§ MR. CHARLEYasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, If it be correct, as stated in the despatch of Governor Rawson to Earl Granville, dated Barbadoes, 17th April 1870, and printed by order of the House, that, out of 152,000 inhabitants of Barbadoes, 135,000 are members of the Church of England; and, if so, on what ground, and by whose authority, Earl Granville insists, in his despatch to Governor Rawson, of the 11th June 1870, without consulting the Imperial Parliament, that the Church of England in Barbadoes must be disestablished?
§ MR. KNATCHBULL-HUGESSENSir, Governor Rawson's figures are taken from the Census of 1861, as are also those which state that, in another island, out of a population less than 27,000, about 25,000 were Roman Catholics. Earl Granville's Despatch merely suggested a course to the Colonial Government, and to do this there was no need to consult the Imperial Parliament. The policy which Her Majesty's Government support in the West Indies and everywhere else (in the colonies) is a policy of religious quality, and it appeared to them that, in the West Indies generally, that result would be best obtained by concurrent endowment. The matter, however, is one for the Colonial and not the Imperial Legislature.