PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference -
T11.1 C.O.885
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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tute a voluntary association, they may adopt any doctrines and ordinances they please, and still belong to the Church of England. All that really is meant by these words is, that where there is no State religion established by the Legislature in any colony, and in such a colony is found a number of persons who are members of the Church of England, and who establish a Churel there with the doctrines. rites, and ordinances of the Church of England, it is a part of the Church of England, and the members of it ure, by implied agreement, bound by all its laws. In other words, the association is bound by the doctrines, rights, rules, and ordinances of the Church of England, except so far as any statutes may exist which (though relating to this subject) are confined in their operation to the limits of the United Kingdom of England and Ireland.
Ac-
cordingly, upon reference to the civil tribunal, în the event of any resistance to the order of the Bishop in any such colony, the Court would have to inquire, not what were the peculiar opinions of the persons associated together in the colony as members of the Church of England, but what were the doctrines and discipline of the Church of England itself, obedience to which doctrines and discipline the Court would have to enforce.
This is the more important to be borne in mind, because it is the want of duly considering this that has given rise not only to much misapprehension on this subject, but also, as I conceive, to still more serious results. The rule by which the Courts are bound is this:-If any number of persons, either in England or in any of its dependencies, associate themselves together, professing to follow a particular religion, not being the religion of the State, the Court must, when applied to, inquire into what the doctrines and discipline of that religion are, and must then enforce obedience to them accordingly. Thus, if they be Presbyterians, or Independents, or Wesleyaus, or Baptists, or the like, the Court ascertains, as a matter of fact, upon proper evidence, what the doctrines, ordinauces, and rules are by which the particular sect of religionists is bound, and euforces obedience to them accordingly. It
is needless to cite authorities to establish this proposition. The books abound with decisions ou
character, many
of which the subject, all of the have been cited and referred to in the case of Long
same
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. Bishop of Cape Town, and in the present case, and are familiar to every one conversant with this subject.
Thus, to apply that principle to the present case
in illustration of the observations I am now making, and explanatory of the passage I have read from the. Judgment in Long- v. Bishop of Cape Town,
if a class of persons in one of the dependencies of the English Crown, having an established Legisla. ture, should found a church calling themselves members of the Church of England, they would be members of the Church of England; they would be bound by its doctrines, its ordinances, its rules,
and
its discipline and obedience to them would be en- forced by the civil tribunals of the colony over such persons; but if a class of persons should in any colony similarly circumstanced, call themselves by any other name-such as, for instance, the Church
of South Africa-then the Court would have to inquire, as a matter of fact, upon proper evidence, what the doctrines, ordinances, and discipline of that church were; and when these were made plain, obedience to them would be enforced against all the members of that church. But the fact of calling themselves in communion with the Church of England would not make such a church a part of the Church of England, nor would it make the members of that church members of the Church of ̧ England. If they adopted its creed and doctrines,
but repudiated a part of its rules and ordinances, they would be bound by those which they had adopted, and not by those which belonged to the Church of England, but which they had rejected.
It would, however, be incumbent upon them fully and plainly to set forth what their rules and ordi- nances were, and who accepted them, in order that this might prevent doubt when the Courts of Law were called upon to enforce obedience to these rules and ordinances.
The whole of what I am now stating is made very distinct and clear by the whole of the decision of
the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the case of Long . Bishop of Cape Town. In that case the Judicial Committee held that Mr. Long had bound himself to the doctrines and discipline of the Church of England, and if the obedience 1 Moo, P. C. (N. S.) 411.
+ Moo. P. C. (N. S.) 411.