HC Deb 20 February 1852 vol 119 cc880-1

Order for Committee read; House in Committee.

MR. GLADSTONE

said, he rose to move a preliminary resolution, in order to enable him to lay on the table a Bill, as to the principles of which he did not apprehend there would be any objections. Under the present circumstances he would not persevere even in taking this preliminary step, if he thought the Bill was likely to give rise to any objection. He did not see his hon. Friend the Under Secretary for the Colonies in the House, but he had been careful to communicate with him, and the Bill had obtained his approbation. The object of the Bill was simply to relieve members of the Church in communion with the Church of England in the Colonies from certain supposed legal disabilities, which prevented them from taking those measures for the local management of their own affairs that other religious bodies in the Colonies were in the habit of exercising. He did not mean to give them any legislative power; he did not propose in any way to interfere with the colonial legislatures doing whatever they thought fit; he only proposed to relieve them from that which all must admit was most desirable—that was to relieve them from certain difficulties which arose from the state of the law in this country, concerning which doubts existed whether it extended to the Colonies, and out of which doubts had arisen great practical confusion and inconvenience.

MR. HUME

said, he looked upon all these matters with great jealousy, for he was against interference with the religious matters in the Colonies at all: but if he understood the explanations of the right hon. Gentleman rightly, it would not preclude the Colonies from regulating their own affairs. With that understanding he had no difficulty in agreeing to the Motion.

MR. GLADSTONE

said, the hon. Gentleman's observation was strictly correct, or rather, he might have gone further, for the object of the Bill was to enable the Colonies to settle their own affairs—that the ecclesiastical affairs of the Colony should be locally managed in the same way as the civil affairs were locally managed.

"Resolved—That the Chairman be directed to move the House, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to relieve Bishops in the Colonies in communion with the Church of England, and the Clergy and Laity in communion with them, in respect to legal doubts or disabilities affecting the management of their Church affairs."

House resumed.

Resolution reported:—Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Oswald.

The House adjourned at half after Nine o'clock till Monday next.