§ LORD FREDERICK CAVENDISHasked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether under the provisions of the Act 10 Geo. 4, c. 14, local and personal Acts, a rate termed the vicar's rate is levied in lieu of Easter offerings on all houses in twenty out of the twenty-three townships of the parish of Halifax (a district containing 82,000 acres and a population in 1871 of 1133 173,313) on behalf of the Vicar of Halifax, whose ecclesiastical district has an area of 120 acres, and a population in 1871 of 9,927; and, whether he can now state if any appointment to the Crown living of Halifax now vacant will be made subject to the amendment of the said Act?
§ MR. DISRAELISir, my attention has been called to this subject, but the facts of the case, so far as I can ascertain, do not entirely agree with those which the noble Lord on the present as on previous occasions has intimated to the House. The stipend which the Vicar of Halifax now receives is not a stipend, to use the language of the noble Lord, which "is levied in lieu of Easter offerings" only. It is a stipend levied in lieu, first of all, of tithes, of mortuaries, and of more than one other rate. The annual income derived or derivable from these sources would be very large indeed. I have an estimate, in which I place some confidence, which gives thorn at the time the Act passed in 1827 at £12,000 a-year. The House maybe astonished to find that is so; but it will be still more astonished when I state that an estimate has reached me—and one founded, no doubt, on substantial data—in which this revenue is said to have amounted to £40,000 a-year. Hon. Members will therefore see that this was a large business, and that when the Act was passed and the Vicar accepted in lieu of this vast income a stipend of£1,409, the arrangement was one which cannot well be described as unfavourable to the public interest. On the contrary, I think some dissatisfaction was experienced at it by those connected with the Vicar. But by the Act of 1829 of course all parties are bound. One of the districts concerned has already redeemed its portion of the payment, and it is open to all the others to do the same. Under these circumstances in submitting any name to Her Majesty to fill this important living, I am not at all, as at present advised, prepared to make any condition that the Act of Parliament should be tampered with. I think the arrangement which has been made is, on the whole, infavour of the public interest. I will reserve to myself the right however, in recommending a new incumbent to the Crown, to make any other condition I may deem necessary, such as a condition relating to the important leases 1134 falling in in the course of 12 or 14 years. Beyond that I do not think it is necessary I should say anything in reply to the noble Lord's Question.