Lord Beauchamp's Bill for creating four new Bishoprics,—the Bishopric of
Liverpool, severed from the diocese of Chester, and to be subsidised by revenues from the Bishopric of Sodor and Man ; the Bishopric of Newcastle-on-Tyne, to be assisted in the same way out of the revenues of the great See of Durham ; the Bishopric of Southwell, including the counties of Derby, severed from the diocese of Lichfield, and Nottingham, severed from that of Lincoln, to be assisted out of the revenues of the See of Lincoln ; and the Bishopric of Wakefield, to be assisted out of the revenues of the See of Ripon,—was discussed in the House -of Lords on Tuesday night, and the second reading carried without a division. Lord Houghton moved the rejection of the Bill, in -a speech the general drift of which we have criticised elsewhere, but did not get support sufficient to induce him to divide the Ffbuse. Lord Carnarvon, in referring to the time which appeared tb- be Lord Houghton's era of ideal Bishops, the time when sumptuous banquets were given at Lambeth, while the Bishop of Durham kept a pack of hounds, spoke of it as the time when the Church was really the Church of the rich and powerful, but was nevertheless steeped in a deep spiritual lethargy. Lord Carnar- von did not wish to place Bishops in the position in which they are placed in the colonies, yet if this was to be avoided, and the in- fliLence of the State retained, there must be some concession of free action to the Church such as this Bill proposed. On the whole, -the Government's measure was well received in the House of Lords, though criticisms of detail were directed against its particular provisions. Lord Houghton's view, that the Bishops are specially wanted to guard, in the Church, the interests of the world, was not found to be as popular as one might have expected, in the House of Peers.
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