HC Deb 28 February 1893 vol 9 c571
MR. KENYON

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury if he will consent to the Return, which appears on the Notice Paper of to-day, as to the net value of Benefices in the Diocese of St. Asaph?

THE FIRST LORD or THE TREASURY (Mr. W. E. GLADSTONE,) Edinburgh, Midlothian

I do not quite understand why if Returns are made of the income or value of benefices in Wales this Return should be limited to St. Asaph. The case of the four dioceses is precisely parallel. But I have also to say that there is no Department of the Government which could undertake to supply the Return in the terms the hon. Member asks for. The gross value can be given, but the effect of depressing circumstances upon the incomes of the clergy, and the alterations are not within the cognisance of any Department of the Government, and I am afraid that I could not undertake to supply them.