the person or persons building and endowing the same, as a fee simple, or in such person or corporate body as he, she, or they may appoint, with a proviso that the patronage shall at no time be vested in or held in trust by more than five persons, unless in certain cases of descent or conveyance by deed or will to the children, grandchildren, nephews, or nieces of the grantor or divisor. The following are the conditions:1. The church or chapel must be endowed to the satisfaction of the commissioners with some permanent provision in land or in money charged upon land, or on houses or other hereditaments, or money the funds, in addition to the pew-rents, if any; and, 2, a sufficient repair fund must also be provided.

in

"The following also are requisite preliminaries according to the

statute :

"NOTICE. The like NOTICE must be served upon the patron and incumbent as in the former case, and an application in writing made to the commissioners, setting forth all the particulars required in the notice. The commissioners are directed to send copies of such application to the patron and incumbent of the parish or place, in order to afford them the opportunity of laying before the commissioners any statement relating thereto; and the commissioners are directed not to declare the right of nomination until after the expiration of three calendar months from the time when they shall have sent such copies to the patron and incumbent.

"BAR. As to applications of parties proposing to provide a new church or chapel, whether made to the bishop or the commissioners, it is provided that in case the patron shall, within two calendar months after being served with the requisite notice, bind himself to the commissioners in such cases as come before them, and the bishop of the diocese in all other cases, that he will within two years thereafter build or purchase and completely finish and endow an additional church or chapel in such parish, to the satisfaction of the bishop of the diocese, and perform all the conditions before mentioned; then the patron shall be preferred to any other person intending to build or purchase an additional church or chapel.

"DECLARATION. No declaration of the right of nominating a minister can take effect till the church or chapel has been consecrated.

"APPLICATION. Where the church or chapel is built or endowed by subscription, the application to the bishop or commissioners of the major part in value of the subscribers shall be taken to be the application of the party building or endowing. But no subscriber for a less amount than £50 is entitled to join in the nomination of a patron.

"ENLARGEMENT. Where there is a population of not less than one thousand persons within two miles of an existing church, a preference is directed to be given by the bishop or commissioners, as the case may be, to a proposal made with consent of the vestry to enlarge the existing church.

"PATRONAGE. The prescribed conditions being performed, the right of nominating a minister to the church or chapel becomes vested in perpetuity in the party specified in the declaratory instrument executed by the bishop or the commissioners, as the case may be. This instrument ought to contain a statement of all the facts required in the notice to the patron and incumbent, and when executed, must be registered in the registry of the diocese; three years after which registration the facts so stated will be admitted in all courts without proof; and the instrument itself will be conclusive evidence that the statutory conditions have been complied with.

"CASE. A case has been decided in the consistory court of London which shews the necessity of a strict compliance with these conditions. A chapel was built by the late Mr. Wilberforce in the parish of Hendon, in Middlesex. A minister was nominated and licensed by the bishop, under the authority (as it was intended) of the Act 1 and 2 Wm. 4. The incumbent of Hendon instituted proceedings in the consistory court against the minister for officiating without competent authority. The objection on which the case was determined was, that there was not a sufficient repair fund according to the second section of the Act. Dr. Lushington, in deciding against the sufficiency of the repair fund, and consequently against the validity of the minister's appointment, expressed himself thus:-'If the conditions of the statute are precedent to the right of nomination vesting, and it appears that those conditions have not been carried into effect, the right of nomination will never have vested at all, and consequently any license which may have been granted on a supposition that such conditions had been complied with, and that the right of nomination had vested, falls to the ground. The sole ground - upon which the ordinary grants a license is, that the right of nomination has vested in the person who has nominated the individual who comes so to be licensed. It must not be understood that where a party has obtained a license of the ordinary, that authority is conclusive.'

"I apprehend it is as clear as words can express it, that the performance of the conditions is a condition precedent to the vesting of the right of nomination.'*

"When the right of nomination is vested in more than two persons, the Act directs that it shall be exercised by the majority.'+

"DISTRICT. The commissioners, with the consent of the bishop of the diocese, in such cases as come before them, and the bishop, in all other cases, are directed to assign with all convenient speed a district to every such church or chapel (except where from special circumstances they shall deem it unadvisable), to be under the immediate care of the minister as regards the visitation of the sick and other pastoral duties, the commissioners, with the bishop's consent, or the bishop alone, as the case may be, determining whether baptisms, churchings, or burials shall be solemnized in such church or chapel or not.

"SURPLICE FEES. The commissioners; with the bishop's consent, in cases which come before them, and the bishop in other cases may assign + 1 and 2 William 4.

* Williams v. Brown,-Curteis, 53.

to the minister, after the next avoidance of the parish church, all or a portion of the surplice fees. Every instrument of assignment must be registered in the registry of the bishop of the diocese. Without such assignment the surplice fees belong to the incumbent of the parish church.

"EXTRA-PAROCHIAL. Where the district extends into more parishes than one, the patron and incumbent of each parish are entitled to notice. Where a church or chapel is built in an extra-parochial place, it is sufficient to send the required notices to the bishop of the diocese.

"BENEFICE. Every such church or chapel having such district assigned to it is deemed a perpetual curacy, and the spiritual person serving the same, the incumbent, and a body corporate with perpetual succession, and capable of receiving endowment in lands and tithes, or any augmentation.

66

SITE. By 1 and 2 Wm. 4, c. 38, § 17, 18, it is declared that after five years from the conveyance of the site of a church or chapel, or cemetery, under that Act, the same should be absolutely vested in the party to whom it should have been conveyed, provided that such party should within two months after judgment in ejectment obtained against him, tender the costs and the value of the land at the time of the conveyance; the jury who try the ejectment being directed to ascertain the value.

