councils bill in 1893, because of the way in which it touched some ecclesiastical interests, the archbishop strongly espoused the measure as a whole, while insisting that parish rooms and the church school rooms should be free from proposed encroachments. The bill was passed practically in the form which he advised. He was a member of the 'sweating' committee of the House of Lords, and was profoundly moved by the disclosures which it produced.
Naturally, however, legislation upon church matters engaged most of his attention in parliament. His first speech there was on behalf of the bill for giving effect to the recommendations of the cathedrals commission, over which Tait had presided. Twice he endeavoured to get the measure passed, but in vain. Nor was he more successful in regard to the proposals of the ecclesiastical courts commission, of which he had been a member. Again and again he introduced bills founded upon the monumental work produced by that commission; but opinion was too much divided to permit the bills to become statutes. He laboured untiringly at practical reforms. Three successive patronage bills represented a vast amount of thought and consultation on the subject. They bore fruit after his death in the Benefices Act, 1898. His clergy discipline bill, after a long and patient struggle, became law in 1892, the object being to simplify the process for removing criminous incumbents from their benefices.
Nothing demanded of him greater efforts than the cause of the church schools. He succeeded in obtaining the appointment of a royal commission, in 1886, to inquire into the working of the Education Acts, which brought prominently before the public the value of the voluntary schools, and the difficulties under which they laboured. He spoke in favour of the free education bill in 1891, though he took care to obtain modifications of what would otherwise have increased the hardships of church schools. He was strongly opposed to seeking rate aid for these schools, feeling sure that such aid was incompatible with full liberty to teach the doctrine of the church in them. Although he did not live to see carried the measures which he had devised for the good of the voluntary schools, they were embodied in the act of 1897.
Like his pattern Cyprian, Benson, though a born priest, would do nothing without his laity. At Truro Lord Mount Edgcumbe particularly, at Canterbury Lord Selborne, Sir E,, Webster, and Chancellor Dibdin, were his constant advisers. But he was anxious that the counsels of laymen should be more openly and directly heard. For this purpose he created in 1886 a house of laymen to sit in connection with the convocation of his province. Its office is purely consultative; but the existence of a body of laymen, deputed by an orderly system of election in the different dioceses, to aid with their advice the ancient convocations of the church, is full of potentialities for the future. The house of laymen is one of the chief monuments of his statesmanship.
Another such monument is the continued existence of the church in Wales, if not in England, as an established church. From the commencement of his archiepiscopate he took a deep interest in the Welsh church. He was anxious to strengthen its position by the enrichment of its spiritual vitality. For this purpose, with the concurrence of the Welsh bishops, he arranged every year for a series of retreats and shorter devotional gatherings for the Welsh clergy, and for missions—especially itinerant missions of open-air preachers—to be held in different districts. Only in conjunction with this spiritual work would he undertake to strive for the preservation of endowments and privileges. He visited Wales himself several times. Although the Tithe Act of 1891 was not, in his view, a perfect measure—certainly not one of disinterested goodwill to the church—he strenuously supported it in order to put an end to the demoralising war which was being carried on against tithes in Wales. In that year the liberal party made Welsh disestablishment a part of its official programme. Many people considered the Welsh church indefensible, and held that the church in England would be the stronger for allowing it to be disestablished. The archbishop thought otherwise. The 'church congress' was held that year at Rhyl. Benson attended it. He made there the most memorable and effectual speech of his life. 'I come,' he said, 'from the steps of the chair of Augustine to tell you that by the benediction of God we will not quietly see you disinherited.' That speech marked the turn of the tide. The campaign, however, was carried on for four years longer. In 1893 Gladstone's government introduced a suspensory bill, to preclude the formation of any further vested interests in the Welsh church. In 1895 a Welsh disestablishment bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons, and was in committee at the date of the liberal government's fall. It was the vigilant attitude of the archbishop, joined with the labours of the bishops of St. Asaph and St. Davids and
