§ MR. KINNAIRDsaid, he rose to ask the Secretary of State for the Home De- 1715 partment whether Her Majesty's Government have advised The Queen to sanction the sitting of Convocation in the provinces of Canterbury and York for any other than the ordinary purpose of adjournment?
SIR GEOEGE LEWISsaid, that at the end of last February the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury passed a Resolution for an Address to the Crown praying that they might receive permission to revise the 29th Canon, the principal provision of which prevented a parent from being the godfather or godmother of his or her child. It was not by law com. potent for Convocation to consider the alteration of a canon without the previous permission of the Crown. That application had been taken into consideration by the Government, and they had advised Her Majesty that the prayer of the petition should be complied with, so that the Convocation of Canterbury had received permission to revise that Canon. In order to complete that revision it would then be necessary to submit the amended Canon to the Crown before it would have any valid effect. There had been no application from the Convocation of York for a like permission.