tion; the taper-stand being the the lotus-flower, so common in the East, of which the bud forms the extinguisher.

The whole reflects the greatest credit on the artists, (Messrs. Braithwaite and Jones,) who have so well carried into effect the wishes of the Madras community in this splendid farewell token to one so deservedly regretted.

REV. F. J. EYRE.-The inhabitants of Breamore and Woodgreen have lately presented a handsome silver salver to the Rev. Francis J. Eyre, now curate of Sway, in the New Forest, as a testimony of their gratitude to him, for the zeal and faithfulness with which he discharged his duties during the period of his being their officiating minister.

REV. STEPHEN ISAACSON.-The inhabitants of Dorking being desirous of conveying a memorial of esteem and respect to the Rev. S. Isaacson, their late curate, for his indefatigable labours and zeal, in promoting the spiritual welfare of his parishioners, during the period he has resided among them, and also for his assiduous attention to the poor and sick, deputed R. Clapton, and S. Willis, Esqrs., to present him with a purse containing eighty sovereigns, previous to his quitting the town; and in addition to this, (and a new set of robes presented by the ladies about six months since,) a pocket communion service, a gold pencil case, and other gratifying marks of their approbation, have been forwarded by several individuals, who express their gratitude and satisfaction at having heard, and they trust not unprofitably, the many excellent discourses delivered by Mr. Isaacson, during his curacy at Dorking, It ought also to be noticed that the children of the Infant School, on the score of gratitude, and as a small remembrance of his kindness to the institution, contributed their mite, in the shape of a handsome map of Palestine mounted on a roller. Such testimonials are most gratifying, and lighten the anxieties and labours inseparable from a conscientious discharge of the responsible duties of a larger parish; and the many similar records in our pages, prove that the clergy do their duty, and the laity appreciate it.

REV. J. HANDFORTH AND REV. G. W. BOWER.-We have great pleasure in recording the following tokens of respect, which have recently been presented to the Rev. J. Handforth, and to the Rev. G. W. Bower, curates of the parish church of Ashtonunder-Lyne. Each of these gentlemen has been presented with silk robes, and a splendidly engraved silver coffee and tea service. These instances of benevolence towards the curates of the parish church of Ashton-under-Lyne, together with the large sums of money which, within the last few years, have been collected for the support of the Sunday Schools, and other Societies, the choir, and the various incidental expenses of the church, warrant the supposition that the principles of the Established Church are becoming better known, and more duly appreciated by the inhabitants of that very populous town and neighbourhood.

REV. J. K. POYNTZ.-At a meeting held lately in the school room of St. Jude's Church, Ancoats, Thomas Townend, Esq. presented the Rev. J. K. Poyntz, B.A. (on his leaving the curacy of St. Jude's), with a portable communion service, together with a copy of the posthumous works of the late Dr. Adam Clarke, paid for by subscrip tions amongst the friends and teachers of the said school. The presentation was accompanied by a very feeling and appropriate address, to which the Rev. Gentleman replied in a truly impressive manner.

SELECT COMMITTEE ON CHURCH LEASES.-Lord John Russell, Mr. Goulburn, Mr. Lambton, Mr. Pusey, Mr. Pease, Mr. G. Vernon, Mr. V. Smith, Mr. G. Knight, Mr. Childers, Lord Eliot, Mr. Hector, Mr. Ingham, Mr. W. Evans, Mr. H. Johnston, the Solicitor-General, Mr. B. Wall, and Mr. Ward.

BENEFICES PLURALITY BILL.

ABSTRACT OF THIS BILL, SO FAR AS IT DIFFERS FROM 57 GEO. III., BY WHICH

THE CHURCH IS NOW GOVERNED.

I. Pluralities. By that Act all former Acts relating to Residence and Curates' Stipends were repealed; but the restraints on pluralities by canon or by 21 Henry VIII. were left unaltered. By this, a new system is established: no distinction between livings void and voidable will remain, and dispensations are superseded.

In future no one can hold preferments in two Cathedrals, or more than one Bencfice with Cathedral preferment, each of them limited in value, unless in possession March 12, 1836; or two Benefices whose distance is more than ten miles; the popu lation of neither exceeding and the value of neither exceeding 5001. But if one be more and the other less, the Bishop may allow it, with the consent of the Archbishop.

II. Union of Benefices.-Two or more, if contiguous, whose aggregate value does exceed 5007., and aggregate population 1500, may be united by the Queen in Council, under the recommendation of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and with consent of the Patrons.

