a plan for relieving the spiritual wants of the kingdom by
the endowment of additional churches, and augmentation of small livings.
In explaining his measure, the right honourable baronet said that at the
end of 1834 he had advised the crown to issue a commission to ascertain
whether aid might not be obtained for religious instruction from
ecclesiastical resources. The result of the inquiries of this commission
had been to show that the revenues of certain bishoprics, cathedrals,
and other ecclesiastical establishments, were larger than their purposes
required. The commissioners recommended the transfer of such surplus
receipts of the church to a new fund, which now amounted to L25,000.
Out of this fund about L16,700 per annum had been applied to the
augmentation of small livings; and other analogous purposes had been
marked out, which, with the sum applied for, would absorb about
L32,000. In a few years the fund would be increased by the falling in of
canonries and other preferments; and the question was whether it would
be better to wait till that increase should have been realized, or to
anticipate that increase by some immediate measure. Government were in
favour of the latter course, and for this purpose it would be necessary
to combine the instrumentality of two bodies--the ecclesiastical
commissioners and the board of Queen Anne's bounty for the augmentation
of small livings. The latter board possessed about L1,200,000, invested
in the funds; and what he now proposed, was to authorize the advance
of L600,000 by this board, to the ecclesiastical commissioners, on the
security of the before-mentioned revenue of the ecclesiastical fund,
existing and hereafter accruing. This advance to the extent of L30,000
a year he would apply in endowments for ministers of the church of
England; and that annual sum, with the interest on the principal at
three per cent., being L18,000 a year, would in seventeen years
exhaust the whole. By that time the accumulation in the hands of the
ecclesiastical commissioners would, even upon the narrowest calculation,
exceed L100,000 a year, and the commissioners would thenceforth continue
the L18,000 a year interest, and the proposed augmentation of L30,000 a
year, together with the L32,000 already applied, or destined by them
to similar or analogous purposes; and they would then possess a
considerable surplus, applicable to future improvement. In conclusion,
Sir Robert Peel said that he shoul