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tation of the measure to describe it as legalising translations, when in fact it must be obvious to every one, who took the trouble to make himself acquainted with its provisions, that it went very far to reduce and equalise the incomes of the bishops, and that it almost did away with translations. As to the reve nues of the reduced sees being applied in relief of churchrates, he must say, that appeared to him most objectionable, so long as there remained a number of small livings requiring augmentation many below 100l. a-year. The total abolition of pluralities was, under present circumstances, extremely difficult; especially in the cases of small livings near each other. It did appear to him much better that one clergyman should have 110l., than that two should have 50l. or 60l. each. In addition to all this, he must defend the measure on the ground that it involved a most important principle of reform namely, that it did imply the right of Parliament to superintend the administration of the revenues of the church. This he considered a great benefit; and as to the advantage which it was calculated to operate in the condition of the church itself, the circumstance of the heads of the church themselves coming forward to make the necessary concessions could not fail more warmly than ever to attach to the establishment the great body of the people of England. Upon these general grounds he was resolved to persevere with the bill.

This declaration did not prevent Mr. T. Duncombe, one of the members for Finsbury, from bitterly reproaching ministers for

their supposed dereliction of principle. They might talk as they chose of their Irish tithe bill and their appropriation clause; but English church reform would be the touchstone by which it would be tried, whether they would retain the confidence of the country. The debate was at length adjourned, amid some anger and confusion, not till next day, but to the 22nd; and ministers had time to consider how they might contrive to ride this whirlwind. Even on the 22nd, it happened, or was contrived, that no House should be made; and on the morning of that day, the home secretary assembled a meeting of the leading recusants, and other radical supporters of the government.

His lordship was

said to have threatened to resign, if he was defeated in this measure; but his antagonists refused to yield, probably feeling convinced that the aid of the regular opposition would prevent the latter of these events from occurring. It was likewise alleged, however, and it seemed to be confirmed by what subsequently happened, that Mr. O'Connell agreed to prevent his adherents from voting against government; although, with his opinions, nothing ought to have appeared to him more grievous than the revenues which were still to be preserved to the Protestant episcopacy of England. On the 25th, lord John Russell again moved the third reading of the bill. He stated that ministers could not abandon it with any regard to their own opinions of its merits, or even to a sense of honour; but as many members had represented that they had not sufficiently considered these measures of church reform, he would not proceed with the bill for suppress

ing a certain number of offices in cathedral and collegiate churches, and for regulating the future application of their revenues. Mr. Hume adhered to his amendment that the bill should be rejected; but ministers being supported by the conservatives, the third reading was carried by 175 against forty-four. Mr. O'Connell, and some other Irish members, voted for the bill; none of them, with one exception, voted against it. Shortly after wards, the bill regarding pluralities and non-residence, which had come down from the Lords, was likewise dropped for the Session.

On the second reading of the bill in the peers, the bishops of Exeter and Hereford expressed strong apprehensions of the consequences of the bill; although, as the House was almost unanimous in its favour, they would not occasion any vote. The former prelate entirely approved of the object of the bill, which went to put an end to the practice of commendams, and to discourage the practice of translation. He thought, too, that nothing could be better devised than the plan of distribution, because nothing was taken from any other rank of the clergy than the episcopal. But he did certainly wish that no larger machinery than was necessary had been set on foot. He thought that all that was necessary was, that a commission should be created by parliament to carry into effect the objects recommended by the report of the ecclesiastical commissioners. There was in the bill, as it now stood, an inclination to a perpetual change; because a machinery calculated to produce a perpetual change was to be established; and to that part of the bill he did not feel

disposed to consent. He lamented also that this commission was to be made a corporation, because there was no reason why it should be so, except for the purpose of making perpetual changes. It would have been quite sufficient to appoint the commissioners for the period of time which would be necessary for the purpose of carrying into effect the preamble of the bill. The commissioners being subject to removal at the pleasure of the crown, would necessarily become a political body, liable to shift and change with the change of governments and the variations of political influence. They would therefore be exposed to the temptation of using their power for political purposes. The bill enacted that the commissioners should prepare and lay before his majesty's council such schemes as were calculated in their view to carry into effect the recommendations of the report. From these words, coupled with certain recommendations, it appeared to be possible that the commissioners might recommend some scheme which would destroy the independent character of the clergy, and make them stipendiaries of the state; and that measures might be proposed which would enable the commissioners absolutely to grasp the whole of the church lands and estates. He considered that to be possible; but he did not think it had been gravely intended by the present commissioners that such schemes should be proposed. The bishop of Hereford said, that he entertained great apprehensions of the consequences of the changes which this measure was designed to make in the church, and which he thought were calculated to

He

destroy its independence. believed that the effect of the bill would be to render the clergy mere stipendiaries of the state. Although such a proposition was not positively stated in the bill, it must follow as a necessary consequence; for the man, who was not at liberty to hold and administer his property himself, but was amenable to a tribunal which had the power to examine into the amount of his property, and to say to him-"Beyond this you must not go; deliver the rest to me" he could not conceive to be in any other state than that of a dependent person. Was that the intention of the church commissioners? The archbishop of Canterbury explained that this was a misapprehension. A certain payment was to be charged upon the larger sees, with a view of leaving them, on the average, as many thousands a-year as were stated in the bill; but the whole management of their own property was left to them, subject to the regulations prescribed. Suppose, for instance, the archbishop of Canterbury's income was estimated at 18,000 a-year; he would be charged a tax of 3,000l., in order to reduce it to 15,000l. a-year on the average; some years it might be more and others less. When the bill passed into a law, he would have to pay 3,000l. a-year for the next seven years, when a revision would take place; and in proportion to the varying increase or diminution of the revenue, the tax would be augmented or decreased. This was nothing but a mere tax, and nothing that in the slightest degree would take away from a person's independence in the management of his own income. The Lords, on the 5th of

August, agreed to the bill; an amendment proposed by the bishop of Exeter, for the purpose of preventing the commissioners being a perpetual corporation, having been rejected.

