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else have been founded by private persons by virtue of a Crown licence in that behalf (f).

To the number of chapels thus created in antient times, considerable additions have been made in comparatively modern periods; many new chapels of ease (particularly in towns) having latterly been built and endowed to meet the demands of a population beginning to overflow. Among these may be particularly noticed a species of chapel of recent introduction, called proprietary chapels, because they are the property of private persons, who have purchased or erected them with a view to profit or otherwise.

But these additions to our regular establishment, though numerous, were not found adequate to the growing wants of the population; and in 1818, the legislature began to apply itself, systematically, to the great object of extending the accommodation afforded by the national Church, so as to make it more nearly commensurate with the wants of the people. A variety of statutes have accordingly been passed for this purpose, which are known by the general denomination of the Church Building Acts (g). Under the authority of the first of these Acts, known as the Million Act, the Crown appointed, for a limited period, a body of commissioners called the Church Building Commissioners, who were directed to ascertain where the accommodation of additional churches and chapels was required; and out of the funds placed at their disposal by parliament, to cause such churches as they thought necessary to be built, or to assist the parishioners, or any persons subscribing, with grants or loans of money

(f) Wats. C. L. 645; 1 Burn, Eccl. Law, 298.

(g) 58 Geo. 3 (1818), c. 45; 3 Geo. 4 (1822), c. 72; 5 Geo. 4 (1824), c. 103; 7 & 8 Geo. 4 (1827), c. 72; 1 & 2 Will. 4 (1831), c. 38; 2 & 3 Will. 4 (1832), c. 61; 1 & 2 Vict. (1838), c. 106, ss. 25, 80; c. 107; 2 & 3 Vict. (1839), c. 49; 3 & 4 Vict. (1840), c. 60; 4 &

5 Vict. (1841), c. 38, s. 19; 6 & 7 Vict. (1843), c. 37, s. 24; 7 & 8 Vict. (1844), c. 56; 8 & 9 Vict. (1845), c. 70; 9 & 10 Vict. (1846), cc. 68, 88; 11 & 12 Vict. (1848), c. 37; 14 & 15 Vict. (1851), c. 97; 17 & 18 Vict. (1854), c. 32; 32 & 33 Vict. (1869), c. 94; 47 & 48 Vict. (1883), c. 65.

for the building thereof. Other extensive powers were entrusted to these commissioners, with regard to the division of parishes, (so far as ecclesiastical purposes were concerned,) into separate parishes or separate ecclesiastical districts, and also with regard to many other matters of the same general character. But inasmuch as these statutes contain provisions vastly too numerous and complex for particular notice, and their importance has been partly superseded by the other more recent enactments of which we are about to speak, we shall content ourselves with merely observing that, in the year 1856, the powers of the Church Building Commissioners were transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (h), a body which we have already had occasion to refer to, and of which the origin was as follows.

During the course of the legislation upon church building, and upon the division of parishes for ecclesiastical purposes, the zeal of the nation was also gradually excited for the improvement of our ecclesiastical establishment in other particulars; and in the year 1835, royal commissioners were appointed to consider the state of the several dioceses, with reference to the amount of their revenues, and with a view to the more equal distribution of episcopal duties, to consider also the state of the cathedral and collegiate churches, with a view to the suggestion of such measures as might render them more conducive to the efficiency of the Established Church, and to devise the best mode of providing generally for the cure of souls, and with special reference to the matter of the residence or non-residence of the clergy, and as to pluralities. The report of this royal commission was in due course made, and was followed by an Act of Parliament, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act, 1836, incorporating "The Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England," and empowering them to lay before the Crown in council such schemes as might be best adapted to carry into effect the various recommendations contained in the

(h) 19 & 20 Vict. c. 55.

report; which schemes, when duly ratified by Order in Council, were to have the same effect as if they formed part of the Act. In pursuance of this provision, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who now include all the bishops of England and Wales, and the chief justice, as well as some other persons of distinction (¿), and who are required to make an annual report to parliament (k), have prepared a variety of schemes which have acquired the force of legislative enactments (1). Thereby (among many other improvements) various alterations have been made in the arrangement and limits of dioceses; the sees of Gloucester and Bristol have been united, and have been again disunited (m), provision has been made for additional bishoprics being established, and for the provision of episcopal residences (n), and, in order to augment the income of the smaller bishoprics, contribution has been made from time to time from the revenues of the larger bishoprics, the rights of the existing prelates being saved. Also, by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Acts, 1840 and 1841, commonly called the Cathedral Acts (0), provision has been made for the suspension of a large number of canonries, subject, in certain events, to a power of revival, upon condition of their being newly endowed (p); for

(i) 3 & 4 Vict. (1840), c. 113,

s. 78.

(k) 13 & 14 Vict. (1850), c. 94,

s. 26.

