of property.
Believe
me to be
Your Lordship's faithful Servant
M. Cantier
MY DEAR LORD ARCHBISHOP,
ST. Paul's COLLEGE, HONGKONG,
March 2nd, 1875.
Intensely and constantly occupied, as I know your Grace to be with important interests in Church and State, I feel very reluctant to trouble you with my small matters. At the same time my difficulties here, in consequence of my being consecrated and sent out without Letters Patent, have become so serious that I am compelled to appeal to you to take some steps by which it shall be finally and formally decided that I am what your Grace required me to style myself, Bishop of Victoria, Hongkong.
I sent you an account of my Installation in the Cathedral on the 13th of December. All seemed then to bid fair to go smoothly. I offered, in response to the request of the Colonial Chaplain, to take part in the ordinary Sunday services of the Cathedral, but lest I should appear to be interfering with the work of the Colonial Chaplain, I preferred to preach at the afternoon service at which there was then no sermon. This arrangement did not continue in force more than two or three weeks. I will not weary your Grace with the details of how this came to pass. Suffice it that I was soon made to feel that I had nothing to do with the arrangements even of an afternoon service, and the question whether I should or should not have a hymn after the 3rd Collect and before the sermon was actually carried before the Governor. In reply to my private requests to the Colonial Chaplain, I received a Memorandum from the Governor of such a nature that I felt myself unable to continue to act as one of the regular officiating clergy of the Cathedral. I felt it the more necessary to withdraw, as one of the ordinances of this Colony makes the "Lord Bishop of Victoria" supreme in the Cathedral, and refusal to allow me any liberty in it was equivalent to denying my right to the title. The ordinances about the Colonial Chaplain and the Bishop are as follows:-
Mar. 11, 1847. No. 2.
V. The Colonial Chaplain for the time being duly appointed to the said church or during his absence the Clergyman duly appointed to officiate for him, shall at all times be ex-officio chairman of the Trustees, but shall not have the power of voting by reason of being such chairman except in cases where the votes of the Trustees present shall be equal."
Sept. 10, 1860. No. 3.
II. The several powers vested in the Colonial Chaplain, by the fifth section of No. 2 of 1847 as Chairman of the said Cathedral Church are hereby vested in and transferred to the Bishop of Victoria and his Successors, or in his or their absence from the Colony, in the Colonial Chaplain or Acting Colonial Chaplain for the time being: Provided always, that in the event of any Meeting of the said Trustees being convened and that the said Bishop, although within the Colony may not be in attendance, then and in such case he may either depute the Colonial Chaplain to attend as such chairman in his stead, or failing such Deputation, that it may be lawful for the Trustees present at such Meeting to choose a chairman from those members in attendance.”
“VI. Only the Lord Bishop of Victoria or some other Clergyman duly authorized to officiate for or by him may sing or say the Common Prayer, administer the Sacraments and preach any sermons within the said Cathedral; and in his absence, such powers shall be vested in the Colonial or Acting Colonial Chaplain for the time being.”
In order to test still further whether this ordinance was regarded as in any way including me, I formally applied to the Trustees of the Cathedral for the use of the Cathedral for the purpose of holding a Confirmation. I applied as Bishop of the Diocese,” and this brought up the question whether I ought not to be asked to take my seat as Chairman at their meeting. This question was, I believe, put formally to the Attorney General, who decided, I gather from the result, that I was not "Lord Bishop of Victoria" in the sense meant in the Ordinance. At any rate, I was not asked to take my seat as chairman of the Trustees, and I was referred by these gentlemen to the Colonial Chaplain for an answer to my question, as, in the absence of the Bishop, the powers hitherto vested in the Lord Bishop of Victoria are now vested in him,