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CONFIDENTIAL.
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference -
TLC.O-885
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COPY of a DESPATCH from Mr. Secretary LABOU-
(No. 146.) SIR,
CHERE to Governor Sir E. HEAD.
September 16, 1856,
I HAVE to acknowledge your despatch No. 91
of the 20th June, transmitting a Bill which had passed the Council and Assembly, "to enable the Members of the United Church of England and "Ireland in Canada to meet in Synod," and which you rightly reserved for the signification of Her Majesty's pleasure thereon.
Her Majesty's Government have not failed to give
to this enactment the consideration which its impor- tance demanded. It appears that it passed unani- mously through both branches of the Canadian Legislature, and I have every reason to believe that it met with the very general concurrence of the bishops, clergy and laity, of the Church of England in Canada.
Under these circumstances, Her Majesty's Govern- ment would have had no doubt that it was their duty to advise Her Majesty to give her assent to this Bill. It would be altogether contrary to the principles on which the Government of Canada has been for some time conducted, if they were to inter- pose any obstacle to that course which the Legisla ture and people of the province deem to be expedient with regard to the regulation of ecclesiastical affairs. But upon reference to the Law Officers of the Crown, serious doubts have been expressed whether this Act does not go so far beyond the provisions of the Act passed by the Legislature of the Colony of Victoria to which I referred in my former despatch,* as to render it unlawful for Her Majesty to give her
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*No. 39, February 15, 1856.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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