NATAL—THE CHURCH IN THE COLONIES —CASE OF THE REV. MR. GREEN.

§ MR. MONSELL

said, in reply, that the attention of the Colonial Department had not been called to the position of Mr. Green since the present Government came into Office. It appeared that Mr. Green had been for nineteen years colonial chaplain in Natal, that his salary had been paid out of the colonial revenue, and that there never had been any desire expressed by the colonial authorities, so far as he (Mr. Monsell) knew, that Mr. Green should be removed from his position. On account, however, of his having promulgated the sentence of excommunication pronounced by the Bishop of Cape Town against Dr. Colenso, the Bishop of Natal, Dr. Colenso appeared to have deprived and inhibited Mr. Green. The Supreme Court, on the matter being brought under their consideration, ratified the decision, and pronounced an interdict prohibiting him from officiating in any church or building set apart for the use of the Church of England, and for winch 468 the Bishop of Natal was trustee. From that decision Mr. Green did not appeal. Looking at the question, it was a matter of some difficulty to be sure of the relative legal positions of Dr. Gray, Dr. Colenso, and Mr. Green. The decision of the Judicial Committee of Privy Council, by which those rights had hitherto been supposed to be ascertained, rested on the assumption that, in 1857, Natal was not a Crown Colony, whilst the judgment of the Supreme Court, on which it was now suggested that they should act, was based, by the majority of the Judges, on the opposite assumption that at that period Natal was a Crown Colony. The Judicial Committee having thus been declared mistaken on a most important fact, in this conflict of opinion and authority, his noble Friend Lord Granville had thought it right, before taking any step, to submit the matter to the Law Officers of the Crown for their opinion

NATAL—THE CHURCH IN THE COLONIES —CASE OF THE REV. MR. GREEN.—QUESTION.