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the year 1823. Later on the Rev. Langrishe Banks, Civil Chaplain of Mauritius, carried on his apostolic labours there, and, according to the Church Register, baptized 543 persons in the course of a year. The Rev. Mr. de Lafontaine arrived in 1843 and was Civil Chaplain of Seychelles for some 10 years. At his departure nearly all the inhabitants had been baptized in the Church of England, and it was not till he had gone that the first Capucin priests settled in the islands."

At present the Church of England maintains in the Seychelles an institution for the children of African ex-alaves under a lay European superintendent; an excellent boys' and girls' school (each) in Victoria, besides six or seven elementary schools in different parts of Mahé and Praslin. One clergyman, wholly dependent upon the Bishop, relieves the Civil Chaplain of half of the long island of Mahé, and a third has charge of Praslin and its surrounding islets, supported partly by the grant of Rs. 750 p.a. from Government and partly by the Church of England. There are between three and four thousand members of our Church in those islands, mostly very poor.

17655.

No. 8.

17

I am unable to admit mere numbers as the sole basis upon which such redistribution should be made, and consequently those members of the Council who are public officers, must be required to vote against Dr. Beaugeard's motion in its present form. I may add that that motion so far as it assumes that the principle of distribution according to numbers has been adopted in Seychelles appears to be based upon a misconception of my Despatch of the 28th of January.*

7. I am unable to accede to the request preferred by Mr. Adam, in his letter enclosed in your Despatch, No. 374,† that Dr. Beaugeard's motion may be allowed to be decided by the votes of those "who constitutionally and lawfully represent the taxpayers of every class and race in the Colony," by which I understand him to mean the elected members of the Council of Government, as I cannot admit that the elected members have any constitutional claim to the exclusive decision of any question before the Council. 8. I presume that the request of Dr. Beaugeard which referred to in the 4th paragraph of your Despatch, No. 329, of the 11th of July, related only to future vacancies, but at the date of the receipt of that Despatch, steps were already in an advanced stage for filling up in the manner contemplated by you, the vacancy in the civil chaplaincy of Vacon which you had reported in a previous Despatch. The appointment of the Rev. Mr. Shaw to that chaplaincy has been announced to you in a separate Despatch.

I have, &c. Sir J. P. Hennessy.

(Signed) KNUTSFORD.

LORD KNUTSFORD to SIR J. POPE HENNESSY.

T

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference:

C.O. 882

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

(No. 314.)

SIR,

361, 31 July 1889.

374, 8 Aug. 1889.

Downing Street, September 20, 1889.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatches noted in the margin,* on the subject of the distribution of the ecclesiastical grant in Mauritius.

387, 9 Aug. 1889.

2. In your Despatch, No. 329, of the 11th of July, you reported that Dr. Beaugeard had given notice of the following resolution in the Council of Government, viz., "That the principle, lately introduced "in the Dependency of Seychelles, on which the ecclesiastical grant annually voted for "the use of the Christian churches is to be apportioned to those churches according "to the number of their adherents, be laid down likewise for this Colony, and gradually "carried into practice, provided that all rights vested in the present titulars be

preserved."

46

3. In the same Despatch you stated that you had induced Dr. Beaugeard to postpone his motion till you had received my instructions for the guidance of public officers who are members of the Council of Government in voting on this subject.

4. In my Despatch of the 27th of August, I stated that I should defer the expression of my opinion upon this question, and on the question of the distribution of the grante under Ordinance 54 of 1844, till I had received the communication promised in Bishop Roy- ston's letter of the 9th of July enclosed in your Despatch, No. 330, of the 10th of July,§ and the report of the Financial Officers of the Government referred to in your Despatch, No. 327, of the 11th of July. Bishop Royston's promised communication was trans- mitted with your Despatch, No. 387; the report of the Financial Officers has not yet reached me, but as it refers only to the limited grant authorised by Ordinance 54 of 1844, and therefore affects only indirectly, and not very materially, the larger question covered by Dr. Beaugeard's motion, I have thought it desirable to communicate to you the views of Her Majesty's Government on that question without further delay.

5. Her Majesty's Government cannot sanction so considerable a change in the settle- ment which has long been maintained as would be involved in the acceptance of the principle advocated in Dr. Beaugeard's motion, but they would be prepared to consent that, subject to existing interests, there should be a revision of the existing distribution of the ecclesiastical grant which would give a somewhat larger proportion to the Roman Catholic Church than it now has, and I request that you will inform the Anglican Diocesan Church Council in reply to their memorial that I cannot but feel that the Protestant churches at present receive too large a proportion of the religious endowment provided by the Colonial Government, and that under existing circumstances the claim of the Roman Catholics for some re-adjustment is not unreasonable.

6. I abstain from offering any opinion as to what form the re-distribution should take without further assistance from yourself and your advisers; but, as already intimated,

§ No. 8.

• Nos. 5, 6, and 7.

↑ No. 2.

‡ No. 4.

19786.

No. 9.

SIR J. POPE HENNESSY to LORD KNUTSFORD. (Received October 7, 1889.)

(No. 421.)

Government House, Mauritius, MY LORD,

September 5, 1889. ADVERTING to my Despatch, No. 387, of the 9th of August,§ enclosing a memorial from the Diocesan Council of the Church of England, I have the honour to transmit to your Lordship a letter addressed to the Assistant Colonial Secretary by Bishop Royston, and in which he asks that a certain paragraph marked in red ink [italice] in his enclosed letter be inserted in paragraph 2 of Appendix D. to the above-mentioned memorial of the 5th August last.

The Right Hon. Lord Knutsford, G.C.M.G.,

&c.

&c.

&c.

I have, &c. (Signed)

J. POPE HENNESSY.

Enclosure in No. 9.

Bishop ROYSTON's letter to the ASSISTANT COLONIAL SECRETARY, dated August 30, 1889.

}

Bishopthorpe, August 30, 1889.

In the "Appendix " attached to the memorial of the Diocesan Church Council regard- ing the Honourable Dr. Beaugeard's recent ecclesiastical resolution (dated 9th July), which was forwarded in triplicate for transmission to Lord Knutsford by the mail of the 10th August, instant, the following words in red ink [italica] seem to have been uninten tionally omitted in some copies subsequently made. May I ask if they are found in the copy, or copies, now in the office of the Colonial Secretary? and, if not, if the omitted clause may be inserted, and, if need be, duly reported in Downing Street!

(Signed) P. S. MAURITIUS.

• Not printed.

† No. 6.

↑ No. 9.

No. 1.

No. 7.

U 81946.

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No. 7.