CO885-(2-3) — Page 230

Printed solely for the use of the Colonial Office.

May 19, 1865.

CONFIDENTIAL.

Memorandum on the Effects of the Judgment of the Judicial Committee in the case of the Bishop of

Natal.

IT has been hitherto believed that the Sovereign

has power by Letters-Patent to erect a Bishopric in any British Colony, whatever the constitution of its Legislature. And this belief has been unreservedly acted on during the last eighty years, in the course of which thirty-five Bishoprics have been founded in Her Majesty's Indian and Colonial possessions.

But the recent Judgment in the case of the Bishop of Natal contains the following passage :-

"We therefore arrive at the conclusion that although in a Crown Colony, properly so called, or in cases where the Letters-Patent are made in pursuance of the authority of an Act of Parliament (such, for ex- ample, as the Act of 6 and 7 Vict., cap. 13), a Bishopric may be constituted, and ecclesiastical jurisdiction con- ferred by the sole authority of the Crown, yet that the Letters-Patent of the Crown will not have any such effect or operation in a Colony or Settlement which is possessed of an independent Legislature."

It appears to be here decided that the Crown cannot, except by virtue of an Act of Parliament, create a Bishopric in any but a Crown Colony. This conclusion is reasoned out in detail (vide page 7. of the Judgment), and furnishes the foundation for the Judgment of the Court not only upon Bishop Gray's jurisdiction but on the validity of his Letters- Patent.

It is evident that this announcement is calculated to produce great confusion in what have been hitherto considered Colonial Dioceses, and three questions

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C.O.885

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