Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Sir, Arichat, Cape Breton, 6 June 1824
The Protestant inhabitants of the Southern District of Cape Breton, being anxious for the erection of a Church and for the appointment of a clergyman of the Church of England to officiate therein, have deputed us to solicit your assistance and support in forwarding their views, and to consult with you as to the probability, if they succeed in the former object of a missionary being appointed and paid by the Society in England in the same manner as at Sydney and other parts of the province.
In making the proper application to the Society, a detail of the grounds on which it is founded will doubtless be expected and we shall endeavour to explain briefly to you a few of the leading points which may be waged in its favour.
The Society has hitherto appointed one Missionary only for the extensive island of Cape Breton, who resides at Sydney distant about seventy miles from this place, and to whom the sole charge of many widely extended protestant settlements is committed. That the most front seat, the greatest personal inconvenience and mast to privation, the unscarred efforts of any single missionary must be ??? ??? in administering to the religious wants of all the parishioners is to wident to require much cluidation. In that with the exception of Sydney and its immediate vicinity, and of Annual hurried visit to the different settlements, the whole are reflected and cast out, as it were, from the ??? of the established church.
Arichat in front of commercial importance ranks as the fourth or fifth port in the Province of Nova Scotia, and next to Halifax and Pictou it enjoys the pretest intercourse with the mother country. The chief part of the population is Roman Catholic, and of French Extraction, who have for many years, supported a respectable Minister and Chapel here, but on the other hand a congregation of about two hundred Protestants could with facility assemble together during the summer in this place. That a few of late years have been converted to Popery is no no doubt owing to the want of a Protestant Church and a Resident Pastor, and it is indeed a sad reflection on any body of people professing Christianity that Divine Service can only be performed among them by their Minister on one Sabbath during the whole year.
By the appointment of another missionary the island can be conveniently divided into two parishes, the one to include Sydney, Brasdore Lake, Louisburg, Mainadieu, etc, the other Arichat, River Inhabitants, Gut of Canso, Port Hood, and Mabou, and in this case each missionary should be directed to visit the different protestant settlements in his parish at least twice a year, preaching in each at least one sabbath on every visit. We have the honour to be (???) to the Rev'd Doctor Inglis, DD
London
Signed by Clement Hubert, John Jean, John Janvrin Jr and F.B Tupper
St. John's Centre for the Arts
2513 Highway 206, Arichat NS, B0E 1A0