§ MR. HORSMANwished to put a question relative to the powers vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. It had been rumoured that the Ecclesiastical Commissioners were about to take the tithes of a rectory in a certain diocese, and add them to the revenues of the bishopric; the reason for so doing being, that the bishop was also the rector of the parish. The question he wished to put was, whether, if such a scheme was in contemplation, the Government would recommend that it should receive the sanction of the Queen in Council?
§ SIR G. GREY, in consequence of the hon. Gentleman having communicated to him the alleged circumstances of this case, had made inquiry into the matter. The rectory was in the bishopric of Peterborough. It was a case in which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners had no jurisdiction whatever; and he might state, as to the living being annexed to the bishopric, that no proposition of the kind had been laid before the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.