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COLONIAL BISHOPRICS.

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VICTORIA.

No. 47.

• Page'

No. 48.

Encl. I

No. 47.

COPY of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. the Earl of CARNARVON, to Governor the

Hon. Sir J. H. T. Manners SuTTON, K.C.B.

(No. 11.)

SIR,

Downing Street, February 8, 1867. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch, No. 30,* of the 24th of November, forwarding an Address to the Queen from the bishop, clergy, and laity of the United Church of England and Ireland in Victoria, expressive of their apprehensions and desires with respect to Imperial legislation upon the affairs of the Church in the Colonies.

I request that you will inform the Bishop of Melbourne, by whom this Address is signed, that it has been laid before the Queen, and that Her Majesty has been pleased to receive it very graciously.

The Hon. Sir J. H. T. Manners Sutton, K.C.B.

&c.

&c.

&c.

No. 48.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

CARNARVON,

Cory of a DESPATCH from the Right Hon. the Earl of CARNARVON to Governor the Hon. Sir J. H. T. MANNERS SUTTON, K.C.B. (No. 14.)

SIR,

Downing Street, February 18, 1867.

I HAVE the honour to transmit to you, for your information a copy of a letter 20th Nov. 1856, which has been addressed to me from Melbourne by the Rev. H. N. Wollaston, regard to the present position of Colonial

Encl. 9

6th Feb. 1867.

Enel in No. 48.

containing a statement of his views with dioceses.

A copy of the reply which has been annexed.

returned to this communication is likewise

The Hon. Sir J. H. T. Manners Sutton, K.C.B.

&c.

&c.

&c.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

Enclosure in No. 48.

CARNARVON.

MY LORD,

Melbourne, Victoria, November 20, 1866. By the outgoing mail a petition from the "Bishop, Clergy, and Laity of the United Church of England and Ireland in Victoria" (assembled under Colonial Act, 18 Victoría, No. 45), with reference to Mr. Cardwell's proposed "Colonial Bishops Bill," will be transmitted to your Lordship for pre- sentation to Her Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament.

As one of the small minority who spoke and voted against the resolutions upon which the said petition was founded in the Church Assembly; as an attached member of the Church of England, and o lover of primitive episcopacy; as a colonist of 24 years standing; and as the minister of a large and influential congregation in the City of Melbourne, I beg most respectfully to draw your Lordship's attention to the following statements and explanations.

The Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon,

&c.

&c.

&c.

(Signed)

I have, &c.

I. N. WOLLASTON, Incumbent of Trinity Church,

Melbourne.

1. The petition sets forth that it emanates "from the Assembly of the United Church of England and "Ireland, duty contened, &c.—The total number of members of the Church of England Assembly in Victoria is 211; of these 110 are clergy and 101 laity, the latter representing the various parishes of the diocese. On the present occasion the Assembly was specially convened by the Bishop, and not more than one half the members answered the summons; and when the petition in question was adopted only some 80 members were in attendance, a majority of whom were residents in Melbourne and its suburbs. The present Assembly was elected nearly three years ago, without any reference to so important a question as that involved in Mr. Cardwell's proposed Bill. No steps whatever were taken to ascertain the views and wishes of the members of the Church generally in the Colony, who number some 200,000 of the population, and nineteen twentieths of whom were and still are in profound ignorance of any such movement on the part of the Assembly. Hence the said petition has emanated from a very small, although influential, section of the Church only, who naturally desire to maintain the

prestige and social status of the Church by retaining a legal connexion with the English establishment, VICTORIA. but which by many, especially amongst the laity, is considered more injurious than beneficial to her

interests.

II. The last clause of the petition points to the evils which, in the opinion of the petitioners, will accrue to the Church of England in Victoria, should she be legally separated from the Established Church in Great Britain by Imperial legislative enactment.

1. "The substantial unity of the United Church of England and Ireland in Victoria with the Church in a the mother country, &c.," would be endangered. This "substantial unity" of the Church here with the mother Church, and the "uniformity of doctrine and worship between them," can be maintained by the action of the Colonial Church herself, if she desires it, without any interference on the part of the British Government, by so amending her present constitution that it shall secure those ends, and by which her communion with the parent Church could remain unbroken, and a uniformity in doctrine and worship maintained; and this amended constitution would receive the same sanction from the Colonial Legislature as that now in force under 18 Vict. c. 45. At the present time, and during the episcopate of Dr. Perry (whose personal influence with the clergy is unbounded), a constitution could be framed on the broadest and most comprehensive basis, to which all the clergy in the diocese of every party would willingly subscribe.

