§ MR. H. B. SHERIDANasked the Judge Advocate, If it is true that the Rev. John Davies, incumbent of St. Edmund's, Dudley, is in the receipt of £26 per annum only from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, when all other district clergy had their incomes made up to £300 a year, he having a population exceeding 1592 5,000 souls; and, if so, on what grounds the customary emoluments are denied to him which are given under like circumstances to all others of the district clergy?
§ MR. MOWBRAYIn 1864 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, in their Report presented to Parliament, said they trusted that within a period of five years they would be able to raise to £300 a year the income of every benefice in public patronage which then existed, and had, according to the Census of 1861, a population of 4,000 persons. In 1861 the population of the district of St. Edmund's was 3,213. It is true that an addition has since been made to the district of St. Edmund's, and the population of that district, with the addition, now exceeds 5,000; but that addition was not made until February, 1866; consequently, by the existing regulations, the incumbent of St. Edmund's is not entitled to an augmentation of income. All the financial calculations of the Commissioners have been based upon the observance of these regulations for the five years. These five years will expire in 1869, and it will then be open to the Commissioners, if their funds admit of it, to re-consider the case of St. Edmund's district with reference to its population.