PLURALITIES ACT, 1838 (AMENDMENT) MEASURE, 1922. (Hansard, 27 July 1922)

THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

My Lords, I beg to make the first Motion standing in my name, that in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act, 1919, this House do direct that the Pluralities Act, 1838 (Amendment) Measure, 1922, be presented to His Majesty for Royal Assent. I can relieve your Lordships by saying that I shall not be more than a moment. The consent for which I ask is purely technical. The matter itself is also somewhat technical, and I shall not try to explain it now, except in a few sentences. Eighty years ago, when Queen Victoria came to the Throne, the Church of England was emerging from a condition in which abuses had been many and the difficulties of remedying them considerable, and, in the endeavour to set things straight, it was necessary to deal drastically with the problem of pluralities and non-residents.

Certain returns were therefore insisted upon, to be made every year in every diocese, in order to show what clergy were non-residents, and why. That return has been made annually ever since, at large expense, falling upon the purses of the Bishops, and at immense trouble, falling upon the officers of the Privy Council, as well as on the Bishops' officials. The-returns have long ceased to be of any practical utility. The archives of the Privy Council are crowded with perfectly useless documents, produced annually at great expense, and the need for the production and filing of these documents is proved to-be at an end by the fact that they are never referred to, once they are placed in the archives. The Privy Council authorities are entirely in accord with the authorities of the Church in desiring that these-returns be no longer called for, because they are no longer needed. The repeal of the provisions referred to in this Motion will effect that result, and, so far as I know, there is no one whatever who desires to see that result delayed. The Ecclesiastical Committee of the two Houses of Parliament has reported that it is desirable that, this Measure should become law, and I therefore ask your Lordships to agree to-this Motion.