§ SIR JOHN PAKINGTONI wish, Sir, to ask the hon. Gentleman the Under Secretary for the Colonies whether an appeal has been sent home by a clergyman in Van Diemen's Land, in consequence of the Bishop of Tasmania having refused to grant him a licence after he had been appointed to a chaplaincy by the Governor; whether 1273 in consequence of the death of the late Bishop of Sydney such appeal is now under consideration by the Secretary of State; and whether he will object to lay the correspondence relating to such appeal on the table of the House?
§ MR. FREDERICK PEELSir, the information of the right hon. Baronet is not quite correct. The case in question is not an appeal from a clergyman in Van Diemen's Land, but a joint letter from Sir William Denison, the Governor of the Colony, and the Bishop of Tasmania, under the following circumstances:—There is a vacancy in one of the colonial chaplaincies in Van Diemen's Land, and the appointment by law is vested in the Governor, but the clergyman appointed by the Governor cannot officiate unless he has a licence from the Bishop. The Bishop and the Governor must, therefore, concur in the appointment, but both parties ought to avoid straining their powers, and to endeavour, as far as possible, to act in harmony with each other. In this instance a difference exists as to the person to be appointed, and this difference has become the subject of reference to the Colonial Office. In this state of the matter I think that it would probably be inconvenient that the papers should be produced with respect to the second part of the right hon. Baronet's question. I believe that the late Bishop of Sydney had a metropolitan power over the other Bishops in the Australian Colonies, superseding to a great extent, though not entirely, the metropolitan power of the Archbishop of Canterbury. If there had been a Bishop of Sydney, perhaps an appeal would have been made to him; but I am not aware that he would have had the power of enforcing any decree made by him in any adjoining Australian Colony.