31 & 32 Vict. c. 109. Compulsory church rates abolished. Saving of rates called church rates, but applicable to secular purposes. Provision is due on security of such rates. and stock; but the rate was a personal, not a real charge, laid upon persons in respect of their lands. It is unnecessary to state the various stages in the history of the subject, by which in our day this doctrine was practically undermined. The Braintree church rate case decided that a majority of the parishioners might refuse a rate: the question whether the recusants were punishable in the Ecclesiastical Court being left open (p). In the year 1868 the 31 & 32 Vict. c. 109, was passed, which rendered a compulsory church rate illegal, but provided in rather an obscure manner for a voluntary church rate, clothed with some of the characteristics of the old law. This statute has been found generally inapplicable, and churches are now for the most part supported by voluntary contributions. The statute, however, is as follows: Sect. 1. "No suit shall be instituted or proceeding taken in any ecclesiastical or other court, or before any justice or magistrate, to enforce or compel the payment of any church rate made in any parish or place in England or Wales." Sect. 2. "Where in pursuance of any general or local act any rate may be made and levied which is applicable partly to ecclesiastical purposes and partly to other purposes, such rate shall be made, levied, and applied for such last-mentioned purposes only, and so far as it is applicable to such purposes shall be deemed to be a separate rate, and not a church rate, and shall not be affected by this act. "Where in pursuance of any act of parliament a mixed fund, arising partly from rates affected by this act and partly from other sources, is directed to be applied to purposes some of which are ecclesiastical purposes, the portion of such fund which is derived from such other sources shall be henceforth primarily applicable to such of the said purposes as are ecclesiastical." Sect. 3. "In any parish where a sum of money is at the time where money of the passing of this act due on the security of church rates, or of rates in the nature of church rates, to be made or levied in such parish under the provisions of any act of parliament, or where any money in the name of church rate is ordered to be raised under any such provisions, such rates may still be made and levied, and the payment thereof enforced by process of law, pursuant to such provisions, for the purpose of paying off the money so due, or paying the money so ordered to be raised, and the costs incidental thereto, but not otherwise, until the same shall have been liquidated: Provided, that the accounts of the churchwardens of such parish in reference to the receipt and (p) Burder v. Veley, 12 A. & E. p. 233; 4 Jur. p. 383; 9 L. J. Q. B. 267; 10 L. J. Ex. Ch. p. 532. expenditure of the monies levied under such acts shall be audited annually by the auditor of the poor law union within whose district such parish shall be situate, unless another mode of audit is provided by act of parliament." local acts, &c. herein named. Sect. 5. "This act shall not affect any enactment in any Not to affect private or local act of parliament under the authority of which enactments in church rates may be made or levied in lieu of, or in considera- where rates tion of the extinguishment or of the appropriation to any other are made for purpose of, any tithes, customary payments, or other property purposes or charge upon property, which tithes, payments, property, or charge, previously to the passing of such act, had been appropriated by law to ecclesiastical purposes as defined by this act, or in consideration of the abolition of tithes in any place, or upon any contract made, or for good or valuable consideration given, and every such enactment shall continue in force in the same manner as if this act had not passed (7)." &c. Sect. 6. "This act shall not affect vestries, or the making, Act not to assessing, receiving, or otherwise dealing with any church rate, affect vestries, save in so far as relates to the recovery thereof; but, subject to the provisions herein before contained, whensoever any ecclesiastical district having within its limits a consecrated church in use for the purposes of divine worship shall have been legally constituted out of any parish or parishes, and whether such district shall or shall not be a separate and distinct parish, the inhabitants of such district shall not be entitled to vote for or in reference to a church rate or the expenditure thereof at any vestry meeting of the parish or parishes out of which the said district is formed, nor shall they be assessed to any rate made in relation to the parish church of the said parish or parishes, but such inhabitants may assemble in vestry, and, subject to the provisions of this act, may make and assess a rate in relation to the church of their own district in like manner as if such church were the church of an ancient parish: Provided that nothing in this act contained shall affect any right of burial to which the inhabitants of the district may be entitled in the churchyard of the mother church." Sect. 7. "It shall be lawful for all bodies corporate, trustees, Trustees and guardians, and committees who or whose cestuis que trust are in others under incapacity the occupation of any lands, houses, or tenements, to pay, if may pay they think fit, any church rate made in respect of such property, voluntary although the payment of the same may not be enforceable after rate. the passing of this act, and the same shall be allowed to them in any accounts to be rendered by them respectively." pay church Sect. 8. "No person who makes default in paying the amount Regulations of a church rate for which he is rated shall be entitled to inquire as to persons refusing to into, or object to, or vote in respect of the expenditure of the monies arising from such church rate; and if the occupier of rates. any premises shall make default for one month after demand in payment of any church rate for which he is rated, the owner (2) As to cases within this section, vide infra, p. 1449. Church trustees. "ecclesiastical shall be entitled to pay the same, and shall thereupon be entitled, until the next succeeding church rate is made, to stand for all purposes relating to church rates (including the attending at vestries and voting thereat) in the place in which such occupier would have stood." Sect. 9 refers to church trustees (q). By sect. 10, "Ecclesiastical purposes' shall mean the buildDefinition of ing, rebuilding, enlargement, and repair of any church or chapel, and any purpose to which by common or ecclesiastical law a church rate is applicable, or any of such purposes; purposes," "church rate," and "parish." 