comes; and in support hereof your petitioners beg to refer to the case of Rex v. Dayrell, 1 Barnewall and Cresswell's Reports, 485.

5. That your petitioners are well content to be rated to the poor for their tithe composition or rent-charge in just ratio with the produce of lands, according to the principles laid down in the existing law; and seeing that your petitioners have agreed and fixed with their parishioners in amount of composition under the impression that lands and tithes would continue to be rated in just ratio, as heretofore, and according to their relative liabilities, and that such law would be preserved inviolate, they trust your honourable house will not allow the proposed bill to pass into a law, but that the existing law, which has been so lately sanctioned and confirmed by the legislature in the Tithe Commutation Act, and the Parochial Assessment Act, may be preserved unchanged and inviolate. And your petitioners will ever pray, &c.

COMMUTATION OF TITHE.

THE following questions have been submitted by the Lord Bishop of Hereford to every clergyman in his diocese, meditating a commutation of tithe, in order that his lordship may not give his consent before he is thoroughly satisfied as to the fairness of the terms proposed.

1. Is your benefice a rectory or a vicarage? 2. If a vicarage, what tithes have you been in the habit of receiving, either by endowment or prescription? 3. Who is the impropriator of the great tithes? 4. Is he a land-owner in the parish, and to what extent? 5. Are you in possession of any, especially of recent, valuation of the tithes of your parish by competent surveyors, and of what date, and what the value assigned? 6. If all your tithes have been compounded for, what was the amount of the composition in each of the seven years ending with 1835? On what principle were such compositions made, were they on the full value? How long have they existed? Did they include parochial rates? Have any abatements been made from the composition as once settled? How often, and for what reasons? Do such reasons for abatemeut still exist? 7. Has the rate on tithes been more or less than the full proportion they were liable to bear, having reference to the annual profits of the lands, and the rent thereof only?—See the cases of "Rex v. Joddrell,” 1 Barnwell and Adolphus' Reports, p. 408. 8. Are the total quantities and several classes of land in the parish accurately stated in the table in the commutation agreement, as underneath? Are the same stated from actual measurement, or how otherwise? Are the quantities customary or statute

And what is the average rent per acre of each description, as above? 9. What is the nature of the woodland? Is it coppice, fellable at stated periods, and what period on an average? What is the average value of the coppice per acre? What, in fact, has been received from this source on an average of twenty or thirty years; and if the actual receipts do not afford an average, what is the value of the tithe according to the produce of similar woods in the neighbourhood? 10. What is the usual course of tillage on the arable lands, and what the average produce of the several crops of wheat, barley, oats, or other grain, per acre? 11. What is the number of acres at present cultivated

as hop grounds or orchards in your parish? Is the number likely to increase or otherwise, and why? 12. Have you or any of your predecessors claimed tithe which has not been rendered? Has any suit or question been raised respecting any modus or claim to exemption from tithe? If so, have you taken counsel's opinion on the subject, and what is the nature of that opinion? 13. In what way, and on what ground, is the calculation made for the computation at £ per annum? Is it in your opinion a fair and ade

quate sum for a permanent commutation?

PETITION AGAINST THE BOARD OF GUARDIANS OF THE CAXTON AND ARRINGTON UNION,

PRESENTED in the House of Lords, June 25th, By the Lord Bishop of Exeter, who at the same time, expressed in the clearest terms his full conviction of the utter illegality of the restrictions complained of.

TO THE LORDS SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBled.

The humble petition of the Rev. Arthur Tozer Russel, B.C.L., of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Vicar of Caxton, in the Diocese of Ely, and County of Cambridge,

Sheweth, That the board of guardians of the Caxton and Arrington Union or District, in the counties of Cambridge and Huntingdon, prohibit the inmates of the union workhouse from attending divine service at the parish church; the male inmates being allowed to take exercise out of the workhouse precincts every day in the week besides.

That the aforesaid board of guardians also have enacted that no clergyman, except the chaplain, shall be allowed to attend the workhouse, except when sent for by one of their parishioners requiring religious instruction, and have enforced the same enactment against the parochial incumbent.

That the first of these enactments is more especially at open variance with the law of GOD, and an infringement upon the honour which is his due.

That the second of the aforesaid enactments is not sanctioned by the New Poor Law Act, and is, like the first, an insulting and injurious restriction placed upon the opportunities which the male inmates of the workhouse at least have long enjoyed, and of which some amongst them feel the loss.

That your petitioner, therefore, prays that your Right Honourable House will interpose to prevent and declare invalid such lawless and irreligious enactments as those here specified.

