SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, ON THE ECCLESIASTICAL DUTIES AND REVENUES BILL. Monday, July 27, 1840. MY LORDS-I have heard with great regret the determination of the noble Viscount* and the Most Reverend Primate to proceed with this Bill; and I cannot allow it to pass without protesting against it. My Lords-This subject, fully treated, is of great extent and great difficulty; but in the remarks with which I am going to trouble your Lordships, I propose very much to narrow the ground upon which it may be considered. I will take no exceptions to the composition of the Commission;† nor will I speak of any illustrations which that composition may have received from any of the proceedings of the Commission previous to the introduction of this Bill. Nor will I dispute the right of the Legislature to deal with these revenues as it thinks fit. He will be a much bolder, and a very much abler man than I, who will venture upon that ground, after the remarks of the learned Counsel‡ on Friday evening. I will take a lower and a simpler ground; and endeavour to show that the bodies to which this Bill refers have important functions vested in them, provisions for which at this moment lie dormant in their statutes, essential at all times to be exer† Ecclesiastical Commission. Mr. J. R. Hope. * Lord Melbourne. B |