The Express.
London, England, 1850-07-09 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY

points‘ a esonneessies, but the a.-
iad
oisenly progoped .the usesabig.
corms 14 tend to allay ths oblongs of eh.
CLILSIASEICAL OOMMISSION
Oa the house gobs tote
commies'= this blit,aiss
Mr. BOWMAN papered the hawing antes vs on
the Sein elms "To leave eat Ile worde ' Beg-
land; aad substitute the words, 'tad the three aria* estate
oommissioners se appoiated shall, teeethee and ealasinly,
ormatituts the body enmerate of the sakelestioal commie
semen for Beehmd, raM he entitled to meeise all their
powm sad pri.'" He We. of opinios that, Instead
of having a censMion of 62 member, they should have
'three pad and reportable members, who should be always
rat attendance.
Lord J. BUSSELL said that it appeared to him that the
proposition of the right hog. gentleman was directly opposed
te the repel of the aronernittee of this holm. Tiro is. gen-
tleman bad stated that a change was nemesery, but the
shop he reetweaseadad we. that there should be
be a totem &Anon of ditty. He proposed to dispense
with the larger body who wen beaded to take
into einehiseation questloas of great priseipbe sad that Step
should only rehda the small committee Mink was intended
to not is miser matters. He (lend J. Bussed) did not
at all thigh that that change would he an improvement.
S'r B H. INOLIS, in opposing the motion of the
honourable member for Cockermouth, slid that he found
fault with his bets and not with his resionias.
After a few wards in reply from Mr. KORMAN,
Sir B. HALL said that he was very glad that they were
now ambled to discus the whole quinine et the proseedinp
of the Beelesiestied Commission. Orie proposition wee that
the episcopal bod should no longer form part of the Heels-
siestisal Cos In that proposition he mut entirely
agree, aad if aa appeal were made to the whole of the
matey, it maid be found that the game opiate spinet
the peeseedloge of the Bealmiastioal Comminion was a
strong one, and that people would unsainously desire, as
Meade of the shateb, that the episcopal body should no
beget eratisse in the oommissioa. If aaytb g could be
possibility,brino into disrepute thoesaduct of the commission
It was the wedeln of the episcopal body in the Bale sisstical
Combines. The best proof that what his hon. bleed
had endeavoured to obtain was right,was that there had be. n
a bill brought down to reform these eeelesiastical commie-
stoners. Allusion bad teen made to the feet that there were
bishops who had incomes ten time greater than the First
Lord of the Treason. Ho had no heeitation in declaring
that the Bishop of London bad that amount of income. At
all events he had the honour to represent Paddington—ons
of the meet valuable properties in the United Kingdom, and
if it was well managed it ought to produce 100,0001. a year.
What was the return made by the bishop foe seven years
subsequent to 1837 ? The Bishop of I. radon's Income in
1837 wae 14,5101.. and in 1843 the net income was 12,4811,
showing • loss of 2,0391. What was the state of the perish
at that time? In order to show that this was not a mere
naboaded statement, he would show the assessment of the
parish in 1837, and bow it was increased largely in coors-
Tremor of the buildings of the Bishop of London. In 1837
tee assessment of Paddington was 12,8681.; is 1843.
19,1641. ; being en increase in seven years of 6,2961. derived
from buildings on the Bishop of London's estate, although
during that period of time he lost no less a sum than 2,0291.
Here was soothe, very carious cue, that of the Bishop of
Exeter. la 1837, his income was returned at 2,1361.
(be was now speaking of the income of the ens), and in
1843 he put it down at 3411. How was it possible, unless
it was from the litigious character of the proceedings of the
right tee. prelate, that he could put down only this sum ?
It reminded him of a elergyman of the diocese of London, I
whose living was 1,7001., and his return 1001. lie said
thst he spent 1,8001. a year to mailmen himself and his
family, and had at the end of the year 1001., arid he
moldered it u his net income and returned it as
such. The income* of the bishops, in 1843, amounted '
to 97,5591 la. Bd., being 8,0001. a year for each
bishop. That was the gross income, hut to skew how
remarkably well they d their affairs, they returned
their net income at 153,7031. From tee time that
hon. friend had taken notice of the proceedings of the
Se slesiastical Commission down to the present time
there had been no report of their proceedings. They had
been particularly sileht as to any proceedings of the Board, I
slid when the noble lord was asked when be thwart he
should be able to let the house have the report of the Endo- I
siastieal Commiseim, the noble lord oboe* hie head, and said !
" I will undertake to say that after the bill has
passed, some report shall be made annually." Then
was one difficulty in touching upon this question, and that I
was to make a distinction between the men holding the office I
and the (Ace itself. lie confessed that, as a member of the
church of Wigrand, he I ad greet veneration for the epic.
copal voice; but he had very little veneration or respect I
for some of the gentlemen who held the office. The I
bishops were desired to send an account of their gross in- I
eine, and they returned their actual income at 123,2691.
He thought he should be able to show that they bad ex- I
pended this money for their own peculiar benefit, without
this king sufficiently of the clergy at large. This I.tata•
anent was made by his hon. friend three or four years ago. I
On eight palaces they expended 143,0001 In 1842 the
Bishop of Easter was called on to pay the assessed taxes;
he demurred to the payment, and said he we. non-midget.
