MR. DANBY SEYMOURwished to! ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether it is true that the Convocation of York have postponed discussing the repeal of the 29th Canon of 1603 until next November: if they have done so, whether it is the intention of Her Majesty's Government to recommend that the Royal Assent be given to the Canon which has been recently passed by the Convocation of Canterbury, repealing the 29th Canon, and enacting another Canon in its place: and, whether the Canon law, as contained in the 29th Canon of 1603, respecting sponsors, is not part of the statute law, it having been incorporated in the English and Irish Acts of Uniformity of Charles the Second; and if so, whether the Convention of the Irish Province, as part of the United Church of England and Ireland, have, in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Acts of Union, been consulted respecting the proposed alteration in the law respecting sponsors?
§ SIR GEOEGE GREYsaid, the Government had no information which enabled him to answer the first question of the hon. Member. It was possible the Convocation of York had postponed the consideration of the canon. No application had been made for the Royal Assent to the canon passed by the Convocation of Canterbury, and the application had probably been postponed until the matter had been 1866 considered by the Convocation of both provinces. In answer to the third question, he might state that an opinion had been taken, not by the Government, but by private persons, as to the effect of the statute law. The opinion was that it was doubtful whether the Royal Assent would give validity to the proceedings of Convocation without the sanction of Parliament.