The Sun.
London, England, 1836-05-23 00:00:00

THIRD REPORT FROM HIS MAJESTY'S COMMISSIONERS
APPOINTED TO CONSIDER THE STATE OF THE ESTA-
BLISHED CHURCH WITH REFERENCE TO THE ECCLESI-
ASTICAL DUTIES AND REVENUES.
To the King's most Excellent Majesty.
We, your Majesty's Commissioners, appointed to con-
sider the state of the Established Church in England
and Wales, with reference to Ecclesiastical Duties and.
Revenues, humbly present to your Majesty this our third
report,
Not being fully prepared to make a final retort on all
the matters which have engaged our attention, we venture
to offer to your Majesty our further remarks upon that
branch of the inquiry which formed the subject of our
first report ; because, in consequence of the number of
episcopal sees at present vacant, any further delay in car-
rying into effect the new arrangements respecting the
bishoprics will be.attended with great inconvenience.
When we recommended the union of the sees of Llan-
daff and Bristol, we were influenced chiefly by a desire to
retain for the city of Bristol its ecclesiastical character,
and to secure to it the advantage of a Bishop resident upon
the spot, or at no great distance from it. In consequence of
the urgent remonstrances which were made against this ar-
rangement by the clergy and other persons in the diocese of
Llandaff, on the ground that it would deprive them of the
benefits which they derive from the residence and personal su-
perintendence of their Bishop, we were induced to relinquish
that plan ; and in our second. Report we recommended that
the city and suburbs of Bristol, being within a convenient
distance of the City of Wells, where the Bishop of Bath
and Wells resides, should be united to that diocese.
We have since learned that this proposition has occa-
sioned much dissatisfaction to the inhabitants of the city of
Bristol, who have represented in strong terms their objec-
tions to a plan which would merge their episcopal see in
that of Bath and Wells, and their earnest desire to retain
the advantages of the pastoral superintendence and example
of a Bishop resident amongst them.
. Being desirous of consulting, as far as may be consistent
with the general principles of our reports, feelings which
are not less honourable to the citizens of Bristol than en-
couraging to the friends of the Established Church, we
have been induced to recur to the suggestion to which we
adverted in our first Report. We accordingly recommend
that the city and deanery of Bristol (willh the whole parish
of Bedminster) should be united to the diocese of Glou-
cester ; and that a house should be provided, in some con-
venient situation, near the city of Bristol, so that the
Bishop of the united diocese may reside alternately there
and at Gloucester. This arrangement will render it neces-
sary to augment the income of the Bishop beyond what-
might otherwise have been required.
,We recommend, as consequent upon this arrangement,
that instead of the new Archdeaconry of Cirencester, pro-
posed in our last Report, an Archdeaconry of Bristol should
be created ; and that the . parishes of the united diocese
should be divided, in convenient proportions, between that
Archdeaconry and the Archdeaconry of 'Gloucester.
We recommend further that the future Bishops of the-
united diocese should be elected, alternately, by the Dean
and Chapter of Bristol, and the Dean and Chapter of
Gloucester ; and that the mode of confirming such acts of
the Bishop as require confirmation under the Chapter seal
should be determined upon by the Commissioners, subject
to the approval of your Majesty in Council.
We are disposed to suggest a slight alteration in our pro-
positions relating to the northern dioceses, and to recom-
mend that no part of Yorkshire, and no other part of Lan-
cashire but that which composes the deanery of Furnes
and Cartmel, should be added to the diocese of Manches-
ter, and that portion of Yorkshire which forms part of the
deanery of Kirkby Lonsdale and the diocese of Ripon.
Further information has given us reason for withdraw-
ing
those parts of our former recommendations, respecting
the diocese of Gloucester and Worcester, which suggest an
interchange of certain border parishes between those two
dioceses.