III. House of Residence.-If there is no fit house, the Bishop may license any house within two miles of the church, but in a town, one mile only. In order to repair or rebuild, the Incumbent may mortgage the living for 35 years; and if the value exceed 1507, the Bishop may compel him to do so; and if it does not exceed 2004, the Bishop, on the next avoidance, may sequester it, and withhold the insti tution; and if he does not exercise these powers, he must give his reasons to the Queen in Council.

IV. Exemptions from Residence.-Persons absolutely exempt are, Deans, Heads of Houses, the Warden of Durham, the Masters of Eton, Winchester, and Westminster, with the Principal of E. I. College, all on condition of holding one Benefice only. Persons not included in this Bill are, certain Officers in the two Universities, Minor Canons, and Chaplains to the Dock-yards, &c. Persons temporarily exempt are nearly the same as before; but Chaplains to Peers, Preachers to the Inns of Courts, with Fellows and Scholars, are omitted. The former right of exemption is reserved to all in possession March 12, 1836.

V. Licenses of Non-residence.-Persons not to be licensed in future, who were so before, (unless in possession March 12, 1836,) are, Incumbents holding a Curacy, Masters of Endowed Schools, Preachers in Proprietary Chapels, Garrison Chaplains, &c. The causes to be specified in the license are, residence in any house in the parish, of which the Incumbent is the owner; or, if there be no fit house, a certifi cate from the Rural Dean, that there is no house to be found within the limits; and instead of "actual illness or infirmity of the Incumbent, his wife or child," is substituted simply, incapacity of mind or body in the Incumbent.

VI. Curates' Stipends.—If the Imcumbent (except he was in possession March 12, 1836) is actually resident, the value exceeding 4007., and the population 2,000, the Bishop may require a Curate. If he be non-resident, he may require two Curates, whose joint salary shall not exceed the largest allowed by this bill. If an Incumbent absent himself for two (instead of three) months, without having a Curate, or neglect for one month (instead of three) to notify the death or removal of a Curate, or does not nominate within two, the Bishop may nominate and appoint. VII. Monition and Sequestration.--If an Incumbent return to residence after Monition, and within six (instead of twelve) months absent himself for one month, a Sequestration may issue without further Monition. If he remain under Sequestration for one year, (instead of two,) or incur two (instead of three) Sequestrations within two years, the Benefice is ipso facto void.

VIII. Miscellaneous.-The annual value of Benefices to be estimated from the Returns in June, 1835; the population from the last census; and the distance by the nearest road or footpath. The Bishop may direct two full services, each including a Sermon, when the value is 1507., and the population 400. Actions at law are abolished; and no suit can be instituted in any Court but the Bishop's, or by any but him. The penalty of 201. for not answering the usual queries is taken away; but the answers are to be countersigned by the Rural Dean.

REPORT OF THE TITHE COMMISSIONERS

For England and Wales, to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department. (Pursuant to the Act 6 and 7 William IV. c. 71, 1838.)

TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD JOHN RUSSELL, SECRETARY OF STATE.

Tithe Commission Office, May 1, 1838.

MY LORD, The Tithe Commissioners are directed by the Act for the Commutation of Tithes in England and Wales to certify and report to one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, before the 1st of May, 1838, in what manner certain discretionary powers given to the said Commissioners by that Act ought in their judgment to be exercised, and to lay down such rules as to them seem expedient for the guidance of assistant-commissioners.

In obedience to that enactment, we have the honour to lay the following Report before your Lordship.

Those discretionary powers, on the proper mode of using which we are to report, enable us, while commuting tithes for rent-charges, to increase or diminish the amount of the tithe-owners' receipts or compositions by one-fifth; and further enable us, in certain special cases (each of which is to be separately reported on by us to one of her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State), to disregard the past compositions altogether, and to award rent-charges with reference to the average rate which shall be established in respect of lands of like description, and similarly situated in the neighbouring parishes.

By another enactment of the Tithe Commutation Act, we are further directed to include in our Report rules for the guidance of the assistant-commissioners in estimating the value of the tithes of coppice-wood.

Our Report will consist, therefore, of three parts.

The first part will relate to the increase or decrease (to the extent of one-fifth) of the amount of the tithe-owners' receipts, when the tithes are commuted for rent charges.

The second to those cases reserved for special adjudication, in which the past receipts or compositions are to be altogether neglected.

The third part to the mode of estimating the tithe of coppice.

