§ MR. MORTONI beg to ask the hon. Member for Exeter, as a Charity Commissioner, whether, since by the provisions of 5 and 6 Will. 4, c. 71, s. 16, the Collegiate and Cathedral Churches are exempted from inquiry as to the charities held by them, and as no inquiry has for many years been held, the Charity Commissioners will be prepared to bring up a Report to Parliament as to the advisability of an inquiry being forthwith held into all such exempted charities?
§ SIR S. NORTHCOTE (Exeter)The Act mentioned in the question expired in 1837, but if the question relates to the corporate property of the Church, as mentioned, which is specially exempted from the jurisdiction of the Charity Commissioners by Section 62 of the Charitable Trusts Act, 1853, it will be beyond the competence of the Commissioners to take any action in respect of that property unless authorised by Parliament to do so.