§ Amendments reported (according to Order).
§ Clause 2 (Eights of alienation).
§ On the Motion of The Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY, the following Amendment made:—In page 1, line 8, leave out ("commencement"), and insert ("passing").
§ On the Motion of The Lord HER-SCHELL, the following Amendments made:—In page 1, lines 10 and 11, leave out ("or until"), and insert ("unless"); and in line 12, after ("provided"), add ("without the applicant having been informed of the result thereof").
§ LORD GRIMTHORPE moved the omission of the sub-section, which provided that the right of patronage should not be sold until the proposed purchaser was certified to be a fit person to possess that right, or until four months should have elapsed from the date of the application there under provided for. He said, their Lordships must not suppose that the £18,000,000, which the Treasurer of Queen Anne's Bounty told the Commission of 1879 was the probable value of all the private patronage, was all in the hands of rich people. Many poor people, the widows and daughters of clergymen, had nothing to live on but the proceeds of advowsons which then-ancestors had bought many years ago. It was not oven pretended that the right 1128 of patronage had been exercised badly; and its exercise was now to be safeguarded to a very great extent. Although a Papist, a Jew, or an Atheist was to be allowed to present to any living, yet this sub-section made every person who bought an advowson a suspected or objectionable person. The measure would give the Bishops greater power than they had possessed in any time of which we had record in regard to the sale of livings and to presentations, and the effect would be to seriously diminish the value of patronage; but he did not think it would diminish the sale of advowsons. The only effect would be that a worse class of purchasers would come forward. He begged to move the omission of Sub-section 1 of Clause 2.
§ Amendment moved, to leave out Subsection 1.—(The Lord Grimthorpe.)
§ THE EARL OF SELBORNE, in opposing the Amendment, said, he held that it was necessary to provide some security against the free traffic in next presentations. He contended that the abolition of the scandals that now attended the sale of patronage would produce a better class of purchasers.
§ Amendment negatived.
§
THE BISHOP OF LICHFIELD, in moving, as an Amendment, to insert the following new sub-section to Clause 2.—
The sale of any right of patronage shall not be valid within a period of five years from the date at which the said right of patronage shall previously have been sold, unless on occasion of the death of the patron for the time being.
said, that, in doing so, he wished to cut at the root of the scandals existing, and to put an end to jobbing in livings; but, at the same time, to protect the rights of bonâ fide purchasers.
§
Amendment moved, in page 1, line 12, after ("provided") insert as a new subsection—
2. The sale of any right of patronage shall not be valid within a period of five years from the date at which the said right of patronage shall previously have been sold, unless on occasion of the death of the patron for the time being."—(The Lord Bishop of Lichfield.)
§ THE PAYMASTER GENERAL (Earl BEAUCHAMP)said, he was of opinion that the now sub-section went too far, and that the object of the Amendment might be better secured by amending Sub-section 10.
§ THE EARL OF HARROWBYsaid, that he fully appreciated the object of the right rev. Prelate; but thought that it would be wiser to leave this matter to the discretion of the Commission.
THE BISHOP OF LICHFIELDsaid, he was willing to do so, if the question could be dealt with by the Commission; but, as he was advised, that Body, as constituted under the Bill, would not be able to deal with it. He felt that, unless some such limitation as the one he proposed was inserted, they had done but very little to put down the traffic of the jobber in advowsons. He hoped that the object of the Amendment would be secured in some form or another.
§ Amendment negatived.
§ On the Motion of The Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY, the following Amendments made:—In line 16, after ("of") insert ("the chancellor of the diocese"), and after ("archdeacon") leave out (''the chancellor of the diocese") and insert ("of the archdeaconry"); in line 17, after ("rural dean") insert ("of the rural deanery in which the benefice is situated"); and in page 2, line 21, leave out ("commencement") and insert "passing").
§ Clause, as amended, agreed to.
§
On the Motion of The Lord Bishop of LONDON, the following now clause agreed to, and added to the Bill:—
It shall not be lawful for any person who shall purchase any advowson or any right to a presentation to a benefice, afterwards, on any avoidance thereof, to offer himself to the bishop for admission or institution thereto; and the Act of the thirteenth year of Queen Anne, chapter cloven, intituled 'An Act for the better maintenance of curates within the Church of England, and for preventing ecclesiastical persons from buying the next avoidance of any church preferment,' shall, as regards any purchase after the passing of this Act, be read as if the words 'advowson of or any right of presentation 'were substituted for the words' next avoidance of or presentation' in the said Act.
§ EARL COWPER, in moving, as an Amendment, to leave out Clause 11, and insert a new clause in lieu thereof, said, he had fully argued the question when the Bill was in Committee, and he would not detain the House by repeating those arguments.
§ Amendment moved, to leave out Clause 14.—(The Earl Cowper.)
1130THE BISHOP OF LONDONsaid, the noble Earl proposed to do two different things—to leave out Clause 14 and to insert the new clause. But there was nothing in Clause 14, or in the new clause, which rendered it necessary that Clause 14 should be omitted before the now clause was inserted. The two clauses should be considered separately.
§ THE EARL OF SELBORNEsaid, that the clause about to be moved by the noble Earl behind him (Earl Cowper) would cover everything in Clause 14, besides remedying certain defects in that clause. He thought that service by post of the representation was quite sufficient, and that personal service in cases of that kind was unnecessary.
§ Amendment agreed to; clause left out accordingly.
§
On the Motion of the Earl COWPER the following new clause inserted:—
On a representation being made to the bishop by any three parishioners, by writing under their hands, that any incumbent ought, on the ground that he has for the three years last preceding been incapacitated by continuing mental or bodily infirmity from the due performance of his duties, to retire from his benefice, it shall be lawful for the bishop, if he see fit, to cause a commission to be issued in manner and form provided in the Incumbents Resignation Act, 1871, and that Act shall apply in all respects as if the said representation had been a representation by the incumbent himself in pursuance of the fifth section of that Act: Provided, that one month at least before issuing any such commission, the bishop shall cause a copy of such representation to be sent by post to such incumbent, addressed to him, either at any place where he may happen to be for the time residing, or at the house of residence of his benefice.
THE BISHOP OF LICHFIELDsaid, he would not propose the new clause which stood in his name, but would take another occasion of raising the question embodied in the clause, which was that it should be lawful for any patron to present or collate, and for the Bishop to institute or license, a presentee to any benefice for a limited term of years not being less than five years.
On the Motion of The Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY the following Amendment made:—In page 7, line 38, leave out from ("of") to ("shall") in line 41, and insert—
("The Act of the ninth year of King George the Fourth, chapter ninety-four, shall be read subject to the following additional proviso: Provided also that no person to be specially 1131 named and described in any such engagement shall be a person then under seventeen years of age; but it is hereby provided that this addition.")
§ Bill to be read 3a on Tuesday next; and to be printed as amended. (No. 52.)