THE LORD CHANCELLORsaid, he had to present to their Lordships a measure for the purpose of declaring valid certain Orders of Her Majesty in Council, relating to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of England, and the Deans and Chapters of certain churches. The object of the Bill was simply this. It appeared that during the last fifteen years various Orders in Council relating to capitular property had been submitted by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for the approval of Her Majesty in Council; and had been approved of. Sales under these Orders had been completed in the usual way, but very recently two further schemes of the same kind were presented for confirmation by Her Majesty in Council, and objection having been taken to them, the question was submitted to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. On the recommendation of the Judicial Committee, these schemes were disallowed by Her Majesty in Council, and the effect of that proceeding had been to cast a certain amount of doubt upon the validity of the previous Orders made by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Their Lordships would doubtless be of opinion that no doubt of that kind should be allowed to remain where a large amount of sales had taken place upon the faith of the validity of the Orders; and it was in order to remove these doubts that he now presented this Bill to their Lordships.
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Motion agreed to.
A Bill for declaring valid certain Orders of Her Majesty in Council relating to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England and to the Deans and Chapters of certain Churches—Was presented by The LORD CHANCELLOR; read 1a (No. 33.)