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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference -
C.O.885
3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON |
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO |
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him with any other title; but even if the Arch- bishop of Canterbury could be induced to consecrate such a person in due form, he would, I apprehend, have no legal authority to exercise any of those functions which belong exclusively to a Bishop of the Church of England. What his peculiar status in the Catholic Church of Christ might be, I do not profess to state; but I apprehend that he would not be a Bishop of the Church of England, and that, when the validity of his ordinations and consecra- tions came to be contested in a Court of law, they would not appear to have made the persons ordained Priests or Deacons of the Church of England, nor would the places consecrated by him belong to that Church.
To adopt the words of the Judgment in the case of in re Bishop of Natal,* “The course which legis- lation has taken on this subject is a strong proof of
the correctness of these conclusions."
In 1786, shortly after the American Colonies had been severed from this country, it was thought necessary to pass an Act of Parliament to enable the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to consecrate candidates for Episcopacy in countries not under the dominion of the Crown; but even this permission was not granted without the licence of the Crown for each particular case being first obtained; and the Statute also provided that no person so consecrated should exercise any episcopal functions within the United Kingdom.†
In 1819, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York were empowered by the Legislature to ordain per sons specially for Her Majesty's Colonies. The Statute provided that no person not ordained by any Bishop or Archbishop of England or Ireland should officiate in any church in England or Ireland without the special permission of the Archbishop of the province, or hold any ecclesiastical preferment. or act as Curate therein, without the consent of the Archbishop of the province and also of the Bishop of the diocese; and the Statute also provided that no person ordained by a Colonial Bishop, who did not at the same time possess episcopal jurisdiction over some diocese, district, or place, and alsó reside therein, should hold any ecclesiastical preferment
* 3 Moo, P. C. (N, S.) 149.
† 26 Geu. III. cap. 84.
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within Her Majesty's dominions, or officiate in any place as a minister of the Church of England and Ireland.*
In 1840, the Legislature permitted the Clergy of the Episcopal Church in Scotland, and in the United States of America, to officiate for one or two speci- fied days, on a pormission given in writing by the Bishop of the diocese, in a specified church within the United Kingdom, with consent of the incum- beut.t
In 1852, an Act was passed, which enacted that nothing contained in the two last-mentioned Acts,
and also in two Acts therein recited, and which are also mentioned in the Judgment of the Privy Council, and which referred to Bishoprics in Indiá, should extend to any person who, upon the request and by the commission of the Bishop of any diocese
in England or Ireland, should have been ordained a Deacon or Priest within the limits of such diocese by any Bishop who, by virtue of Her Majesty's Letters-Patent, should have exercised the office of Bishop in India, or in any of Her Majesty's Colonies or foreign Possessions; and it enacted that all admissions to benefices in the United Church of England and Ireland, and all appointments to act as Curates and Chaplains therein of persons so ordained, should be valid in law.l
In the following year it was extended, and by 16 & 17 Vict., c. 49, it was enacted that, notwith- standing the provision in the recited Acts to the contrary, "all persons who have been or hereafter shall be ordained by any of the said Bishops in or for the diocese of the Bishop of any other of Her Majesty's foreign or colonial possessions, upon his request in writing shall be entitled to all the same rights, privileges, and advantages, as if he had been ordained by such Bishop within the limits of a diocese over which he was at the time himself actually exercising jurisdiction and residing therein.” It is impossible to read these Acts, and not to see that the provisions therein contained apply, so far as the Colonies are concerned, exclusively to the acts of
• 59 Gen. III, cap. 60.
+ 3 & 4 Vict, cap. 83.
15 & 16 Vict,, cap. 52.
§ 53 Geo. III. cap. 165, and 3 & 4 Will IV. cap. 85
15 & 16 Vict, c. 52.
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