CO885-(2-3) — Page 239

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.

Reference:

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opinion, and it was accordingly confirmed. It was subsequently explained and amended by a later Act, 22 Vict., cap. 130.

Consequently on the passing of these Acts the Canadian Church requested that a Metropolitan might he appointed, mainly in order to act as President at their Provincial Councils. Letters-Patent were accordingly issued in 1860 and 1862, which, how- ever, gave the Metropolitan not only a right of presiding, but large powers of suspending on certain occasions the local jurisdiction of the Suffragan Bishops and exercising a specific jurisdic- tion of his own in their dioceses. This grant of jurisdiction has been made a subject of complaint, and the Bishop has been informed that it is illegal.

In 1857 the Bishopric of Huron was carved out of that of Toronto, and in 1862 the Bishopric of Ontario was carved out of that of Huron.

In

each case the powers conveyed were those of jurisdiction. The framers of these patents were probably uninformed of what had passed in Tas- mania, and followed the precedent of the mother diocese, Toronto.

In 1858 occasion was taken to reduce the powers of the Bishop of Nova Scotia to those of visitation.

On the West Coast of North America, and unconnected with the Eastern group of dioceses, the Bishopric of British Columbia was created in 1859 with powers of visitation. It included Vancouver Island, in which a Representative Legislature had been established, and British Columbia, in which, under an Act of Parliament, laws were made either by the Queen in Council or by a Legislative Council nominated by the Crown or Governor.

EAST INDIES.

The Act 53 Geo. III, cap. 155, provided (sec. 49) that in case His Majesty should think fit by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, to erect a Bishopric, the Directors should pay the Bishop's salary; that the Bishop (sec. 51) should have no other jurisdiction than that given by Letters Patent; and (sec. 52) that His Majesty might grant him by such Letters Patent such jurisdiction

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as His Majesty should think necessary for the super- intendence and good government of the Ministers of the Church Establishment within the East Indies. The Act 3 and 4 Wm. IV, cap. 85, provided salaries (sec. 89) for Bishops of Madras and Bombay, in case His Majesty should be pleased to appoint them, and with similar provisions as to jurisdiction (sec. 92, 93), authorized the Crown by Letters Patent to define the limits of the three

Indian Dioceses.

WEST INDIES.

By Letters Patent passed in July 1824 in sub-

stantial accordance with the Nova Scotian and Canadian precedents of 1787 and 1793, the Crown established the Bishoprice, defined the dioceses, and appointed the Bishops of Jamaica and Barbados.

In 1825 the Act-6 Geo. IV, cap 88, recited that His Majesty had by his several Royal Letters Patent established these two dioceses, and authorized pay.

ment of the Bishops' salaries from Imperial funds. Nothing was said about jurisdiction.

In 1842 the Act 5 Vict., Bess. 2, c. 4, was passed to authorize the sub-division of these dioceses. By this Act it seems to have been thought necessary to empower the Crown to establish by Letters Patent three or more dioceses "within the territorial limits of the existing dioceses of Jamaica and Barbados," and for that purpose to revoke the Letters Patent under which the existing dioceses of Barbados and Jamaica had been established.

Under authority of this Act the Bishoprics of Antigua and British Guiana were carved out of that of Barbadoes in 1842, and the Bishopric of Nassau out of that of Jamaica in 1861, all with powers of jurisdiction.

In 1856 the Bishop of Jamaica being disabled by

ill health, a coadjutor Bishop was appointed by Letters Patent under the title of Bishop of Kingston, with power to perform the functions and exercise the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Jamaica within his diocese.

When these dioceses were established all the

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