PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference -
C.O. 88
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
48
CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO
VICTORIA. Ireland in Victoria," and provision was made for the legal succession of trustees of "land belonging to
the United Church of England and Ireland in Victoria."
No. 44.
Enel. No. 1. Petition
That if the Imperial Legislature should by any measures induce doubts as to the orderly succession of bishops, the position of the clergy, and the due management of the property of the United Church of England and Ireland in the Colonies (by leaving the control of such property to all persons being or professing to be members of the Church, without any regulation for giving effect to the wishes of those from whom that property is derived), much confusion, schism, and litigation would probably
ensue.
That if the affairs of the Church to which your petitioners belong should be thus plunged into confusion, your petitioners, and those who under God's providence will succeed them, will suffer a hardship not inflicted upon the members of any other religious denomination.
That Your Majesty's petitioners would therefore humbly pray that no legislation may be sanctioned which would have the effect of throwing doubts upon the substantial unity of the United Church of England and Ireland in Victoria and the Church in the mother country, upon the uniformity of doctrine and worship between the parent Church and the Church in the Colony, upon the orderly succession of bishops in the Colony, upon the position of the clergy, or upon the tenure of lands and administration of trusts affecting the United Church of England and Ireland in Victoria, or which would prevent the members of that Church from carrying appeals to the supreme authority of the
Church in the mother country.
And Your Majesty's Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray,
(Signed) C. MELBOURNE,
No. 44.
President of the Assembly.
Copy of a DESPATCH from Governor the Hon. Sir J. H. T. MANNERS SUTTON, K.C.B., to the Right Hon. the Earl of CARNARVON.
(No. 31.) MY LORD,
Government Offices, Melbourne, November 24, 1866.
(Received, January 11, 1867.) (Answered, No. 22, March 7th, 1867 pago .) I have the honour to transmit to your Lordship n petition, herein euclosed, signed by the Bishop of Melbourne as President, and on behalf of the Assembly of the licensed clergy and laity of the United Church of England and Ireland in this Colony, together with a letter addressed to your Lordship by the Bishop on the subject referred to in the 18th Nov. 1866 petition. I also have the honour to enclose, for your Lordship's information, newspaper reports (in the accuracy of which I have every reason to place confidence,) of the proceedings of the Assembly of the United Church of England and Ireland in this No. 30 of 24th diocese, when this petition was under their consideration.
Encl. No. 2.
Nov. 1866. Page
2. These documents, with those enclosed in my despatch marked in the margin, and the Bishop of Melbourne's letter which I had the honour to forward to your Lordship by the last mail, fully explain the opinions and wishes of the bishop, clergy, and laity of the United Church of England and Ireland in this Colony, duly met in Assembly, according to law, with regard to the contemplated Imperial legislation on the affairs of the Church of England in Her Majesty's Colonial possessions.
3. And your Lordship will observe that the Bishop of Melbourne states his conviction that the Resolutions adopted by the recent Assembly express the almost unanimous feeling of the Church of England, bot lergy and laity, in this Colony.
4. I should add that, so far as my short residence and limited experience enable me to judge, I concur in the description given by the Bishop of the state of public opinion, as it at present exists here, with respect to questions affecting the legal status and internal economy of the Church of England establishment in this Colony.
5. But while the petition relates exclusively to the conditions and requirements of the Church of England in Victoria, the questions to which it refers (raised by the recent decisions of the Judicial Committee and the Lords of the Privy Council,) affect, and the character of the Imperial legislation to be adopted in consequence of that decision, must therefore be considered with reference to the condition and requirements of the 'Church of England establishments throughout all the Colonies.
6. And even if I were not incompetent, as I am, to undertake such a task, it would not, I apprehend, be part of, or even consistent with, my duty to enter into any discussion of these extensive and varied as well as intricate questions.
7. But I venture to suggest that it may be worthy of consideration whether the Colonial "Act to enable the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the United Church of England and Ireland in Victoria to provide for the Regulation of the Affairs of the said Church,” a copy of which is enclosed, does not, to some degree at least (and if so to what extent,) supply in this Colony the deficiencies recently discovered in the Imperial law as regards
COLONIAL BISHOPRICS.
49
the power of the Crown to establish and organize in the Colonies Churen of England VICTORIA establishments.
I have, &c.
The Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon, (Signed) J. H. T. MANNERS SUTTON.
&c.
&c.
*c.
Enclosure in No. 44.
To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled.
The HUMBLE PETITION of the Bishop, Clergy, and Laity of the United Church of England and Ireland in Victoria, duly met in Assembly under the provisions of an Act of the Legislature of Victoria, being the Act 18th Victoria, No. 45,—
RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH,
THAT your Petitioners have always claimed to belong to the United Church of England and Ireland, and that their position as an integral part of the said Church has been recognized by Acts of the Legislature of Victoria, more especially by the Act 18th Victoria, No. 45, above mentioned, intituled "An Act to onable the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the United Church of England and "Ireland in Victoria to provide for the Regulation of the Affairs of the said Church," which Act received the Royal assent on the 25th day of February 1856.
That this recognition has never been supposed to confor any special advantage upon your petitioners over other of Her Majesty's subjects who claim to belong and are regarded as belonging to other religious communions, but that it is looked upon as placing them in a position neither better nor worse than that of other religious denominations, by according to them, in eommon with others, full liberty in managing their own affairs.
That the Assembly of the United Church of England and Ireland in Victoria, constituted under the said Act, was duly convened to consider the manner in which that Church might be affected by the passing of any such Bill on the subject of Colonial bishoprics as that which was brought before the Imperial Parliament in the year 1866.
That, after careful deliberation, the Assembly passed the following Resolutions :—
1 That the tenour of the Bill introduced in the Imperial Parliament in 1866, intituled "A Bill to
ແ remove Doubts as to the Effect of Letters l'alent granted to certain Colonial Bishops, and to
* amend the Law with respect to Bishops and Cle gy in the Colonies," is such as to excite serious alarni in the minds of the members of the religious body recognized by the Legislature as the United Church of England and Ireland in Victoria, because:-)
(1.) The Bill tends to create doubts as to the existence of the United Church of England and Ireland,
or of any branch of it, out of the United Kingdom,
(2.) It contemplates the appointment and consecration of bishops out of the United Kingdom "by "the free and voluntary consent of any clergy, congregations, and persons, without any Letters "Patent or Royal Mandate or Licence," which have heretofore been necessary, and therefore, instead of maintaining, rather tends to sever the counexion between the United Church of England and Ireland in the United Kingdom and the body of Christians in Victoria professing to be members of that Church.
(5.) It interferes with the Act of the Legislature of Victoria, 18th Victoria, No. 45, which recognizes the existence of "the United Church of England and Ireland in Victoria," and contemplates its supervision by a succession of bishops of that Church.
2. That, in the opinion of this Assembly, any Imperial legislation calculated to loosen the connexion between the United Church of England and Ireland and the body of Christians in Victoria professing to belong to that Church would be highly injurious.
8. That, in the opinion of this Assembly the principal points to be kept in view towards maintaining such connexion aro:-
1. The preservation of the Church in this Colony as an integral portion of the United Church of
England and Ireland, although not connected with the State as an Established Church.
II. The appointment of Bishops to the United Church of England and Ireland in Victoria according
to a uniform rule, so as to avoid the danger of several individuals claiming simultaneously to be bishops of the same diocese.
III. An appeal in all ecclesiastical causes to the Supreme Ecclesiastical Tribunal of the United
Church of England and Ireland.
That there were in the year 1865, in the colony of Victoria, 128 churches and 188 other places of worship connected with the United Church of England and Ireland in Victoria, and 110 clergymen officiating in the diocese of Melbourne under licence from the Bishop thereof; and in the same year more than 47,000Z were contributed towards the maintenance of the Church under the three heads of "Private Contributions," Pew Rents," and "Offer: ory Collections," in addition to which large sums have been contributed from time to time by private individuals towards the endowment of the bishopric and other ecclesiastical objects.
That the members of the United Church of England and Ireland in Victoria have in time past contributed large sums for the building of churches, parsonages, and schools, the property in which is vested in trustees, under authority of Colonial legislation, for the purposes of the said Church as now constituted.
That, after Her Majesty's assent had been given to the Act 18th Victoria, No. 45, the Colonial enactment, 25 Victoria, No. 157, was passed in the year 1862, under which Act certain lands were vested in the Bishop of Melbourne and his successors, in trust for the United Church of England
Encl. in No. 44.
?