Yours, ever affectionately,
G. MORTIMER.
* * * * *
The next step in the life of my endeared friend, which comes under our
notice, is one which filled all his friends with surprise—one which they
could not contemplate without much concern—one, the expediency of which,
they could none of them fully perceive—one, indeed, which they could not
but consider as uncalled for and unnecessary. I refer to his leaving
England, and proceeding with his family to settle in Canada. At an
earlier period of his life he appears to have been animated with a pure
and holy zeal for the cause of missions to the heathen, and would, if his
way had been open, most gladly have entered upon that self-denying
service. But now he was not stimulated by such a motive; indeed, he can
hardly be said to have made even ministerial duties his chief object: it
was not to seek a new fortune in the vineyard of Christ, but to improve
his worldly fortune for the temporal benefit of his children. I do not
presume to censure Mr. Mortimer for this step, though I agree with many
of his friends in considering it a very questionable measure. He was not
like a man in needy circumstances; Providence had supplied him with a
very comfortable independent income; one perfectly adequate to provide
for all the reasonable wants of his family, and to enable him to place
out his children in suitable situations, as they grew up; much more so,
if I do not greatly mistake, and with much greater satisfaction, too,
than he has been able to do in Canada. Where the object is the cause of
God, I should be among the first to recommend a man to leave his home,
his friends, and his country, and go to the very ends of the earth, if
called to such a service; and I see no reason why men of business, if
their disposition lead to it, though they possess even good properties,
should not expatriate themselves for the purpose of commerce, or the
increase of their fortune; but I hesitate as to granting the same liberty
to the minister of Jesus Christ, especially where it has pleased his
heavenly Father to furnish him with the necessary supplies of life in a
tolerably competent measure. It is clearly the duty of a clergyman, as
it is that of a layman, to make such provision for his family, in the
event of his removal from them, as his circumstances will permit; but to
make this the first object of consideration in determining upon an
important movement in life—in leaving one’s own country and settling in
another—does seem to me not very warrantable. Upon these considerations,
I cannot, I confess, perfectly concur with my late beloved friend in the
measure under contemplation. No doubt he was fully satisfied in his own
mind of the propriety of the step on which he had determined, and that
the accomplishment of it was in accordance with the path of duty and the
order of Providence.
But let Mr. Mortimer speak for himself. Four, out of the five following
letters, touch more or less upon the subject, and explain his views of
the measure and of the desirableness of it. In the dark view taken in
some of these letters of the prospects of his native country, the writer
of them by no means stood alone; and though commerce seems to have
recovered itself, and the prosperity of the nation has assumed a more
promising aspect, yet the encouragement given to Popery by the State on
the one hand, and the movement in the church towards the increase of its
ranks, and the augmentation of its influence on the other; the
unmanageable state of pauperism, and the ungovernable, and, I fear, to
any considerable extent, the unimprovable condition of the peasantry and
the poor of our great cities, cannot be contemplated by the Christian
patriot without fear, alarm, and consternation. We are evidently in the
state of a volcano, and everything seems to indicate a no very distant
eruption, which may rase the foundations of the Church and State, and
scatter misery and wretchedness, rapine and bloodshed, murder and
destruction, over the face of the land. The elements of some general
convulsion are preparing with a rapid progress; and awful, it is to be
feared, will be the catastrophe, if, by timely repentance, the blow which
threatens us, and which undoubtedly we deserve, be not averted. {164}