2. "The orderly succession of bishops in the Colony."-This can be easily secured by adopting the same plan for the appointment of bishops as that now pursued by the Church in New Zealand, viz., by the nomination of the bishop by the Church in Victoria, and for the consecration of whom the Queen, on presentation, could issue her Royal mandate. The bishops so consecrated would be still bona fide bishops of the Church of England, and yet virtually elected by the Colonial Church herself.

3. "The position of the clergy."-No separation of the Colonial Church from the State Church could affect, in the slightest degree, the "position" of any of the clergy in Victoria, whose influence for good must always depend upon their individual attainments and character, except the bishop of the diocese, whose social status would be somewhat lowered by the loss of a useless and anomalous title, and which tends to place an undesirably wide social gulf between himself and the clergy. In democratically constituted Colonies like Victoria, and where there is no connexion between Church and State, it would be manifestly to the interests of the Church that her bishops should assume more the position of Primus inter pares," by which their influence with the laity would be increased, whilst they would not lose one iota of their episcopal authority, or of the deference and respect due to their high office as chief pastors of the church.

4. "The tenure of lants and administration of trusts affecting the United Church of England and Ireland."-All the land, churches, schools, parsonages, and other property which has been acquired by the Church in Victoria, and which has been vested in trustees on her behalf, could be as secured to her as the property of any other religious body is now secured to it. The proposed amended legally constitution would define the meaning of the term United Church of England and Ireland," to which all the said property was granted and given, so that it would be for ever secured to that religious body which is now called the "United Church of England and Ireland,' but which would be probably designated in the new constitution "The Episcopal Church of Victoria." In all questions of property the Episcopal Church would enjoy the same privilege of appeal from the Supreme Court to Her Majesty's Privy Council as the Presbyterian, Wesleyan, Roman Catholic, or any other communion. As no amount of legislation, Imperial or Colonial, could prevent the settlement of bishops and clergy in the Colony, independent of the Episcopal Church already in existence, or the planting of any number of Free Episcopal Churches, to secure all the property of the Church to that body for which it was originally intended, and to which it was granted and given, is the utmost that can be done by statute to maintain the integrity and unity of the Church of England in Victoria, and to preserve bor from the encroachments of other bishops, clergy, and laity who might claim an equal right to be regarded and called members of the Church of England and Ireland:

HI-Any legal recomition on the part of the Crown and British Parliament of the Episcopal Church in Victoria, ONLY, is highly undesirable, for-1st. It will tend to destroy that harmony and good understanding and feeling which should exist between the Church of England and other Christian Commun ions in the Colonies, where all are placed, by their political constitutions, on precisely the same level.

Any recognition of the Church of England, therefore, by the British Crown and Parliament, which is not extended to other Ladies, would place her at an advantage, and create a feeling of soreness and jealousy on their side, and would inevitably lead to remonstrances and counter petitions from them, protesting against being placed in what they would consider, an inferior position to the one favoured and recognized Church.

2. And such a recognition on the part of the Crown is not necessary for the future well-being and prosperity of the Church of England in Victoria. The present condition of the sister Presbyterian Church demonstrates this. This body is a United Church, composed of the various sections of the Church of Scotland,—the Established, the Free, the United, &c., perfectly free from all connexion with the mother Church, but in close communion with her. All her lands and property are secured to ber by her constitution, ratified by the local Legislature. She possesses all her ecclesiastical organizations in the most perfect order and completeness. Although numerically a far smaller body than the Episcopaliaus, the Presbyterian Church of Victoria is rapidly growing in strength and importance, gradually outstripping the Church of England. She has as large a number of clergy, who in attainments and character are their equals, and who, on the whole, are better paid than the Episcopalian clergy. The secret of their success, as of the other great Protestant bodies, which are all flourishing, the Wesleyans, Baptists, and Independents, is due to the fact that they are an entirely self-governing body; being hampered by no foreign restrictions or state considerations, every member may feel and take an interest in her spiritual and temporal affairs, which is denied to the members of the Church of England under her present ineffective system. The latter has no Church Courts; no power to legislate in matters of discipline, doctrine, or ritual. And the final Ecclesiastical Courts of Appeal being at the Antipodes, they are for all practical purposes utterly useless to members of the Church here, from the enormous loss of time and money which any appeal to them would involve.

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