Also, that your Right Honourable House will cause it to be notified to the public, and to all the inmates of all workhouses, that they are at perfect liberty to worship GoD upon his holy day according to the pure and reformed worship of the church established in these dominions: and also that your Honourable House will not suffer the exclusion of clergymen from the said workhouses, wherever they are desirous of imparting religious instruction and consolation to the poor.

And your petitioner will ever pray, &c.

Eve of the Feast of St. John the Baptist, 1838.

ARTHUR TOZER RUSSELL, B.C.L.

Vicar of Caxton.

Whilst the inmates of the Caxton workhouse are forbidden to go to the parish church, they are left at perfect liberty to go to the meeting house; with the exception of some few, who are not allowed to go to either.

DISSENTERS' MARRIAGES.

ONE of the most important of the Parliamentary Returns that have been published this session is one moved for and obtained by Sir R. Inglis, with a view to shew to what extent the dissenters have availed themselves of the act passed at their urgent solicitation, whereby they are permitted to marry in any form they may chance to fancy. It will not be forgotten, that for many years past the political dissenters have put "foremost in the file" of their grievances the being obliged to conform to the church of England in the article of marriage. Well; the grievance was redressed, and there is now full evidence of its trivial nature in the eyes of the dissenters themselves, and consequently of the real motive why it was put so prominently forward. The paper is entitled, "Return of the number of places licensed for the celebration of marriages; and number of marriages celebrated other than according to the rites and ceremonies of the Established Church, from the 30th June to the 31st December, 1837 ;" and in order to convey some idea of the number of those marriages performed in dissenting chapels, private houses, and register offices, in Bristol and a few other leading places, the following extract from the return has been published :

"At the foot of the document a note is appended, stating that no returns have been obtained from six districts; and that "the returns from all the remaining districts; being 219 in number, state that no marriage has been celebrated therein other than according to the rites and ceremonies of the Established Church, under the provisions of the Act 6 and 7 William IV., c. 85; and that no licence has been issued or certificate granted, by the superintendent registrars of those districts respectively, from 30th June, 1837, to 31st December, 1837." "This is undoubtedly a very painful exposure for the dissenters; but we shall make it more so before we have done with it. In this return are included the marriages of Roman Catholics, who never expressed any anxiety about the bill, and of many members of the Church of Scotland, who should not be classed amongst the dissenters; so that we think we are under the mark when we deduct one-third, or say 580 from 1745 (the total number of grievance unions in six months) which leaves 1165, or rather better than ONE MARRIAGE to each matrimonial office under the act.

"In the same return which supplies us with the above figures, we find that the number of marriages celebrated in the established churches of London, within the same period, was 6033-viz., 5109 by banns, and 924 by licence. That is, nearly six times as many marriages have been celebrated in the churches of London alone, within the bills of mortality, as have been celebrated under the new act, in the whole of England and Wales (including London of course)."

• Where the dissenters return Lord John Russell.

THE CHURCH IN CANADA.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORDS SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, IN PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED.

The humble petition of William Bettridge, Bachelor in Divinity, of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Rector of Woodstock, in the Province of Upper Canada,

SHEWETH, That your petitioner was deputed by the late Bishop of Quebec, the Bishop of Montreal, the Archdeacons and Clergy of Upper Canada, to make known to the authorities in church and state the spiritual destitution of vast multitudes of our fellow-countrymen, members of the church of England, in that province.

That your petitioner has submitted his credentials to the most reverend the Archbishop of Canterbury, the primate.

That your petitioner has presented his humble memorial to her most gracious majesty the Queen.

That your petitioner has communicated to her Majesty's Government the extent and character of the spiritual destitution of Upper Canada; that his appeal for an effectual alleviation has been acknowledged to be just in its principle, as appears by the following quotation from a letter addressed to your petitioner, in answer to such appeal :-" Lord Glenelg subscribes, without hesitation, to many of the grounds on which the claims of the church of England are enforced in your memorial and letter. He adopts your opinion, that the provision at present made for the maintenance of the Bishop of Quebec, and the clergy of his diocese, is inadequate to the great end of maintaining the episcopal church where it at present exists, and of extending its operations throughout the Canadian provinces. His lordship deprecates, not less decidedly than yourself, the system which would leave the ministers of religion dependent on the precarious support of their various congregations. He is of opinion that the permanent appropriation of funds sufficient for their decent maintenance is to be classed amongst the highest and first objects of national policy."

