CO885-(2-3) — Page 80

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference -

C.O.

885

2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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ecclesiastical offences," materially interferes with the Ecclesiastical supremacy of the Crown within the Colony; but they leave it as "a question of policy for the consideration of Her Majesty's Government' to determine upon the propriety of the measure itself.

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That the Law Officers further express their opinion, that, although, “as regards the meeting of the Legislative Assembly of the clergy exclusively, such a meeting might be rendered legal by Royal license, the objections to empowering the laity to elect representatives to sit with the clergy, and to legislate with them upon the affairs of the Church, (although such objections are rather of a consti- tutional than of a strictly legal character,) could not be removed by the Royal license, and would require legislative enactment on the part of the Imperial Parliament."

The question then is, whether the Government will advise Her Majesty to. relinquish her pre- rogative in ecclesiastical affairs within the Colony to the extent involved in her giving her assent to the present Bill, and whether, in the event of its being decided that such assent will not be effectual to the validity of the Bill without the concurrence of the Imperial Parliament, the Government will apply to such Parliament for that concurrence.

To ask Her Majesty's Government to take these steps may seem presumptuous; it is certainly not

a thing to be lightly done. But, in case your memorialist should succeed in convincing the Go- vernment that the passing of the present Bill (or one to the like effect) is essential to the welfare of the church within the Colony, and that the main- tenance of the Ecclesiastical prerogatives of the Crown, as defined by the Law Officers, in their complete integrity, will most materially cripple the efficiency, if it do not actually endanger the existence of that branch of the church, your memorialist ventures to think that neither the Government will be unwilling to advise-nor Her Majesty to consent to the relinquishment of a power, which can no longer be retained without prejudice to the com- munity which it was designed to protect and support.

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Your memorialist therefore begs to observe—

1st. That the existing constitution of the branch of the United Church of England and Ireland situate within the Colony of Victoria, is extremely defective and objectionable.

2ndly. That such constitution cannot be placed on a sound basis except by such means as those provided by the present Bill.

3rdly. That the Bill does not in fact interfere with any right of the Crown which is in actual exercise, but only with a dormant prerogative, the maintenance of which, though it disable others from acting, does not place the Crown in a position to act itself.

On the first of these three points it is noticed that,

by the existing local Act regulating the temporal affairs of the Church within the Colony, all appoint- ments of Ministers therein are subject to the abso- lute approval and license of the Bishop of the Diocese, or Archbishop of the Province; and that the license of any clergyman may be withdrawn or revoked, and his house, glebe, and living taken from him, by such Bishop at his pleasure, subject, indeed, to the condition that cause be shown, but without any regular (if any) means of testing its sufficiency or accuracy.

That the constitutional status and rights pos- sessed by the inferior clergy, and by the laity in the mother country, have no existence in the Colony, and that the sole, unaided, as well as unfettered, authority vested in the Bishop is open to the oppo- site dangers of leading to oppression or anarchy, accordingly as it may be vested in the hands of an arbitrary, or of an indulgent or timid prelate.

That, to proceed to the second point, the Church of England having no legally recognized position within the Colony, the system of Ecclesiastical Law existing in the mother country, and by which the mutual relations of the several orders of clergy and of the laity are regulated, does not admit of being applied to the members of the Church there.

That it is certain that neither the Imperial Legis- lature, nor the Legislative Council of the Colony, will undertake to supply the members of the Church C