SPEECH OF THE EARL OF POWIS, IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, ON TUESDAY, MAY 23, 1843, ON MOVING THE SECOND READING OF A BILL FOR LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1843. SPEECH, &c. &c. AFTER presenting petitions from the rural deanery of Frome, in Herefordshire; the archdeaconry of Clare, in Suffolk; the clergy in the neighbourhood of Baldock, in Hertfordshire, in the diocese of Lincoln; and also one from the laity of the parish of Marylebone and its neighbourhood, in the county of Middlesex, to which was attached 468 signatures, with their respective places of residence, which, owing to the absence of a noble lord, had this day been entrusted to Lord Powis for presentation, LORD POWIS addressed the House as follows: : I shall now, my Lords, proceed to move the second reading of "An Act for preventing the Union of the Sees of St. Asaph and Bangor." As I have the misfortune to be under the necessity of introducing this Bill, one of the greatest ecclesiastical importance to the principality of Wales and to the Established Church, under the avowed opposition of the Most Reverend Prelate who so worthily presides over the English Church, and his Right Reverend Brethren the original. members of the Ecclesiastical Commission, I feel it a duty which I owe to your Lordships to endeavour to vindicate myself from the charge of presumption. It will not be sufficient for me, my Lords, to endeavour to extenuate or apologize for the step that I am taking upon this important church question. I do not wish to diminish or underrate my own responsibility. I ought to justify my course; I trust and believe I shall be able to do so. Nothing, I can assure your Lordships, but a sense of public duty, of the duty which I owe to my countrymen and to the church in Wales, would have induced me to undertake the task of submitting to your Lordships' notice the details of this very important and interesting case. The first point which I shall take the liberty of urging in vindication of the course which I am pursuing, is, that the inhabitants of the principality, although they have the misfortune to know that their prayers and petitions are objected to by the Most Reverend Prelate and by some of his Right Reverend Brethren, the original members of the Ecclesiastical Commission, know also, and that fact should also be borne in mind by your Lordships, that in preparing this Bill I have had the advantage of the advice, and experience, and countenance of both the respected prelates of St. Asaph and of Bangor, and their full approbation of the course I am about to pursue. Your Lordships will be pleased to bear in mind, throughout the whole of this important discussion, that the great complaint in the Principality is that there is a general non-acquaintance with the facts of this important case on the part of those with whom the final decision in respect of the interests of the church in North Wales has rested. My countrymen reside in a distant district; they have not the same facilities of communication which exist in other parts of the country; their country is an impracticable one, and consequently an acquaintance with the local and parochial difficulties of the church in North Wales, and the steps necessary to maintain its interests, is limited, nay almost confined, to those who are immediately concerned in its administration. On the present occasion it is a satisfaction to me to know that the two Right Reverend Prelates who preside so worthily over the dioceses of North Wales are united in their testimony against the union of the sees of St. Asaph and Bangor. They are the best and most unexceptionable witnesses who can be produced; they are perfectly acquainted with what is due to the interests of the church in the Principality, and their evidence is disinterested, the union of the two sees being deferred until both these reverend men shall have been removed from this sphere of their labours. If they had merely consulted their own ease, they might have left to posterity to deal with the anticipated evils when they should arise. They have pursued a very different line of conduct; they feel the duty they owe to the country which has been placed under their spiritual guidance; they feel the duty which they owe to the church, of which they are distinguished members; and they have endeavoured to avert the consummation of those evils against which I am now contending. In addition to the evidence of these two Right Reverend Prelates, I must avail myself of the indirect testimony of unwilling witnesses-for so, I fear, notwithstanding their exalted station, I must describe the highly respected individuals I am about to name, as regards the Act I have charge of,-I mean the Most Reverend Prelate and his brethren, members of the Ecclesiastical Commission, who are also members of the Convocation. Your Lordships are aware that the assembly of the church expresses its sentiments on some occasions in Convocation. The Convocation is composed of two houses, the upper and the lower, and the last time the Convocation met was in the year 1841. |