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to adopt a law so important and so necessary. The bill he should propose to bring in would be perfectly similar to that in England, except that certain provisions would be omitted that were already included in some of the Irish acts, he then moved for leave to bring in a bill to enforce the residence of spiritual persons upon their benefices in Ireland.

This bill was past, and taken up to the lords on May 10, when it was read a first time. On the third reading, (May 31, the Earl of Moira proposed an amendment in respect to the chaplains of peers. He observed that the bill in his opinion tended to deprive an Irish peer of having a chaplain, who could hold a living by dispensation in the same manner as the chaplains of English peers. By the 4th article of the act of union, it was provided, that peers of Ireland should have and enjoy all the immunities and privileges of English peers, and he conceived that having a chaplain in his house, holding other livings by dispensation was one of those privileges included in the 4th article of union.

After some observations from the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Redesdale, the Archbishop of Cashel, and the Bishop of Down, the objection was removed from the clause by adding, that this privilege of the peers should not interfere with those of the Archbishops and Bishops,* past.

IRISH CHURCH AND GLERE-HOUSE BILL.

April 11. Sir Arthur Wellesley moved for leave to bring in a bill to provide more effectually for building and rebuilding churches and glebe-houses in Ireland, under the management of the Board of First Fruits, and to enable them to purchase lands, and make appropriations for that purpose. Read a second time on the 12th of April, and past on the 9th May, taken up to the lords on the succeeding day, and on the 31st past with a few amendments. In consequence of these amendments and some irregularity, Sir Arthur Wellesley in

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the House of Commons moved the reading on that day three months. Another bill was then framed similar to the one recommended by the lords, and past.

IRISH TYTHES.

April 27. Mr. Parnell moved, that returns be made of all the civil bills which had been tried in Ireland, before the assistant barristers, respecting tythes, during the last year, ending on the 1st of January, 1808. Ordered.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

April 29. On the motion of Sir John Newport, copies of the abstracts of the returns made to the privy council of Great Britain, by the several Archbishops of Ireland, relative to the residence of the clergy in their respective dioceses in the years 1804-6-7, were laid upon the table.

April 29. Mr. Tremuin brought up a bill for providing decent interment in church-yards or parochial burying grounds, for human bodies, cast upon the shores of Great Britain and Ireland by wrecks or otherwise, past.

May 9. Mr. Rose moved, "that copies of the returns made by the archbishops and bishops to the privy council, of the number of non-resident clergy in their respective dioceses, in 1806 and 1807, be laid before the house." The motion. passed, and copies were presented by Sir Stephen Cotterell.

By the returns it appeared that the number of the non-resident clergy had decreased from the year 1805 to 1806, but that from that year to 1807 it had considerably increased.

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Abstract of the Number of Non-Residents in all the Dioceses and Classes; for the Years 1804-5, 1805-6, and 1806-7Prepared by the Rev. Dr. T. B. Clark.

Causes of Non-Residence.

1804 1805 1806

Want or unfitness of parsonage houses.... 1369 1341 1063

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Brought up 3246 3167 3026

Without exemption, notification, or licence 248 334 2446

Offices in cathedrals

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Sinecures..

Metropolitan licences

Erroneous licences....

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Chaplaincies in royal and noble families...

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The cause of this apparent increase may be learnt from the following letters of the bishops of London, Chichester, Worcester, Lincoln, and Norwich, written in answer to a circular letter from the lords of the privy council.

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To the Lords of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council.

Your lordships will, I hope, have the goodness to excuse the long delay of my answer to your observations and questions (communicated to me by Mr. Fawkner in his letter of the 6th of October last) on account of the reasons stated by me in my reply to that letter, October 13th, 1807. Those reasons were, the very infirm state of my health for more than a twelvemonth past, the necessity I was under of spending four months at Bristol during the last summer, and the great accumulation of business which so long an absence from my diocese produced on my return from that place: these causes being now in a great measure removed, I take the earliest opportunity in my power of submitting the following statement to your lordships' consideration.

Your lordships observe, in the first place, that "the number of spiritual persons non-resident without notification, licence, or exemption, has greatly increased in the last year."

It is, I am afraid, but too true, that the clergy in general have been very remiss, both in notifying their exemptions, and applying for licences; but (with respect to my own diocese) this neglect has not arisen from want of frequent admonition on my part to do both.

I have, however, the satisfaction to inform your lordships, that in the diocese of London, the number of non-residents without notification, licence, or exemption, instead of being greatly increased, was actually less in the last year than in the preceding one. After looking over my books with all the care and accuracy in my power, I find that the number of such non-residents for the year ending the 25th of March, 1806, was 32, and for the year ending the 25th of March, 1807, was only 27: and this in a diocese containing 577 benefices (including the peculiars) does not seem to be a very unreasonable number in proportion to the whole.

Still, however, it is larger than it ought to be, and I shall use my best endeavours to reduce it as much as possible. With this view, I have ordered advertisements to be inserted in several of the public papers, (especially those that have the greatest circulation in my diocese) calling the attention of the clergy to the 15th and 16th clauses of the residence act, re

quiring them to send in the notifications of their exemptions without delay, and apprising them of the dangers they incur by neglecting to do so. I have no doubt but these admonitions will have their full effect.

Your lordships in the next place, desire me to inform you, whether, in cases of non-residence without licence, notification, or exemption within my diocese, monitions have been issued according to the directions of sect. 30. of the residence act?

My answer is, that in several such cases I have issued monitions; and wherever I have not done so, it has been for very substantial reasons; because, under all the circumstances of the case, I judged it most conducive to the spiritual welfare of the parish, and the general interest of religion, not to compel the incumbent to reside. And I conceive, that there is nothing in the 30th clause or any other clause of the residence act, which precludes the bishop from exercising such discretion according to the best of his judgment, for the benefit of the church.---But I must at the same time beg leave to observe, that although I have not in all cases, where the residence act empowered me to issue a monition, thought it expedient to exercise that power, yet by other and gentler means, by reasoning, by representation, by exhortation, by persuasion, I have had the good fortune to prevail on a considerable number of clergymen to reside, who had formerly been non-resident: insomuch, that by these means, 30 at least have of late years been added to the list of residents, besides those that have been compelled to reside by threatening or actually issuing monitions. This is a mode of proceeding which your lordships, I think, will not disapprove; as in several cases, it as effectually promotes the great end and purpose of the residence act, as the compulsory power with which it very properly arms the bishop to force obedience to the statute where he finds it necessary.

Upon the whole, I can with great truth assure your lordships, that from my first appointment to the see of London to this moment, the article of residence has been the constant object of my attention, and the favourite wish of my heart: my best endeavours to promote it have not been wanting; and, how far they have been successful, cannot be better explained VOL. I.

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