COMMITTEE. (Hansard, 14 March 1871)

§ MR. SALT

said, that not having had the opportunity of explaining the provisions of the Bill on moving the second reading, he proposed to do so now. Of late years several measures had been passed which interfered with the ecclesiastical law relating to the rights and powers of incumbents within their parishes—for instance, in the cases of prisons, public schools, and unions, the rights of the incumbent to the spiritual authority within his parish had been superseded. But these were not the only cases in which relief was desirable. As the law at present stood—except in the cases before noticed—the Bishop could not license any clergyman to perform ecclesiastical duties within any parish without the consent of the incumbent. This Bill, however, proposed to enable the Bishop of the diocese to license a minister to any private chapel, or any chapel belonging to any school, college, hospital, asylum, or other public institution; who being so licensed should be authorized to administer the sacraments, and perform all such offices and services of the Church as should be named in the license; but the solemnization of matrimony was excepted from the Bishop's power. By the second clause, any minister so licensed was exempted from control or interference on the part of the incumbent of the parish; but the entire cure of souls throughout the parish, save within the walls of the chapel, was re- 2031 served to the incumbent. Objections had been raised to the inclusion of private chapels within the provisions of the Bill, and in Committee he would move the omission of that part of the Bill, with a view to bring up other clauses on the Report. He had been anxious to ascertain whether the provisions of this measure would be acceptable to the clergy, and before introducing it he wrote to several clergymen of his acquaintance in order to ascertain their opinions as to whether it would make any undue invasion of their privileges, and to elicit their criticisms. Without an exception he received answers favourable to the Bill In fact the Bill only sought to give the sanction of law to the custom which had hitherto prevailed in the majority of cases, for chaplains were generally appointed to public institutions, and even in private families, without objection, while in those few cases in which the incumbent of the parish had raised any objection, and had used his powers of interference in an arbitrary manner, a change in the law was desirable in the interests of religion and education. He had been told that he was making an attack by this Bill on the parochial system; but this Bill contained the very essence and spirit of the parochial system. Anybody acquainted with the history of this country knew that private chapels had been the foundation of parish churches, and even in the last half-century there had been repeated instances of districts carved out of parishes on account of the growth of population. The whole course of modern legislation for the extension of the Church teaching was founded upon the same principle. That would be a very narrow view of the parochial system according to which the privileges of the particular person placed over the district were, under no circumstances or conditions whatever, to" be interfered with; and if such a view were to prevail, in fact, the parochial system would stand self-condemned. He moved that the House went into Committee on this Bill.

§ MR. MONK

said, that when he first read the Bill he could not clearly ascertain what object the proposers had in view. The Bill was somewhat vaguely drawn; but now, as the hon. Member had explained its provisions, it would appear that their object was to extend the parochial system by an invasion of 2032 the rights of the incumbent of the parish. There was at present power to set up chapels and chapelries in overgrown parishes under the existing Church Buildings Acts. It appeared to him the Bill was intended to empower the owners of private chapels to appoint ministers to them without the consent of the incumbent of the parish, which was a step towards disestablishing incumbents, if not also a step towards the disestablishment of the Church. That might not be the view taken of it by the promoters of the Bill; but it certainly was the view taken by some hon. Members below the Gangway on the Ministerial side of the House. With the omission of the words "any private chapel" from the Bill he was willing to accept it as a Bill to enable the Bishop to appoint a minister to exercise spiritual functions in the chapel attached to any college, public school, hospital, &c.; but if it was intended to enable the owners of private chapels to obtain the appointment of a minister in opposition to the wishes of the incumbent, he should oppose its further progress.