That these Christian and constitutional principles, however, so ably and satisfactorily propounded by her Majesty's government, must necessarily remain inoperative unless your honourable house decide that the appropriation of funds necessary to alleviate the spiritual destitution complained of be a "legitimate use of the revenue of the United Kingdom."

That your petitioner humbly craves permission briefly to advert to the peculiar difficulties and privations of the church in Upper Canada, by stating, that his Majesty George III., by message to parliament, expressed his royal desire that a "" permanent provision" should be made for a protestant clergy" in Canada; that in order to secure this "highest object of national policy" "in all time to come," the act of 1791, (31 Geo. III., c. 31,) called the Constitutional Act of Canada, appropriated one-seventh part of the crown lands of the province for endowments for the clergy of the church of England (sections 38, 39, 40); that an attempt was made to lease a portion of these lands; that the inadequacy of such a provision for the maintenance of the clergy soon becoming apparent from the fact that grants of land in fee simple might be obtained from the crown at mere nominal prices, the imperial parliament passed an act in 1827 (7 and 8 Geo. IV., c. 62,) to authorize the sale of 100,000 acres annually, or, in the whole, of one-fourth of these lands; that the sum of 70,000l., (more or less) has been vested in the public funds as proceeds of these sales up to the commencement of the current year; that for thirty years no doubt was entertained on the meaning or construction of the

act of 1791; that a claim was then advanced by the church of Scotland for a share in these lands; that this claim was succeeded by others from various denominations of dissenters in the province; that the law officers of the crown expressed their opinion in 1819, that the church of Scotland had no right to any participation in these lands for parochial endowments, although it might be allowed a share in the rents and profits of them; that the dissenters had no claim whatever to the lands; but that the church of England had a right to all the lands for endowments; that the discussion of these various claims has generated much bitterness and animosity in the province; that the legislative council and the church of Upper Canada have repeatedly expressed their urgent desire that the imperial parliament should settle these contentions by a fresh act declaratory of the body or bodies to which the legal right belongs ; that hitherto the imperial parliament, the only authority competent to decide the simple, yet important question, has made no alteration in the acts of 1791 and 1827; that rectories have from time to time been established; that the proceeds of the sales of the clergy reserves have hitherto, in Upper Canada at least, been employed exclusively for the purposes set forth in the act of 1827; that the expectation was confidently entertained and expressed by the late respected Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Colborne, in his despatches to the imperial government, that the interest arising from such sales would soon produce an income sufficient to provide a becoming maintenance, not only for the clergy then existing in the province, but also for such an addition to their numbers as the increase of the population might require; that parliament, in consequence, it would appear, from various debates had on the subject, withdrew a grant of 15,600/. made annually to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, from whose funds the clergy in Upper Canada had hitherto been exclusively maintained; that the expectation of Sir John Colborne has not been realized, neither indeed can be for many years (the present interest arising from the clergy reserves sales scarcely exceeding 2,000l.); that the immediate consequences of the withdrawal of this annual aid were most injurious, the remote ones plainly subversive of the best interests of the province; that, on urgent representations being made, the imperial government acceded to the plan of making the crown revenues of the province chargeable with such a portion of the incomes of the missionaries as might fail to be supplied from the proceeds of the clergy reserves; that this measure of most urgent necessity contained, however, two stipulations plainly detrimental, if not destructive, to the best interests of the church-viz., that the successors of the existing clergy should have no provision, and that any increase of funds which might arise from the sales of the clergy reserves should be devoted, not to the indispensable addition of ministers according to the growing wants of the population, but to relieve the crown revenues of the province; that, in consequence, at a time when, from the vast influx of poor emigrants from the parent state, additional succour was needed by the church to fulfil its high duties to the people, a sudden and insurmountable obstacle was raised to its future usefulness; that several of the clergy have been released from their earthly labours, and their places remain unoccupied; that hundreds of new settlements, composed exclusively of indigent persons, have reiterated their urgent demands for the ordinances of the church; that, on the lowest computation, 100,000 members of the church of England are utterly destitute of religious instruction; that these individuals are located in distant places, accessible chiefly through the worst possible roads; that, according to the declared opinion of the late reverend Bishop of Quebec, supported by the written testimony of many of the clergy, one hundred travelling missionaries, at least, are needed for the present exigencies of the church; that the church of England in Upper Canada, moreover, is suffering incalculable injury from the need of a resident bishop, it being obviously impossible that one bishop (of Montreal) should execute the functions of the episcopate over a territory of 1,400 miles in extent, and containing a population of more than 1,000,000 VOL. XIV.-Sept. 1838. 2 Y