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in practice than in theory, that he feels the infinite importance of the good management of schools, and that he knows somewhat of the difficulties which hinder the desired success of the best masters. Sacerdos et Tutor and his six friends will give sufficient pledges for their attendance for the time mentioned, the Editor is hereby authorized and requested to furnish them with H.H.'s address.

At present Sacerdos et Tutor rides too high and travels too fast. He seems to have some good principles, but they are confused in his mind, and his ideas are not arranged; they are inflated, and hurry him rampant over ground which men with minds chastised and cool find it necessary to tread leisurely and with caution. He gives too much to his threat, his scowl, and his cane; and talks nonsense in lofty style, about making children dissatisfied with their ignorance, and discontent with their attainments, and other stuff of like sort, and this too, as if the discontent and dissatisfaction-" the disgust they ought to feel”. were to be instilled into them by harsh and threatening language.

Although H. H. has thus followed his reprover in his travels out of the record, his mind is still bent upon the very important inquiry of Philomathes, How to render Sunday schools effective? (Brit. Mag. No. IX. p. 270.) A few introductory ideas in reference to this question were introduced by H. H. Sacerdos et Tutor has brought " Parish and other schools into notice. They too, for the most part, are miserably deficient in effect. The inquiry applies to all schools, and the answer is the same for all :-furnish each with competent masters, and they will all be effective. But the question recurs, Where are such masters to be had? We venture to assert, as a general answer, that there exists not in the country any thing like an adequate number of persons who are moderately qualified to undertake the conduct of schools of any class; nor does it seem possible that there should be till there be some "provision for the regular breeding of schoolmasters. To be good for any thing as managers and teachers in schools, men must be bred to the profession, as lawyers and surgeons are, and with much discrimination. There must be schools for the training of schoolmasters. And, after all, it is not possible to make a schoolmaster of every one who may be offered for training. Those writers deserve much attention who represent the business of education as the most important and the most difficult that can employ the powers of man, and say, (I quote from memory) that "there is a legislation of the school, compared with which parliamentary legislation is coarse and easy work." The subject is yet a mystery to my friend Sacerdos et Tutor, and to the great mass of tutors and teachers in schools and academies in our country, as well as to Sunday school teachers. But the minds of sensible men are, at length, opening to this great and general concern, and "the schoolmaster," who is said to be abroad, will, it is to be hoped, be domesticated in our institutions for education.

I am, Mr. Editor, your obedient servant, H. H.

CLERICAL CHARITIES IN NORTHUMBERLAND,

DEAR SIR,-AFTER many vexatious delays and excuses I have at length been able to obtain, from the different parts of the country, reports of all the institutions, &c., and now present you with the sums contributed by the clergy. As they are extracted by my own hand from printed documents, I can venture to vouch for their general

accuracy.

I regret, however, to see after all, how inadequate the accompanying table of clerical charities is, to convey a just idea of the liberality of the clergy of this county. Only a very vague conception can be formed from it. For, in the first place, the private charities of the clergy-particularly those in villages and country places-are infinitely greater than their public ones. In the second, a great deal of their charity not being bestowed in the shape of money, but in clothes, food, alms, in educating and often paying for the education of the children of the parish, and in various other ways, it is quite impossible to ascertain the extent of it.

And even with regard to their public charities, every attempt to form an estimate must necessarily fall short of the truth. For, if any one will take the trouble of perusing the reports of any institution for a number of years back, he will find that more has often been contributed in donations than the whole amount of the annual subscriptions of individuals. These donations, of course, not being reprinted in the annual reports, are lost sight of. It is equally impossible to know in all the public collections which are made at church, and other places, for charitable purposes, what proportion belongs to the clergy. In towns, these are constantly occurring.

An account of this kind is defective, also, inasmuch as it does not, and could not without much difficulty, comprehend the vast sums of money which have been bequeathed throughout the country for various objects by deceased clergymen of late years, the annual interest of which is as justly entitled to be taken into account, as if they were still alive;-the same benefits accrue from their property to the public, whose poor are supported by it.

Many public charities, moreover, to which the clergy are the greatest contributors, never appear in printed forms at all, but are only published in a sort of piecemeal way through the medium of a newspaper. There have been two instances of this in this county during last year, the relief of the Irish clergy, and collections in aid of the Abbotsford fund. These cases, and such like, perpetually occurring, not being expected to be reported, are allowed to pass by without any notice being retained, such as might be consulted afterwards.