With respect to the territorial arrangements of the other
dioceses, although at present we see no reason for deviating
from the general scheme which. we have proposed, we are
of opinion that the Commissioners should have the liberty of
recommending, and that your Mai stv In' r----1 -oun-
have the power_ of 5,.....,.:-_,..,, suefue -1, tons "'iii tl e b
daries-of the several dioceses as may be suggested by fuller
and more precise information, with respect to the circum-
stances of particular parishes or districts. ,
p.. 1? nrit9a,affcetuallxstg.carurtato execution the prop2sed
meets are CoMpleted, to declare that those places which may
have been transferred from one diocese to another, shall be
subject to the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese of
which they will then form a part, in all respects and in the
same manner as if they had originally belonged to it ; and
that the jurisdiction of the bishops, from whose dioceses they
may respectively have been severed, shall from thenceforth
wholly cease. ,
Power of a similar character, although varied in some par-
ticulars, will be requisite with respect to the proposed union
of the diocese of Bangor with St. Asaph, and that of Bristol
with Gloucester, as well as with regard to the new sees of
Manchester and Ripon.
As these arrangements will necessarily affect the interests
of several persons who hold patent offices in some of the
dioceses, we recommend that your Majesty in Council should
be empoirered to make such regulations, for the apportion-
ment of fees, as may appear just and equitable, for the pur-
pose of making compensation to those officers who may be
prejudiced by the alterations.
We recommend, however, that at the expiration of every
seven years a new return of each see should be made to
the Commissioners, with a view to their revising the scale of
episcopal payments and receipts, in order to preserve, as
nearly as may be, to each bishop an income equivalent to
that which shall have been considered, in the first instance,
to be suitable to the circumstances of his bishopric ; and
that such revised scale should take effect upon the then
next avoidance of the respective sees.
The proposed changes in the revenues of the several sees
will render the payments with which they are charged for
first fruits and tenths very disproportionate ; and the two
new sees will be free from this charge. We therefore
recommend that the aggregate sum, to be paid from this
source to Queen Anne's Bounty, should remain the same as
at present ; but that the Commissioners should be em-
powered, as speedily as may be, after the relative values of
the several sees under the new arrangements shall be ascer-
tained. to make a new division of tat aggregate sum, in
proportion to the respective values of the sees, and that
such appointment, being ratified by your Majesty in Council,
should be binding on all bishops to be hereafter appointed.
We append to this Report the diocesan maps, to which
we referred in the Appendix to our Second Report, and
the completion of which was delayed by the necessity for
re-considering some of the territorial arrangements. These
maps are intended to exhibit the condition of each of the
present dioceses, with reference to territorial contents and
boundaries ; and its future condition, as to its main out-
lines, in the event of our propositions being carried into
effect.
In that part of our last Report which refers to the con-
tributions, to be hereafter furnished by the richer sees, to-
wards the ' augmentation of the poorer, we did not point
out the particular mode in which such contribution might
be most conveniently made. In sonic cases a transfer of
estates may, probahly, be expedient; but in general we
think that the most advisable arrangement will be, that each
of the Bishops of the richer sees should pay to the Com-
missioners the sum which shall he fixed upon, as his quota
of contribution to the fund, out of which the yearly pay-
ments are to be made in augmentation of the poorer
bishoprics. Objections may, no doubt, be urged e:gainst
this plan, on the ground that the fluctuating amount of the
episcopal incomes may sometimes make it inconvenient to
the holders of the larger sees to pay a certain fixed sum ;
'but upon the whole .we think that this mode is less open to
objection than any other which has presented itself to us ;
and it possesses the important advantage of insuring a suf-
ficient fund for the improvement of the smaller sees.
The reduction to be made in the incomes of the sees of
Durham and Ely, which arc now vacant, requires a corre-
sponding reduction in the sums which the bishops whom
your Majesty may he pleased to prefer to these sees on the
present occasion will, immediately on taking possession of
their temporalities, become liable to pay for first fruits. For
this purpose, we submit, that, as soon as the incomes of
those sees arc fixed, the Commissioners should be empow-
ered to relieve the bishops from the excess beyond their due
proportion of the payment, and to order thet the residue of
the sums due be paid out of the surplus funds arising from
the respective sees.
The vacancies to which we have adverted, in the sees of
Durham and Ely, afford an opportunity of carrying into
effect
.many of the changes which we recommended in our
former reports. From information received since the date
of our last Report, as to the probable future proceeds of the
property belonging to the sees of Durham and Ely, we are led
to believe that, if the future income of those sees be reckoned
at 8,0001. and 5,500/. respectively, the fund intended to pro-
vide, either wholly or in part, for the smaller bishoprics, will