land or money in the funds. A repair fund must also be provided, and free seats appropriated to the poor. By the fifth section of this act a more general power is given to the commissioners, with the consent of the bishop, to declare the right of patronage to be in any person building and endowing, provided previous notice is sent to the patron and incumbent, and preference given to them. VII. The next act, 2nd and 3rd Wm. 4, c. 61, contains only one section, removing doubts as to the jurisdiction of the bishop in newly built chapels, within exempt jurisdictions. VIII. The next act, 1st Vict., c. 75, A.D. 1837, simply continues the commission in force for ten more years. IX. The 1st and 2nd Vict., c. 107, has various clauses removing doubts, and facilitating the important purpose of the commission, among which one is a liberty for the bishop to determine whether one third of the sittings shall be free, or whether the same, or any part thereof, shall be let at such low rents as he, the bishop, shall fix. And another is, that instruments declaring the right of nomination to any church or chapel shall not be questioned after three years. X. The object of the 2nd and 3rd Vict., c. 49, is to make better provision for the assignment of ecclesiastical districts to churches and chapels augmented by Queen Anne's bounty, and to enable governors to hold endowments upon trust. the XI. The 3rd and 4th Vict., c. 60, authorises the commissioners to form a new district chapelry or chapelries out of a district chapelry or chapelries already formed, exempts from the provision of the mortmain acts the endowments of new churches and chapels not exceeding in value £300 a year, and further explains and enlarges several of the provisions of the 1st and 2nd Wm. 4, c. 38. XII. The 7th and 8th Vict., c. 56, relates to marriages, removing doubts as to certain clauses in the preceding church building acts, particularly the 1st and 2nd Wm. 4, c. 38. more XIII. The 8th and 9th Vict., c. 70, A.D. 1845, explains the 3rd Geo. 4, c. 72, s. 30, as to the substitution of new churches for old all and the transfer of the claims to pews, and makes valid Proceedings under the said 3rd Geo. 4 It also disunites united ones, parishes under certain circumstances, and explains the consolidation which is for the pur certain assignments tation acts, and the XVI. The 11th a the law relative to t declares, that a distr shall be considered further ecclesiastic boundaries of distri parish to a district XVII. The 11th & the term of the com XVIII. The 14th pew rents may cease made in lieu there declares the perpetu individual or indivi dowing, and abolish formed under the ch XIX. The 17th an continues the commi XX. The 17th and of rent, where lands acts are in lease. XXI. By the 19th building commission 1857, after which its became vested in the To whom consequent any matter of busine visions of the above Although the £1,000,000, and the £500,000 granted by Parliament in the years 1818 and 1824 as an encouragement to church building, were of incalculable service, they were, as might well be imagined, insufficient of themselves for carrying out the work,-the immense work, of building churches and chapels adequate in number and size for the accommodation of the teeming population of the kingdom. XXII. An act was therefore passed in the year 1843, entitled "An act to make provision for the spiritual care of populous parishes," (6th & 7th Vict., c. 37,) whereby there was placed in the hands of the ecclesiastical commissioners a sum of £600,000 borrowed from Queen Anne's bounty,-the security of such loan being the estates and revenues vested in the ecclesiastical commissioners. This sum was to be employed in endowing districts, within the limits of which there was not at the time any consecrated church or chapel, --such districts being of great extent, and containing a large population, wherein the pastoral superintendence was insufficient for the spiritual care of the inhabitants. The legislature very naturally and justly supposing, that the ministerial labours of a clergyman, and his personal exertions within a district, would cause the want of a church to be felt by the inhabitants, and would facilitate its erection. By this act the bishop was authorised to license a temporary place of worship. And it was enacted, that the district was to become a new parish as soon as a church was built and consecrated therein. In this new parish all the offices of the church,-marriages, baptisms, churchings, and burials, were to be solemnized, and all fees were to be received by the minister of the new parish. Further it was enacted, that contributors towards the building of the church, or towards the endowment, should have the patronage, or otherwise the crown and were to have the patronage alternately. the bishop XXIII. The next year, A.D. 1844, another act was passed, (the 7th and 8th Vict., c. 94,) explaining and amending the above provisions. XXIV. And again another act, 19th and 20th Vict., c. 104, A.D. 1856, to extend the provisions of the two last mentioned acts. This act of the 19th and 20th Victoria is particularly valuable for the assistance it affords to parties in forming at once new parishes with all parochial rights and privileges. Thus supplying the only link wanting to the complete working out of the great objects of the legislature in encouraging church building, and in forming parishes out of overgrown districts with inadequate parochial ministrations. From the above review it appears, that the first and main object of the church building commisioners was to appropriate the national gift of £1,500,000 towards the building of churches. Whereas the ecclesiastical commissioners had first in view the expenditure of the £600,000 placed at their disposal towards the endowment of districts, leaving to individual exertion all that relates to building. The acts of the church building commissioners offered four modes of dividing and subdividing large and populous parishes, viz: first into separate parishes, secondly into district parishes, thirdly into district chapelries, fourthly into consolidated chapelries. Whereas the ecclesiastical commissioners' acts supplied only one mode, viz., that of forming at once what are called new parishes. In the following work whatever relates to these different matters will be found placed under separate heads. And thus, it is hoped, considerable assistance will be afforded to individuals who are desirous of building, or rebuilding, or enlarging churches or chapels, or who wish to divide or subdivide overgrown parishes, in order to form them into new parishes, districts, or chapelries. Such parties, it is hoped, will here find that they have liberty of choice, and freedom of action, sufficient to meet all cases likely to arise. And thus church building and church endowing, and parochial divisions may go forward, and increase, and prove a blessing to the country. Grant, Sale, and Purchase of Sites for the Building of Churches and Chapels 37-56 |