CO885-(2-3) — Page 238

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O.885

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3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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Nos. 7, 8.

clauses identical with those above quoted, were referred to the Attorney and Solicitor-General, Sir John Scott and Sir William Mitford (afterwards Lords Eldon and Redesdale), who requested the assistance of Sir William Scott (afterwards Lord Annexure 2. Stowell), "the appointment being purely matter of Ecclesiastical Constitution." The opinion of these lawyers was that the Instrument "was drawn in proper form." The Bishopric was established, and Letters Patent executed accordingly.

Another opinion given by the last-mentioned Law Officers about the same time may be worth noting here, as showing the then policy of the Government.

The Canadian Constitution Act of 1791 (31 Geo. III, cap. 31, sec. 6), assuming the right of the Crown to create hereditary titles" by Letters Patent under the Seal of either of the said Provinces," further authorized His Majesty to annex a hereditary In apparent seat in the Council to those titles. pursuance of this policy at the same time the Faw Officers were requested to report whether the Bishop

could receive an er officio seat in the Council, under

the title of the "Lord Bishop of Quebec and his

successors.' They reported that although the Anuexure 2

Bishop and his successors might by Instruments No. 9.

under the Seals of the two Provinces be invested

with the style and title of Lord Bishop of Quebec, yet that the King could not by that "or by any other style or title" give the Bishop and his succes- sors an er officio sent in either Council.

In 1819 the Act 59 Geo. III, cap. 60, was passed, which by its 4th and 5th sections recognized the Episcopal Jurisdiction" of the Bishops of Quebec and Nova Scotia somewhat more unreservedly than the Act 31 Geo. III, above quoted. The 4th sec- tion of this Act declares that persons ordained by

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Episcopal

a Colonial Bishop not actually possessing Jurisdiction over some diocese shall be absolutely But the incapable of ecclesiastical preferment.

3rd section implies that persons ordained by the Bishops of Quebec and Nova Scotia may, under certain conditions, hold such preferment, and consequently that those Bishops had "Episcopal Jurisdiction."

In 1839 the Diocese of Newfoundland was de-

tached from the Diocese of Nova Scotia, and the Diocese of Toronto carved out of that of Quebec, with the original power of jurisdiction,

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The Diocese of Newfoundland comprised the Island of Newfoundland, to which representative institutions had been given in 1832, and Bermuda, which had always possessed such institutions.

In 1845 the Bishopric of New Brunswick was detached from that of Nova Scotia ; New Brunswick having, like Nova Scotia, possessed representative institutions since 1784. The jurisdiction continued the same,

but the appointment was peculiar, as the Bishop was appointed during pleasure.

The Bishopric of Rupert's Land was appointed in 1849. The Diocese was comprised within territories under the government of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany,

in which no constitutional Government existed, though as a settled country it was probably subject to English law.

But before this happened (i.e., in 1847) a con- troversy in Tasmania, which will be noticed in its place, had caused an alteration in the form of Episcopal Letters Patent; a mere power of visita- tion and inquiry not upon oath being substituted for the powers of examination on oath, correction, and punishment which are conveyed by previous Letters Patent.

Hereafter the original powers of 1787 will for short- ness be called powers of jurisdiction, and the reduced powers of 1847 will be called powers of visitation.

In 1836 Dr. Mountain had been appointed coad- jutor to the Bishop of Quebec under the title of Bishop of Montreal. In 1850 Montreal was con- stituted a substantive Diocese with powers of visita tion.

A Canadian Act was passed in 1856 (19 and 20 Vict., cap. 141) authorizing the Bishops, clergy, and

laity of the Church of England in the Canadas to meet in their several Dioceses, and "to frame cou- stitutions and make regulations for enforcing disci- pline in the Church, for the appointment, deposition, and deprivation or removal of any person bearing office therein," and for other matters; also to meet in provin- cial synod to frame a "constitution and regulations for

the general management and good government of the Church." The then Law Officers, Sir J. Harding, Sir A. Cockburn, and Sir R. Bethell, were of opinion that the consent of Her Majesty could not be legally given to this Act. But the Judicial Committee, to whom the question was referred, were of a contrary

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