27 APRIL 1912, Page 18

The result would be that after Disestablishment the Church would

continue to receive 20s. in the pound for a long period of years, but that the sum would be gradually reduced until finally it might drop to 6s. 8d. in the pound. With the con- tributions from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the Queen Anne's Bounty the total income of the Church would amount to 2180,000. A Board of Welsh Commissioners would be set up to receive, allocate, and distribute existing Church property, and the Disestablished Church would have power to set up a Representative Body, to whom would be transferred (I) all cathedrals, churches, palaces, deaneries, and parsonages ; (2) all the glebe subject to the payment of so much as repre- sented ancient endowments ; and (3) all the modern endow- ments. The sum of £26,700 a year now paid for the main- tenance of the Welsh bishoprics and chapters would be handed over by the Commissioners to the University of Wales, and the rest of the income available would be transferred to the county councils to be applied to schemes for charitable or publics purposes of local or general utility. Sir D. Brynmor Jones, the leader of the Welsh Party, thanked the Government for the Bill, and Mr. Lyttelton and Lord Robert Cecil defined their attitude as one of inflexible opposition to a measure which violated religious toleration and was imposed by sectarian envy.