SECOND READING. (Hansard, 7 May 1874)

§ LORD BLACHFORD
, in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, that it was more limited in its scope than that which he had introduced last year. The former Bill was intended to remove two colonial grievances, the one episcopal, affecting the devolution of Bishops' property, the other clerical, affecting the position in England of colonially ordained clergy. It also aimed at consolidating the existing law respecting non-English ordinations, and therein at prescribing the status of persons ordained by Irish and Scottish Bishops. The present Bill was confined to the removal of the clerical grievance which arose thus. The 2nd clause of 59 Geo. III. c. 60, provided in effect that no person ordained by any Bishop other than those of England and Ireland should be capable of English or Irish employment without the consent of the Archbishop of the Province and the Bishop of the diocese in which he desired to officiate. The 4th clause, with greater severity, enacted that no person ordained by a Bishop not having episcopal jurisdiction over some diocese, and actually resident therein, should be capable "on any pretence whatever" of holding any ecclesiastical preferment within Her Majesty's dominions or of officiating "at any place or in any manner" as minister of the Established Church. This being the Statute Law, the Judicial Committee had recently determined that the Prerogative power of creating bishoprics and giving episcopal jurisdiction by Letters Patent was extinguished by the grant of representative institutions. From this it followed that a number of Bishops in Africa, America, and Australia, had never had the legal jurisdiction supposed to be conferred on them, and that a large and constantly increasing number of colonial clergy were absolutely incapacitated for English employment. This consequence was carried still further by the decision of Her Majesty's Government to discontinue generally the issue of Letters Patent which were the only established source of legal jurisdiction. It was impossible to say, in view of this decision, how far the disability might extend. The Bill now submitted to their Lordships was intended to remove this injurious and unintended consequence of the law as it stood. But, as under circumstances which might arise it would be found ex- 1805 tremely difficult to define with legal precision who were and who were not entitled to the status of colonial Bishops and clergy; and as the 2nd clause of 59 Geo. III. c. 60, appeared to afford sufficient security against the circuitous introduction from whatever quarter of unfit clergy into English employment and so to render any such definition unnecessary, it was proposed by the present Bill to embrace under that one precautionary rule all persons ordained otherwise than by the Bishops of the Church of England, the Church of Ireland, and the Protestant Episcopal Church in Scotland. The Bill accordingly enacted—following the Act of Geo. III.—that no person so ordained should officiate in England without the consent of the Archbishop of the Province or hold preferment without the consent of the Archbishop and of the Bishop of the diocese. The only clause in the Bill requiring further notice was the 10th, which, in the consecration of a colonial Bishop, would enable the consecrating Archbishop to dispense with the oath of obedience to himself in cases where that oath would be more properly taken to a colonial metropolitan.

THE EARL OF CARNARVON
said, he thought his noble Friend (Lord Blachford) had adopted a wise course in introducing a less ambitious Bill than his Bill of last Session. On the question of the distribution of the property of Churches in connection with the Church of England, attempted to be dealt with by the Bill of last Session, different views were taken in different Colonies, and therefore the subject was one which could be dealt with better by the Colonial Legislatures than by the Imperial Parliament. The status of the colonial clergy was, no doubt, in an unsatisfactory and an anomalous position. The Bill had to deal with a rather mixed and heterogeneous body of clergy; but under its provisions they would be placed upon one simple and definite footing, and in a position only a little inferior to that of the Scotch episcopal clergy. By the consent of the Bishop of the diocese in which he proposed to officiate, a Scotch clergyman might remove to any part of the United Kingdom. On the other hand, the clergy in respect of whom the 1806 Bill was proposed would require not only the consent of the Bishop but also of the Archbishop in order to hold preferment, and such consent would be required toties quoties, as often as they changed from one place to another. Their position would, therefore, be inferior to that of the Scotch clergyman; but would be uniform throughout the whole body. While it was the duty of Parliament to take every reasonable precaution against the danger of improper persons officiating as clergymen in English dioceses, every thing calculated to remove an injustice and an anomaly deserved the favourable consideration of their Lordships; and believing that the Bill was calculated to effect the latter object, he was glad to support the second reading.

THE BISHOP OF LONDON
hoped their Lordships would read the Bill a second time. Such at present was the state of confusion on the point that he defied any Bishop, and, still more, any layman, to decide what was the position of any clergyman who had been ordained in the Colonies or abroad. The disabilities imposed by former Acts worked harshly in some cases; and, on the other hand, there were now officiating in England clergymen ordained abroad who were legally disqualified from performing any ecclesiastical act. Year by year the difficulty was becoming greater, and therefore he hoped the present Session would not be allowed to terminate without the passing of a Bill which, while providing proper checks, would sweep that difficulty away.

THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY
joined in the wish just expressed by the right rev. Prelate. The evil was considerable, and it was most desirable that the position of the Colonial clergy should be placed upon an intelligible and rational basis. As regarded the distribution of property belonging to the various colonial Churches connected with the Church of England, he agreed with his noble Friend the Secretary for the Colonies, that the subject was one which could be much better dealt with by the Colonial Legislatures. He was happy to give his support to the Bill.