THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURYMy Lords, I beg now to move to resolve, That in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act, 1919, this House do direct that the First Fruits and Tenths Measure, 1926, be presented to His Majesty for the Royal Assent. Again I have to ask you to listen for a moment to what is a purely non-contentious, but I am afraid prosaic and very uninteresting, Measure. There exist in England to-day, out of the long past, what are known as first fruits and tenths, which are levied in a most haphazard way, as it turns out, upon the benefices, some richer and some poorer, and which go into the funds of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners or Queen Anne's Bounty, for purposes which are now being provided for in other ways. All that this Measure provides is that the existing arrangements, which are quite out of date and which work exceedingly badly, should be amalgamated in the larger scheme, which will prevent any harm coming to any incumbent who forfeits what has been supposed to be his gain out of the products of his ecclesiastical first fruits and tenths. Further, Queen Anne's Bounty and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners make good any difference arising between the old and the new systems. It is entirely an ecclesiastical matter, and I venture to ask your Lordships, in accordance with the approval given to it by the Ecclesiastical Committee of Parliament, to assent to this Resolution, which has already passed the House of Commons.
§ Moved to resolve, That in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act, 1919, this House do direct that the First Fruits and Tenths Measure, 1926, be presented to His Majesty for the Royal Assent.—(The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.
§ The LORD CHANCELLOR acquainted the House that he had received from the Senior Registrar in Bankruptcy a certificate that Harold James Selborne Baron Terrington was adjudicated a bankrupt on the 12th day of July, 1926.