claimed by the bishop to revoke licenses at pleasure, as
inconsistent with their dignity as ministers; while, on the other side
of the island, their brethren repudiated the sentiments of the
remonstrants, and declared their determination to submit "to his
judgments in the Lord" (1845).

The necessity for a controlling power is recognised by every church; and
moral and mental aberration, such as no communion could tolerate,
justified the interposition of authority. An exact conformity with the
English custom required the legalisation of an ecclesiastical court; but
the church act had subverted the dominant status of the English church.
A court requires to subpoena witnesses, to be protected from contempt,
to have its decrees carried out by the civil powers. Questions of
ritual, such as baptism, would violate the religious opinions of other
denominations. A clergyman, for burying an unbaptised child might be
liable to deposition; a baptist might be subpoened to give evidence
against him. Thus the jurisdiction of a court passed beyond the limits
of a single denomination, and involved the liability of all, at least as
witnesses. A still stronger feeling than liberty of conscience raised
the opposition to this extension of ecclesiastical power. The Scotch had
claimed equality with the English church: to give the legal rights of a
court to the bishop was to create local disparity; while the
presbyterian had no religious objection to ecclesiastical courts, the
other non-prelatic communions abhorred them.

A variety of differences had created a coldness between the governor and
the bishop. His lordship had demanded the control of religious
instructors; he possessed no means to employ them independently of the
convict department, or to protect them against its many changes. In
repeating a prayer for the governor and the clergy and laity, the bishop
inverted the precedence, it was alleged to degrade the governor by the
transposition. Sir E. Wilmot did not enter into the views of the
bishop, who, in a charge to his clergy (1845), represented "legal help"
as necessary to the protection of ecclesiastical discipline, and
expressed his intention to visit Great Britain to obtain a more
satisfactory arrangement. Petitions against ecclesiastical courts were
forwarded by the various denominations. To these the secretary of state
replied that no powers had been solicited in any way affecting others
than the Anglican church; and intimatin