1310 ADMINISTRATION AND LEGISLATION [PART V 
British subjects, other than Colonial officials, enjoying in 
the United Kingdom precedence by right of birth or by 
dignity conferred by the Crown, cannot! lose such prece- 
dence while either temporarily or permanently residing in 
a Colony. This regulation must, however, be understood 
as subject to any special provisions in tables of precedence 
approved by the Crown, and it cannot be said to be acted 
upon generally in the self-governing Dominions, which 
naturally attach importance to the precedence in the 
Dominion itself, and not to the artificial precedence con- 
ferred by birth in the United Kingdom. 
The precedence of bishops has been a matter of consider- 
able variation. Up till 1847 a bishop of the Roman Catholic 
Church was not supposed to be addressed officially in the 
Colonies by the style appropriate to his rank, but on Novem- 
ber 20 of that year, in view of the passing of legislation in 
the Imperial Parliament recognizing the bishop as entitled 
to precedence next after the bishop of the orthodox Church, 
the Governors of Colonies were informed that they could 
accord the usual official style to Roman Catholic bishops 
and others, but for a long time it was still the rule that they 
took rank after the bishops of the Established Church in 
England.? This is now, however, completely obsolete, and 
archbishops and bishops take rank usually by courtesy 
according to the date of consecration; archbishops in all 
cases taking rank above bishops? The position by which 
the English Church was given preferential rank became 
impossible after 1865, when the plan of creating bishops in 
This is contrary to No. 26 of the Commonwealth list, which makes it 
» matter of courtesy, and the Colonial Regulation must be deemed only to 
se binding when no other rule already exists. The words in italics are 
not in the edition of 1911, but must be deemed still binding. 
* See the Duke of Newcastle's dispatch, May 3. 1860 ; South Australia 
Parl, Pap., 1871, No. 115. 
* The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church is sometimes given a similar 
position. In Canada the bishops figure in the table of precedence, in 
Australia not, but de facto they may receive a courtesy precedence, and their 
precedence even in the Crown Colonies is a courtesy one. As a matter of 
fact, in Canada the heads of the Presbyterian and other Churches are also 
given a courtesy precedence; House of Commons Debates, 1910-1, pp. 973 seq.