We have stated that ministers dropped the bill, founded on the recommendations of the commissioners, for reducing the chapters of cathedrals and collegiate churches, suppressing, under certain exceptions, benefices without cure of souls, and altering the distribution of ecclesiastical patronage. A short act, however, was passed, in order to prevent the creation in the mean time of any new vested interests, by providing generally that all future appointments to any ecclesiastieal dignity or office referred to in the recommendations of the ecclesiastical commissioners, should be subject to such regulations as might subquently be enacted regarding them, and that no appointment should be made to any canonry or prebend of cathedrals and collegiate churches, nor to any sinecure benefice not in the patronage of private persons or of one of the universities, that was now vacant, or might become vacant during the continuance of the act, which was limited to a year, and to the end of the next session of parliament. Various canonries and prebends were excepted, being principally those which are attached to professorships and dignities in the universities. canonries of York, St. Paul's, Carlisle, Chichester, and Lincoln, and prebends held by the bishops of Lincoln, Lichfield, Exeter, and Salisbury, in their respective sees, were likewise excluded.

The

By another act, the secular jurisdiction of the county pala

tine of Durham, with all forfeit ures, mines, treasure-trove, and other rights belonging to that authority, were transferred from the bishop of the diocese, and vested in the crown. The county court was abolished, although considerable efforts were made to save it, on the ground of its utility to the inhabitants. It was likewise declared that the bishop elect, or any bishop for the time being, should take and hold the see, subject to such provisions as parliament might make regarding it within three years from the passing of the act. By another similar measure, the secular jurisdiction of the archbishop of Y over the liberty of Ripon and certain other places in Yorkhire, and the stoke of Southwell, in Nottinghamshire, and the secular authority of the bishop of Ely, over the isle of Ely, were separated from the sees, and transferred to the king.

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A bill "for imposing certain restrictions on the renewal of leases by ecclesiastical persons,' likewise passed into a law. It provided, that where an existing lease had been granted for more than two lives, no renewal of it should be given till one or more

of these lives had expired; and that even then, the renewal should be only for the surviving lives, or for such new lives as, with the survivors, would make up the number of lives, not exceeding three, for which the lease had originally been granted. Where the lease had been granted for 40, 30, or 21 years, it was not to be renewable till 14, 10, and 7 years respectively of the original term had expired; and where it had merely been for years, no new lease was to be given for a ifeor lives. It was farther required that all leases should contain a recital setting forth, in the case of a lease for lives, the names of the persons mentioned in the original lease, as those on whose lives it was granted, and specifying such of these lives as were still existing, or had been exchanged for some other life. If the lease had been for a term of years, the recital was to set forth that term, and how much of it still remained unexpired. It was declared that every such recital, so far as related to the validity of the lease containing it, should be deemed and taken to be conclusive evidence of the matter so recited.

CHAP. V.

Bill to amend the English Municipal Corporation Act-Amendments of the Lords-Bill for governing Charitable Trusts by popular election, rejected by the Lords-The Commons reject the Lords Amendments on the Corporation Bill-Conference between the Houses, when the Lords insist on their Amendments-Free Conference between the Houses-The Bill abandoned by the Commons-Bill to allow Felons' Counsel to address the Jury-Amendments of the Lords-Bill to lengthen the time for the Execution of Murderers-Bill to remunerate Medical Witnesses before Coroners' Inquests-Abolition of Imprisonment for Debt-Proposed Bills for the Reform of the Court of Chan

cery.

W

THEN the English municipal act came into operation in the end of 1835, it was soon found, as was not unnatural, that some of the details of its machinery would require to be amended; and a bill for that purpose was brought in early in the present session. In some instances the mayor or other corporate officers had been elected, when the person presiding at the election was not legally entitled to preside; and the bill enacted that, notwithstanding this, all such elections, and all acts done by the officers so elected, should be good and valid. The act directed that elections should be held before the mayor and assessors, but in some instances there had been elections where there were no assessors, in consequence of the appointment of the latter taking place at a later period; this

bill proposed to declare, both for the past and the future, that elections held before the election of assessors, but with the mayor or councillor presiding, should be as effectual as if they had been made before the mayor and assessors. The act provided that the councillors, who should go out of office, were to be those who had been elected by the smallest number of votes, and if the votes had been equal, the majority of the council was to determine who should first go out. This did not provide for the case where there was no division of votes, in consequence of there having been no contest, and that case was now to be provided for by enacting, that the majority of the council should select their outgoing colleagues. Neither did the act provide for the event of the town-councillors being equally

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