a white cambric handkerchief over his head and face.
J
146 Toronto' of Old. [§ 10.
It illustrates the spirit of the day to add, that Mr. Fenton's employ-
ment as official mouth-piece to the congregation of the English
Church, did not stand in the way of his making himself useful, at
the same time, as a class-leader among the Wesleyan Methodists.
The temperament and general style of this gentleman did not
fail of course to produce irritation of mind in some quarters. The
Colonial Advocate one morning averred its belief that Mr. Fenton
had, on the preceding Sunday, glanced at itself and its patrons in
giving out and singing (probably as a solo) the Twelfth Psalm r
" Help, Lord, for good and godly men do perish and decay ; and
faith and truth from worldly men are parted clean away ; whoso-
doth with his neighbour talk, his talk is all but vain ; for every
man bethinketh now to flatter, lie and feign ! " Mr. Fenton after-
wards removed to the United States, where he obtained Holy
Orders in the Episcopal Church. His son was a clever and ingeni-
ous youth. We remember a capital model in wood of " Caesar's-
Bridge over the Rhine," constructed by him from a copper-plate
engraving in an old edition of the Commentaries used by him in
the Grammar School at York.
The predecessor of Mr. Fenton in the clerk's desk was Mr.
Hetherington — a functionary of the old-country village stamp. His
habit was, after giving out a psalm, to play the air on a bassoon ;
and then to accompany with fantasias on the same instrument such
vocalists as felt inclined to take part in the singing. This was the
day of small things in respect of ecclesiastical music at York. A
choir from time to time had been formed. Once, we have under-
stood, two rival choirs were heard on trial in the Church ; one of
them strong in instrumental resources, having the aid of a bass-
viol, clarionet and bassoon ; the other more dependent on its vocal
excellencies. The instrumental choir triumphantly prevailed, as we
are assured : and in 1819 an allowance of ^20 was made to Mr.
Hetherington for giving instruction in church music. One of the
principal encouragers of the vocalist-party was Dr. Burnside. But
all expedients for doing what was, in reality, the work of the con-
gregation itself were unreliable ; and the clerk or choir-master too
often found himself a solitary performer. Mr. Hetherington's bas-
soon, however, may be regarded as the harbinger and foreshadow
of the magnificent organ presented in after-times to the congrega-
tion of the " Second Temple" of St. James', by Mr. Dunn — a costly
and fine-toned instrument (presided over, for a short time, by the
§ io.] King Street: St. James' Church.- 147
eminent Dr. Hodges, subsequently of Trinity Church, New York),
but destined to be destroyed by fire, together with the whole church,
after only two years of existence, in 1839.
In the conflagration of 1839 another loss occurred, not so much
to be regretted ; we refer to the destruction of a very large triplet
window of stained glass over the altar of the church, containing
three life-size figures by Mr. Craig, a local " historical and orna-
mental painter/' not well skilled in the ecclesiastical style. As
home-productions, however, these objects were tenderly eyed; but
Mrs. Jameson in her work on Canada cruelly denounced them as
being "in a vile tawdry taste." — Conceive, in the presence of these
three Craigs, the critical authoress of the " History of Sacred and
Legendary art," accustomed, in the sublime cathedrals of Europe,
to
" See the great windows like the jewell'd gates
Of Paradise, burning with harmless fire."
Mr. Dunn, named above as donor of an organ to the second
St. James', had provided the previous wooden church with Com-
munion Plate. In the Loyalist of March 1, 1828, we read : "The
undersigned acknowledges the receipt of ^112 18 5 from the
Hon. John Henry Dunn, being the price of a superb set of Com-
munion Plate presented by him to St. James' Church at this place.
J. B. Macaulay, Church Warden, York, 23rd Feb., 1828."
Before leaving St. James' Church and its precincts, it may be
well to give some account of the steps taken in 18 18, for the en-
largement of the original building. This we are enabled to do,
having before us an all but contemporary narrative. It will be
seen that great adroitness was employed in making the scheme
acceptable, and that pains were shrewdly taken to prevent a bur-
densome sense of self-sacrifice on the part of the congregation.
