ong thirteen sees, so as to make their respective
revenues range between L5500 and L4500 per annum. It was further
suggested that some useful measure might be proposed with respect to the
mode of granting leases; but this was a subject which the commission had
found extremely difficult in treating with, and therefore they had not
agreed upon any proposition. After reciting these various parts of the
reports of the commissioners, Lord John Russell's bill incorporated
a board of commissioners under the style of "the ecclesiastical
commissioners for England," which board was composed of spiritual and
lay peers, of the lord-chancellor, the president of the council, and
first lord of the treasury, of the chancellor of the exchequer, and
such of the secretaries of state as his majesty might name for the
time being, and of the right honourable Henry Hobhouse and Sir Herbert
Jenner. The bill further enacted that the commissioners from time to
time should lay before the king in council such schemes as should appear
to them to be best adapted for carrying into effect the before-cited
recommendations, and such measures as should appear to them necessary
for the proper execution of these schemes, with a power of making such
modifications and variations in matters of detail, as might not be
repugnant to the recommendations themselves. When any such scheme had
been approved of by his majesty, it was to be ratified by an order of
the king in council, published in the _Gazette_, and recorded by the
registrars in the diocesses, and was thereafter to be of the same force
and effect as if every part of it had been included in this act. A
clause was inserted, enacting that in future no bishop should hold _in
commendam_ any ecclesiastical office, dignity, or benefice, all
such grants being declared null and void; and by another clause the
commissioners were directed to prepare a scheme for preventing the
appointment of clergymen not fully conversant with the Welsh language,
to any benefice in Wales, with the cure of souls, where the majority of
the inhabitants of the parish did not understand English. On the motion
for going into the committee on tire bill, the second reading of which
had encountered no opposition, Lord John Russell entered at considerable
length into this measure, and likewise the other two bills which were
to accompany it in reforming the church. It would be mere repetition
to record his expressions on the first measure; bu