&c. the case where the removal is from such part of a church as has Repair fund, been pulled down, to the part of a church which is suffered to remain standing; and the font, communion table, and plate used for the purposes of the holy communion belonging to or held in trust for any church so wholly pulled down shall be transferred to such parish church; and all lectureships attached to any church so wholly pulled down or disused for the purposes of divine service shall be transferred to the parish church of such united or separate benefice; and all sums of money or other property held by any body or person or persons in trust for the maintenance, repair, or insurance of any church which shall cease to be used for the purposes of divine service or for a mortuary chapel under the provisions of this act shall thereupon be held upon the like trusts for such parish church.” Sect. 6. "When any church shall have been so constituted a Rights of parish church the persons residing within the limits of the said parishioners. united or separate benefice shall, subject as in this act mentioned, have the same rights, be entitled to the same privileges, and be subject to the same obligations in relation to such church as if the same church had always existed as such parish church." arrangement Sect. 7. "Upon any union of benefices the bishop of the Bishop to diocese, under his hand and seal, shall and he is hereby autho- direct the rized by faculty from his court to alter and readjust the seats of the church and the appropriation thereof in the church of the united or seats, which separate benefice, so that not less than one-half of the sittings shall be of in such church shall be left unappropriated; and all the seats pattern. whether appropriated or free under any new arrangement made under this provision shall be made as near as possible of the same size and general appearance.' By sect. 2, this act is to be read and construed as one with 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, and 13 & 14 Vict. c. 98. an uniform c. 142. Unions in the metropolis. A further special enactment (23 & 24 Vict. c. 142) has been 23 & 24 Vict. made as to the union of benefices within the metropolis. The following are the provisions of that act:Sect. 1. "Two or more contiguous benefices within the metropolis as defined by 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120, intituled 'An Act Contiguous for the better Local Management of the Metropolis' (a), may benefices from time to time be united, or a benefice or contiguous benefices within the metropolis, as and one or more spiritual sinecure rectory or rectories, vicarage defined by or vicarages, contiguous to such benefice or benefices, and 18 & 19 Vict. situate in the metropolis, may from time to time be united, c. 120, may without regard in any case to aggregate population or aggregate yearly value, and without limitation as to the same, and every such union shall be effected in the manner hereinafter provided." be united. Sect. 3. "Whenever it shall appear to the bishop of the Power to diocese of London or of Winchester, as the case may be, that an Bishops of union of benefices may with advantage to the interests of religion Winchester (x) See sect. 250, and schedules A, B and C to that act. London or to issue be effected within his diocese, he may cause a commission to be commissions. issued under his hand and seal, addressed to five persons, to be Commission, how to be nominated. The number to constitute a quorum, their powers, and the return to the commission. nominated as after mentioned, authorizing and requiring them to inquire into and report upon the expediency of the proposed union, and such commissioners shall and may inquire into all such matters in anywise affecting such union or connected therewith as they may deem necessary, and the commissioners shall make their return to the commission within six calendar months from the issuing of the commission, or within such enlarged time as the bishop shall, by writing under his hand from time to time direct, and notice of the issuing of a commission shall be sent by the bishop to the vestry clerk of each parish proposed to be united, and notice thereof shall be published by such vestry clerk by affixing it upon the door of the parish church." Sect. 4. "Three of the commissioners shall be beneficed clergymen residing within the diocese, of whom one shall be nominated by the dean and chapter of the cathedral church of Saint Paul (y), and two by the bishop of the diocese, and the remaining two shall be lay members of the church of England, and shall be nominated to the bishop by the corporation of the city of London (2); and no commissioner shall be entitled to claim or shall receive any salary or payment for performing the duties imposed on him as such commissioner." Sect. 5. "Three of the commissioners, of whom one shall be a lay commissioner, shall constitute a quorum; and the commissioners shall have power at their discretion to call for the production before them of any documents not affecting private interests which they may deem necessary for the purposes of the commission, and the persons having the care or custody of such documents shall be bound to produce them to the commissioners upon the requisition in writing of any two commissioners; and the commissioners may examine on oath all persons desirous