HC Deb 30 July 1897 vol 51 cc1702-3

Considered in Committee.

[PROGRESS 28TH JULY.]

Clause 1,— AUGMENTATION OF ARCHDEACONRY OF LONDON. The Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul aforesaid may at any time after the passing of this Act, with the consent of the Bishop of London as visitor of the said Dean and Chapter, by a deed poll under the seals of the said Dean and Chapter and Bishop respectively, declare and direct that a yearly sum not exceeding three hundred and thirty-four pounds, part of the said twelve parts of the said annual sum of eighteen thousand pounds, shall, from a date subsequent to the passing of this Act, to be mentioned in the said deed pool, be appropriated by the said Dean and Chapter to the augmentation of the Archdeaconry of London, and shall (subject as hereinafter mentioned) be from time to time paid to the Archdeacon of London for the time being as part of his income, anything in the aforesaid Orders in Council to the contrary notwithstanding.

MR. LABOUCHERE

appealed to the Government not to proceed with the Bill, to which he objected strongly because it proposed to take certain funds from the temporalities of the Church in order to devote them to the spiritualities. He begged to move that progress be reported.

THE FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY

said that neither this Bill nor the two which succeeded it on the. Paper were Government Bills. He thought the opposition of the hon. Gentleman was rather unreasonable, and he hoped that he would not put difficulties in the way of the Measure on another day; but in the circumstances he would not ask, the Committee to proceed with the Bill that night.

MR. LABOUCHERE

said that he regarded the Bill as a highly controversial Measure. It proposed that money that ought to be expended in repairing St. Paul's Cathedral should be diverted to the purpose of increasing an ecclesiastic's income.

MR. ALBAN GIBBS

pointed out that hon. Members who had raised objections to the Bill, including the hon. Member for Carnarvon, had all withdrawn their objections with the exception of the hon. Member for Northampton, and he hoped that that lion. Member would not persist in opposing a Bill which his Friends were ready to see passed.

Committee report progress; to sit again To-morrow.