On this
point the greater part of the ministerial scheme was wrecked for the
time. They succeeded in carrying that part of it which consolidated the
bishoprics, and in inducing the House of Commons to grant, first as a
loan, which was originally turned into a gift, a million of money to be
divided among the incumbents of the different parishes, who were reduced
to the greatest distress by the inability to procure payment of their
tithes, the arrears of which amounted to a far larger sum.
But the assertion that any surplus fund arising from redistribution of
the Episcopal revenues ought to belong to the state, not only called
forth a vigorous resistance from the whole of the Tory party at its
first promulgation, but, when the subject was revived the next year, and
one of the supporters of the ministry, Mr. Ward, proposed a resolution
that any such surplus might be legitimately applied to secular purposes,
it produced a schism in the ministry itself. The resolution was
cordially accepted by Lord John Russell, but was so offensive to four of
his colleagues, Mr. Stanley and Sir James Graham being among the number,
that they at once resigned their offices. The breach thus made was not
easily healed; and before the end of the session other dissensions of a
more vexatious and mortifying character led to the retirement of the
Prime-minister himself.
Pages:
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528