BILL PRESENTED. FIRST READING. (Hansard, 9 August 1888)

LORD BALFOUR

I desire to present a Bill for the purpose of amending an Act passed in the year 1879 concerning the restoration of St. Giles' Cathedral Church, Edinburgh. The circumstances under which this Bill is presented are as follows:—The late Dr. William Chambers offered in 1879 to restore St. Giles' Cathedral Church, provided the congregation worshipping in one part of it were provided with another church elsewhere. £10,000 was subscribed for that purpose, and the congregation of West St. Giles' had another church built for them. The sum of £500 was also set aside in the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of Scotland for the upkeep of the fabric of St. Giles', 56 but in the Act a clause was inserted for the purpose of preventing, as it was then thought, the use of St. Giles' Church for secular purposes. Under that clause the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, acting, I believe, from the purest motives and in pursuance of what they thought to be their duty, have claimed the right to draw seat rents from the part of St. Giles' Church formerly occupied by the West St. Giles' congregation, in spite of the fact that a new church has been furnished in lieu of it. The object of this Bill is to declare what we believe to have been the real intention of the Act of Parliament, as carrying out the bargain between the late Dr. William Chambers and the public. The only other purpose of the Bill I am now presenting is to make a slight increase in the managing Board of St. Giles' Cathedral. I should like to add that in this matter I am acting on behalf of the representatives of the late Dr. Chambers and members of the Committee who got this £10,500 from the public; and I may further say that there is no intention of attempting to proceed with the Bill until the Autumn Session. I hope before long it will be printed and circulated, so that if anybody objects, which I do not anticipate, no one will have reason to say he has been taken an undue advantage of.