CHURCH EXTENSION, ETC.
On the 5th of May Sir Robert Peel brought forward, in a committee of the whole house, a plan for relieving the spiritual wants of the kingdom by the endowment of additional churches, and augmentation of small livings. In explaining his measure, the right honourable baronet said that at the end of 1834 he had advised the crown to issue a commission to ascertain whether aid might not be obtained for religious instruction from ecclesiastical resources. The result of the inquiries of this commission had been to show that the revenues of certain bishoprics, cathedrals, and other ecclesiastical establishments, were larger than their purposes required. The commissioners recommended the transfer of such surplus receipts of the church to a new fund, which now amounted to £25,000. Out of this fund about £16,700 per annum had been applied to the augmentation of small livings; and other analogous purposes had been marked out, which, with the sum applied for, would absorb about £32,000. In a few years the fund would be increased by the falling in of canonries and other preferments; and the question was whether it would be better to wait till that increase should have been realized, or to anticipate that increase by some immediate measure. Government were in favour of the latter course, and for this purpose it would be necessary to combine the instrumentality of two bodies—the ecclesiastical commissioners and the board of Queen Anne’s bounty for the augmentation of small livings. The latter board possessed about £1,200,000, invested in the funds; and what he now proposed, was to authorize the advance of £600,000 by this board, to the ecclesiastical commissioners, on the security of the before-mentioned revenue of the ecclesiastical fund, existing and hereafter accruing. This advance to the extent of £30,000 a year he would apply in endowments for ministers of the church of England; and that annual sum, with the interest on the principal at three per cent., being £18,000 a year, would in seventeen years exhaust the whole. By that time the accumulation in the hands of the ecclesiastical commissioners would, even upon the narrowest calculation, exceed £100,000 a year, and the commissioners would thenceforth continue the £18,000 a year interest, and the proposed augmentation of £30,000 a year, together with the £32,000 already applied, or destined by them to similar or analogous purposes; and they would then possess a considerable surplus, applicable to future improvement. In conclusion, Sir Robert Peel said that he should have rejoiced if he could likewise have carried a grant of public money for these purposes with general good-will; but he did not think that a public grant without such good-will would have effectually accomplished the benefits which he anticipated from the application of ecclesiastical revenues. Several members spoke in terms of approbation of the measure, and the motion was unanimously voted.
The great secession in the church of Scotland gave occasion to the introduction of a bill proposed by Lord Aberdeen, on the part of the government to remove doubts respecting the admission of ministers to benefices. This bill provided that the presbytery, or church court, to which objections should be referred to be cognosced, should be authorized to inquire into the whole circumstances of the parish, and the character and number of persons by whom the objections and reasons should be preferred; and if the presentee should be found not qualified or suitable for that particular parish, the presbytery should pronounce to that effect, and should set forth the special grounds upon which their judgment was founded. The bill further abolished the veto, to guard against any doubt or difficulty on that point; providing that it shall not be lawful for any presbytery, or other ecclesiastical court, to reject any presentee upon the ground of any mere dissent or dislike, expressed in any part of the congregation of the parish in which he was presented, and which dissent or dislike should not be founded upon objections or reasons to be fully cognosced, judged of, and determined in the manner aforesaid, by the presbytery, or other ecclesiastical court. Lord Aberdeen declared his belief that the adoption of this measure would retain in the establishment a numerous body of ministers then in a state of suspense. Those parish ministers who had seceded were about two hundred and forty, or one-fourth of the whole number; the unendowed ministers, about two hundred, or about one-third of the entire clergy of Scotland. He did not apprehend, he said, any fatal consequence from the secession; but the bill would tend to tranquillise those who remained within the pale. The measure encountered the most strenuous opposition of Lords Brougham, Cottingham, and Campbell in all its stages; but it passed the upper house, and was introduced in the commons by Sir James Graham on the 31st of July. After explaining the nature of the bill, and supporting it by all the arguments he could bring forward in its favour, the right honourable baronet expressed a hope that the church of Scotland would find a haven of peace and security, and in that spirit of hope and peace he moved its second reading. Mr. Wallace said that the bill would create more doubts than had heretofore existed, and would make the people renounce the church; on which grounds he moved that it be read that day six months. This amendment was supported by Lord John Russell, and Messrs. Rutherford, Hume, Cochrane, and Alexander Campbell. On the other hand the bill was supported by the solicitor-general, Sir George Clerk, Mr. Hope Johnstone, and Sir Robert Peel; and on a division the second reading was carried by a majority of ninety-eight against eighty. The opponents of the measure renewed their attempts of throwing it out on the motion for going into committee, when Mr. P. M. Stewart moved that it be committed that day three months; but this was negatived, and the bill finally passed, and received the royal assent.