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 (i), 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, 8. 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 (1850), cc. 41, 94 (repealed as to sect. 17 by 23 & 24 Vict.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 (r); 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.

(*) 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 (ƒ), 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.

becomes a new parish for ecclesiastical purposes; and thereupon it becomes lawful to solemnize marriages, baptisms, churchings, and burials therein (g). And the minister, having been first duly licensed by the bishop to such church, thereupon ipso facto becomes the vicar thereof (h); and the new church is styled and designated a vicarage, and is deemed to be a benefice with cure of souls to all intents and purposes. Two fit persons, being members of the Church of England, are to be annually chosen, by the vicar and inhabitants of the new parish, as churchwardens; and they are charged with all the ordinary duties of churchwardens in ecclesiastical matters, but not with any duties as overseers of the poor (i).

By the New Parishes Act, 1844, no new district could be constituted if there already existed within its limits any consecrated church or chapel in use for divine worship (k). But this restriction was taken away by the New Parishes Act, 1856, whereby the Ecclesiastical Commissioners are empowered, on the constitution of any new district, to specify some existing or intended church within it, as the parish church thereof; and the incumbent of such church is made liable for the performance of all pastoral duties within the limits of the new parish (1). The Commissioners are also empowered by this Act to recommend the constitution of such a district, without the permanent endowment required by the New Parishes Act, 1843, if it shall appear to them that there is reason to expect, from other sources, an adequate maintenance for the incumbent (m); and the Commissioners may also, with the consent of the bishop, order

(g) Sect. 15; Cronshaw v. Wigan Burial Board (1873), L. R. 8 Q. B. 217.

(h) Incumbents Act, 1868.

(i) Act of 1843, s. 17. Vestries for these district areas are not subject to the same rules as vestries in old parishes (R. v.

Barrow (1869), L. R. 4 Q. B. 577); but in neither case can the vicar vote for the people's warden (R. v. Bishop of Salisbury, [1901] 2 K. B. 225).

(k) Sect. 9.

(/) 19 & 20 Vict. c. 104, s. 2. (m) Sect. 3.

that pew rents may be taken in any church to which a district may be assigned, if other sources of income fail (n).

The New Parishes Act, 1856, contains also a variety of additional enactments with regard to the assignment of the patronage of these new churches, in return for the endowment thereof; but these are of a character too minute and complicated for detail in this place (o). The Act contains also provisions, in extension of previous powers of the same general description contained in the Church Building Acts; and, under these provisions, the Commissioners may, by a scheme duly ratified in council, divide any parish into two or more distinct and separate parishes for all ecclesiastical purposes whatsoever, and may regulate the duties of the incumbents of the respective divisions, as also the performance of the offices and services in the respective churches, and the fees to be taken for the same respectively, as well as any other matters which it may become necessary or expedient to arrange for, by reason or in consequence of such division (p). But any division of parishes under the Act requires the consent of the patron and bishop of the diocese, and is in no case to take effect until the next avoidance of the church, unless with the consent in writing of the actual incumbent (q). Moreover, any such division may be subsequently annulled, if (from whatever cause) a church is not duly provided for the separated portion within a reasonable time (r). Proposals have at various times been laid before Parliament, for instance, in 1884, to codify this vast mass of statute law; but so far without

success.

22.

(n) Sect. 4; Act of 1884, ss. 4, 5. (0) 19 & 20 Vict. c. 104, ss. 16—

(p) Sect. 25.
(q) Ibid.

(r) Act of 1884, ss. 2, 3.

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.