§ SIR R. H. INGLISrose to put a question to his hon. Friend the Under Secretary for the Colonies, in reference to some late despatches of his noble Friend who was at the head of that department. A certain foreign Potentate had appointed to a certain office certain persons in certain parts of Her Majesty's dominions. The question he wished to ask his hon. Friend was, whether Her Majesty's Ministers had advised Her Majesty to continue to recognise the precedence which such appointment gave other parties, whose orders had been conferred with Her Majesty's sanction?
§ MR. HAWEShad read over the notice which the hon. Baronet had put upon the paper, with some care, in order to divine, if he could, the direction which this question would take, and he certainly was not quite prepared for the direction which it had taken. The despatches that were laid upon the table contained all the information that it was in his power to give. A circular had been issued from the Colonial Office to the Governors of the different 885 colonies, to the effect that Roman Catholic prelates in the colonies might use the titles belonging to their ecclesiastical dignities, and that those titles would be acknowledged. As to the question of precedence, the question was altogether different. The acknowledgment of the title did not necessarily establish the order of precedence—that was regulated by other rules, and those rules had not been departed from.