§ The House went into a Committee on the Ecclesiastical Appointment Suspension Bill.
§ Mr. Hutt moved a proviso on the second Clause to the effect that all future appointments to the ecclesiastical dignities and preferments referred to in the recommendations of the commissioners should be made subject to such regulations as might be hereafter enacted respecting the same.
§ Agreed to.
Dr. Lushingtoncalled the attention of the Committee to the condition of those gentlemen who had filled the office of chaplain of the House in whose behalf the House had addressed the Crown, recommending them for some ecclesiastical preferment, and to which addresses favourable answers had been given. There were now three gentlemen in that situation. By the decision to which the House had come against sinecure church livings those gentlemen would be deprived of the reward which had first been held out to them, and on which they had every reason to calculate. 912 If this Bill passed, it would have a retrospective effect on those gentlemen, fo it would have the effect of rescinding the addresses that had been made on their behalf, and on which favourable answers had been returned. This he thought most unfair to gentlemen who had never received any compensation whatever for their attendance on the House. Under these circumstances, he would move as a proviso to the clause, that nothing in this Act contained should prevent his Majesty from bestowing any church dignity or preferment on those chaplains of the House on whose behalf addresses had been presented, recommending them for such preferment, and to which favourable answers had been returned.
§ Lord J. Russellwas understood to say, that though there might be some hardship in the case of those gentlemen who had served as chaplains to the House, he did not think it was such as should justify the House in departing from the rule it had adopted with respect to sinecure church preferments. At the same time, the case of those gentlemen might be left to the favourable consideration of the House.
§ Mr. Humeopposed the proviso. He thought it would be acting against the principle on which these reforms proceeded, if they excepted these gentlemen from the operation of the Bill.
§ Mr. A. Trevorsupported the proviso, and protested against the injustice of the Bill having a retrospective effect.
§ The Chancellor of the Exchequerthought the case a hard one. These gentlemen had obtained neither pecuniary compensation nor clerical preferment. Justice required that their services should be compensated, and he thought that the same remuneration should be given to each of them as was afforded to the chaplain of that House.
§ Mr. Robinsonsaid, that justice required they should receive the same compensation as former chaplains. He decidedly concurred in the motion of the hon. Member.
§ The Committee divided on Dr. Lushington's motion. Ayes 21; Noes 52: Majority 31.
§ Proviso negatived, the clause was agreed to. Bill went through the Committee, and the House resumed.
§ The Report to be received.