§ 53. Mr. SWIFT MacNEILLasked whether the right hon. Gentleman is aware that the number of curates in all Ireland on the day the Irish Church Act was passed was 467, and that the number of permanent curates receiving Government life annuities on the day the Act came into operation was 918, exclusive of 2249 many non-permanent curates paid by a Government gratuity; that according to the Church Commissioners' Report, 1868, a sum of £55,000 a year was paid to curates, and that in 1871 that sum had increased to £95,000 a year, and that many of the curates were ordained between the passing of the Irish Church Act and its coming into operation, and the recipients of the annuities were without a university degree, without the divinity testimonium of Trinity College, Dublin, and under canonical age; and whether, in the Grant of any provision for curates under the Establish Church (Wales) Bill being made, care will be taken to prevent proceedings of a character similar to those attending the ordination of curates in Ireland in the interval between 18G9 and 1871?
§ The PRIME MINISTERI have no reason to doubt that the statements made by the hon. and learned Member in the first part of the question are correct. As regards the second part, I would refer him to the reply which I gave yesterday to the hon. Member for North Somerset.
§ Mr. MOOREIs the right hon. Gentleman aware of any other instance of an hon. Member seeking to blacken his own Church?
§ Mr. SWIFT MacNEILLMay I be allowed to reply to a personal charge—
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe hon. and learned Member need not take that remark too seriously.