editor was counsel, and in a later case before the Oxfordshire Quarter Sessions, where the editor was present as a magistrate. The point in these cases was one which not infrequently arises in the working of these acts. They all fix a certain money rent, and a value in corn, then provide that if the price of corn rise or fall at the expiry of certain periods, usually twenty-one or fourteen years, application may be made to Quarter Sessions for a variation of the corn rent. In the above cited case of Reg. v. The Justices of Lindsey it was holden that the application must be made as soon as the fourteen or twenty-one years expired, and if not made then must wait for a new period. In the later cases it was holden sufficient that at least fourteen or twenty-one years had expired. Original appointment. 14 & 15 Vict. c. 53. Amalgamation of tithe commission with other SECT. 18.-Tithe Commission and Board of Agriculture. The tithe commission () was originally appointed for five years only; the duration of the commission being afterwards extended from time to time by several acts. By 14 & 15 Vict. c. 53, the tithe commission was amalgamated with the copyhold commission and the inclosure commission, and commissioners were to be appointed under the act for two years: these new commissioners were to be called tithe commissioners, copy hold commissioners, or inclosure commiscommissions. sioners, according to the powers by virtue of which they acted and the duties which they undertook, in each case. 31 & 32 Vict. c. 89. Fees to be taken for defraying expenses. Liability of This commission was continued from time to time. By 31 & 32 Vict. c. 89, provisions are made for defraying the expenses of the commission by means of fees. By sect. 1, security for costs is to be taken before any inquiry is held by an assistant commissioner; and by sect. 6, the commissioners shall prepare a table of fees, to be approved by the lords of the treasury, in respect of the business transacted under the acts administered by them; and these fees are to be paid in stamps. The table of fees, and any alterations afterwards made therein, are to be published in the Gazette and laid before parliament. As to the liability of a commissioner to an action at law for commissioner. acts done by him in discharge of his official duties, the case of Acland v. Buller (y) should be referred to. 45 & 46 Vict. c. 38. Alteration to land commission. By 45 & 46 Vict. c. 38, s. 48, the tithe commissioners became and were to be styled "the land commissioners for England." By 52 & 53 Vict. c. 30, s. 1, the Board of Agriculture was 52 & 53 Vict. established. c. 30. Board of By sect. 2 of this act the powers and duties of the land com- Powers transmissioners for England as to tithe rent-charge under the several ferred to general tithe commutation or redemption acts up to that date, Agriculture. which are enumerated in the schedule, as well as under the London City Tithes Act, 1879 (≈), and the St. Botolph Aldgate Acts, 1881 and 1888 (a), or "under any other act whether general local and personal or private" were transferred to the Board of Agriculture. (2) Vide supra, p. 1231. (a) Vide supra, p. 1231. Subject of chapter. CHAPTER IV. PENSIONS, OFFERINGS, FEES. SECT. 1.-Pensions. 2.-Offerings. THIS chapter deals with several minor sources, from which, as well as from the more prominent sources of glebes and tithes, the incomes (a) enjoyed by ecclesiastical persons in virtue of their benefices or preferments, arise. What are pensions. Origin of. Pensions paid by monas. teries. SECT. 1.-Pensions. Pensions are certain sums of money paid to clergymen in lieu of tithes; and some churches have settled on them annuities or pensions payable by other churches. Thus, in the Registrum Honoris de Richmond (b), we find a pension paid out of Coram, or Coverham Abbey, in the county of York (unto which the church of Sedburgh was appropriated), to the prior of Connyside (unto whose priory the church of Orton was appropriated), for the said church of Sedburgh [Sedberwe], 208. These pensions are due by virtue of some decree made by an ecclesiastical judge upon a controversy for tithes, by which the tithes have been decreed to be enjoyed by one, and a pension instead thereof to be paid to another; or they have arisen by virtue of a deed made by the consent of the parson, patron and ordinary (c). At the dissolution of monasteries there were many pensions issuing out of their lands, and payable to several ecclesiastical persons; which lands were vested in the crown by the statutes of dissolution; in which statutes there is a saving to such (a) Payments from Queen Anne's Bounty, and from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, are dealt with later, vide infra, Part IX. Chaps. II., III. (b) Gale, Registrum Honoris de Richmond, Append. p. 94. B. (c) 2 Inst. p. 491. See also F. N. p. 52. 