§ SIR GEORGE JENKINSONsaid, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury, If he will state for the information of the House, on what grounds he proposes to give to the Roman Catholic College of Maynooth the sum of £364,000, or fourteen years' purchase of their present annual payment, from the Consolidated Fund, whilst at the same time he proposes to give to the Protestant Clergy only about eight years' purchase of their present income?
MR. GLADSTONESir, I need not trouble the House or the hon. Baronet with the reasons for the proceeding which he supposes Her Majesty's Government to recommend, because in point of fact they do not recommend it. As far as regards the fourteen years' purchase of the grant to Maynooth, and of certain other grants, the hon. Baronet is perfectly accurate, but he is not accurate with regard to the eight years' purchase of the incomes of the clergy. He has evidently been led into error by taking the gross amount of the income of the Church, as I stated it to be, and multiplying it by eight, so as to make it about equal to the sum which I named for compensation to the clergy. But in the gross amount of the income of the Church much is included which either never comes to the clergy at all, or comes to them in money's worth and not in money—in the way of 1659 occupation of houses and land. The actual number of years' purchase so taken for the clergy and others who possess life interests varies in different cases. In the case of Bishops I think it is twelve years; in the case of parochial incumbents thirteen years; in the case of Presbyterian ministers fifteen years; and in the case of curates seventeen years. Therefore, the period of fourteen years which I have named lies somewhere in the mean between those points.