"CONVEYANCE. By 1 and 2 Victoria, c. 107, § 6, a form of conveyance is prescribed.

"SITTINGS. The sittings are to be let by the wardens or by some person appointed by the trustees, or party building and endowing, according to a scale of pew-rents fixed by the trustees or such party, and approved by the bishop; which scale, with the concurrence of the same parties, may be altered from time to time.

66 "PEWS. Pews not taken within fourteen days after the commencement of the year may be let to inhabitants of adjoining parishes, not having sufficient church accommodation, for any term not exceeding the end of the year; at the expiration of which period they must be inserted in the list of vacant pews to be taken in preference by the inhabitants of the parish or place to which the church or chapel belongs, and if not taken by parishioners, may be again let to inhabitants of an adjoining parish or place.

"CHURCHWARDENS. Two wardens are directed to be chosen at the usual period of appointing parish officers in every year, one by the incumbent and the other by the renters of pews. They are directed to collect the pew-rents and to pay over the residue remaining after the annual reservation for repairs, and after paying the salary of the clerk, beadles, pew-openers, and other expenses incident to divine service, to the minister as his stipend in addition to the income arising from the endowment. In case of non-payment of pew-rents the wardens may either enter and sell the pews or bring actions for the rents.

"DIVISION OF PARISHES. The better division of parishes for spiritual purposes is also regarded in the following provisions :-In some large parishes there are chapels of ease, with districts belonging or supposed to be belonging thereto, at a considerable distance from the parish church. Authority is therefore given to the bishop, in case a suitable endowment can be obtained for such chapel, to separate it from the parish church, and to make the district belonging or supposed to belong thereto a district parish for all spiritual purposes. As an inducement to provide an endowment, the patron, with the incumbent's consent, is authorized to make any agreement with the bishop touching the future right of nominating a minister to the chapel. If the incumbent refuse his consent, such agreement may be made between the bishop and patron to take effect after the next avoidance of the parish church.

"CHURCHWARDENS. It is directed that two wardens be chosen yearly at the usual time of choosing parish officers, out of the inhabitants of such new parish so constituted, being members of the established Church; one to be chosen by the minister and the other by the vestry.

"In case of additional churches or chapels built and endowed before the passing of 1 and 2 Wm. 4, c. 38, the bishop is authorized by that Act, with consent of the patron and incumbent of the parish, to assign a district to such church or chapel. Also by the Act 1 and 2 Victoria, c. 107, where a church has been built by a subscription and endowed, and subsequently augmented by Queen Anne's Bounty, and the patronage acquired under any of the Acts regulating the bounty, the commissioners are authorized, with the consent of the bishop and the patron, and the incumbent of the parish or district parish in which such church or chapel may be, to assign a district thereto and make the same a district parish, and the patronage will not be affected thereby.”—Hare's Pamphlet, pp. 25-34.

The time allowed by the Act for the patron to put in his bond to build and endow a church capable of affording the proposed increased accommodation having expired, it will be well to write to the bishop to ascertain, whether he has received such a bond or not. If no such bond have been entered into, and if no undertaking has been given to increase the accommodation in the existing church of the parish, according to the number specified in the "notice," the parties may proceed to obtain designs, plans, specifications, and estimates, for the intended church The best way to obtain these, is by advertizing in the public prints for tenders.

Form of Prayer on LAYING THE First Stone.

¶ The committee and subscribers having assembled at the place appointed, the procession is formed, and proceed to the spot where the first stone is to be laid, accompanied by him on whom that office devolves.

¶ The ground, purchased as a site for the church, having been duly prepared, the foundations dug, and a suitable stone conveyed to the spot, the ceremony will commence by reading Psalm LXXXIV., or by singing Psalm C.

¶ The Psalm ended, a bottle containing silver coins of the reign of her most gracious majesty Queen Victoria, and the last printed list of the subscribers towards the erection of the church, will be deposited in a cavity of the stone prepared for their reception, over which a brass plate will be inserted, and afterwards be run in with lead; on the under side of this plate is engraven the following inscription:

THE FIRST STONE

of this Church,
erected by

VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS,

was laid by

ON TUESDAY,

16th August, 1841.

(Isa. xxviii. 16; Eph. ii. 20; 1 Cor. iii. 11.)

After the insertion of this plate, the architect will put the mortar on the bed, and the trowel being presented to the person about to lay the stone, he will spread the mortar; and the stone being gradually lowered to its place, he will apply the mallet in the usual form, &c., and address the assembly.

¶ Then will be read the first lesson, taken from Ezra iii. 8—11, at the conclusion of the last verse of which, three hearty cheers will be given by the perons assembled.

The second lesson, taken out of 1 Peter ii. 1-17, will follow, after which a psalm or hymn may be sung.

First Prayer.

Almighty and most merciful God and Father, who dwellest in the highest heavens, and yet disdainest not to behold the things that are passing upon earth; without whose gracious aid all our wishes are ineffectual, all our labours vain; look down, we beseech thee, upon us thy creatures here assembled before thee, and prosper this our undertaking, for the advancement of thy glory, and the good of thy church. Blessed be thy goodness, O Lord! that thou hast put it into the hearts of thy servants to build this sanctuary. May the church, whose FOUNDATION STONE has now been laid, become the sanctified means of promoting true religion among us, and extending thy kingdom upon earth; may it, ages after this congregation is gathered to its fathers, keep alive in the hearts of the inhabitants of this place, a due reverence of thee, and of thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Reedeemer. Here may our children's children worship the one true God, in spirit and in truth. Here may the sighing of the contrite, which thou, O God, for