The case was brought before the judges, and they deter-
mined
that, inasmuch as he had left some portion of his I
furniture, he was liable to the assessed taxes. What I
took pine during the time when be made it known to all
the world that his was an ishabited hoax. ? The palace was !
going into dilapidation; be sent for 13,0001. fur repairs.
and it was granted. This was the whole of the capital I
which we. left for repairs, he had expended the whole of I
this capital sehen be ought to have kept his own palace in I
repair, end he had prevented hie own suclemors for genets-
tions from receiving interest for the money. By an act of I
parliament the bishops could borrow money from the epis-
copal fund ; they did not pay interest upon that; they ex-
peeled it upon their palaces. In the eve of the Bishop of On- I
lord it came out in the evidence of Mr. Murray, late secretary
to the commission, that there were two grants, one (swards
improving the residence, and the ther towards the dentin
of Caddesden, and they were granted under this special cm-
ditioo, that it the sum of money to be impended, or here
after expended, should exceed the amount to be granted by
the ecclesiastical commissioners, the bishop ehonld pay the
whole of the surplus himself; and it was cow paid out of the
income of the see. The Bubo) of Worcester rime iced 7,000 1,
the Bishop of Rip .n 16,1111., the Bishop of GI itiLeeter
23,6271, the Bishop of Itrchester for his new pike '
and the Bishop of Line An received 54,4401. for his paint.
in Litieolo. lie undertock to say that there never was such
misapplication as this. In these eight sees there were 85
parishes where the income of the clergymen we. less than
501. a year, and 417 vinare it was between 601. and 1001.
The manner in which the money bad been rquandered by
the ecclssiastical commissioner', had been rendered still more
evident by the very extraordinary paper which was placed on
the tables of bon. members this morning. It wai moved for
on the 3rd March, and it was a document which mioht have
been placed on the table of the house the following
week, but every delay had been ti rown in the
way of ibis document being printed, and it was
not printed until after repeated 'milli:mime to the: house.
One argument used by the hon. member for the university of
Cambridge, in reference to the large income derived by
bishops, was that they ought to have large incomes because
they spent so much in charity. In an article which ap-
peared in the Daily Nem, a few days ago, he found that
the Bi.hop of Oxford gave exactly 2s. Bd. in charity for
every 1001. of his income. The bi.lorms had sent round a
circular calling upon persons to subscribe for a new bishopric
at Quebec. On lnokiog over the whole of the dona-
tions he found that only 6101. had been subscribed by arch-
bishops and bishops of England, whilst six laymen had sub-
scribed 9001. In 1838 the church leases committee was op
pointed, sad the noble lord war chairman of that committee.
They made their report on the 6th May, 1939, and they said
that the system was equally detrimental both to the lessor
and the lease. By a table which he held in his hand it ap-
peared that the cur nes who performed the duties of
those reverend absentees had salaries varying from 401. to
1101. a year, and yet the rpisoopal commissioners had not
lbseght their case worthy of consideration.
lb J. PAKINOTON rose to order. The mattes alluded
to by the hon. baronet wire quite beside the question which
She committee had to decide. That question was whether
the three episcopal members should be excluded from the
commission.
Mr. BERNAL considered that the hon. baronet the mem
bar for Marylebone was laying grounds fur an argument
goriest the retention of a certain portion of the commission.
In en doing he was perfectly in order. (lieu.)
Sir B. HALL said he had been endeavouring to show
that the episcopal body was unworthy the cot fidence of the '
house, and he would proceed to show that while exhi-
biting the most commendable seal in taking gaze of
themselves they had wholly neglected the interests of the
poorer Weir. He wondered that the bon, baronet the
member for Droitwich should have interrupted him in an
attempt to bring forward the ease of the poor curates. 2,958
of these poor curates had no house ; and he menteined that
the funds of the commission would have been much better
employed in providing them with residences than in tuilding
palaces for the bishops. (Hear, hear.) Had the episcopal
portion of the commission made any attempt to stay the
plague of pluralities, or had they endeavouree; to remedy
those institutions whisk were &disgrace and an abomination
to the church, the cathedral establishmeata ? (Hear, hear.)
There was another board, and a most useful one, with which
these right rev. prelates -were connected, that for distribut-
ing Queen Anne's bOunty, and their attendance at
that board when the interests of the poor curate were
concerned formed a strange contrast with their &modem
at the commission when their own interests formed the sub-
ject of consideration. The revenue of that fund was about
180,0001. a year, and the expenses &blot 11,0001. ; but at the
meetings in 1848 the Bishop of Durham, with 26,0001. a
Lear, attended only once, and the Bishop of Salisbury, the
Bishop of Llandaff, and others not more than two or three
times. He went on to the building fund for the poorer
till, and he found that the only time the bishops at-
ill was when they wanted to borrow money, they having
borrowed 80,0001, at a low rate of interest to build palaces
for themselves. (Hear.) The bishops had always expressed
thrombin anxious to abolish pluralities, hut so far from that
he could show the house that in the very diocese in which
they were standing there was at the present moment one of
*must monstrous eases of ploraliim that ever misted, and
that was in the ease of the man who wsa called the Ocrlsts
vim*. the bishop's own archdeacon. But the uses
were &onerous, and a disgrace to a Christian church. Four
emus of Canterbury held preferment, to the amount of
11,7101. a year, four canons of Ely to the amount of 11,0001.,
Gad sae held a rectory in Wales, where he had to preach to •
cos aof whose language he was wholly ignorant. And here
ht be allowed to relate a story which would show
the eves ludicrous consequences which monitions
MOB from this ignorenee, A short time since
there was ea examination of adults by the bishop,
who was anxious to as ertain their proficiency
jegglials. It occurred in the library of the episcopal
Bales, is eh* press of the ofeellye abde he believed, some