the Church of England to private chapels belonging to schools or charitable institutions.

34 & 35 V. c. 37, provides for the adoption of revised tables of lessons and psalter in the place of those hitherto contained in prayer books.

35 & 36 V. c. 35, enacts that a certain shortened form of prayer, specified in the schedule, may, on any day except Sunday, Christmas-day, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and Asensionday, be used, if in a cathedral in addition to, and if in a church in lieu of, the order of morning and evening prayer. Special services may be used on special occasions. Additional services may be used on Sundays and holy days. The act provides for separation of the services, and enacts that a sermon may be preached without previous service.

By 36 & 37 V. c. 55, landlords are empowered to convey land as sites for places of worship and for the residence of the minister, and a form of grant is given.

III. EPISCOPAL AND CAPITULAR ESTATES.

For the improvement of episcopal and capitular estates in Eng land, without prejudice to the interests of persons holding leases. facilities are given under 14 & 15 V. c. 104 (continued by 24 & 25 V. c. 131), for certain dealings between ecclesiastical corporation and their lessees.

By s. 1, any ecclesiastical corporation, with the approval i writing of the Church Estates Commissioners, may sell to an lessee under any lease granted by such corporation the reversion estate, and interest of such corporation in all or any of the land comprised in such lease, for such consideration, and in such mai ner, as such corporation and lessee may, with such approval, thin fit; and it shall be lawful for such ecclesiastical corporation, wit such approval, to enfranchise any copyhold held of any manor t longing to such corporation, or to exchange with any lessee und any lease granted by such corporation, all or any of the lands the in comprised, or the reversion, estate, and interest therein of su corporation, for any other lands, whether of freehold or copyho or for the estate and interest of such lessee in any other lar belonging to such corporation, and upon any such exchange eit to receive or pay any money by way of equality of exchange; s it shall also be lawful for such corporation, with such approval, purchase the estate and interest of any such lessee in any lands

By s. 2, upon the surrender to an ecclesiastical corporation the interest of a lessee in a part only of the lands comprised i lease, the Church Estates Commissioners, by a memorandum writing, which may be indorsed on such lease, may apportion rent reserved, and which part shall continue payable, and s apportioned part of the rent shall be payable as if the sum been the rent originally reserved in respect of the lands not

rendered. The interests acquired by lessees under the act to be subject to the equities, and bound by the covenants of renewals, to which their leases may be subject. Leaseholders' interest not to be purchased without consent of sub-lessees, who have covenants of renewal. Confirmation of conveyances by Church Estates Commissioners to be a valid assurance, and no purchaser deriving title under such assurance to be concerned to inquire into the propriety or sufficiency of the consideration.

By 16 & 17 V. c. 35, a person preferred to a dignity in a cathedral or collegiate church between March, 1853, and January, 1855, is not entitled to compensation on its abolition.

The 23 & 24 V. c. 124, amends the acts relating to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the act concerning episcopal and capitular estates. After the passing of this act, s. 13 of 13 & 14 V. c. 94, which directs the mode of securing the annual income of archbishops and bishops, is repealed as respects future successions. [pon the first avoidance of a see, the lands of each see to vest in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, for the purposes of the commission, and lands sufficient to afford the statutory income to be secured to each see. The remaining clauses are too diffuse and of too limited interest to be here noticed.

IV. CREATION OF NEW PARISHES.

The 6 & 7 V. c. 37, and the 7 & 8 V. c. 94, afford facilities for the subdivision of populous districts and for the formation thereeat of separate and distinct parishes for all ecclesiastical purposes, and also for the endowment and augmentation of poor livings. By these acts the Ecclesiastical Commissioners are empowered to borrew £600,000 of the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty on the security of the property accruing under the Cathedral Acts (3 & 4 Te 113, and 4 and 5 V. c. 39), to form districts for spiritual purposes in such populous parishes as are requisite, with the consent of the bishop of the diocese, to be permanently endowed to the amount of not less than £100 per annum, or to be increased to £150 upon the district becoming a new parish. The scheme for the formation of such district is to be submitted to her Majesty in

neil, giving previous notice of the same to the patron and inambent of the parish; and a minister is then to be nominated, to be licensed by the bishop, who is to hold his office in the same manner as a perpetual curate, and may in such character receive any grant or endowment, notwithstanding the statutes of mortmain. A temporary place of worship may be licensed by the bishop, but this is not to prevent marriages or burials for the district in the mother church, nor to affect certain other rights. Upon a new church being consecrated, the district is to become a te parish, the minister to be a perpetual curate, and churchwardens are to be chosen and appointed; but this act is not to

affect parochial rights or privileges otherwise than as expressly provided, and compensation may be awarded to the incumbent of any parish whose emoluments may be diminished by the operation of this act. The patronage of such new districts may be conferred, either in perpetuity or for one or more nominations, on any person contributing to the permanent endowment of the minister, or towards providing a church or chapel for the use of the inhabitants. Unless so assigned, the patronage is to be exercised alternately by the crown and by the bishop of the diocese.

