The Bill authorizing invalid Bishops to resign upon /2,000 a
year, or one-third of their allowances, and authorizing Go- vernment in cases of permanent mental infimity to appoint a coadjutor Bishop, with right of reversion, may be considered passed. The House decided on Thursday, by a vote of 112 to 26, that it should go into Committee, and after such a vote there can be no more serious opposition. Great objections were raised to the allowances, which, in the case of the Bishop of Winchester, amounted to 16,000, he still receiving the old revenue, which exceeds /18,000 a year ; but, after all, the present men accepted their appointments on the understanding that they were to have them for life. The Bill will be operative for only two years, and its most important results will be to give two or three dioceses efficient superintendents, and to prove, once for all, that the Bishops are, in fact, highly-placed members of the permanent civil service of the Crown, whose position, even in their life-time, is dependent on the will of Parliament.
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