or willing to be examined by them touching any matter relating to the object of the commission, and may administer the oaths necessary for that purpose, and the churchwardens of the parishes proposed to be united shall have notice of the sittings of such commission, and shall be entitled, with their vestry clerk, to attend thereat; and the commissioners shall in their return to the commission certify all such matters and things as shall appear to them material, together with their opinion as to the expediency or otherwise of the proposed union, and if they, or any three of them competent to constitute a quorum, shall deem the union expedient, shall recommend the terms on which in their opinion the same ought to be effected." (y) By the dean and chapter of Westminster, if the proposed union is within the city of Westminster (s. 32). (z) By the vestries of the parishes affected, if the proposed union is not within the city of London or the liberties thereof (s. 32). missioners, Sect. 6. "If before the return to the commission any com- Disqualificamissioner shall die, or become incapable of acting by removal tion of comfrom the diocese or otherwise, the commission shall continue in and the full force, unless there shall not be sufficient commissioners issuing a fresh remaining to constitute a quorum; and notwithstanding the commission. death or disqualification of any one or more of the commissioners the qualified commissioners for the time being shall continue to exercise the powers given to the commissioners by this act until such vacancy or vacancies shall have been filled up; but if there shall not be a sufficient quorum the bishop may, either before or after the time limited for the return to the commission, issue a fresh commission under the provisions of this act in lieu of the original commission, and the commissioners under such substituted commission shall have all the powers of the original commission, and may adopt the evidence taken under it." wardens and Sect. 7. "If the return to the commission shall recommend Bishop to an union, the bishop shall cause proposals for a scheme, based prepare and transmit proupon the terms recommended, to be prepared for effecting the posals for a union; which proposals, with the consent thereto in writing of scheme to the patron or patrons of each of the benefices affected, shall be churchtransmitted by the bishop to the churchwardens of each parish vestry. proposed to be united, in order that the same may be considered by the inhabitants in vestry assembled; and all such proposals shall have especial regard to the residence of the incumbent on the benefice proposed to be constituted the united benefice, and shall contain all necessary provisions conducing to such residence." to ecclesias scheme, and Sect. 8. "The vestry of each parish shall, by the vestry clerk Vestry to or other officer, notify to the bishop, within two calendar months notify assent or objections, after the receipt of the proposals, their assent or their objections and bishop to or any suggestions for the modification of the same, and the to transmit bishop shall give full consideration to every such notification of final proposals vestry, and shall make such alterations in the proposals as he tical commismay think right; and the bishop shall cause such proposals, as sioners, to finally approved by him, and assented to by the patrons and by prepare the vestries of the parishes to be affected thereby, to be trans- certify same mitted to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England, who shall to the Queen thereupon cause to be prepared a scheme for carrying out the in council. proposed union, which scheme may, with the assent of the bishop and patrons, and the vestries of the parishes to be affected thereby, embody any modifications of the proposals, and shall send drafts of such proposed scheme to the churchwardens of the parishes to be respectively affected by the scheme with notice that they or any of them may, within two calendar months, show cause to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners against the proposed union or any part or parts of the scheme relating thereto; and if within such period of two calendar months no cause be shown, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners shall certify the scheme, and the consent thereto in writing of the bishop and of What the commis sioners shall insert in the scheme. Part of a benefice or united bene fice may be severed and included in scheme. the patron, and of the vestries of the parishes to be affected thereby, to Her Majesty in Council, and thereupon it shall be lawful for Her Majesty in Council to make and issue any Order or Orders for effecting the union and for uniting the parishes of the united benefices into one parish for ecclesiastical purposes, and for such other purposes as are herein provided: Provided always, that if any petition or statement is lodged by way of protest, or any appeal is made against the scheme or any part thereof, as hereinafter is provided, no such Order or Orders in Council shall be made or issued until such petition or statement has been duly considered, or the parties to such appeal have been duly heard." Sect. 9. "It shall be lawful for the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to insert in any scheme to be prepared by them all proper directions