He
maintained that, of the nine charges brought against him, four had
already been disposed of by the late judgment of the Privy Council in
the case of the _Essays and Reviews_. In the meanwhile, his friends at
home collected a fund of more than two thousand pounds to enable him to
plead his cause before the English courts. The first proceeding in Great
Britain commenced in 1863, before the judicial committee of the Privy
Council. The case has finally been decided in Colenso's favor, the Lord
Chancellor declaring the sentence pronounced by the Bishop of Cape Town
illegal, in the following words: "As the question can be decided only by
the sovereign or head of the Established Church and depositary of
appellate jurisdiction, their Lordships will humbly report to Her
Majesty their judgment and opinion that the proceedings taken by the
Bishop of Cape Town, and the judgment or sentence pronounced by him
against the Bishop of Natal, are null and void."
But while this judgment of the Privy Council annulled the proceedings
against Colenso, it also destroyed his Episcopal authority by
pronouncing that the letters patent of the Queen, by which he was made
Bishop, had neither been authorized by any Parliamentary statute nor
confirmed by the legislative council of Natal.
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