nothing which should induce him to set it aside on that ground. By the general rule of law the owners of the great tithes were bound to repair the chancel, but there might be special customs to the contrary; and the general rule of law might be controlled by those customs. A custom of that nature existed in the present case, and there was nothing to shew that the custom was illegal. The learned judge, therefore, pronounced against the prayer of the parishioners, and dismissed the Bishop from the suit; and considered that, as they had persevered in this suit, putting the Bishop to the inconvenience of an expensive litigation, they did it at their own risk and peril, and therefore he should give the bishop his costs in both courts.

Dr. Phillimore and Dr. Lushington urged the Court not to inflict the costs on their party. Very strong opinions had been expressed as to their being entitled to be relieved from these repairs.

The King's Advocate said the parties must have seen their case clearly in the diocesan court.

Sir John Nicholl refused to alter his sentence as to costs.

IMPORTANT TO FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

Court of King's Bench, Jan. 30.

REX . THE JUSTICES OF SOMERSETSHIRE.

Mr. ERLE this day shewed cause against a rule Nisi obtained by Mr. Tidd Pratt, calling upon the Justices of Somersetshire "to shew cause why a writ of Mandamus should not issue, directed to them, commanding them to enrol and confirm the Rules of the Friendly Societies of Marksbury and Stanton Prior, in the said county." The question for the opinion of the Court was, whether the provisions of the sixth section of 10 Geo. IV. c. 56, applied or extended to societies established before the passing of the 10 Geo. IV. c. 56 (June 19, 1829), and duly enrolled under the statutes then in force. The Judges were unanimously of opinion, that the provisions of the sixth section of the 10 Geo. IV. c. 56, did NOT apply or extend to societies established before the passing of the 10 Geo. IV. c. 56, but only to societies formed after that time; and accordingly made the rule for a Mandamus absolute. The public are indebted to Mr. Batchellor, solicitor, of Bath, for getting this important question set at rest.

DOCUMENTS.

BEER ACT.

"To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal (and to the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom), in Parliament assembled::

The humble petition of the Justices of the Peace for the Southern Subdivision of the parts of Lindsey, in the County of Lincoln, in Quarter Sessions assembled, and of the Grand Jury of the same Sessions,

SHEWETH,

That within a short time of the enactment of the statute, 1 Will. IV., cap. 64, called the Beer Act, your petitioners submitted to your Lordships House their sense of the evils which would result in country districts from allowing the beer to be consumed upon the premises.

That the experience of three years has since confirmed their worst fears upon this subject. That many of the houses licensed under this Act have become, to the certain knowledge of your petitioners, the means of seducing the

labourers from their families, of poisoning their minds with the worst publications of the day, of corrupting their morals by idleness, licentiousness, and debauchery, and thus aggravating all the evils incident to the complicated operation of the poor laws.

That these houses, being subject to no control as to locality, are constantly established in the most remote districts, beyond the reach even of such authority over them as is reserved by the law to the rural police; while the monopoly of the brewers, so far from being broken up, is rather increased by the building of cheap houses, for which the tendency always is to select such situations, on account of security, as are least liable to inspection and control. That your petitioners, comprising the Magistracy and Grand Jury of a large district, are, therefore, unanimously of opinion that this enactment, which was intended as a boon to the labouring classes, has been so far from attaining that object, that it has become a source of increased want, misery, and crime. They are, however, desirous of preserving to their poorer neighbours every advantage which the bill was intended to provide; and they, therefore, pray your Honourable House that so much, and no more, of this Act may be repealed as permits the beer sold to be consumed upon the premises. And your petitioners will ever pray."

CLERICAL SUBSCRIPTIONS.

