CO885(2-3) — Page 94

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

T。 i k k k h

C.O.

Reference -

885

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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legislation on the internal affairs of Canada as belonging to its own legislature, and not that of the empire at large. However guarded the expressions might be, there would be danger of constituting within the province a kind of corporate body, inde- pendent, in some respects, of the Provincial Legis- lature itself.

5. Legislation by the Parliament of Canada would

be open to neither of these objections. It could not impair the connection between the Anglican Churches of the province and the mother country, because any of its provisions which might involve some seeming and accidental derogation from the supremacy of the Crown, could not be construed as legally operative against those principles of general law, binding throughout the British dominions, on which that supremacy is founded. On the other hand, the Canadian Legislature could, at its discre- tion, give legal effect to the ordinary proceedings of the proposed Synods, so far as necessary; which it would be very difficult for Parliament to do, with- out infringing on the rights of that Legislature by dealing with a strictly local subject. This seems the more essential, inasmuch as, although the Canadian Legislature has passed an Act declaring, or rather reciting, the separation of Church and State in the Colony (as I am reminded by that Address); yet those former Canadian Acts which make provision for the management of the Church's temporalities, are, I believe, still in force. With these the Synods ought, no doubt, to be enabled to deal; they could not be so, except either by parliamentary or colonial enactment; and the subject is one which clearly appertains to the latter.

6. It is therefore the wish of Her Majesty's Government that you should recommend the Cana- dian Legislature to enable the members of the Church of England in the province to enjoy the freedom sought for, so far as the powers of the Legislature, according to the most reasonable suppo- sition, extend; that is to say, by empowering them to meet in the manner specified in the Address, and to form representative bodies; and, giving to the rules which may be framed by such bodies, for the control of Church temporalities, and for the enforce-

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ment of discipline, so much of legal force as may be absolutely requisite. I am aware of the advantages which might belong to a scheme under which the binding force of such regulations should be simply voluntary; but the existence of prior legislation on the subjects referred to seems to reader this impossible.

7. If such an Act were passed in the province, and either the operation of the Act itself, or the proceedings of the meetings constituted under it, met with any well-defined obstacles from existing Imperial law, then a difficulty would be clearly raised for removal by the interposition of Parliament here, which cannot be said to be the case so long as the supposed objections are not easy to be under- stood, much less removed, from their general nature, founded, as they are, only on vague opinion.

8. It would, however, be desirable, if the Act, when framed, was found to contain provisions appearing to you and your advisers to involve sub- stantial difficulty, that you should reserve it for the assent of the Crown.

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9. Her Majesty's Government have been the more induced to suggest this course by the fact that, in

the Colony of Victoria, where similar inconveniences are felt by the members of the Church of England, the Legislature of that province has come to their relief by passing a law of the very nature here indi- cated; it is intituled "An 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;" which it does by empowering the Bishop to convene an assembly of the licensed clergy and laity, and making the acts of such assembly binding on members of the Church as regards their membership, and no farther. The Assembly is further empowered to establish a Commission for the trial of ecclesiastical offences, but not to impose any, penalty except suspension of removal from a benefice, reserving existing rights of appeal to the ecclesiastical autho- rities at home. This Bill has received the sanction of Her Majesty's assent, after much deliberation, the necessity for which was incurred by the defective character of part of its provisions.