years after the ftatute, when, the plague being in Cambridge, fome parishes were extremely burthened with poor, the univerfity raised by voluntary contribution from the feveral colleges the fum of 41. per month till the year 1650; when an agreement was made between the Vice-chancellor, Heads of Colleges, and the Mayor and Aldermen, that 120%. per annum fhould be raised by the colleges, and to be paid to the over-burthened parishes in the following proportion; in which arrangement no attention was paid to what parishes any colleges were fituated in.

A regular payment was continued down to 1748, viz. for 128 years.

In October, 1748, Dr. Paris, Vice-chancellor, and five more heads at a meeting of themselves, without entering into agreement with the corporation of the town, made an alteration: fo that St. Andrew's parish, which used to receive 361. 63. received but 17. and he made a proportionable diftribution to 13 parishes inftead of 6.

Dr. Chapman the next year paid it only as be

fore

fore to 6 parishes. Dr. Keen, after him, in his two years, divided it as he pleafed at difcretion.

In the intermediate periods of 1620, (when the agreement between the Vice-chancellor, and Heads on one part, and the Mayor and Corporation on the other was made,) ieveral overtures paffed upon both fides refpecting the diftribution and mode of payment, but no agreement appears to have been executed in form: yet the voluntary contribution in toto has continued to this day the fame : one college excepted, which is faid to have fufpended its payment.

It is remarkable that although there are 13 parishes in Cambridge, yet only 6 had any fhare at all in this contribution: and 7 received nothing from the colleges at any given period in the course of 128 years: viz. from the firft eftablishment in 1620 to 1748, the year when Dr. Paris firft altered the mode of diftribution.

In all that period of 128 years the parishes in which the principal Colleges are feated received nothing, viz.

St. Edward's, containing all King's College, Clare-hall, Trinity-hall, and part of Catharine

hall ;

Botolph, all Queen's, part of Pembroke, and part of Catharine-hall;

St. Michael's, all Caius, and part of Trinity College;

All Saints, all Jefus, Sidney, part of Trinity, and Saint John's.

The parish of Trinity which did receive, had no Colleges in it.

The

The inference from these facts is plain that nothing was paid de Jure, or in view of any rate as due from the colleges parochially. And that the parishes where the principal colleges are fituated are fo benefitted that they want no fixed charitable bounty. On the whole it appears that the colleges for a period of 19 years, viz. from 1601, the date of the ftatute, were not contributors to the poor; and that a certain voluntary contribution has been for a period of 167 years; in all which time the statute hath not enured with relation to colleges; and it would now be contrary to common law to extend it.

Acquiefcence and acceptance of long time will work a prefcription: and fo in the cafe of Brickhill cited in Burrows in the cafe of St. Luke's hofpital, it was faid that acquiefcence in a rate bound a party though he was not specified properly in the rate.

Therefore on the fame ground, the town of Cambridge is bound by it's acquiefcence and acceptance of the compenfation of the univerfity; and fo long as it is continued will be bound.

The compenfation paid by the colleges of the univerfity to the particular parishes meets the argument which is drawn from certain inftances of the fervants of fome mafters of colleges being fent to be maintained by a parish, becaufe if that pa-, rish has a fhare of contribution from the colleges, then there is no burthen, there is a reciprocality.

But in a parish which receives no contribution from the university, fuch fervant poffibly ought not to be put upon that parish: he fhould be fent to the place of his laft legal fettlement, if he can acquire no fettlement here,

With refpect to the fervants of noblemen, fellow-commoners, and penfioners not of the foundation, they, like their masters, being only loco motive and inmates pro tempore, may gain no fettlement in the town of Cambridge.

Parishes may have acquiefced, or juftices may have allowed fuch fettlements in a very few inftances. But inftances of this fort certainly work no general binding precedent of law, nor are the decifions of the quorum in a borough town conclufive upon the wifdom of his Majefty's Judges. And the question remains open.

With refpect to other college fervants not domiciled in college, if they, in any inftance, have been a burthen to a parish, it has been on account of their having been occupiers of houfes and inhabitants in a parish, and that, many having paid to rates themselves, they are in their turn intitled to a maintenance.

Sir Robert Heath, Chief Juftice in 1633, gave it as his opinion, that a nurse child, or scholar at a grammar-school, or at the university, or perfons fent to the common goal, hofpital, or houfe of correction, are not to be esteemed as perfons fettled there more than travellers in their inns; but their fettling is where their parents are fettled.

So far are colleges from burthening parishes with poor that they do greatly affift them and leffen their rates by imploying and maintaining feveral poor old men and women, inhabitants of the adjoining parishes, who would otherwife for want of work be a great burthen to the refpective parishes to which they belong as inhabitants, and many of them decayed housekeepers. Befides that the colleges, by the private fortunes of its mem

bers

bers being spent in the town, and by occafioning a great refort of strangers, enable the parishes the better to fupport their own poor, the number of which is at the fame time diminished.

The last point to be confidered is in what way the orders of the juftices at the quarter feffions, upon the two rates would operate.

The first rate which ftands, omitting the colleges, and is confirmed, is clear of any objection; because the confirmation of that rate is well fupported in law; because that rate agrees with antient ufage and time immemorial; fo prima facie could not be quashed without Special caufe fhown.

But the second rate, for the fame reasons, ought not to be confirmed; it fhould be quafhed, because it hath not been ufual to rate the colleges, and that the ftatute hath at no time enured.

But for this especial reason the second rate should be quafhed, because in confirming the second rate it would be for the juftices to take upon themselves in effect to determine the parochiality of colleges, and confequently to judge of the feveral antient titles, rights, and immunities of their legal effence at common law, of their charters as particular bodies politic, or as making a part of that larger body politic, which involves them in the public and aggregate character of the UNIVERSITY.

Such a decifion of the juftices as should confirm the second rate would be in fact annexing colleges to parishes, and the univerfity to the town. But juftices have no power to annex one body politic to another; if they do, their order is void. And fo it was adjudged in feveral cafes. There is a strong cafe 1 Croke Charles, p. 286. Nichols v. Walker and

I

Carter.