THE Editor is enabled by the kindness of some of his friends to give some, though a very faint idea, of clerical subscriptions to local objects. All of course that is attempted is to give the contributions to such local charities as print their reports; and even this, it has in some cases been impossible to get at except very imperfectly. It will be understood that there is not one farthing of subscriptions to parish charities (such as schools, penny-clubs, &c., &c.,) or private charities, but simply to county or district charities; and that even of these the accounts are imperfect, and many items are unavoidably wholly overlooked. Thus in Cambridgeshire there is a Mendicity Society and a District Committee of the Refuge for the Destitute. In other counties there are many other Committees of various charitable religious societies; but only the larger ones are here noticed. Still, with this total silence on the two items of charity, which are overwhelmingly greater than those here noticed, and with imperfect accounts of these, we find the clergy of eleven counties subscribing to public objects in these counties the sum of 10,7271. 38. 11d., i.e. on an average 975l. 38. 11d. to each county. The counties returned were not selected for the purpose, and indeed do not embrace the largest or the richest counties, such as Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Lincolnshire, on the one hand, or Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, &c., on the other. If, then, these counties may be taken as a fair average, the local subscriptions of the clergy in England, (not including Wales, a part of which the Editor has by the kindness of a friend, and will shortly give) on imperfect returns, will appear to be nearly 40,000l. per annum. The Editor wishes very much that actual returns from each county* for the items noticed in this return could be sent him, and he will then give the subscriptions to the Parent Societies and large Metropolitan Charities. It is tolerably clear (as the clerical subscriptions to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge alone are above 67007.), that the whole will exceed 70,000l. per annum. The donations from clergy to the Church Building Society have been above 37,000l., besides their annual subscriptions. It is very odious to be obliged to bring these things forward; but when such people as Lord King are for ever assailing the clergy as caring for nothing but money, it is only common justice to shew that they are not deaf to the calls of charity.

sion.

Staffordshire, Herefordshire, and Westmoreland are now in the Editor's posses

459 8 02
63 10 0S
40 19 0
67 4 0
276 0

Ditto of Society for Promoting 74 11 0 68 0 0112 5 0120 0 0 74 8 0 22 10* 0
Christian Knowledge..........

51 0 0

79 16 0

82 14 0 59 3 6

50 18 6

of Gospel..

41 9 6 10 10 0 34 0 0151 0 0 51 19 6159 12 6

524 19 6,401 16 0638 13 0682 10 0831 16 11854 19 0 1975 9 0 731 0 0 1214 5 6705 18 6

OBJECTS OF THE DISSENTERS.

(From the "Christian Advocate," Jan. 28.)

A FORTNIGHT ago, we announced that the Congregational Board of Dissenting Ministers had come to a determination to make a vigorous effort to free themselves and their brethren from certain grievances to which they are subjected, on the score of their nonconformity to the Established Church. The objects which they wish to attain are five in number—namely, the right of entering into the mairied state, without being compelled to submit to the forms of the Established Church-the right of possessing a legal registration of births, marriages, and burials-the right of interring their dead in the parochial burying-grounds-the right of having all their chapels relieved from assessments for poor's-rates-and, lastly, the right of being exempted from compulsory contributions for the support of religion. In order to ascertain what disposition there might be on the part of Government to concede these rights, it was resolved that a deputation of five members of the Board should wait upon Earl GREY. The gentlemen selected for this purpose were the Rev. Drs. BENNETT and MORISON, and Messrs. BURNETT, REED, and TIDMAN. It was previously arranged, that, in representing the objects of their mission to the Premier, each member of the deputation should take the charge of a particular topic. Accordingly, on the 9th instant, the gentlemen above-named waited upon Earl GREY, by whom they were received with great courtesy. After each of them had detailed the point on which he was to speak, the noble Earl, who assented to the validity of many of their arguments and to the truth of their statements, suggested to them to memorialize his Majesty's Ministers on the whole subject. After having been closeted with his Lordship for upwards of an hour, the deputation took their leave, highly gratified with the courteous reception they had met with, and with the patient attention which was given to their several representations.

REVENUES OF THE CHURCH OF IRELAND.

(From Lord Althorpe's Speech.)

