LORD GEORGE CAYENDISHsaid, he would beg to ask the hon. Member for North Devonshire, Whether, on the death of the late Dean of Lichfield, the estates of the Dean and Chapter, derived from lands and tithes, were surrendered to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners; and, if so, whether in due time the Commissioners will take into consideration the case of certain parishes in Derbyshire, where the Dean and Chapter have property, and where the incomes of the parochial clergy seldom exceed £150 a year, and in some cases fall below £100 a year?
§ MR. ACLANDsaid, in reply, that the estates had not become vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Under the Act of 1868 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners were empowered to accept the transfer of capitular estates, and in this 677 instance they were ready to provide the commutation whenever the Dean and Chapter were ready to make the proposal; but without such a proposal the Commissioners had no right to intervene; and when it had been made, the Commissioners would be in a position to take into consideration the wish and claims of the locality. He might add that commutation arrangements were in progress in nearly all the other Chapters, that the augmentations of livings had been completed in some of them, and were in progress in others.