ng residence for a
month, or, at the outside, six weeks in a year.

These abuses (for such they could not be denied to be) had attracted the
attention of Sir Robert Peel, who had appointed a commission, of which
many of the highest dignitaries of the Church were members, and who,
after very careful investigation and deliberation, presented a series of
reports on which the ministry framed its measure. They proposed, as has
already been mentioned in connection with the labors of Sir Robert Peel,
an amalgamation of four of the smaller bishoprics at their next vacancy,
in order hereafter to provide for the addition of two new ones at
Manchester, or Lancaster, and Ripon, without augmenting the number of
bishops. Lord Melbourne apparently feared to provoke the hostility of
some of the extreme Reformers, who had recently proposed to deprive the
bishops of their seats in the House of Lords, if he should attempt to
increase the number of the spiritual peers; though, as their number had
been stationary ever since the Reformation, while that of the lay peers
had been quadrupled, such an objection hardly seemed entitled to so much
consideration. Another clause was directed toward the establishment of
greater equality between the revenues of the different bishoprics, a
step which, besides its inherent reasonableness and equity, would
extinguish the desire of promotion by translation, except in a few
specified instances. Various reasons, sufficiently obvious and
notorious, rendered the two archbishoprics, and the bishoprics of
London, Durham, and Winchester, more costly to the occupants than the
other dioceses; and these were, therefore, left in possession of larger
revenues than the rest, proportionate to their wider duties or heavier
charges. But all the others were to be nearly equal, none exceeding
L5500, and none falling below L4500; while the five richer sees were
also the only ones to which a prelate could be translated from another
diocese. It followed, almost as a matter of course, that the practice of
allowing a bishop to hold any other preferment was to cease with the
cessation of the cause that had led to such an abuse.

Another part of the bill provided for the suppression of such canonries
or prebends as might fairly be considered superfluous. Four were
considered sufficient for the proper performance of the duties of each
cathedral; and the extinction (after the lives of the present holders)
of the rest was designed t