Lord Lyttelton moved on Tuesday in the House of Lords
the second reading of his Bill for legalising the increase of the Epis- copate, by the subdivision of dioceses now too large for effective supervision by a single Bishop, and read testimony to prove that though Suffragan Bishops are useful in the way of helping their superiors to get through the work more thoroughly, they do not take the place of the Diocesan,—since almost any district, if given its choice between waiting some time for the Diocesan, and receiving at once a visit from the Suffragan, will prefer the former alternative. And indeed, there are many dioceses in which those who prefer that alternative have a good long time to wait. Dr. Temple, in making a very generous proposal that, if his See be divided, the sum by which its income exceeds the minimum salary at present allowed for any Bishop (£4,200) should be made over to the new Bishop,—a proposal which, as his See brings in 15,000 a year, would secure £800 a year at once for the new Bishopric,—represented very strongly the length of the journeys which he had to undertake in order to reach the more distant parts of his diocese. It was impossible, he said, to go much to his distant clergy, and still more so for them to come to him. The Bill provides, at present, that only voluntary gener- osity and effort shall be permitted to endow the new Bishoprics, and that no more Bishops shall take their seats in the House of Lords than sit there now.—the junior Bishops coming on by rotation, as their seniors die off. The Bill was read a second time without a division, and it was intimated that the Govern- ment intend to give it their support.
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