emption must be at least sixty years, and three years, unless by agreement.

Besides tithe, various other ecclesiastical dues are usually considered part of the revenues of the church; as oblations, Easterofferings, mortuaries, and surplice fees. These are all either voluntary payments, or due by custom, upon particular festivals and seasons; or upon marriages, deaths, baptisms, and churching of women.

Oblations are certain customary offerings, payable on the death of individuals. Easter-offerings are payable from every person in the parish, of sixteen years of age and upwards, by the master or mistress of the family, after the rate of twopence per head.

Surplice fees are payable for every marriage, whether by banns or license; for every funeral, churching, or christening, according to the custom of the parish.

Mortuaries are claimed on the death of each person in the parish; if a person, after his debts are paid, leave chattels to the value of £6 and under £30, the mortuary is 3s. 4d.; if the value of £30 and under £40, 68. 8d.; if the value of £40, 10s. Beneficed clergymen are exempt from the payment of mortuaries except to the bishop of the diocese where they hold their benefice and reside.

III. MODE OF RECOVERING TITHES AND DUES.

The ecclesiastical courts have no jurisdiction to try the right of tithes, unless between spiritual persons; in ordinary cases, between spiritual men and laymen, they can only compel the payment of them when the right is not disputed. So, in disputes about tithes, if the defendant plead any custom, modus, or composition, or other matter in which the right of tithing is involved, this takes the question out of ecclesiastical jurisdiction; for the law does not allow the existence of such a right to be decided by the sentence of a spiritual judge, who may be interested therein, without the verdict of a jury.

By 2 & 3 E. 6, c. 13, if any person carry off the great tithe of corn, hay, and the like, before the tenth part is duly set forth, or agreement made with the proprietor; or if he hinder the proprietor, or his deputy, from viewing and carrying away his tithe, such offender shall pay double the value of the tithe, to be recovered, with costs, in an ecclesiastical court. By a preceding clause in the same statute, treble the value of the tithe so subtracted or withheld may be sued for in a temporal court.

A more summary method is provided by 7 & 8 W. 3, c. 6. for the recovery of small tithes under the value of 408.; which enacts that, when a person refuses to pay them twenty days after demand, the clergyman may complain, in writing, to two justices of the peace, who, after summoning the party, are to

EE

hear and determine the complaint, and give a reasonable allowPersons claimance for the tithe, and costs not exceeding 20s.

ing an exemption may give security to pay costs, and try the question. When any Quaker shall refuse to pay or compound for his tithes, two justices of the peace may summon him before them, and ascertain what is due from such Quaker, and direct the payment, so that the sum ordered does not exceed £50; and upon refusal, levy the money. A like remedy is extended to oblations and compositions of the value of £10. 7 & 8 W. 3, c. 34; 53 G. 3, c. 127; 54 G. 3, c. 68.

In suits for the recovery of church-rates, it is provided by 3 & 4 V. c. 93, that the judicial committee of the privy council, or a judge of an ecclesiastical court, may order the liberation of any party imprisoned under a writ de contumace capiendo; but no such order to be made without the consent of the other party to the suit, except that, in cases of subtraction of church-rate for an amount not exceeding £5, where the party in contempt has suffered imprisonment for six months and upwards, the consent of the other party to the suit is not necessary, so soon as the costs incurred by reason of the custody and contempt of such party shall have been discharged, and the sum for which he may have been cited into the ecclesiastical court shall have been paid into the registry of the court, there to abide the result of the suit; and the party so discharged is released from all further observance of justice in the suit. But compulsory church-rates are now for the most part abolished.

The situation of the London clergy is different from that of the clergy in other parts of the kingdom. In the reign of Hen. 8, continual altercations took place between the citizens and the clergy relative to tithes and ecclesiastical dues. To put an end to these disputes, the 37 H. 8, c. 12, established a commission, at the head of which was the archbishop, with full power to give to their decrees the force of law, if they were enrolled in the court of Chancery before the 1st of March, 1545. By a decree of this commission, the tithe of houses and buildings is directed to be paid quarterly, after the rate of 28. 9d. for every 208. yearly rent, and 2d. for each of the family, for the four yearly offerings.

By the 22 & 23 C. 2, c. 15, the tithes of all the parishes injured in the Great Fire in 1666, are valued at certain yearly sums, to be levied by an equal rate, quarterly and on non-payment, the lord mayor is to grant a warrant of distress for the same; or, on his refusal, the lord chancellor, or two barons of the Exchequer, may grant such warrant. By 44 G. 3, c. 89, the annual composition for tithes in the parishes damaged by the fire is augmented and settled at certain fixed sums, from £200 to between £300 and £400 per annum. These tithes are a rent-charge on the houses, payable even if empty, and leviable on the goods of the succeeding occupiers.

From this it seems the established clergy of London are divided into two classes. First, the clergy of the fifty-one parishes damaged by the Great Fire have a fixed annual stipend, leviable by an equal pound-rate on the parishioners, and the amount of which stipend and the mode of assessment of which are regulated by the 44 G. 3, c. 89. Secondly, the rest of the clergy claim 28. 9d. in the pound on the rental, under the authority of a decree made pursuant to the 37 H. 8, c. 12, and the validity of which, after much litigation, has been established, Macdougal ap Purnes res, D. & C. 135.

