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of the Legislature and that an Act of Parliament should be passed to give the Bishop legal status and authority. Accordingly by Statute 53 Geo. III, c. 155, sec. 49, it was enacted that in case it should please His Majesty by His Royal Letters-Patent to erect, found, and constitute one Bishopric for the whole of the British territories in the East Indies and parts therein mentioned, a certain salary should be paid to the Bishop by the East India Company, and by the 51st and 52nd sections it was enacted that such Bishop should not have or use any jurisdic- tion, or excrcise any episcopal functions whatsoever but such as should be limited to him by Letters- Patent, and that it should be lawful for His Majesty by Letters-Patent to grant to such Bishop such ecclesi- astical jurisdiction and the exercise of such episcopal functions within the East Indies and parts aforesaid as His Majesty should think necessary for adminis- tering holy ceremonies, and for the superintendence and good government of the ministers of the Church establishment within the East Indies and parts aforesaid. Subsequently, in the year 1833, it was deemed right to found two additional Bishoprics, one at Madras and the other at Bombay, and again an Act of Parliament (3 and 4 Wm. IV, c. 86) was
passed, by the 93rd section of which it was enacted in like manner that the Crown should have power to grant to such Bishops within their dioceses eccle- siastical jurisdiction; and it was also enacted and declared that the Bishop of Calcutta should be Metropolitan in India, and should have as such all such jurisdiction as the Crown should by Letters- Patent direct, subject, nevertheless, to the general superintendence and revision of the Archbishop of Canterbury; and it was provided that the Bishops of Madras and Bombay should be subject to the Bishop of Calcutta as Metropolitan, and should take an oath of canonical obedience to him.
So again when in 1824 a Bishop was appointed in Jamaica by Letters-Patent containing clauses simi- lar to those which are found in the Letters-Patent 13 the present Appellant, it was thought necessary that the legal status and authority of the Bishop should be confirmed and established by an Act of the Colonial Legislature. The consent of the Crown was given to this Colonial Act, which would have been an improper thing, as an injury to the
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Crown's Prerogative, unless the Law Advisers of the Government had been satisfied that the Colonial Statute was necessary to give full effect to the establishment of the Bishopric.
The conclusion is further confirmed by observing
the course of Imperial legislation on the same subject, namely, the creation of new Bishoprics in England.
When four new Bishoprics were constituted by Henry VIII, it appears to have been thought neces- sary, even by that absolute Monarch, to have recourse
to the authority of Parliament, and the Act that was passed (viz., the 31 Henry VIII, cap. 9, which is not found in the ordinary edition) is of a singular character. After referring to the slothful and ungodly life whiel: had been used among all those which bore the name of religious folk, and reciting that it was thought, therefore, unto the King's Highness most expedient and necessary that more Bishoprics, Collegiate and Cathedral Churches should be established, it was enacted that His Highness should have full power and authority from time to time to declare and nominate by his Letters- Patent or other writing to be made under his Great Seal, such number of Bishops, such number of Cities, Sees for Bishops, Cathedral Churches and Dioceses by metes and bounds, for the exercise and minis- tration of their episcopal offices and administration as shall appertain, and to endow them with such possessions after such manner, form, and condition
as to his most excellent wisdom shall be thought necessary and convenient.
This statute, which was repealed by the 1st and 2nd of Philip and Mary, cap. 8, sec. 18, does not appear to have been revived. It is remarkable as granting power to nominate and appoint new Bishops
as well as to create new Sees and Dioceses.
So also in recent times the two new Bishoprics of Manchester and Ripon were constituted; and the new Bishops received ecelesiastical jurisdiction, under
It is truc
the authority of an Act of Parliament. that it has been the practice, for many years, to insert in Letters-Patent creating Colonial Bishoprics, clauses which purport to confer ecclesiastical juris- diction; but the forms of such Letters-Patent were probably taken by the official
persons who prepared them from the original forms used in the Letters- Patent appointing the East Indian Bishops, without
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