Mr. Hughes proposed as an amendment that the Commission, after
collecting its information, should suggest a plan for redis- tributing the ecclesiastical property so as to leave fewer under- incomed and fewer over-incomed parishes, and for reforming the law of patronage. He insisted powerfully on the comprehensiveness of the Church, and the narrow exclusiveness of most of the Voluntary denominations. And Mr. Cubitt proposed (but did not press his proposal), in a very amusing and instructive- speech, to ask for information as to the endowments of the Dissenters, arguing that small establishments of a limited character, and often hampered with provisions far more mis- chievous than those of the Established Church, are springing up all around us, and that we ought to see what the results of Voluntaryism are, before we judge the results of Establishment.. Mr. Gladstone resisted both motion and amendments, arguing that no case for inquiry had been made out, except in order to- furnish Mr. Miall with a brief, and that as the Government entirely disavowed all ulterior designs, and were "not friendly ' to these designs, they could not concede the inquiry. Mr. Miall was defeated by a majority of 201 (295 to 94), a few of his sup- porters being friends of the Church, who thought she would gain- much instead of losing anything by the proposed investigation.
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