At the same time a pleasant instance of voluntary liberality is re-
corded. " A very respectable church was built at York in the
Home District, many years ago" — the narrative referred to, in the
Christian Recorder for 1819, p. 214, proceeds to state — " which at
that time accommodated the inhabitants ; but for some years past,
it has been found too small, and several attempts were made to
enlarge and repair it. At length, in April 18 18, in a meeting of
the whole congregation, it was resolved to enlarge the church, and
a committee was appointed to suggest the most expeditious and
economical method of doing it. The committee reported that a
148 Toronto of Old. [§ 10.
subscription in the way of loan, to be repaid when the seats were
sold, was the most promising method. No subscription to be
taken under twenty-five pounds, payable in four instalments."
" Two gentlemen," the narrative continues, " were selected to
carry the subscription paper round ; and in three hours from twelve
to thirteen hundred pounds were subscribed. Almost all the re-
spectable gentlemen gave in loan Fifty Pounds j and the Hon.
Justice Boulton, and George Crookshank, Esq., contributed ^100
each, to accomplish so good an object. The church was enlarged,
a steeple erected, and the whole building with its galleries, hand-
somely finished. In January last (181 9)," our authority proceeds
to say, " when everything was completed, the pews were sold at a
year's credit, and brought more money than the repairs and en-
largement cost. Therefore," it is triumphantly added, " the inha-
bitants at York erect a very handsome church at a very little ex-
pense to themselves, for every one may have his subscription mo-
ney returned, or it may go towards payment of a pew ; and, what
is more, the persons who subscribed for the first church count the
amount of their subscription as part of the price of their new
pews. This fair arrangement has been eminently successful ; and
gave great satisfaction."
The special instance of graceful voluntary liberality above referred
to is then subjoined in these terms : " George Crookshank, Esq.,
notwithstanding the greatness of his subscription, and the pains
which he took in getting the church well finished, has presented the
clergyman with cushions for the pulpit and reading desk, covered
with the richest and finest damask ; and likewise cloth for the
communion-table. " This pious liberality," the writer remarks,
"cannot be too much commended ; it tells us that the benevolent
zeal of ancient times is not entirely done away. The congregation
were so much pleased," it is further recorded, " that a vote of
thanks was unanimously offered to Mr. Crookshank for his munifi-
cent present." (The pulpit, sounding-board, and desk had been a
gift of Governor Gore to the original church, and had cost the sum
of one hundred dollars.)
When the necessity arose in 1830 for replacing the church thus
enlarged and improved, by an entirely new edifice of more re-
spectable dimensions, the same cool, secular ingenuity was again
displayed in the scheme proposed j and it was resolved by the
congregation (among other things) " that the pew-holders of the
§ io.] King Street : St. James' Church. 149
present church, if they demanded the same, be credited one-third
of the price of the pews that they purchased in the new church,
not exceeding in number those which they possessed in the old
church ; that no person be entitled to the privilege granted by the
last resolution who shall not have paid up the whole purchase
money of his pew in the old church ; that the present church re-
main as it is, till the new one is finished ; that after the new church
is completed, the materials of the present one be sold to the
highest bidder, and the proceeds of the same be applied to the
liquidation of any debt that may be contracted in erecting the new
church, or furnishing the same ; that the upset price of pews in the
new church be twenty-five pounds currency ; " and so on.
The stone edifice then erected (measuring within about 100 by
75 feet), but never completed in so far as related to its tower, was
destroyed by fire in 1839. Fire, in truth, may be said to be,
sooner or later, the " natural death " of public buildings in our
climate, where, for so many months in every year, the mainten-
ance within them of a powerful artificial heat is indispensable.
Ten years after the re-edification of the St. James' burnt in