car. 1] THE CHURCH IN THE DOMINIONS 1441
that rights were to be dependent upon or to be measurable
or determinable by the opinion of a designated organ of
the general body, conveniently called a domestic tribunal.
There was no principle which rendered illegal a provision,
not that a person should not appeal to the Courts of the
land, but that if he did so appeal he should cease to be
a member of the body which he had joined.
Thus the English Church in the Colonies is a voluntary
association and has no coercive power. The rights of ‘its
members depend upon the constitution of the Church, which
by becoming members they accept, and they will be inter-
preted according to the ordinary principles of law by the
Courts of the Dominions!
X 2. Tur PosrrioN or Cornoxiar CLERGY
The position of Colonial clergy in England, which was very
>bscure when the legal decisions established the distinction
between the Church of England, in the true sense of the
word, and the Churches in the Colonies which were not
really parts of the Church of England, though it might be
in communion with it, has been cleared up by the express
provisions of the Colonial Clergy Act of 18742 That Act
lays down definitely on what conditions Colonial clergymen
can officiate in English churches and hold preferment, and as
regards them the matter is regulated by statute and will not
present substantial difficulties in future. It should be noted,
however, that the anticipations of the Master of the Rolls
in the case of the Bishop of Natal v. Gladstone have not
Cf. Gladstone v. Armstrong and another, [1908] V. L. R. 454; Attorney-
General v. Williams, 7S. R. (N. 8, W.) 826; Dunstan v. Houison, 1 8. R.
‘N.S. W.) (Eq.) 212; Fielding v. Houison, 7 C. L. R. 393; 7S. R. 677;
Lindley v. Jones, 16 C. T. R. 695; Public Trustee v. Commissioner of
Stamps, 26 N. Z. L. R. 778. Cf. 26 & 27 Vict. ¢. 121.
' 87 & 38 Vict. ¢. 77. The matter was discussed in 1867 ; see Hansard,
ser. 3, clxxxvii. 256, 762. It was introduced by Lord Blachford in
1873 (Hansard, ccxvi. 484), and then was intended also to settle the position
of episcopal property, which it purported to vest in the future elective
bishops. But in 1874 that was left for the local legislatures ; see Hansard,
cexviii, 1804 ; Parl. Pap., C. 979.
