7
right, in my opinion, to constitute your Lordship a Metropolitan, and
thereby give you pre-eminence and precedence over your suffragans.
In the "legal opinion" above referred to it is stated " that under
"judicial decisions arrived at and legal opinions taken subsequently
" to the last meeting of the Assembly, the Patent is invalid and illegal
"in all its material parts, including that which assumes to give the
"Bishop of Montreal, as Metropolitan, power to convoke and preside
" over the Assembly." From the Bishop of Huron's letter I must infer
that these decisions and opinions are those alluded to in the despatches
of His Grace the Duke of Newcastle of the 4th and 10th of February,
1864.
In the first of these despatches it is stated that the Letters-Patent, in
the case of the Oolony of the Cape of Good Hope were invalid in so fae
only as they purported to convey to the Bishop any power of coerciv,
juri8diction, irrespectively of the sanction of the local legislature; and
in th? second of these despatches it is distinctly stated, that it was
competent to the Crown to constitute your Lordship a Metropolitan,
with power of pre-eminence and precedence. It being once conceded
that the Letters-Patent legally conferred upon your Lordship the title
and rank of Metropolitan, I apprehend there can be no difficulty in con-
cluding that you had a perfectly legal right to convoke and preside
over the Assembly.
It is to be borne in mind, also, that the first Letters-Patent (to which
those in'question here are an amendment) were granted, at the express
request (by Petition) of the Dioceses of Quebec, Toronto, and Montreal,
"so that the necessary powers might be vested in the Metropolitan
"for holding and presiding over the said General Assembly of the
(hurch," and although the Diocese of Huron abstained from join-
ing in the application, yet that Diocese, in the most unequivocal
manner, subsequently acquiesced therein, by electing delegates who,
with their Bishop, attended and took part in the proceedings of the
Synods held.under the two Patents. In the course of the proceedings
at the first of these Synods, the Lord Bishop of Huron joined in a
solemn declaration with his brother Bishops, in which it is affirmed that
the Synod was assembled " under Royal and constitutional authority,"
and in which also expression of most humble and hearty thanks is
given to Almighty God " that it has pleased him in His Providence to
" set over us a Metropolitan." And in the " aonstitution of the Pro-
" vincial Synod," as adopted by both houses at such first Synod, under
the authority of the Provincial Act, it is expressly enacted, that the
Metropolitan shall have power in his discretion to convene the Synod
whenever he thinks fit, and that he "shall be the President ?f the
" Upper House."