§ MR. SUMMERS (Huddersfield)asked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether it is the fact that, by Letters Patent of 23rd November, 1853, Her Majesty created the late Bishop of Natal a "body corporate," to be a "perpetual corporation," and to "have perpetual succession;" and, whether, seeing that the Archbishop of Canterbury has declined to apply for a mandate for the consecration of the Rev. Sir G. W. Cox, as Bishop of the vacant See, Her Majesty's Ministers will take such steps as may be necessary to fulfil the pledges given by the Crown to the members of the Church of England in South Africa?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Mr. W. H. SMITH) (Strand, Westminster)The statement in the first paragraph of the Question as to the effect of the Letters Patent is correct. As to the second part of the Question, it was decided in 1884 that, having regard to the Report of the Committee of the Privy Council of the 24th of June, 1873, Her Majesty should not be advised to appoint by Letters Patent a successor to Bishop Colenso, and Her Majesty's present Advisers see no reason to depart from that decision.