PLACES OF WORSHIP (ENFRANCHISEMENT) BILL. (Hansard, 18 November 1920)

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (LORD BIRKENHEAD)
My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a second time. It is a Bill founded on the Report of the Town Holdings Committee, which in 1889 recommended "that it is most desirable on public grounds that all religious bodies should be enabled to obtain a secure tenure of places of worship and schools," and they considered that the freeholder who had granted land for such a purpose 335 had no good reason to object to its being so held in perpetuity on his receiving the value of his interest. They therefore recommended that all religious bodies to whom land has been granted on lease by the freeholder for the erection of their places of worship and schools should be empowered to purchase the fee subject to the payment of fair compensation.
The principle enunciated in this Report has received the approval of the House of Commons and of your Lordships' House on many occasions, and nothing but a singular series of accidents has prevented a Bill, containing a principle with which I think almost everyone is agreed, from passing long ago to the Statute Book. A Bill with the same object was read a second time in the House of Commons in 1891 by a majority of 108, with support from both sides of the House. In 1892 the Second Reading was carried by a majority of 119. It was again introduced in 1893, and passed without a Division. It was passed without a Division in this House in 1910, and passed through all its stages in this House in 1911 and 1912.
The reasons are apparent which produce so striking a degree of agreement in both Houses. It is not thought to be decent or consistent with the respect which everyone must feel for the circumstances of these religious denominations that their tenure of their premises should be made dependable upon the caprice of those who own the freehold. Arrangements which are fair and reasonable, and which both Houses of Parliament have on previous occasions approved, are made for dealing with the claims which may be put forward on behalf of the landlord. I shall be quite ready to give any explanation that may be required, but in a matter which has been so often discussed by your Lordships I do not think it would be useful to take up any more of your Lordships' time. I therefore beg to move.

THE LORD BISHOP OF NORWICH
My Lords, this is not a strictly religious measure, but even though the scope of the Bill is small, as has been indicated by the noble. Lord on the Woolsack, I am sure that one or other of the most rev. Primates or the Bishops would have been present here to support the Second Reading had it not been that they are all engaged close 336 by in one of the early meetings of the National Assembly of the Church. Although it is not a religious Bill I cannot help thinking that if some of the official members of the Nonconformist bodies had been present they would have wished to express themselves on the subject, and I feel certain that they would not regard it amiss if a Bishop of the Church of England ventured to say, on their behalf, the kind of thing they would have said had they been present in this House.
We have heard from the noble Lord upon the Woolsack how frequently this Bill has been accepted and the vicissitudes that, unfortunately, have hitherto prevented it from being passed. It is an eminently fair Bill, and no one can suppose that it could raise any question of religious controversy. I cannot believe that anyone in the Church of England could be so unreasonable as to try to hinder the obvious convenience which the Bill offers to the Free Churches. I hope the day has long gone by when the Church of England stood for privilege. The Church of England stands to-day for service, and in all its methods wherever it rightly can I believe that in the minds of the overwhelming number of its members it delights to co-operate with the Free Churches in the country in all points where no direct question of Church order can be raised. To-day the relations between the Church of England and the Nonconformists are, I think, becoming more and more friendly, and if I may trouble your Lordships for a moment I would point out the kind of thing I have in mind. Only last week I had the privilege of joining in a meeting summoned by the Lord Mayor of Norwich at which some forty clergy of the Church of England and some forty Nonconformist ministers were present to discuss the opportunities of civic service together and also the opening opportunities of greater religious co-operation.
When I left in haste the National Assembly just now the very same subject was being dealt with by one or other of the most rev. Primates and Bishops who were speaking, and I must say for myself that, coming straight from the National Assembly and from that meeting in Norwich, I should think I was playing a very poor part did I not add my word in cordial support of this reasonable proposal put forward on behalf of the Free Churches, many of the members of which I am privileged to number amongst my friends.

§ LORD CLWYD
My Lords, before the Second Reading of this Bill is taken, I should like, as one who for a great number of years has been interested in this measure in another place, to acknowledge and thank the right rev. Prelate for the very gracious words he has just spoken of the Nonconformists. As a Welshman and a Nonconformist I have, of course, such a knowledge of the conditions in Wales as enables me at all events to assure your Lordships that the passing of this Bill, though long delayed, will give the greatest satisfaction and relief from anxiety to the Nonconformists throughout the Principality. There is no purpose now in going back into past history or in trying to explain why so many years have elapsed before a measure designed to remedy grievances acknowledged by both sides and by both parties in both Houses of Parliament has been passed. What we have to do to-day. I think, is to rejoice at the changed condition of public opinion upon this point, and to express the hope that the passing of this Bill will be a very important means of further increasing those bonds of co-operation and union, to which the right rev. Prelate has already referred, between the members of the Episcopalian Church and the Nonconformist Churches throughout the country. I cannot refrain from expressing my very great personal satisfaction that at last this Bill is soon to become the law of the land.