File MC3/381. - 'Private scheme' for the preservation of the sees of St Asaph and Bangor,

The union of Gloucester and Bristol enabled the Government to constitute Ripon and thus to provide for one portion of the Northern Province. The union of St Asaph and Bangor must be designed to provide for the other portion, that is, the diocese of Chester, Carlisle to have the South of Cumberland and Westmorland and the North of Lancashire, the rest of Lancashire to be the see of Manchester, and Chester to have Cheshire only, with North Salop taken out of Lichfield. But according to this scheme (1) Manchester cannot be constituted until both St Asaph and Bangor become vacant; (2) Chester cannot be reduced in its northern part until a vacancy occurs in Carlisle; (3) Manchester will be constituted with a great part of Lancashire intervening between the northern and southern parts of the diocese of Chester if St Asaph and Bangor become vacant before Carlisle; (4) Chester will thus first be reduced and then increased and North Salop will be transferred not only to a new diocese but to a new province; (5) but the proposed transfer of North Salop from Lichfield is thus indefinitely postponed; (6) Hereford has only Herefordshire and South Salop and is proportionately too small. The new 'private scheme' embodies the following proposals: (1) Propose a Bill repealing what relates to the union of St Asaph and Bangor and to Manchester, authorising new arrangements as to Chester, Ripon, St Asaph, Bangor, and Hereford, increasing Chester and Ripon from £4,500 to £5,000 and Hereford from £4,200 to £4,500 and reducing St Asaph and Bangor to £4,000 or £4,500; (2) endow an archdeaconry of Westmorland and create and endow a third archdeaconry in the diocese of Chester; (3) add a part of North Lancashire to Ripon; (4) separate North Salop from Lichfield, but instead of annexing it to Chester add it to Hereford, thus giving a due proportion to that diocese, keeping North Salop in the province of Canterbury and leaving Cheshire and South Lancashire to Chester. North and South Salop would thus be both in Hereford. The bishop of Chester, if thus relieved of a portion of his charge and having an increased income, might give up his canonry of Durham.