34 & 35 Hen. 8, persons of the right which they had to those pensions: but not- tenth part By 26 Hen. 8, c. 3, s. 18, reciting that, "Forasmuch as 26 Hen. 8, c. 3. every incumbent of the dignities, benefices, and promotions They which spiritual aforementioned shall be charged by this act to the pay- pay pensions ment of the tenth part of the value of their dignities, benefices, of their spiand promotions spiritual, without any deduction or allowance of ritual living such pension or pensions, wherewith some of them have been may retain the charged to pay to their predecessors during their lives, or to other thereof. persons to the use of such their predecessors during their lives," it is enacted that "it shall be lawful to every incumbent charged with any such pension payable to any his predecessors, or to any to his use, to receive and keep in his hand the tenth part of every such pension; and that every such incumbent and his sureties shall from henceforth be acquitted and discharged of the said tenth part of every such pension, by virtue and authority of this present act; any decree, ordinance or assignment of any ordinary, or any collateral writing or security made for such pension to any spiritual person or persons, or to any to their uses for term of their lives, in anywise notwithstanding; and that as well every incumbent, as such parsons as stand bound for him for payment of any such pensions, shall plead this act in every of the king's courts, for the clear extinguishment and discharge of the tenth part of every such pension." served upon Sect. 19....." No pension shall hereafter be assigned by No pension the ordinary, or by any other manner of agreement, by collateral shall be resurety, or otherwise, upon any resignation of any dignity bene- the resignapromotion spiritual, above the value of the third part of tion of a the dignity benefice or promotion spiritual resigned: and if any above the benefice, pension amounting above the value of the third part of the value of the dignity benefice or promotion spiritual heretofore resigned, be third part. already limited and made sure to any spiritual person or persons, by decree of the ordinary, or otherwise by any collateral surety, or hereafter shall happen to be assigned and made sure to any parson or parsons spiritual, or to any other to their use, by decree of the ordinary, or by any other collateral surety, upon (d) Provisions for the redemption of pensions payable to spiritual persons and charged on the Con solidated Fund are made by 36 & 37 s. 23. 13 Edw. 1, for in ecclesi- Contrary opinion of Lord Coke. Jones v. Stone. Gooche v. London. any resignation thereof; yet nevertheless the incumbent charged with such pension, nor his sureties collateral, shall not be compelled to pay any more pension than the value of the third part of his dignity, benefice, or promotion spiritual so resigned shall amount unto; but shall by authority of this act be clearly acquitted and discharged of so much of the said pension as shall amount above the value of the third part of the dignity or benefice so resigned; any decree or assignment of the ordinary, or any collateral writings or sureties heretofore made, or hereafter to be had or made for the same, to the contrary thereof notwithstanding" (d). By the statute of Circumspectè agatis, 13 Edw. 1, st. 4, "if a prelate of a church, or the patron, demand of a parson a pension due to him, all such demands are to be made in a spiritual court;" in which case "the spiritual judge shall have power to take knowledge, notwithstanding the king's prohibition." In pursuance of which, the general doctrine is, that pensions, as such, are of a spiritual nature, and to be sued for in the spiritual court; and accordingly, when they have come in question, prohibitions have been frequently denied or consultations granted, even though they have been claimed upon the foot of prescription (e). Lord Coke, indeed, said, if a pension be claimed by prescription, there, seeing a writ of annuity lies, and that prescription must be tried by the common law, because common and canon law therein do differ, they cannot sue for such a pension in the ecclesiastical court (ƒ). But this has been denied to be law and in the case of Jones v. Stone, in 12 Will. 3 (g), Holt, C. J., said he could never get a prohibition to stay a suit in the spiritual court against a parson for a pension by prescription. In the case of Gooche v. The Bishop of London, in 4 Geo. 2 (h), The Bishop of the bishop libelled in the spiritual court, suggesting that Dr. Gooche, as Archdeacon of Essex, is to pay 107. due to the bishop as a prestation for the exercise of his exterior jurisdiction. The doctor moved for a prohibition, alleging that he had pleaded there was no prescription; and then that being denied, a prohibition ought to go for defect of trial. On the contrary, it was argued for the bishop, that the libel being general it must not be taken that he goes upon a prescription; but it is to be considered in the same light as the common case of a pension which is suable for in the spiritual court; and the nature of the demand shows it must have its original from a composition, it being a recompense for the archdeacon's being allowed to ex (d) But see now 13 Eliz. c. 20. Gibs. p. 706; Goodwin v. Dean (f) 2 Inst. p. 491. (g) 2 Salk. p. 549. See Johnson v. Rymon, 12 Mod. p. 416; Wats. c. 56, p. 633. (h) 2 Stra. p. 879. |