We have thought it expedient to add some remarks, as to the proper mode of assessing the expenses incurred in certain processes of the commutation.

On the Increase or Decrease of the Receipts of Tithe-owners when the Tithes are commuted for rent-charges.

A demand for an increase or decrease of the average compositions for tithe, or the amount of receipts of tithe in kind, may have reference to the compositions generally, or especially to that part of them which, instead of being paid directly to the tithe-owner, has been paid for him as rates or taxes. With the exception of one class of cases, which shall be hereafter pointed out, whenever a party applies to have an addition made to the average compositions of the seven years preceding Christmas 1835, the Assistant Commissioner we think should, as a preliminary and indispensable step, require the tithe-owner to produce proof that the value of the titheable produce, during that seven years, exceeded the amount of the compositions, after deducting the expenses of collecting and making due allowance for the inferiority in value produced by the mixture in the tithe-owners' samples, and by the hazard and damage incident to his mode of collecting and housing his produce. When such proof has been adduced, the tithe-payer may support the reasonableness of the composition-first, by showing any facts which make it probable that, if the tithe had been taken in kind, or if a higher rate of composition had been demanded, the average titheable produce would have been less than it was to an extent which made the actual compositions a reasonable equivalent for the rights of the tithe-owner; or, secondly, by proving any facts which made it probable that the amount of titheable produce raised during the seven years which are to govern the average, was only a temporary, and was not likely to be a permanent, production.

We are somewhat reluctant to attempt any enumeration of the facts, or classes of facts, which might be produced in proof of either of these propositions, because we do not wish to narrow the discretion of the assistant-commissioners, who, when on the spot, will be the best judges of the nature of the evidence calculated to throw light on each particular case.

In order, however, to make our own views more intelligible, we will point out some of the facts which, it may be assumed, will be the most commonly relied on, without meaning to exclude others which may at any time appear to the assistants to bear upon the cases immediately before them. Proof may be received, we think, on the part of the tithe-payer, that the collection of tithes in kin would have been more than ordinarily troublesome and expensive; that dificulties as to roads and markets would have reduced the value of the titheable produce, when collected, more than usual; that unusual and expensive crops have been grown on the faith of continued compositions; that an unusually expensive system of tilling and manuring has been adopted on the faith of continued compositions; or that peculiar facilities exist for changing the culture from arable to grass. If one or more of these, or any analogous circumstances, satisfy the Assistant Commissioner that the compositions, though not representing the full value of the titheable produce, were still a fair equivalent for the rights of the tithe-owner, he should refuse to increase the rent charge. If, after making full allowance for all such circumstances, he thinks the average compositions fell below a fair equivalent for the rights of the tithe owner, he should increase the rent-charge by adding to the average compositions either a whole fifth of their amount, or such a proportion of that sum as appears to him reasonable.

When a tithe-payer applies to have the average of the compositions or the amount of receipts of tithe in kind diminished before a rent-charge is declared, it will be for him to show, either, first, that the compositions have actually exceeded the real net value of the titheable produce during the seven years; or, secondly, that there is valid ground for believing that the cultivation and produce would not have continued to be what it was during the seven years preceding Christmas 1835, if the full rate of past compositions had continued to be exacted. The Assistant-Commissioner may receive in evidence any facts which tend to establish either of these propositions. Two are obvious. Land may have been laid down to grass during the seven years preceding Christmas 1835, or indeed at any time before the passing of the Tithe Act, under circumstances which make it probable that it will continue in grass; or the cultivation, the produce, and the compositions may have been gradually and continuously declining during the seven years preceding 1835, and the decrease may be likely to be permanent. If these or any analogous circumstances satisfy the Assistant Commissioner that the average compositions or net receipts of tithe in kind of the seven years preceding Christmas 1835 would form a rent-charge which would be more than an equivalent for the rights of the tithe owner, he will diminish the rent-charge either by a whole fifth of the average amount of the compositions or receipts, or by such a proportion of that sum as appears to him reasonable. If he is not so satisfied, he will refuse to diminish the rent-charge.