5 Geo. 4, c. 36. Rippin and "Church rate' shall mean any rate for ecclesiastical purposes as hereinbefore defined; "Parish' shall mean any parish, ecclesiastical district, chapelry, or place within the limits of which any person has the exclusive cure of souls." As already noticed, sect. 3 continues church rates where money has been borrowed on their security. As to this: Sect. 1 of 5 Geo. 4, c. 36, had enacted, that churchwardens and overseers of a parish may, with the consent of the vestry, of the bishop of the diocese, and of the incumbent, apply to the commissioners empowered to make advances on public works for a loan for "rebuilding, repairing, enlarging, or otherwise extending the accommodation of any church or chapel of such parish," and the commissioners, on being satisfied that the required consent has been given, may advance the loan; which is to be applied "for the purposes mentioned in such application," and rates are to be made for the repayment of the loan. In Rippin and Wilson v. Bastin, the facts were these:-A loan was made under the last-mentioned act for the purpose of repairing the church of H. All the formalities required by the act were duly complied with before the loan was granted. A portion of the money was expended in repairing the chancel, and the rest in repairing the other portions of the church. Subsequently a rate was made in due form to repay the loan. In a suit against a ratepayer for refusal to pay the rate, the defendant alleged in his answer, that it was the duty of the rector alone to repair the chancel that the preliminary resolution of the vestry contemplated the application of a portion of the loan to the repair of the chancel; that a portion of the loan was expended in repairing the chancel; that the consent of the bishop, and the advance by the commissioners, were given and made respectively on the representation that the loan was wanted for purposes that did not include the repair of the chancel and that, therefore, the rate was void :-It was ruled by Sir Robert Phillimore, in the Court of Arches, that the word "church," in the above section, included the chancel, and that, therefore, a portion of the loan might properly be expended in repairing the chancel. It was ruled further, that even if the word "church," did (9) Vide infra, Part VI., Chap. VI. not now include the chancel, yet, as all the required formalities had been observed before the loan was granted, an improper expenditure of the loan could not affect the commissioners' right to repayment; and that the rate, being duly made in form, was valid (r). In Smallbones v. Edney and Lunn (s), the Privy Council de- Smallbones v. cided, that the impropriator of the great tithes was liable to Edney and contribute to rates raised for the repayment of loans raised under the foregoing statute. Lunn. In Regina v. The Churchwardens of Wigan (t), the House Reg. v. of Lords held that rates under 5 Geo. 4, c. 36, could not be made Churchwardens after twenty years had elapsed from the time when the money of Wigan. was advanced. It appears, by the case of Rose v. Watson (u), that a church Rose v. rate was still in force, in the year 1894, in the parish of St. Watson. Nicholas, Harwich. c. 109. The former part of sect. 5 of 31 & 32 Vict. c. 109, covers a 31 & 32 Vict. not infrequent number of cases where, by local act of parliament, tithes on houses or customary payments in lieu of tithes or offerings, have been converted into church rates or rates analogous to church rates (x). Such, for instance, is the case in St. Saviour's, Southwark (y), St. Botolph's, Aldgate (≈), Halifax in Yorkshire (a), and Falmouth (b). By 56 & 57 Vict. c. xiv, the rector's rate in St. Saviour's, Church rates Southwark, is abolished. The latter part of sect. 5 of 31 & 32 Vict. c. 109, was relied upon, but in vain, in the recent case of Regina v. Vestry of Marylebone (c). (r) L. R., 2 Adm. & Eccl. p. 386 (1869). (8) 7 Moo.P. C. C., N. S. p. 286; L. R., 3 P. C. p. 444. See Asterley v. Adams, L. R., 3 Adm. & Eccl. p. 361. (t) 1 App. Ca. p. 611; affirming L. R., 9 Q. B. p. 317. (u) 2 Q. B. 1894, p. 90. (x) Vide supra, p. 1447. (y) See 22 & 23 Car. 2, c. 28; 56 (a) See 40 & 41 Vict. c. iii. (c) 1 Q. B. 1895, p. 771. in lieu of tithes. CHAPTER III. Private chapels. Constitution CHAPELS. SECT. 1.-Different kinds of Chapels. 2. Who may nominate to Chapels. 3.-Modern Law as to Chapels to Public Institutions. 4.-Chapels under Burial Acts. SECT. 1.-Different kinds of Chapels. THE following may be enumerated as the different kinds of chapels-Private chapels, free chapels, chapels of ease, parochial chapels, chapels to colleges, schools and public institutions, burial ground chapels, proprietary chapels. Private chapels (a) are such as noblemen and other religious and worthy persons have at their own private charge built in or near their own houses for them and their families to perform religious duties in. These private chapels and their ornaments are maintained at those persons' charge to whom they belong, and chaplains provided for them by themselves with honourable pensions; and these anciently were all consecrated by the bishop of the diocese, and ought to be so still (b). A man may build a private chapel for himself and family, or for himself and his neighbours, but that will not give the parson a right to nominate his preacher (c). "We do decree," says Stratford, "that whosoever against the of Stratford. prohibition of the canons shall celebrate mass in oratories, chapels, houses, or other places, not consecrated, without having obtained the licence of the diocesan, shall be suspended from the celebration of divine service for the space of a month. And all (a) Chapels which form part of the structure of a cathedral or parish church, such as a side chapel with a second Holy Table, or lesser chancels, are not included in this chapter. For such chapels, vide supra, pp. 724, 1404; and see The Vicar of St. Peter's, Eaton Square v. Parishioners, P. 1894, p. 350; supra, p. 1402. (b) Degge, pt. 1, c. 12. (c) Herbert v. Dean and Chapter of Westminster, 1 P. W. p. 773. See Duke of Portland v. Bingham, 1 Consist. p. 168. Vide supra, pp. 220, 241. |