Untitled - Electric Scotland

358 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xm.
this attack in a copious pamphlet 1 He had already
declared his readiness to appear for trial before any com
petent Court, whose proceedings should be conducted in
accordance with English law, and he had undertaken, in
such case, to raise no merely technical objection.
appealed to the Queen
He now
in Council as to whether the
deposition which had been pronounced was valid, and on
March 2Oth, 1865, the Lord Chancellor pronounced judg
ment in his favour, on grounds similar to those which had
governed the decision in the Long case, 2
namely, that the
Letters Patent had exceeded their power in professing to
confer coercive jurisdiction upon the Bishop of Capetown,
and that, accordingly,
"
the proceedings taken by the
Bishop of Capetown, and the judgment or sentence pro
nounced by him against the Bishop of Natal, are null and
void in law."
Bishop Colenso s alleged errors of doctrine had not, of
course, come, in any shape, before the Court. 3 The ques
tion referred to the judges was merely whether there had
or had not been a legal trial and a legal deposition. They
decided that there had not, and the Bishop of Natal
immediately returned to his diocese, reiterating his claim
to be tried, if at all, by some process known to English
law, either ecclesiastical or civil. He landed at Durban
on November 6th, 1865, and, in spite of opposition, resumed
his ministerial work. Thereupon
decision of the Bishops of the Province in Synod
1 Remarks
"in accordance with the
upon the Proceedings and Charge of the Bishop of Capetoivn.
!
See above, p. 350.
!
It is perhaps necessary to point out that the Judicial Committee of the
Privy Council, which had adjudicated upon Bishop Colenso s petition, was
not the much impugned Judicial Committee, "constituted as a Court for
hearing Ecclesiastical Appeals." The matter came before the Court as a
purely civil case. The Court had to decide whether a certain citizen of the
British Empire had or had not been wronged. The judges were the Lord
Chancellor, Lord Cranworth, Lord Kingsdown, the Dean of Arches, and the
Master of the Rolls.