§ Mr. ROWLANDSasked the Home Secretary what members of the Government are now serving as Ecclesiastical Commissioners; and if their attention has been directed to the growing dissatisfaction felt by the parochial clergy with the administration of the funds of the Ecclesiastical Commission?
§ Mr. MOUNTThe Home Secretary has requested me, as Second Church Estates Commissioner, and replying for the Ecclesiastical Commission in this House, to answer this question. The Lord Chancellor, the Lord President of the Council, the First Lord of the Treasury, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, are always, if members of the Church of England,ex officio Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The dissatisfaction to which the question refers seems to be based upon a mistaken impression that the Commissioners possess large funds which might be but are not used for increasing the incomes of the clergy. The Commissioners' resources 2116W are devoted to making better provision for the cure of souls in necessitous parishes. The extent of their present resources, how they are employing them for this purpose, and what they further propose to do, are dealt with in the Report of the Commissioners for the last financial year, which has within the last few days been placed upon the Table of the House.