CO885-(10-11) — Page 574

723.

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No. 452.

(ST. HELENA.)

QUEEN'S ADVOCATE to COLONIAL OFFICE.

Mr LORD,

Doctors' Commons, January 21, 1867. I AM honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Sir Frederic Rogers' letter of the 17th instant, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to me a copy of a Despatch from Governor Sir Charles Elliot, enclosing a letter from the Bishop of St. Helena, in which he points out the absence of proper ecclesiastical control over the beneficed clergy in the Colony. That although no practical incon- venience appears yet to have arisen in St. Helena on this account, your Lordship considers it objectionable that there should be no legal power of restraining abuse among the clergy, and Sir Frederic was desired by your Lordship to request that I would take the Imperial Acts relating to church discipline into consideration, and inform your Lordship how far in my opinion, if at all, they could be adapted to the circumstances of a Crown Colony such as St. Helena, and that if it should be deemed advisable that a local Ordinance should be passed for this purpose, your Lordship thought that it should be of the simplest description.

Sir Frederic enclosed a copy of "the Ordinance of St. Helena (No. 2 of 1861) to which the Bishop refers, and stated that your Lordship would be glad to receive an early reply to this question.

In obedience to your Lordship's commands I have considered this matter, and have the honour to

Report

That it appears to me clear that at present the Bishop of St. Helena has no legal power of discharging his duty towards the church over which he is placed, by the censure, suspension, or deprivation of the incumbents of any of the three parishes mentioned, should they unhappily so misconduct themselves as to render the infliction of these punishments necessary for the welfare of the church, because it is enacted by the third section of the Ordinance of April 8, 1861, that these incumbents shall "only be "removable for the like causes, and in the same manner as any rector or vicar is now "by law removable in England." Now, rectors and vicars in England are only removable under the provisions of the Clergy Discipline Act (3 & 4 Vict. c. 60.), the greater part of the machinery of which Act is entirely inapplicable to the Island of Št. Helena.

I therefore think that the Bishop's request is well founded, and that power should be given to him to exercise legally ecclesiastical discipline over the beneficed clergy of his diocese, and I humbly advise that a local Ordinance for this purpose be passed without delay.

I have sketched out on a paper appended to this report the kind of Ordinance which would appear to me proper. It is expedient that it should be as simple, flexible, and untechnical as possible.

I have, &c. (Signed) ROBERT PHILLIMORE.

The Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon.

o 16378.-99.

$5.-5/84.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Reference :-

Hmmm.O. 885

11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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