The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-08-04 00:00:00

Emptrtal parlfairant.

HOUSE OF LORDS

A number of bills were bra
Commons, and severally read a
The sale of beer bill went thr

-THURSDAY

light up from 'the House of
first time. .
ouch committee.

Some conversation then ensued upon the bill for regulating
the municipal districts in Ireland, and for awarding compen-
sation to those corporate officers whose interests wet e affected
by the measure ; but the bill was ultimately read a second
time.

In answer to several questions from Lord Londonderry,
Lord MELBOURNE stated that he had received no information
relative to the insurrection which had taken place at Barce-
lona. It was certainly true, that her Majesty had been ad-
vised to confer the order of the Bath ou General Espartero.
The noble lord also promised to lay upon the table all the
papers relating to the payment of the British Auxiliary
Legion.

Lord STRANGFORD inquired as to the truth of a rumour
which had for some days been very prevalent, to the effect,
that formal diplomatic arrangements had been entered into
between this country and certain great powers of the conti-
nent, respecting a settlement of the differences between
Turkey and Egypt, and that France had not been a consenting
party to the treaty.
Lord MELBOURNE replied, that negotiations had been
entered into between this country, Austria, Russia, Prussia,
and the Porte, with a view to the pacification of the Levant.
Considerable progress, had, moreover, been made in these
negotiations, but he never regarded suer' matters as settled
until they were.ratified. Communications had been made to
France upon the subject, but she was not a party to the
treaty.

ECCLESIASTICAL DUTIES AND REVENUES BILL.
The question being then put, that the house resolve itself
into committee on the ecclesiastical duties and revenues bill,
the Bishop of EXETER observed, in the first place, that
although the interests of the 'clergy were so immediately
concerned, they had had no opportunity of expressing their
opinions until after the ecclesiastical commissioners had
actually made their report. Since that time, however, the
expression of their dislike had become general ; and not one
petition had been presented in favour' of the bill until file
minor canons had received an interest in the patronage of the
chapters. The subject of the measure had been first brought
under the consideration of the bishops by the government of
Lord Grey, at whose suggestion a meeting of the bishops was
called, and at that meeting the question of the deans and
chapters was very fully discussed. The Bishop of London
then advocated the principles upon which the present bill was
founded ; but he was opposed by the most rev. primate, and
by all, except two of the bishops ; and a determination was
then made that every institution of the church was to be pre-
served in its full integrity. It was also generally understood,
that they were to devise with the chapters the best means to
carry out that determination • and yet the most rev. primate
had stated that he had long had such a measure in his mind.
The bill was in many points inconsistent, and in reference to
the metropolitan chapter of Canterbury its provisions were
positively disgraceful. The mode which he had proposed
would relieve the destitution which had been so clearly ex-
posed; it was inconsistent.with the spirit of the Englisblaw ;
and unless it could be shown that such a course could not be
adopted, he called upon the eminent persons who had been
members of the commission to give it effect.

The Archbishop of CANTERBURY, in reply to the allusion
which had been made to his conduct in the early part of the
last speech, explained that there had been no inconsistency
in the opinions he had always expressed on the subject of
church re:orm.

The Bishop of EXETER then read, as an extract from the
charge of the Bishop of London in 1837, the following pas-
sage:—" On the accession of Earl Grey to power, the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury declared his views to Earl Grey, and
met from him the same ready concurrence which he had al-
ready met from his predecessor in office." What, he (the
Bishop of Exeter) would ask, was the meaning of that sen-
tence? . .

The Archbishop of CANTERBURY : Concurrence to the
point that many abuses had crept into the church, and ought
to be corrected, on which point the right rev. prelate himself
used stronger language, and proposed much more searching
and vigorous improvements, than any contained in the pre-
sent bill. (Hear, hear.)
The Bishop of EXETER : I am bound to say, that I say it
with great pain, that after what has just passed, there must
be given to the world the correspondence which then took
place between me and (we believe he said) his grace the

primate.
The Duke of WELLINGTON could not inform their lord-
ships of the terms of the conference which had taken place
between himself and his grace the Archbishop of Canterbury ;
" for, to say the truth," continued the noble duke, " I do
not recollect one word of it." (Loud laughter.) But this I
do know, that I never entertained but one opinion on this
subject. That opinion was, that it was essentially necessary
that additional measures ought to be adopted in this country
for preaching the Word of God to the people thereof; and
that, considering in what degree the church of this country
was endowed, it was expedient that the first step, in order to
procure funds for that purpose, should be made by the clergy
themselves. (Loud cheers.) I always entertained those
opinions. (Hear, hear.) When any of the right rev. prelates
opposite conversed with me on this subject, I stated those
opinions. (Cheers.) I cannot recollect on what occasion or
in what words those opinions were delivered to the right rev.
prelate opposite (the Archbishop of Canterbury ;) but in pre-
senting a petition to your lordships a fe.w nights ago, from
the University of Oxford, against this bill, I said that, in my
correspondence with that university, I had stated the same
opinions, and that latterly I had gone still further, and said
that those persons must have derived but little advantage
from what had recently occurred, who did not see that fresh
cause was arising every day for thinking that it was abso-
lutely necessary that the first step should be taken by the
clergy themselves ; and when a commission, consisting of
such men as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of
London, and their other rev. colleagues, reported that there
were means equivalent to this purpose, it was ridiculous to
suppose that parliament would not insist that those means
should be resorted to before the public was called on to find
other resources for this most important and most necessary

service. (Cheers.) •
The Bishop of LONDON was anxious that the bill should go
into committee without anything further being said which
would exacerbate still more those feelings which the speech
of his right reverend friend was calculated to excite. He
must say, however, that the proceedings of the commission
had, from the first, been assailed with the grossest misrepre-
sentation ; and that, too, from clergymen who, at least,
ought to have known better. The most extraordinary asser-
tions had been made, and the most extraordinary delusions
practised, to get up petitions against the bill ' • and he believed
that. in many cases, they had been signed by persons who
never stopped to inquire into the merits of the measure
against which they were petitioning. Considering the arts
which had been used, therefore, he was not surprised at the
number of petitions which had been presented against the
bill, or the number of signatures which had been procured
among the clergy. It had been contended that such measure
could be justified only on the grounds of a failure in the per-
formance of duty, of misfeasance of duty, or of necessity.
This latter ground was admitted on both sides of the house ;
and, situated as he was, he could not avoid being constantly
a witness to the most lamentable destitution of spiritual in-
struction in the very centre of the metropolis, although there
was a cathedral in the immediate neighbourhood munificently
endowed, having a large establishment of clergy, and receiving
in all an immense income. And yet these revenues were
not to be appropriated to procure a spiritual food for 100,000
famishing people ! It had been said that the commission
had been influenced by fear ; and to that imputation he
pleaded guilty, although he only feared to be found wanting
in the duty which he bore to the church. The right rev.
prelate concluded by expressing his belief that, if the bill
were allowed to pass, their lordships would receive the thanks
of the great body of the Christian population, for having re-
dressed an evil which was the bane of the church, and which,
if it were not remedied, would be its destruction.
The Bishop of ROCHESTER re-asserted his opinion, that
bishops could not be released from the oaths they had taken.
The bill was then committed pro forma" and the house
adjourned.