CO885(2-3) — Page 87

CONFIDENTIAL.

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ETLIITI

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.

Reference -

885

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

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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Sir,

Torquay, January 4, 1856. REFERRING to the conversation which I hąd the honour to have with you on Friday last upon the Victoria Church of England Act, and the best mode of removing the objections which prevent the Government from immediately advising Her Majesty to give Her assent to that Act, I may be permitted to submit to your consideration the two following reasons, which make me desirous, in the event of the Government determining to apply for the sanc- tion of Parliament, that that application should be made in the form of a separate Bill for the parti- cular purpose, rather than a clause appended to a general measure for removing the disabilities of the Church of England in the Colonies.

I am advised that by the constitutional Act of the Imperial Parliament under which the Bill has been passed (see 5 and 6 Vic., cap. 76, sect. 33, incorporated in 13 and 14 Vict., cap. 59), the Bill will become absolutely null and void unless Her Majesty's assent shall have been given to it within two years from the day on which it was presented to the Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony, namely, from the 30th November, 1854. Consequently, it' the Bill is to have the sanction of the Imperial Par- liament at all, that sanction must be given in this next Session. But conceive that a Bill for the simple purpose of confirming the decision of a Colo- nial Legislature in respect of a certain definite scheme, would have a better prospect of success than a clause of a more general measure, inasmuch as the former might obtain the support of some, and escape the opposition of others, who would be adverse

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