for the appointment of the first incumbent of the united benefice, and for regulating the course and succession in which the patrons, if there be more than one patron, shall present or nominate to such united benefice from time to time as the same shall became vacant; and they shall have power to insert in any scheme all such provisions in addition to those hereby expressly authorized as may in their opinion be necessary for effectually carrying out the particular measures proposed by the scheme, including any provisions which may be found necessary for the compensation of any of the incumbents of the benefices to be united who may be willing to retire there from (a); and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners shall and may, for the purposes of this act, exercise all powers and privileges now or for the time being exercisable by them under the acts of parliament relating to their commission, or under the Church Building Acts, particularly as regards the purchase of sites and the erection of churches." Sect. 10. "Whenever it shall be deemed expedient to unite part only of a benefice with some other contiguous benefice or benefices, any portion of a benefice or benefices, or any portion of two or more benefices, which shall have been united under the provisions of this or of any other act, or in any other manner, and either prior to or subsequently to the passing of this act, may in the manner prescribed by this act be severed from the remaining portion; and thereupon such a portion of the parish or united parishes to which the benefice shall belong as shall be determined by the scheme effecting the severance shall become disunited for ecclesiastical purposes; and the portion of benefice and parish so severed shall, for the purposes of an union of benefices under this act, be deemed to be a separate benefice and parish respectively, and may by the same scheme and Order in Council under which such severance shall be effected, or by any supplemental scheme, be united to any other contiguous benefice or benefices; and in such original or (a) See McBean v. Deane, 30 Ch. D. p. 520. supplemental scheme provisions may be inserted for annexing to the severed portion a proportion of the real and personal property of the parish or united parishes from which such severance shall have been made, and for the dealing with and application of the property (if any) to be so annexed, and for defining and determining the rights of the parishioners of the severed portion in regard to the joint vestry of the newly united parish with which the severed portion shall be incorporated, and as to the manner of exercising such rights, and all such other provisions as may seem to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners necessary or expedient in lieu of any provisions contained in this act not applicable to an united benefice or parish of which a severed portion of a benefice or parish shall constitute part; and after the severance the remaining portion of the benefice or parish from which the severance shall have been made shall continue one benefice or parish or united benefice or parish, and shall not be otherwise affected by such severance; and whenever in this act the consent of the patron of a benefice shall be required for carrying the same into effect, the patron whose consent shall be requisite in the case of any such severed portion shall be the patron of the benefice or united benefice from which such severance shall be intended." united bene any other Sect. 11. "Whenever it shall appear to the Ecclesiastical Surplus Commissioners that the total revenue of any benefices proposed revenue of to be united would be more than sufficient for the due main- fice may be tenance and support of the incumbent of the benefice proposed annexed as an to be constituted an united benefice, and of such assistant curate endowment to or curates as may be needed for the same, and that some specified benefice in part or parts of the permanent endowments belonging to the the metropolis benefices proposed to be united, or any of them, might with or its vicinity. advantage to the interests of religion be made subject to a certain annual rentcharge in perpetuity in favour of some other specified benefice in the Metropolis or in the vicinity thereof, or might be excepted out of such union, and transferred and annexed to such other specified benefice, having no provision or no competent provision belonging thereto, as an endowment or a further endowment for the same, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, with the consent of the patron or patrons of the benefices proposed to be united, and of the vestries of the parishes to be affected thereby, and of the bishop of the diocese within which such benefices shall be situate, may prepare and submit to Her Majesty in Council a scheme for providing such rentcharge, or for effecting such transfer or annexation, and thereupon it shall be lawful for Her Majesty in Council to make and issue an Order or Orders for giving effect to the said scheme of the Commissioners, and in the scheme there shall be inserted all such powers for recovering the rentcharge (if any) by distress upon or perception of the rents and profits of the hereditaments to be charged therewith or otherwise, and for the immediate or prospective apportionment of such rentcharge or otherwise in |