ACT FOR ABOLISHING PLURALITIES, ETC.
During this session an act was passed for “abridging pluralities,” and for making better provision for the residence of the clergy. This bill enacts that no person holding more benefices than one shall accept and hold any cathedral preferment or other benefice; and that no person holding preferment in one cathedral shall hold any in another, with certain exceptions in favour of archdeacons. The bill further enacts that two benefices are not to be enjoyed together, unless within ten miles of each other, nor if the population of the one exceeds three thousand, or the joint revenue £1,000, unless the yearly value of the one fall short of £150, while the population exceeds two thousand persons; in which case the bishop of the diocese may authorize the two to be held jointly, though at the same time it was made necessary to obtain a dispensation from the Archbishop of Canterbury. By another clause of the bill any spiritual person in the possession of preferment is prohibited from farming more than eighty acres of land without the consent of his diocesan, and from engaging in any trade, unless in cases where the number of partners exceed six, or where the share in a business may devolve upon the individual by operation of law; but in no case may such person carry on or manage trade personally. The bill finally empowers the bishops to grant dispensations to their clergy from residing in the parsonage-houses when unfit to be occupied, provided that the residence selected be within a certain distance of the cure, and further enumerates a variety of other instances in which the bishops may grant licences for non-residence.
During this session also, in consequence of a recent decision in the court of exchequer, that it was unlawful for a clergyman to be a member of a joint-stock company, an act was passed, altering the law on that head. In 1817, an act had been passed prohibiting all spiritual persons from engaging in any trade for gain or profit, and imposing a penalty upon transgressors of the law. It also declared the acts of any partnership into which such spiritual person had been introduced to be null and void.
On the 22nd of February the Earl of Ripon announced to the house of lords that the ecclesiastical commissioners had resolved to recommend the continuance of the bishopric of Sodor and Man as a separate see, and not to unite it with the diocese of Carlisle, as had been proposed. During this session, therefore, a bill was passed for continuing the see upon its original footing.