to the vestry the documents now handed to you; and I trust that the light which they will throw upon the question will be instrumental towards the admission on your part of my just and fair claims. "I am, Sir, your obedient, humble servant, "To Mr. J. Branscombe, Senior Churchwarden." "J. G. WARD, Rector. Having waited for an answer from the 27th of March to this present date, (Nov. 1839,) and having received none, I have inspected the vestry minutebook. By this book it appears that, my letter having been received together with the two opinions of counsel, a committee of vestry was appointed to consider the subject. At the recommendation of their committee, the vestry submitted a case, drawn up on their own behalf, to a third eminent ecclesiastical lawyer, Dr. Addams, whose opinion, in answer to their questions put to him, is also here subjoined.* Dr. Addams agrees entirely with Sir John Dodson and Dr. Nicholl as to the rector's indefeasible right to all pews in the chancel. And in reference to the question as to what the rector is entitled to" in honesty and fairness," Dr. Addams says, Whatever privileges former rectors had in and to the pews formerly standing in the chancel, but now removed to make way for the pulpit and reading-desk, the same privileges (in fairness and equity, at least, if not in strict law) has the present rector in and to the pews, in fact, at least assigned to the present rector's immediate predecessor, as in exchange for those pews in the chancel; and this appears to me so clearly to be the case, that I shall be surprised at finding any question raised about it." " What their own counsel (on their own statement of the case) thus declares to be due to the rector "in fairness and equity, if not in strict law," the vestry and churchwardens of this parish will not concede. With this last opinion (though not the opinions obtained by the rector) recorded on their minutes, the minutes of vestry most strangely record also, that, on the 22nd of August, 1839, a motion having been made to the effect that "as it now clearly appears that the rectors of this parish had an indefeasible right to the pews containing forty-eight sittings, which, prior to the new-pewing of the church, were standing within the chancel, it is not expedient to rescind that portion of the proceedings of the vestry of the 23rd of May, 1804, by which certain pews, containing the same number of sittings, were appropriated to the rector and his successors for ever, as a satisfaction for, and in lieu of, such chancel-pews;" this motion was met by a motion that the faculty for newpewing the church in 1803 be read. The faculty (of course, as the vestry very well know) made no reference at all to the exchange of pews, and the motion to abide fairly by the exchange was negatived. The churchwardens, in consequence, hold possession of the pews against me. Thus has the rectory of St. James been stripped of its just rights through advantage taken of a flaw, occasioned by the unsuspecting inadvertence of a good man, (the late rector, Dr. Andrewes,) who consented to make a fair exchange, without looking sufficiently to the title of what was nominally given him in return for his own. I think, my dear Sir, you will feel, with every reasonable man and man of honour, that my resistance to such unjustifiable spoliation was absolutely called for, and ought to have prevailed. I am, dear Sir, yours very faithfully, To W. Nicol, Esq., Pall Mall. J. G. WARD, Rector. *The opinion above referred to is given in the Appendix, for which we cannot find room. INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE ENLARGEMENT, BUILDING, AND REPAIRING OF CHURCHES AND CHAPELS. A MEETING of the committee of this society was held at their chambers, St. Martin's Place, on Monday, the 16th of December, 1839,-the Lord Bishop of London in the chair. There were present, the Lord Bishop of Llandaff, the Revs. Dr. Shepherd, H. H. Norris, and B. Harrison, H. J. Barchard, J. S. Salt, Joshua Watson, E. H. Locker, N. Connop, jun., J. Cocks, W. Cotton, and Benjamin Harrison, Esqrs. Among other business transacted, grants were voted towards repewing and building a gallery in the church at Rye, Sussex; enlarging the chapel at Harrow Weald, Middlesex; repewing and building a gallery in the church at Bottisham, Cambridgeshire; repewing and extending galleries in the church at Basingstoke, Southampton; enlarging gallery and rearrangement of pews in the church at Maiden Newton, Dorset; building a church at the Birchills, in the parish of Walsall, Stafford; enlarging the church at Whittingham. ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE. ORDINATIONS. Bishop of Rochester, Chapel, Bromley Palace Bishop of Ely, Ely Cathedral Nov. 10. Dec. 1. 1. 15. 92 22 Bishop of Durham, Chapel, Auckland Castle....................................................... Bishop of Oxford, Cathedral of Oxford Archbishop of Canterbury.................... Bishop of London Bishop of Lincoln, Lincoln Cathedral.................... Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, Cathedral Church of Gloucester, Bishop of Chester, Chester Cathedral Archbishop of York, Bishopthorp 22. 23. 23. 23. Bishop of Rochester, acting for the Bishop of Worcester............ |