CO885-(2-3) — Page 235

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.885

3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE

BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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funds, to follow the precedent of Canada and vir- tually break off the peculiar connexion between the Colonial Churches and the Crown, the present opportunity seems more than favourable for doing so. That it should be done sooner or later appears to have been the opinion of Sir W. Molesworth and Mr. Labouchere, who were Secretaries of State when the status of the Colonial Churches was last considered by the Government,

Next, the existing Acts of Parliament respecting the ministrations in England or elsewhere of Colonial Bishops and colonially ordained clergy are somewhat confused and scattered. Their effect is exhibited at the close of the annexed paper.

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They may be roughly described as providing first that Colonial Bishops cannot ordain effectually in diocese but their own, except under commission from the Diocesan; next, that Clergy ordained by Colonial Diocesans shall not officiate or hold pre- ferment in England or Ireland without permission of the English or Irish Diocesan or Metropolitan; and lastly, that Clergy ordained by Colonial Bishops not having a Diocese, or not residing in it, shall be absolutely disqualified from holding preferment in Her Majesty's dominions, or officiating anywhere

as ministers of the Church of England.

It would seem that the first two of these pro- visions contain in substance all that is requisite to secure England and Ireland from being flooded with half-educated or otherwise unfit Clergy from the Colonies; that the first might be confined to England and Ireland, and the third abolished. It would thus be unnecessary for the Imperial Government and Legislature to entangle itself in the now difficult question-what constitutes Diocesan Jurisdiction in the Colonies.

With these preliminary observations, the follow- ing general plan is submitted for consideration, which, however, would have to be modified in its application to Crown Colonies, and also to the West Indies, in which the Bishops are at present paid from public funds, and would, therefore, be

still appointed by the Crown :-

1. Existing Letters-Pateat should be made effec-

tual in the following respects :—

(a.) The Bishops of dioceses created by these Letters-Patent should be declared by Act of Parlia

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ment to have had "Episcopal jurisdiction" so far as to relieve the clergy ordained by them from the disqualifications imposed by 59 Geo. III, cap. 60, sec. 4; and

(6.) The existing Bishops and their successors should be declared to possess and to have possessed a diocesan and corporate character for the purpose of giving effect to all instruments and to all Imperial or local enactments in which either of those characters is assumed to exist.

2. Colonial Bishops should have authority to consecrate, at their own discretion, without any mandate from the Queen; and the perpetuation

of the Anglican Church in the Colonies being thus rendered possible, no more dioceses should be created by authority of the Crown, no more Bishops should be appointed by Letters-Patent, and the future interference of the Crown should be confined to the single point of providing a mode of keeping alive the corporation which it has created.

3. A simple provision for this purpose would be that the Crown on receiving a memorial from persons appearing adequately to represent the Bishop, clergy, and laity of any existing Colonial diocese, should designate an authority (like the Canadian Synod) competent to provide for the future appointment and removal of the Bishop's successors, and for altering the limits of his diocese ; and that until such authority were constituted any person consecrated for any particular diocese, in pursuance of a warrant from the Crown, should be deemed to be successor of the previous Bishop for the purpose of keeping up the Corporation : the powers of resigning the Bishopric and altering the limits of the diocese remaining as prescribed by the Letters-Patent. It is for consideration whether this could be effected by the Crown in exercise of

its prerogative of creating and moulding corporate Bodies, or whether an Act of Parliament would be required.

4. After the appointment of the Bishop had passed from the hands of the Crown, the title of "Lord," and the local precedence might be abolished It must, however, be borne in mind that

the title and precedence of Protestant Bishops are now shared by Roman Catholic Bishops, and in

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some Colonies, like Malta, could not be withdrawu without risk of irritation on one side or the other.

5. The existing provisions respecting the extra- diocesan ministrations of the Colonial Bishops and Clergy might be reduced to the enactments neces- sary to secure that those ministrations should not take place in any Euglish or Irish Diocese without the permission or authority of the Diocesan.

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It is not expected that these arrangements would establish a wholly uniform system throughout the Colonies, which is forbidden by the anomalous com- position of the Empire. Their effect would be to hasten the introduction, in all Colonies which have representative institutions, of those relations, or rather that absence of relation, between the Home Government and the Colonial Churches which already practically exist in Canada.

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Copies are annexed of some despatches and other Annexure. documents calculated to exhibit the views with which the first Colonial dioceses were founded, and

the present position of the Government.

It has been thought unnecessary to increase the bulk of this paper by printing voluminous despatches addressed to the Secretary of State.