§ MR. T. H. BOLTONasked the Eight honourable gentleman the Member for the University of Oxford, as an Ecclesiastical Commissioner, Whether he has seen a Report in The Tunbridge Wells Advertiser, of the 5th February instant, of a trial in the Tunbridge County Court of Kent (Eden v. Vinson), by which it appears that a Mr. Charles Gideon Stevens, a witness who described himself as "the Agent of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners" assisted the Vicar of Ticehurst in the levying of a distress for extraordinary tithe; and, whether it is part of the duty of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners or their agents to assist clergymen to distrain for the recovery of extraordinary tithe; and, if not, whether the Commissioners will instruct their agents not to interfere in such matters in future?
§ SIR JOHN R. MOWBRAY, in reply, said, Mr. Stevens was not an agent of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and that it was no part of the duty of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners or their agents to assist clergymen to distrain for extraordinary tithes; and they were 588 not aware that in any case any of their agents had ever interfered in such matters.