IV. COMMUTATION OF TITHES.

The 6 & 7 W. 4, c. 71, amended by subsequent statutes, provides for the conversion of all the uncommuted tithes in England and Wales into a corn rent-charge, payable in money, according to the value of a fixed quantity of corn, as ascertained from year to year by the average price of corn for the seven years ending at the preceding Christmas. A similar system, as applicable to rent, has long prevailed in Scotland, and its great advantage is, that it fixes the tithe at one invariable amount in grain, to be paid for in money at the average price. The commissioners are appointed, two by a secretary of state and one by the Archbishop of Canterbury, removable at their joint pleasure. They sit at a board in London, and superintend the execution of the act. Duration of the commission limited to five years, and the end of the then next session of parliament.

For effecting a commutation, two methods are provided -1. By parochial agreement, voluntary on the part of a majority of persons having two-thirds interest in the land and tithes, but binding on the minority, if unappealed against, or no sufficient cause of objection shown. 2. By compulsory awards, which must be regulated and effected under the central board of commissioners. Parochial agreements, to be binding, must be confirmed by the commissioners, and compulsory awards are made by them; but the latter power, except in the case of a compulsory apportionment, after a voluntary agreement, did not come into effect till the 1st of October, 1838, previous to which time a large portion of the tithes of the kingdom had been successfully commuted by parochial agreements.

The rule given by Mr. White for effecting a conversion of tithe is as follows:-1. Find the gross average money value of the tithe of a parish or district for seven years, ending Christmas, 1835. 2. Apportion the amount of that value upon the lands of the several tithe-payers. 3. Ascertain how much corn could be purchased with such amount; one-third of it to be laid out in wheat, one-third in barley, and one-third in oats, at the average price

ascertained by the weekly official returns of the price of corn, for the seven years preceding Christmas, 1835. 4. And lastly, in every future year, make payable the price of the same quantity of wheat, barley, and oats, at their average prices, founded on a like calculation of the official returns for the seven years ending at each preceding Christmas.

The tithe of hop grounds and market gardens is to be divided into two parts, ordinary and extraordinary; and the lands which go out of cultivation are to be relieved from the extraordinary charge, which is to be imposed on such as are newly cultivated. The tithe of land converted from barren heath, and which shall have been exempted on that account, during any part of the seven years from tithe, or which (under peculiar circumstances of occupation) may have been entitled to exemptions, such as glebe and the like, is, upon notice, to be estimated according to the average of lands of the like description in the neighbourhood. Moduses are to be taken at their actual amount, the only change being that they will be called rent-charges instead of moduses, and will vary henceforth with the price of corn. The rent-charges are made liable to the same parochial rates and incumbrances as the tithes for which they are commuted. Commissioners have a discretionary power on appeal, in cases of compulsory awards, to increase or diminish the average value calculated for a commutation to the extent of one-fifth.

By 2 & 3 V. c. 62, before the confirmation of any appointment after a compulsory award, the land-owners and tithe-owners empowered to make a parochial agreement may enter into a parochial agreement for the commutation of Easter offerings, mortuaries, surplice fees, or the tithe of fish or fishing, or mineral tithes.

The 9 & 10 V. c. 73, empowers landowners to redeem the rentcharge agreed or awarded to be paid in lieu of the tithes of a parish, provided the rent-charge has not been apportioned, nor exceeds in amount £15. Separate rent-charge of any land-owner not exceeding 20s. in amount may be redeemed after apportionment. Considerations for redemption of rent-charges made payable to the governors of Queen Anne's bounty, to be applied in augmentation of benefices. By s. 16, commissioners are empowered to declare that lands concerning which doubts have arisen after agreement or award of the rent-charge, but before apportionment in respect of tithe exemption, by modus, customary payment, or otherwise, such lands shall be considered a separate district for commutation, and the residue of the parish remain subject to the original award.

Among the most beneficial results of the Commutation Act may be reckoned the diminution of law-suits it has occasioned. The various modes of recovering tithes in the spiritual and civil courts, and before justices of the peace, which originated such unseemly disputes between the clergy and their parishioners, have been ex

tinguished by the commutation of them. The mode of recovering the rent-charge, if in arrear, is by distraining for it upon the tenant or occupier, in the same manner as a landlord recovers his rent; and if the rent-charge shall have been forty days in arrear, posses sion of the land may be given to the owner of the rent-charge until the arrears and costs have been satisfied.

The acts for the commutation of tithes are extended by 23 & 24 V. c. 93. By this act corn-rents under local acts may be converted into rent-charges, which rent-charges are to be apportioned by the commissioners with power to appeal to a court of law. Tithes commuted for a sum or rate per head of cattle may be converted into a rent-charge. When a sum or rate per head is in arrear, the arrears are recoverable by distress, or impounding of cattle or other stock. Commissioners to have access to books of comptroller of corn returns, and to be furnished by him with such information as they may require for any award of rent-charge by them in lieu of

corn-rents.

V. ANNEXATION OF TITHES TO DISTRICT CHURCHES.

An act of 1865, the 28 V. c. 42, amends the 1 & 2 W. 4, c. 45, by which a rector or vicar by deed may annex a part of the tithes or other annual revenues of his living to any district church or chapel of ease erected or to be erected within the limits of his benefice. By s. 3, such sale or annexation of tithes or revenue only to be made in consideration of a sufficient compensation being made to the rector or vicar; and no agreement for the conveyance to be valid without the consent of the archbishop or bishop, and patron, with the approval of the ecclesiastical commissioners. By 8. 8, agreement for transfer to be carried into effect by order of her Majesty in council ratifying such agreement.

CHAPTER II.

Commons.

RIGHT of common is a privilege, by which a person claims to use what another man's lands, woods, or waters produce, without having an absolute property therein. It is one of those properties legally termed incorporeal hereditaments, which presumedly commence by some agreement between lord and tenant, and which through time have grown into a presumptive right.

Common of pasture is the right of feeding one's cattle on another's land. Commonable beasts are horses, oxen, kine, and