By 19 & 20 V. c. 104, a district containing a church may become a new parish on being constituted a separate district by order in council. By s. 5, a right to a pew in the old parish church is not to be retained after the occupation of sittings in the church of the new parish. Pew rents may be taken according to a scale, and applied towards the repair of the church, and to providing an endowment. Upon the permanent endowment of any church or chapel, a proportionate number of sittings to be declared free or pew rents to be reduced, s. 7. The 19 & 20 V. c. 50, enables parishioners, in certain parishes, and others, forming a numerous class, to sell advowsons held by or in trust for them, and to apply the proceeds in providing parsonage houses, augmenting small livings, and to other beneficial purposes.

The following table shows the acreage of every diocese of England and Wales. It was published in 1873 :

Provinces and Dioceses.

:-

Area in Statute Acres.

37,512,868

28,253,478 9,259,390

V. SUBSCRIPTIONS AND DECLARATIONS BY THE CLERGY.

The 28 & 29 V. c. 122, amends the law as to the subscriptions and declarations to be made and the oaths to be taken by the established elergy. The following is the declaration of assent :-"I assent to the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, and to the Book of Common Prayer and of the ordering of bishops, priests, and deacons. I believe the doctrine of the Church of England, as therein set forth, to be agreeable to the word of God; and in public prayer and administration of the sacraments I will use the form in the said book prescribed, and none other, except as ordered by lawful authority.”

Declaration against Simony.—“I, A. B., solemnly declare that I have not made, by myself or by any other person on my behalf, any payment, contract, or promise of any kind whatsoever which to the best of my knowledge or belief is simoniacal, touching or concerning the obtaining the preferment of

nor will I at any time hereafter perform or satisfy, in whole or in part, any such kind of payment, contract, or promise made by any other without my knowledge or consent.'

Stipendiary Curate's Declaration.-"I, A.B., incumbent of in the county of bonâ fide in the county of pounds as

undertake to pay to C.D., of

the annual sum of

a stipend for his services as curate; and I, C. D., bonâ fide intend to receive the whole of the said stipend. And each of us, the said A. B. and C. D., declares that no abatement is to be made out of the said stipend in respect of rent or consideration for the use of the glebe house; and that I, A.B., undertake to pay the same, and I, C.D., intend to receive the same, without any deduction or abatement whatsoever."

By & 4, every person about to be priest or deacon, before ordination to make the declaration of assent, and subscribe the oath of allegiance and supremacy. No other declaration or oaths than those required by the act to be enforced. By s. 10, declaration of assent to be substituted in case of other ecclesiastical dignity, benefice, or office. Oaths not be administered during ordination or consecration services. Nothing to affect oath of canonical obe. dience to the bishops or the oath of due obedience to the arch

bishop taken by bishops on consecration.

Annexed to the act is a

schedule of acts or parts of acts repealed, from 28 Hen. 8, c. 15, to 1 & 2 V. c. 106.

CHAPTER III.

Nobles and Commoners.

ALL degrees of nobility are derived from the queen, and she may institute what new title she pleases. Being conferred or created by the reigning sovereign, all degrees of nobility are not of equal antiquity. Those now in use in the United Kingdom are dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons, who constitute the peerage of the realm.

It is only the head of the family who has a proper title, though the junior members are usually considered noble. Those who are peers of England, or of the United Kingdom, have a seat in the House of Lords, which is transmitted by hereditary descent. Peers of Ireland and Scotland who are not peers of England can only sit in the Lords by election. It follows that there are two classes of nobles in the empire, those who inherit political power with their peerage titles, and those who do not, but are on the footing of commoners, like the younger branches of noble families that have titles by courtesy.

The right of peerage seems to have been originally territorial, that is, annexed to lands, honours, castles, or manors, the proprietors and possessors of which were allowed to be peers of the realm, and were summoned to parliament to do suit and service to the sovereign: when the land was ali-nated, the dignity passed with it as appendant; but when alienations grew frequent, the peerage was confined to the lineage of the party ennobled, and instead of territorial became personal.

A peer cannot lose his nobility except by death or attainder; though there is an instance in the reign of Edward IV. of the degradation of George Neville, Duke of Bedford, by act of parliament, on account of his poverty, which rendered him unable to support his dignity. It has been said, too, that if a baron waste his estate, so that he be not able to support his degree, the sovereign may degrade him; but it is now expressly held that a peer can be degraded only by act of parliament.

In treason, felony, and misprision of these offences, a nobleman must be tried by his peers; but in misdemeanours, as riots, libels, conspiracy, and perjury, a peer is tried like a commoner, by a jury.

Commoners consist of all those who are not peers, and, like the nobility, are graduated in ranks and degrees, as baronets and