§ MR. BERESFORD HOPE,in rising "to call attention to the condition of the British Church at Stockholm," said, that in the year 1855, under the Consular Chaplains Act of George IV., a British Consular Chaplain was appointed at Stockholm. In 1858 steps were taken to build a Consular Church, which was finished and consecrated in 1866. It was built at an expense of £3,928, and Divine worship had since been carried on, partly by means of Government grants and partly by the subscriptions 715 of British subjects, at an expense of £6,931. From 1855 to the present year that British Church had been kept up by grants from the British Government and British subjects to the amount of £10,600. A certain class of non-British subjects had contributed towards it the sum of £227. A change was made by the late Government in the status of the Consular Chaplains, to which the present Government had, to an extent which he could not justify, conformed, and among the sufferers were the British community at Stockholm. Up to 1867 the affairs of the church were managed by a committee, of which the British Consul was the chairman. Unfortunately, no proper legal constitution of the church was agreed to, according to the laws either of England or Sweden, although there were some memoranda on the subject, while every one understood whom it was for, and what worship was to be celebrated—namely, that the persons using the church were British subjects, worshipping according to the forms of the Church of England. The fact of its being a Consular chaplaincy was considered a sufficient guarantee, and the church was not in strict legal form vested in any one. But upon the withdrawal of the Government grant, and the consequent termination of the Consular chaplaincy, the protection of the Government determined, and the committee were thrown on their resources. In their distress they obtained the services of a gentleman as clergyman who had previously been a schoolmaster, who at a late period went abroad, and who was never able to get a licence from the Bishop of London. Between July and December, 1875, he made the place "too hot" for him, and tendered his resignation, which the committee too hastily, perhaps, accepted. With equal rapidity he withdrew it, and called a meeting of the English-speaking inhabitants of Stockholm, and this mixed multitude and chance-medley of the English-speaking population, who followed the Tabernacle, and who had given the £227 as against the £10,600, voted themselves the general committee and voted out the real committee. They assumed the custody of the chapel, and appointed the Chaplain as chairman. He recognized this committee as the sole acting committee for all purposes except one—he held the original com- 716 mittee responsible for the payment of his salary. He (Mr. Beresford Hope), in appealing to Parliament, did not wish to snatch a legal opinion, but dealt with this matter as one to be governed by rules of honour, and of substantial, as opposed to mere technical, justice. If this clergyman had got the Bishop of London's licence there would have been no difficulty; but the right rev. Prelate did not feel himself justified in issuing a licence. The original committee would not give up the church, so this minister of peace first brought a civil suit against them, and afterwards a criminal suit, because they, pro formâ, locked the door of the church, which was then broken open by the Swedish municipal authorities. The civil suit was decided in favour of the original committee; and they might have thought that the matter would have ended there; but after the civil suit had been decided in favour of the original committee, in the criminal suit a decision was given for the other party, and on account of the merely ceremonious locking of the door of the church they were fined 2,000 dollars a-piece and costs. Though the decision had been appealed against, the money had to be paid into Court, while the gentlemen so cruelly amerced were persons of limited means, and the tyrannical act of the Criminal Court might bring great inconvenience upon these excellent persons. If the Foreign Office could see its way to reinstate the Consular chaplain at the very smallest amount of stipend all its old rights in the Church would revive. Failing that, if they would even make a strong and dignified representation to the Swedish Government, he thought it would tend to settle this question. They would thus relieve very excellent people from a great and grievous difficulty, and provide religious services for the 2,000 British sailors and large number of British travellers who passed through Stockholm annually.
Mr. ASSHETON CROSShoped that the hon. Gentleman the Member for Cambridge University (Mr. Hope) would not think his hon. Friend (Mr. Bourke) wanting in respect in not replying at once, as there was another question to which his attention would be called, and he would not have the right of speaking twice. His hon. Friend would have to address the House in reply to the Motion of the hon. Member for Glasgow (Mr. 717 Anderson) and he would take that later opportunity of replying to the hon. Member.