Note 129:2 — Chapter V
Reading edition
The Ecclesiastical Commission manages the episcopal estates and other church property, using the revenues to pay the income of the bishops, and to promote the work of the Established Church in poor and populous places. It is not connected with any department of the government, and in fact is rather an institution belonging to the Church than a branch of the public service. The commissioners include all the bishops, several cabinet ministers, and a number of other laymen, of whom a couple sit in Parliament.
The Charity Commission, a body possessing semi-judicial powers in the regulation of charitable trusts, occupies a position more like that of an administrative department. Of the four commissioners one is unpaid, and represents the body in Parliament.
These two commissions are, therefore, in the anomalous position of having been deliberately provided with spokesmen in Parliament, who are not responsible ministers of the Crown. The British Museum, the National Gallery, and the National Portrait Gallery are in this respect in the same situation.