COLONIAL BISHOPRICS.
+5
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference -
C.O.885
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
NEW SOUTE
WALES.
No. 40.
• Page
No. 41.
No. 40.
Copy of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. the Earl of CARNARVON to Governor the Right Hon. Sir JOHN YOUNG, Bart., K.C.B.
(No. 22.)
Downing Street, November 30, 1866.
SIR,
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch, No. 61,* of the 19th of September, enclosing a letter from the Bishop of Sydney, in which his Lordship transmits a paper drawn up by Mr. Gordon, Chancellor of his diocese, respecting the Bill which was introduced into the House of Commons by Mr. Cardwell with relation to the status of Colonial bishops.
I have, &c. (Signed)
Governor the Right Hon. Sir John Young, Bart., K.C.B.
&c.
&c.
&c.
No. 41.
CARNARVON.
Copy of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. the Earl of CARNARVON to Governor the
Right Hon. Sir JOHN YOUNG, Bart., K.C.B.
(Separate.)
SIR,
Downing Street, January 18, 1867. WITH reference to my Despatch, No. 6, of the 22d of August last. I have to acquaint you that, on the application of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Queen has been pleased to issue Her mandate under the Royal sign manual au! signet, autho- rizing the Archbishop to proceed to the consecration of the Rev. William Collinson Sawyer, M.A., to be a Bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in the Colony of New South Wales, the Rev. Dr. Waddelow having finally declined that office.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
Governor the Right Hon. Sir John Young, Bart., K.C.B.
&c.
&c.
&c.
CARNARVON.
VICTORIA.
No. 42.
COPY of a DESPATCH from Governor the Hon. Sir J. II. T. MANNERS SUTTON, K.C.B., to the Right Hon, the Earl of CARNARVON.
(No. 23.) MY LORD,
Government Offices, Melbourne, October 27, 1866.
(Received December 13, 1866.) (Answered, No. 37, December 24, 1866, page .)
VICTORIA.
No. 42.
I HAVE the honour to transmit to your Lordship, herein enclosed, a letter 20th UCL 1865 addressed to your Lordship by the Bishop of Melbourne, who has requested me to forward it by this mail. This letter was placed in my han is this day, and I have scarcely had time to read it; but if, upon consideration, I should think it desirable to offer any remarks on the subject to which it refers, I shall have the honour of sub- mitting those observations to your Lordship by the next mail.
I have, &c. (Signed) J. II. T. MANNERS SUTTON.
The Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon,
MY LORD,
&c.
&c.
&c.
Enclosure in No. 42.
THE office which I hold will, I am sure, be regarded by your Lordship as justifying me, although
Bishopscourt, Melbourne, October 20, 1866. personally a stranger, in addressing you upon a subject in which the Church of which I am the Bishop, as well as myself, is deeply concerned, viz, the future relation of that Church to the parent Church in England.
In common with all the members of the Church here with whom I have spoken concerning it, I have been greatly alarmed by the character of the Bill introduced into the House of Commons during the last session of l'arliament by your predecessor in office, the Right Hon. Edward Cardwell.
If I interpret that Bill rightly, upon it becoming law the Church in this Colony could no longer be properly called, as it hitherto has been in the Acts of the Colonial Legislature, as well as in all deeds and documents, "the United Church of England and Ireland in Victoria."
Moreover, it would deprive the members of the Church here of that right of appeal which they have hitherto been considered to possess in all ecclesiastical causes to the supreme ecclesiastical tribunal of the mother Church.
The consequences resulting therefrom to the Church here would, my Lord, be most disastrous, and such as I am sure Mr. Cardwell, when he introduced the Bill, did not in the least contemplate.
1. First, it would render altogether nugatory the Act of the Colonial Legislature, 18th Victoria No. 45, intituled "An Act to enable the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the United Church of England "and Ireland in Victoria to provide for the Regulation of the Affairs of the said Church." This Act enacts that "it shall be lawful for any bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in Victoria "to convene an assembly of the licensed clergy and the laity of such Church in his diocese."
I need not point out to your Lordship that if there be no such bishop, clergy, or laity, and no such diocese, the Act is a dead letter.
2. Secondly, it would create, or at least suggest, doubts as to the title of the Church here to all property now held in trust for the United Church of England and Ireland in Victoria.
3. Thirdly, it would deprive the Church here of the only effectual security it possesses,-a common supreme ecclesiastical tribunal-for preserving its identity as to doctrine and worship with the parent Church in England.
4. Fourthly, by dissolving all necessary connexion between the Colonial epi-ropate and the epis copate in England and Ireland, it exposes the Church in Victoria to the danger of becoming split up into a number of sections, each independent of the others, and each possessing its own bishop or body of bishops.
"6
It would be presumptuous in me, my Lord, to offer to your Lordship any suggestions as to the measure which the Imperial Parliament should adopt for removing doubts as to the effect of letters patent granted to certain Colonial bishops," and for amending “the law with respect to bishops and clergy "in the Colonies." But I may be allowed to remark that, so far as this and the adjacent Colonies, and I believe most others, are concerned, the only real difficulty arises out of the legal question, whether a branch of the United Church of England and Ireland can exist out of those countries. No difficulty which may not easily be removed arises out of the relation of the Church in the Colonies to other Colonial Churches, or, as all are usually called, religious denominations.
The Legislature and people of Victoria will not in any way trouble themselves about any matters, such as the mode of appointing bishops, the constitution of dioceses, and the reference of e, clesiastial F 3
Enol. in No. 42
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