CO885-(10-11) — Page 58

10185.

No. 38.

(CANADA.)

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

||||||

C.O.

Reference :-

885

10

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

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

QUEEN'S ADVOCATE to COLONIAL OFFICE.

MY LORD DUKE,

Doctors' Commons, October 26, 1860. I AM honoured with your Grace's commands signified in Sir Frederic Rogers' letter of the 6th October instant, stating that with reference to my letter of the 16th June 1860,* and to draft therein enclosed of certain Letters Patent appointing the Bishop of Montreal and his successors to be metropolitan of Canada, he was directed to enclose the copy of a letter addressed to the Duke of Newcastle by that prelate, from which it appears that some errors have crept into the preamble of the Letters Patent, which, though not of course affecting their validity, it would be desirable to correct in an instrument of so public a character, and to request that I would take into consideration the best mode of effecting this correction, and that I would furnish your Grace with a draft of such instruments as may be necessary for that purpose.

Sir Frederic Rogers was also pleased to transmit (besides the copy of the letter of the Bishop of Montreal)-

My own draft of the Letters Patent now in question;

Copies of the Patents of the Bishop of Montreal and Quebec;

And a copy of an Order in Council (to which my attention was not previously drawn)

adding Saint Francis to the bishopric of Quebec.

In obedience to your Grace's commands, I have taken this subject into consideration, and have the honour to

Report

That it does not appear to me that the omissions in the recitals contained in the recent Patent of the Bishop of Montreal, pointed out by that prelate in his letter of the 24th of August, are of any substantial or material importance.

"1

There is no mis-recital or error suggested, but only certain omissions, viz. :— : (First.) The consecration of the Rev. Dr. Mountain as coadjutor bishop in the

diocese of Quebec, with the title (only) of " Bishop of Montreal.' (Secondly). The annexation of the “district of St. Francis

Quebec, by Order in Council, 21st February 1853.

to the diocese of

The circumstance that Dr. Mountain was in 1836 appointed coadjutor to the (then) Bishop of Quebec, with the title of "Bishop of Montreal," is unimportant as regards the existing bishopric of Montreal; the city and district of Montreal continued, after and notwithstanding this appointment, to form part of the diocese of Quebec. Montreal had no ecclesiastical or legal existence as a see or diocese until it was "erected and constituted" as such by the Letters Patent of July 18th, 1850, as (correctly) recited in the recent patent.

Nor is the omission to set forth in this patent the fact that by Order in Council, dated 21st February 1853, the boundary of the diocese of Quebec was extended by adding to it the "district of St. Francis (which had been previously omitted by accident from the boundaries of the diocese, as described in the Patent of the bishop, 18th July 1850) of any real importance to the bishopric of Montreal, or to the validity or effect of the recent Patent of the bishop of that see.

If, however, it is now thought necessary to supply these omissions, I can only suggest the preparation of new Letters Patent for this purpose, revoking the recent Letters Patent, and inserting the above recitals.

I await your Grace's further instructions before preparing such (new) Letters Patent. I beg to renew a suggestion which I have already made in other cases, that before Letters Patent are sealed they should be submitted to the prelates affected thereby, in order to ensure their being correct as to details.

To the Right Hon. the Duke of Newcastle, &c.

&c.

&o.

• No. 23.

I remain, &c. (Signed)

J. D. HARDING.

o 16978.-10.

25.-9/86.