[upon the death of every clergyman to the bishop of the diocese but this was abolished, upon a recompense given to the bishop, by the statute 12 Ann. (1713), st. 2, c. 6. In the archdeaconry of Chester, a custom once prevailed, that the bishop should have, at the death of every clergyman dying therein, his best horse or mare, bridle, saddle, and spurs, his best gown or cloak, hat, upper garment under his gown, and tippet, and also his best signet or ring (d); but this mortuary also was directed to cease by the 28 Geo. II. (1754), c. 6, which settled upon the bishop an equivalent in its room.

The variety of customs with regard to mortuaries giving frequently a handle to exactions on the one side, and to frauds or expensive litigation on the other, it was thought proper, by the 21 Hen. VIII. (1529), c. 6, to reduce them to some kind of certainty. For this purpose, that statute enacted, that all mortuaries or corse-presents to parsons of any parish should (unless where by custom less or none at all was due) be taken in the following manner :—viz., for every person dying therein who did not leave goods to the value of ten marks, nothing; for every person who left goods to the value of ten marks, and under thirty pounds, 3s. 4d.; if above thirty pounds, and under forty pounds, 68. 8d.; if above forty pounds, of what value soever, 10s. and no more. And no mortuary was to be paid, in any parish, in respect of a feme covert, nor in respect of any child or person not being a householder therein, nor in respect of any wayfaring man, whose mortuary was to be paid in the parish in which he had his usual residence. And upon this statute stands the law of mortuaries to this day.]

(d) Hinde v. Bishop of Chester (1631), Cro. Car. 237.

CHAPTER IV.

OF NEW ECCLESIASTICAL DISTRICTS AND PARISHES, AND OTHER EXTENSIONS OF THE ORIGINAL CHURCH

ESTABLISHMENT.

THE spiritual ministrations of the Church are mainly entrusted to the parochial clergy; in other words, to the rectors and vicars of the different parishes of which the realm is composed, together with the curates whom they employ for their assistance. Each parish contains a church, the parochial division of the kingdom being indeed itself referable to the establishment of churches therein; and there are, comparatively, but very few and scanty portions of territory which have remained extraparochial.

But in certain parishes, together with the church, chapels were at an early period founded, in which divine. service, and (in some instances) the rites of sacrament and burial, might be lawfully celebrated, in the same manner as in the parochial churches themselves. Such chapels are of various descriptions. Some are private (a), being erected for the use only of particular persons of rank, to whom this privilege was conceded by the proper authorities; and such chapels are free from the control of the incumbent of the parish church (). Others are public, and designed for the benefit of particular districts lying within the parochial ambit; these latter having been, in general, founded at some date later than the parish church

(a) Chapman v. Jones (1869), L. R. 4 Exch. 273; Duke of Norfolk v. Arbuthnot (1879), 4 C. P. D. 290; 5 C. P. D. 390.

S.C.-II.

2 ጊ

(b) Private Chapels Act, 1871. This Act only refers, however, to chapels belonging to institutions.

All

itself, for the accommodation of such of the parishioners as lived too far from the parish church, whence public chapels so circumstanced are described as chapels of ease. public chapels are, in general, subject to the control of the incumbent of the parish church, although (under the Church Building Acts, 1831 and 1838) they may be made independent. But there are some chapels of ease which seem to have been coeval with, and always independent of, the parish church, and to have been designed for the benefit of some particular districts never included within the pale of the parish church, though locally embraced by the parochial division (c). Chapels of ease are either parochial, in which both divine worship and the rites of sacrament and burial are performed, or mere chapels of ease, and designed for divine worship only. But as to chapels of ease of both descriptions, these doctrines equally prevail, that of common right the nomination to them is in the incumbent of the parish church, and cannot be taken from him except by agreement between himself, the patron, and the ordinary (d); and that the establishment of a chapel of ease in any parish does not of itself deprive the inhabitants accommodated therein of the right of resorting to the parish church, nor, on the other hand, does it exempt them from any parochial burthen to which they would otherwise be liable (e). Whence also it is, apparently, that the rector or vicar may, under the provisions of the Augmentation of Benefices Act, 1831, and the District Church Tithes Act, 1865, annex or appropriate to any such chapel of ease portions of the endowments proper of the parish church.

There are also certain chapels which are called free chapels, because not liable to the visitation of the ordinary; and these (it is said) are always of royal foundation, or

(c) Craven v. Sanderson (1838), 7 A. & E. 880.

(d) Farnworth V. Bishop of Chester (1825), 4 B. & C. 568;

Dixon v. Kershaw (1766), Amb. 528.

(e) Ball v. Cross (1689), 1 Salk. 165.

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

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.