Where tithe has been taken in kind continuously, and for a considerable period, it may be assumed that the cultivation of the land has been accommodated to that state of things. In such cases the Assistant Commissioner will only have to make proper allowances for the expenses of collection, and for the inferior value (as compared with other produce) of tithe produce collected and housed by the tithe-owner. But when tithe has been taken in kind unexpectedly, discontinnously, and for a portion only of the seven years preceding Christmas 1835, then the titheable produce may have been greater, because the actual cultivation had been adopted on the faith of a continued composition. In such a case, we are of opinion that the average should be amended and lowered, by substituting for the receipts of those years the succeeding compositions, or, if there have been no succeeding compositions, then such a composition, as may appear to the Assistant would have been reasonable under the circumstances. It must be understood, however, that this substitution is not to be carried so far as to reduce the rent-charge by more than one fifth of the average receipts, for that would be exceeding our powers. Subject to this limitation the average obtained by such a substitution should still be open to objection, as too high or too low to be perpetuated.

We have already intimated that there is one class of cases in which the titheowner, making an application for au increase, should not be obliged, as a preliminary step, to prove that the actual net value of the titheable produce during the seven years preceding Christmas 1835 exceeded the amount of the compositions. In making this exception from the general rule, we had in view certain cases

in which the accounts of the seven years may show a progressively increasing amount of titheable produce, arising from the spread of tillage, from improved, though not unusually expensive, farming; from the restoration of lands to a productive state, which litigation and doubtful ownership, or the misfortunes of the occupiers, had caused to be temporarily neglected or abandoned, or from analogous causes. In some such cases the Assistant Commissioner may have a decided conviction that the increased production will be permanent, and is not dependent on the continuance of the average rate of past compositions or receipts. In such cases we are of opinion that grounds would be laid for an addition to the rent charge to the extent of one-fifth of the compositions or receipts for tithe in kind, or some portion of that sum; as in the corresponding case of a progressive decrease of titheable produce from the decreasing breadth of arable land, or from other causes, we have already stated that grounds would be laid for a reduction of the average of the compositions or amount of receipts, whenever the Assistant is satisfied that the decrease in the produce is likely to be per

manent.

We have pointed at the facts, or rather classes of facts, best calculated to guide the decisions of the assistants, when they are called on to increase or diminish the average compositions; and in many cases direct evidence of such facts may be adduced suflicient to satisfy their minds; but this will not be the case in all. In many instances it may be impossible to obtain direct and satisfactory evidence as to the alterations which would have taken place in the efficiency or the modes of cultivation if a higher rate of composition had been demanded, or if tithes had been taken in kind. The Assistants will diligently obtain all the local information possible, and carefully weigh all such evidence as may be adduced by either party, and still considerable doubts may remain on their minds as to what effects a more rigorous exaction of tithe would have had on the produce. In all such cases of doubt it appears to us clear, that the rates of composition which they find prevailing in neighbouring parishes similar in quality and position, ought to have considerable weight in determining their decisions. Circumstances which it may be impossible to detect in an examination of a few days, have, in many cases, influenced in the long run the rates of composition in large districts, and accommodated those rates to the inferior state of cultivation which would gradually have followed any attempt on the part of the tithe-owner to have exacted his full legal rights. In districts in which numerous cases of voluntary commutation have already occurred, the rent-charges established by the parties themselves will of course afford a yet safer standard of comparison when the Assistant is called on to decide cases which the direct evidence adduced has left doubtful.

Circumstances connected with the payment of parochial rates may occasionally form a special ground for applications to increase or diminish the sum formed by the joint amount of compositions and rates. We understand the main object of the Tithe Commutation Act to be, to perpetuate, in the form of rent-charges, the sums which the parties themselves have treated tithes as worth, during the seven years preceding Christmas 1535; with the exception of certain special cases, and subject to a variation in all to the extent of one-fifth of the whole of such sums. While doing this it is also the purpose of the Act to put upon exactly the same footing the tithe-owners who have paid their own parochial rates, and the titheowners whose rates have been paid for them by the tithe-payers. If, therefore, in two parishes, in both of which the tithes have been treated as worth 6007, the tithe-owner in one has received 6007. and paid his own rates, and in the other the tithe owner has received 4007., and 2007. has been paid for him as rates, that 2001. must be added to the 4001. to make up the tithe-owner's real average, and put him on a footing with his neighbour.

There are cases, however, in which the tithe payers, having contracted to pay the rates for the tithe-owner, have proceeded to assess the tithes at a much smaller sum than they would have been assessed at, had the rates been paid by the tithe-owner himself. This fact, of course, can only be established by showing the principle on which tithes had customarily been assessed in that immediate neighbourhood; and that being shown, a ground may be laid for adding something to the joint amount of rates and compositions, not strictly perhaps under the 20 per cent. clause, but because in all such cases the joint amount of the compositions, and of the rates which are shown to have been paid on the actual assessments, do not represent either the sums agreed to be paid by the