8B153
Miscellanears
No xxxx.
CONFIDENTIAL.
2
Church of England in the Colonies.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O.885
Reference -
6.
Mr. Labouchere,
IN answer to your direction that I should state my own views of what is required to place the Church of England in the Colonies legally on a better footing, I will first state the position of the Church and its members in the Colonies as I under- stand it now to be.
In Canada and the West Indies there are certain modern Acts of Parliament affecting the rights of the clergy. I do not think these Acts contain provisions of such general importance as to require them to be noticed here.
Leaving them for the present out of the question, the state of the Church of England seems at present to be as follows; but it must be remembered that I am stating the substance of the opinions of able lawyers only. There has been no legal decision whatever respecting the status of the Church of England in the Colonies :-—
1. Its clergy cannot meet together, without the laity, to devise rules for its management, without Royal licence, nor with the laity, unless Parliament enable them. ·
2. If they could meet together their power would, as it seems, be limited by existing laws governing the Church of England everywhere. They could not, I presume, alter the Prayer Book, by reason of the Act of Uniformity (though in terms contined to England), nor elect bishops, without infringing on the Supremacy, &c.
3. Being, therefore, without regular government, or the means of making one, the Church in the
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B
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. LONDO
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