Mr. Cardwell has introduced a Bill to enable the Colonial
!Bishops to surrender their letters patent, and so to do away with all the ineffectual attempts which appear to have been uninten- tionally made by the Crown to establish dioceses in colonies with. free legislatures of their own. In what position the colonial bishops will be after they have surrendered their letters patent we do not very clearly understand from Mr. Cardwell's speech. They will be bishops by virtue of their consecration, and we conclude bishops quite independent of each other. The Bishop of Cape Town will have no more power, we suppose, to displace the Bishop of Natal after this Act than he has now. But the Propagation of the Gospel Society will be able, we suppose, to send out as many new bishops to Natal—not to supersede Bishop Colenso, but to compete with hint—as they please.
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