First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Home Secretary, the Lord Chief Justice, the Master of the Rolls, two judges of the admiralty division, and certain laymen appointed by the crown and by the archbishop of Canterbury. The lay commissioners were required to be members of the Church of England, and to subscribe a declaration to that effect. The crown also appointed two laymen as church estates commissioners, and the archbishop of Canterbury one. These three were the joint treasurers of the commission, and constituted, along with two members appointed by the commission; the church estates committee, charged with all business relating to the sale, purchase, exchange, letting or management of any lands, tithes or hereditaments. The commission had power to make inquiries and examine witnesses on oath. Five commissioners were a quorum for the transaction of business, provided two of them were church estates commissioners; two ecclesiastical commissioners at least had to be present at any proceeding under the common seal, and if only two were present they could demand its postponement to a subsequent meeting. The schemes of the commission having, after due notice to persons affected thereby, been laid before the king in council, could be ratified by orders, specifying the times when they should take effect, and such orders when published in the London Gazette had the same force and effect as acts of parliament. The recommendations of the commission recited in the act of 1836 are too numerous to be given here. They include an extensive rearrangement of the dioceses, equalization of episcopal income, providing residences, etc. By the act of 1840 the fourth report of the original commissioners, dealing chiefly with cathedral and collegiate churches, was carried into effect, a large number of canonries being suspended, and sinecure benefices and dignities suppressed. The emoluments of these suppressed or suspended offices, and the surplus income of the episcopal sees, constitute the fund at the disposal of the commissioners. By an act of 1860, on the avoidance of any bishopric or archbishopric, all the land and emoluments of the see, except the patronage and lands attached to houses of residence, become, by order in council, vested in the commissioners, who may, however, reassign to the see so much of the land as may be sufficient to secure the net annual income named for it by statute or order. All the profits and