"ONE great exaggeration, which was now very prevalent, related to the revenue attached to the different bishoprics of Ireland. He should surprise the house for after his investigation he had surprised himself-he should surprise the house by informing it, that by the returns of the actual amount of revenue received by the bishops of Ireland, it appeared that the net amount of all their revenues was only 130,000l.; the gross amount of all their revenues was 150,000l., but, owing to the expenses of collection, &c., the net amount was not more than 130,000l. It was true that a large tract of country belonged to the Irish bishops; but then it ought not to be forgotten that the Irish bishops had not any beneficial interest in it; on the contrary, it appeared that their tenants and lessees had full five-sixths of the value of that land. The estimated amount of the value of those lands was 600,000l. Of this sum the bishops did not themselves receive more than 100,000l. That accounted for the exaggerated idea of the amount of the episcopal revenues which prevailed in Ireland, and which had been stated with so much confidence by several gentlemen on the other side of the house. With regard to the deans and chapters of Ireland, it was not as with the deans and chapters in England. There was not a great number of prebends, whose income was derived from their chapter alone. In Ireland livings were attached to the deanery and to the chapter, and the mode of payment to the prebends was by the revenue derived from their livings. The whole amount of revenue belonging to the deans and chapters was 23,600l.; but the necessary expenditure to which this sum was applied was 21,400.,-so that the surplus of 2,200l. was all that

was left for the deans and chapters. As to the amount of value of the other benefices in Ireland, he was not prepared to give so accurate a return. Returns had not been received from the incumbents of all benefices in Ireland, but only from the greater portion of them. The only estimate which he could make of their value was by judging from the average value of those benefices where the incumbents had made returns of the average value of those benefices where the incumbents had not. Now the number of benefices in Ireland was 1,401; of this number 1,149 had sent in returns; from which it appeared that their value was 478,000l. The other 252 had not sent in returns, but, taking the same average value for them as for the other benefices, 580,000l. would be the whole revenue derived from the benefices of Ireland. Taking it at 600,000l., he thought that it would not be placed below its fair value. The statement which he had made, then, was briefly this:

Amount of the revenue of bishops' sees

Revenue of deans and chapters, exclusive of the livings held by them as prebends

Revenue of the other benefices of Ireland

Total revenues of the Irish Church

£130,000

2,200

600,000

£732,200

He therefore thought that he should be justified in stating that all the revenues of the church of Ireland, applicable to the support of the ministers of that church, did not exceed 800,000l."

(To the Editor of the North Wales Chronicle.)

SIR,-Permit me, through the medium of the North Wales Chronicle, to contradict several glaring mis-statements, and to correct a few of the many palpable inaccuracies which have appeared in a pamphlet, intitled, “Causes of Dissent from the established Church in the Principality of Wales." In that publication, I am represented as receiving 100l. per annum from the churches of Bodwrog, and Llandrygam, in the county of Anglesey; whereas, the Rev. W. Griffith is Perpetual Curate of those churches; and I derive no emolument whatever from any ecclesiastical preferment, except from the two small rectories of Llanrûg and Llanberris, both of which I served for forty years, and during the greater part of that time, the two benefices did not bring me in a clear income of 1401. per annum; and I have been frequently exposed to great danger in the performance of my duty, owing to the bad state of the road, the mountains I had to pass, and the rivers through which I had to wade. In the same work, the tithes of Llanberris are reported to be worth 100l. per annum; whereas, the average value of the whole does not amount to 50l. clear, the corn tithe (poor oats) averaging from 77. to 107., and the wool and lamb tithe, from 40l. to 431. There is no hay tithe in this parish, each farm paying in lieu thereof, 4d. only.

Havod Llanny, Jan. 25th, 1833.

I am,
Sir, yours &c.,

P. B. WILLIAMS.

(To the Editor of the North Wales Chronicle.)

SIR,-In the second edition of a work intitled, "The Causes of Dissent in Wales," I am represented as receiving 150l. per annum from the small vicarage of Bettws Garmon. I feel myself called upon in such critical times as the present, particularly when the emoluments of the clergy are exaggerated, and the abuses of the church misrepresented, to contradict such a statement. The proceeds of my benefice hardly amount to 70l., including small tithes,