e thereof, the Archbishop
of Canterbury should receive an income of not more than L8000; the
Archbishop of York, L7000; the Bishop of London, L4500; and each of
the other bishops L4000. This proposition was rejected by a majority of
eighty-two against forty-four; but the resistance of ministers seemed
only to increase the opposition of their radical opponents. On the
motion for the third reading, Mr. Hume moved, as an amendment, that the
bill should be read a third time that day six months. It was impossible,
he said, that the bill could pass; and if ministers thought it would be
passed, they would find themselves mistaken, and do great injury to the
liberal cause which they professed to advocate; such a bill was not to
be passed while the pledges of the government in regard to the church
remained unredeemed. Mr. T. Duncombe bitterly reproached ministers for
their supposed dereliction of principle; they might talk as they chose
of their Irish tithe-bill and their appropriation clause, but English
church reform would be the touchstone by which it would be tried whether
they would retain the confidence of the country. On a division,
Mr. Hume's amendment was rejected by a majority of one hundred and
seventy-five against forty-four, ministers being supported by the
conservatives, and generally by the Irish members. In the meantime
the lords had been proceeding with the bill regarding pluralities and
non-residence. On the second reading of that bill, the Bishops of Exeter
and Hereford expressed strong apprehensions of the consequences of the
bill, although, as the house was unanimous in its favour, they would not
occasion any vote. The bill was founded on the recommendations of the
commissioners previously alluded to. It was proposed that exemptions
in favour of non-residence should be granted only to chaplains in
attendance on their majesties, or on bishops, the principals of some
schools, and in a few other special cases. The law at present allowed
incumbents to be absent three months; and it was not proposed to shorten
the time, as circumstances did not permit the clergy generally to
take advantage of it, and pluralities produced a greater quantity
of non-residence than all other causes. In regard to pluralities,
therefore, the commissioners proposed, that no clerygyman should hold
two livings if the income of one of them exceeded L500, or they were
more than ten miles distant from each other; and that, in no case,
should