(1) The Acts relating to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners are the following:-3 & 4 Vict. (1840), c. 113, s. 78; 4 & 5 Vict. (1841), c. 39; 6 & 7 Vict. (1843), cc. 37, 77; 7 & 8 Vict. (1844), c. 94; 10 & 11 Vict. (1847), c. 108; 13 & 14 Vict. (1850), cc. 41, 94 (repealed as to sect. 17 by 23 & 24 Vict. (1860), c. 124, s. 1); 14 & 15 Vict. (1851), c. 104; 16 & 17 Vict. (1853), c. 50; 19 & 20 Vict. (1856), cc. 55, 104; 23 & 24 Vict. (1860),

c. 124; 29 & 30 Vict. (1866), c. 111; 31 & 32 Vict. (1868), c. 114; 33 & 34 Vict. (1870), c. 39; 36 & 37 Vict. (1873), c. 64; 38 & 39 Vict. (1875), c. 71; 48 & 49 Vict. (1885), cc. 31,

55.

(m) 47 & 48 Vict. (1884), c. 66; 59 & 60 Vict. (1896), c. 29.

(n) Ecclesiastical Houses of Residence Act, 1842.

(0) See also Welsh Cathedrals Act, 1843; 23 & 24 Vict. (1860), cc. 59, 124; 31 & 32 Vict. (1868), c. 114; and 36 & 37 Vict. (1873), c. 39.

(p) 3 & 4 Vict. (1840), c. 113,

s. 20.

the suppression of all sinecure rectories (9); for the suppression of certain deaneries ("); for the vesting of the estates and profits of all such preferments, together with the endowments of non-residentiary prebends, and of some other dignities and offices, in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (s); and for the consolidation of all the property so vested, with the accruing interest, into a common fund, to be applied in making additional provision for the cure of souls, in parishes where such assistance shall be most required (t). And for the better management of all matters connected with the sale and purchase or leasing of church lands, a special committee of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners has been appointed, called "The Church Estates Commissioners" (u).

Provisions of a not less important character, and of a still more recent date, with reference to the same great object of putting the Church into a state of full efficiency, have been made by the New Parishes Acts, 1843, 1844, and 1856, the first and second of them being also sometimes called Sir Robert Peel's Acts, and the third of them the Marquis of Blandford's Act (x). The first of these provides, in particular, that the Ecclesiastical Commissioners may form out of the larger and more populous parishes separate districts for spiritual purposes, the scheme being in each case first laid before the incumbent and patron, so as to give them the opportunity of making such remarks thereon or objections thereto as may occur to them (y). And upon the district being thus constituted,

(9) Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act, 1840, ss. 48, 54; Act of 1841, s. 17.

(r) Act of 1840, ss. 21, 51; Act of 1841, s. 6.

(s) Act of 1840, ss. 49, 51; Act of 1841, ss. 6, 7.

(t) Act of 1840, s. 67; Act of 1860, s. 12; and see (as regards the Archdeacon of London) 60 & 61 Vict. (1897), c. 45; and (as

regards the Archdeacon of Cornwall) 60 & 61 Vict. (1897) c. 9.

(u) Act of 1850.

(x) There are also the New Parishes Acts and Church Building Acts Amendment Acts, 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 94); and 1884 (47 & 48 Vict. c. 65), and (as regards the Isle of Man) 60 & 61 Vict. (1897) c. 33.

(y) 6 & 7 Vict. c. 37, s. 9.

a minister is to be nominated thereto, with an income of not less than 100l. per annum (z); and the right of nomination thereto may be assigned to any ecclesiastical corporation, or to the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, or Durham, or to any of their colleges, or to any private person or his nominee or nominees, upon condition of contributing, in a certain proportion, to the permanent endowment of the minister, or towards a church or chapel for the district (a). But until the patronage is so assigned, the right of nomination belongs, alternately, to his Majesty and to the bishop of the diocese (b); and the charity property of the district may be apportioned between and among the separate districts (c). The funds placed in the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners are made available for the purpose of endowing or augmenting the income of the ministers of the new districts, to such an amount, and in such proportion and manner, as the Commissioners may recommend (d).

At any time after the constitution of a district, and while it is still unprovided with a church, the bishop is empowered to license any building within the same, for the performance of divine service (e). He may also license the nominated minister to perform in the district any pastoral duties, with the exception only of burials. and marriages; and the minister so licensed is to be considered as having, to that extent, the cure of souls within the district, and that independently of the incumbent of the parish church (f), and he is to be a body corporate, with perpetual succession, by the style of the "minister" of such district. But after a church or chapel has been built or purchased for the district, and approved by the Commissioners by an instrument under their common seal, and duly consecrated, the district

(z) Ibid.

(a) Sect. 20.

(b) Sect. 21; Act of 1844, s. 1.

(c) Church Building Act, 1845. (d) Act of 1843, s. 19.

(e) Sect. 13.

(f) Sect. 11.

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