§ Colonel Wedgwoodasked the hon. Member for Central Leeds, as representing the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, whether the Ecclesiastical Commissioners still continue to pay to the vicar of Pinhoe, near Exeter, in respect of his office, an annual sum equivalent to the ancient Saxon mark; if so, what is the gross amount of that sum and how much is deducted from it for cost of administration; at what date and from what other Department they took over the payment of this annuity and by which other Department or Departments it had previously been paid; and whether he is aware that this annuity has been paid for more than 900 years in fulfilment of a promise by Ethelred the Unready after the battle of Pinhoe against the invading Danes, in the year Too', for the payment of a mark each year to the priest of Pinhoe for the time being, probably for the continuance of prayers for those who had fallen in that fight?
§ Mr. DenmanThe Ecclesiastical Commissioners pay to the vicar of Pinhoe for the time being a yearly sum of 13s. 2d. which is evidently the payment to which the hon. Member refers. It was formerly charged on the Land Revenues of the Crown but was transferred with other similar charges to the Consolidated Fund under the Crown Lands Act, 1866. Later the charge was transferred from the Treasury to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners by an arrangement with the Treasury under Section 23 of the Revenue, Friendly Societies and National Debt Act, 1882. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners make no deductions from the payment.