Sir William Colebrooke, and Gentlemen:

It affords me the highest gratification to hear from your Excellency sentiments to which every Christian heart must respond, and to find myself, on this eventful day, surrounded by the judges and law officers of the Province, by members of the Legislative Council and House of Assembly, and by men high in station in the Province, and distinguished for their talents, who have, with a unanimity worthy of the occasion, come forward to support this great undertaking. The building a Cathedral in this Province may in some sense be called a national work: for whatever reflects the genius, the piety, and the glory of England, adds lustre to the nation from which the original idea is derived. It is in many other respects important; not only as a national type of the unity of the Church, but as a consecration to God on the part of man of all these gifts which God has been pleased to vouchsafe to him. For when do we glorify God so much as when we consider nothing to be properly our own, when we look upon all as His, lent to us for our use, but to be given back to Him, the great and glorious Giver, and employed in His peculiar worship and service. Thus whatever our gifts be, whether they be gold and silver, whether they be wood or stone, whether they be skill in carving, force and eloquence in utterance, sweetness in music, taste in decoration, all are well used and employed in the material expression of our inward thanks ands praise, of our love and devotion to His glorious Name.

A Cathedral Church is also the common home of all; for as it is the mother of all the churches in the Diocese, so every one has a right to resort to it without payment, without that exclusive property in seats, alike forbidden in scripture, and unsanctioned by the custom of the purest ages of the Church. And I joyfully anticipate the day, whether I live to see it or no, when the full importance of this great principle will be felt, that all men are sinful creatures, desirous to abase themselves in God's sight, and that, therefore, none should be excluded for want of money, and that there should be no distinction, but between those who serve the people and those who are served by them. And possibly many who do not yet enjoy the full blessing and privileges of our Church may yet feel inclined occasionally to enter a building so founded and built up.

I am well aware that to the foundation of a Cathedral in this Province some persons may object that the money might be better expended than in what appears to them to be a lavish and wasteful expenditure, and needless display of ornament on the house of God. I for one, fearlessly appeal to the laity of this country, and plainly ask them, whether the foundation of a Cathedral is not accompanied by a simultaneous movement on the part of the Church, to extend and improve her missions, and to diffuse the glad tidings of the gospel to the remotest corners of the Province, and whether there be not an anxiety on the part of the founders of the Cathedral to promote the welfare of the poorest Church, and of the most uneducated and needy settlers?

But let us join issue with such objectors on the footing of scripture; let us ask them, whether they recollect that on a single building, nicety feet long by thirty wide, every part of which was built by express direction from the Almighty, vouchsafed in writing, no less a sum than three or four millions of our money was expended?

And if under any dispensation whatever, Almighty God would never have sanctioned anything morally wrong, why should we object to what has the direct sanction of the Old Testament, and is no where forbidden in the New? And when this so much praised plainness is carried out into the houses of the objectors themselves, when, in proportion to their increased means, men cease to ornament and fill with splendid furniture their own 'ceiled houses,' it will be time to let God's house lie waste, and to strip it of the ornaments which a grateful heart may bestow upon it. Such parts, however, of every such building are probably better bestowed as gifts than taken from the general fund appropriated for the fabric.

Having disposed, as it seems to me, of this objection, it remains that I endeavour to impress upon this large assembly the duty of united and zealous co-operation. This Cathedral Church will best be built by our adopting the excellent Cornish motto, 'One and all;' by our reflecting that if we have little, 'we should do our diligence to give of that little;' but if we have ample means, an abundant contribution will alone ensure its acceptance from the Almighty.

Would to God, indeed, that every one who hears me this day could have worshipped within the walls of one of our glorious cathedrals in Old England! Then I am sure I should not need to urge on you this duty, but your own zeal would outrun my desires. Recollect that, though built in Fredericton, it belongs to the Province; the design was conceived, and the first contributions were raised in the Mother Country, and it would, indeed, be a disgrace to New Brunswick if the efforts of Englishmen were not seconded here. But I believe they will be seconded. The attendance here of so many from all parts of the Province, the zeal of all classes and condition of men, the kind and generous feelings already exhibited, put it beyond a doubt, that if we be only true to ourselves and to God, and do not suffer ourselves to be disheartened by the cry of the desponding, the work will be done; and we, by God's grace, shall live, some of us, to see the topmost stone erected, and it will be a joy to some of the children whom I see around me to say, when they reach old age, My parents helped to rear the stones of that Cathedral Church, and my children's children will rise up and call the builders blessed.

I have now only once more to return you all my sincere thanks for your kindness in attending, for your active support, and likewise to the officers and band of the 33rd Regiment, who have so cheerfully rendered their assistance on this solemn occasion.

Let us conclude, as we began, with prayer.

O God, who bast built Thy Church on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Corner Stone; we give Thee humble thanks that Thou hast called us to the clear knowledge and light of Thy gospel, in Thy most blessed Son, by the Holy Spirit.

We bless Thee that Thou hast at this time given us the opportunity to lay the foundation of this house of God. May it be raised in due season to be a most Holy Temple unto Thee -- 'where our prayers may ascend up before Thee as incense, and the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice.'

Finally, we give Thee most high praise and hearty thanks for all Thy servants departed this life in Thy faith and fear. Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, and all others, whom Thou hast delivered from the miseries of this wretched world, from the body of death and all temptation, and who have committed their souls into Thy holy hands, as into sure consolation and rest: whose examples teach us to follow.

Grant, we beseech Thee, that we, with them, may fully receive Thy promises, and be made perfect altogether, and being set on Thy right hand in the place where there is neither weeping, sorrow, nor heaviness, may hear those most sweet and comfortable words -- Come to Me, ye blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.

The 100th Psalm was then sung by the assembled multitude, the land taking the instrumental part, after which the Lord Bishop gave the blessing, and the procession moved back to the Province Hall and dispersed.

(Source: Ketchum, Medley, 70-74.)