§ MR. GROGANsaid, he would beg to ask the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Control, whether any minute had been made by the Governor 1385 General of India, recognising delegates from the see of Rome, under the style and title of Vicars Apostolic, as the official channels of communication with the Government in matters connected with the Roman Catholic Church, and admitting the propriety of addressing the aforesaid Vicars Apostolic in official communication according to the ecclesiastical rank and position bestowed upon them by the Pope? Whether the Roman Catholic Bishops at each seat of Government were to be allowed a certain salary to enable them to send Returns, and to correspond with the Government? Whether a Roman Catholic priest, with a fixed salary, was to be allowed at every station where there might be British-born Roman Catholics, although there should be no European regiment stationed there? Whether the Roman Catholic priests wore to be allowed to receive medical attendance and medicines gratuitously in certain cases? Whether grants were to be given in aid of building Roman Catholic Chapels? And whether, although the Government orphanages were open to Roman Catholic children as to all others, a sum equal to the cost of maintaining each child is to be paid to Roman Catholic orphanages into which such child shall be received?
MR. VERNON SMITHsaid, the hon. Member appeared to have based his question rather upon applications which might have been made to the Governor General of India than upon any instructions which were issued by him. There was no Minute of which he (Mr. V. Smith) was aware similar to that to which the first question of the hon. Member related. Instructions had been sent out to India by the Government to the effect that there should be no alteration in the status of the Roman Catholic Bishops, and by orders which had been previously sent out they were not entitled to any consideration arising out of the rank which they happened to hold in the Roman Catholic Church. For a long period the Roman Catholic prelates had been allowed a pecuniary stipend for sending returns relating to their co-religionists, which was the best mode the Government possessed of obtaining information on such subjects. Latterly that remuneration had been confined to four Roman Catholic Bishops, of whom there was one in each of the four Presidencies of India. Roman Catholic priests at military posts, where European regiments were stationed, had always been allowed a fixed salary, and a 1386 similar privilege had lately been extended to stations where there were British-born Roman Catholic subjects employed in the civil service, the rule in India being that in those cases in which men were engaged in that service their religious education should be provided for. They had also been allowed to receive medicines and medical attendance gratuitously, owing to the difficulty of procuring those necessaries at remote stations. With respect to the last question, he should state that he was not aware that a sum equal to the cost of maintaining each child was to be paid to Roman Catholic orphanages in particular. Instructions had, however, been sent out to the effect that every attention should be paid to the teaching of Roman Catholic children in the several districts.
§ MR. GROGANsaid, he desired more particular information as to the dignity and position of the Roman Catholic Bishops.
MR. VERNON SMITHsaid, that the only information he could give the hon. Member was, that those prelates were not entitled to any consideration in consequence of their rank and condition in the Roman Catholic Church.