All these things are directly disadvantageous to the clergy, in an enumeration, like the present, of their charities. And, indeed, I should think it would be doing the clergy of this county great injustice to publish their annual charities, as their regular and fixed ones may be called, without at the same time preventing any from forming the erroneous conclusion, that these were given to the public as being

the whole amount of their charity, or even the greater part of it. The public must not, therefore, be led to consider that the present statement is made upon the prudential principle so often acted upon by mankind-of putting the best foot foremost. The circumstances which I have noticed are sufficient to shew, that if the object was to puff them off, nothing could be more foolish than to print, and thus put it into the power of others to quote, "the clerical charities of any county," while they are in fact only an inferior part of them; namely, these public (printed) ones, about which there can be no dispute, as they are open to the perception of all.

I am, dear Sir, yours very faithfully,

R. B.

[N.B. The amount of even this small portion of the clerical charities of Northumberland is £782, with £580 of recent donations. The particulars shall be given hereafter. The Editor deeply laments that so few persons have taken the trouble to comply with his request, and give him materials for going on with the table of public clerical charities. He would trouble no one if he had any means but local applications of getting the information required. And to persons on the spot, really the trouble would be nothing. By turning to p. 351 of the last volume, the particulars wanted would be seen; and if people do not like to take any other trouble, would they be so good as to collect the printed reports in each county, and send them to the office? This is the first assistance received for many months, and the editor offers his best thanks to R. B. for this and other valuable aid.—ED.].

CHURCH RATES.

SIR,-Doubts have arisen, and questions are entertained, whether the present obligations on parishioners to keep their parish church in repair, was originallly thrown upon them by the laws of England, or whether, having been first of all charged upon the bishops, and afterwards upon the clergy, it has not, without due authority, been transferred to the parishioners. The onus of repairs, whether attaching to the bishops, the clergy, or the parishioners, must have been imposed upon them either by immemorial custom as forming part of the common law of this realm, or by Act of Parliament. But as some of the rules of the Roman Canon Law have been incorporated into our Common and Statute Law, and the points in question are intimately connected with the Canon Law, the solution of the questions and doubts will be very much facilitated by a proper understanding of these separate heads of the laws, at least, so far as they have had an influence in forming the ecclesiastical portion of the English laws. The following extracts from Blackstone's Commentaries have been selected as affording a clear definition of them; but the same informa

tion may be obtained by a reference to Sir Matthew Hale's History of the Common Law.

"But though this is most likely the foundation of this collection of maxims and customs, yet the maxims and customs so collected are of higher antiquity than memory or history can reach, nothing being more difficult than to ascertain the precise beginning and first spring of an ancient and long-established custom. Whence it is, that in our law, the goodness of a custom depends upon its having been used time out of mind; or in the solemnity of our legal phrase, time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. This it is that gives it its weight and authority, and of this nature are the maxims and customs which compose the Common Law, or lex non scriptæ, of this Kingdom."-1 Bl. Com., 67.

"The Civil Law, absolutely taken, is generally understood to be the Civil or Municipal Law of the Roman Empire, as comprised in the institutes, the code, and the digest, of the Emperor Justinian, and the novel constitutions of himself and some of his successors."-I Bl. Com., 80.

"The Canon Law is a body of Roman Ecclesiastical Law, relative to matters as that church either has, or pretends to have, jurisdiction over. This is compiled from the opinions of the ancient Latin Fathers, the decrees of general councils, and the decretal epistles and bulls of the Holy See."-1 Bl. Com., 79.

"The Civil and Canon Laws, considered with respect to any intrinsic obligation, have no force or authority in this kingdom; they are no more binding in England than our laws are at Rome."-1 Bl., 11.

"I do this after the manner of Sir Matthew Hale, because it is most plain, that it is not on account of their being written laws that either the Canon Law or the Civil Law have any obligation within this kingdom, neither do their force and efficacy depend upon their own intrinsic authority; which is the case of our written laws or Acts of Parliament. They bind not the subjects of England, because their materials were collected from popes or emperors, were digested by Justinian, or declared to be authentic by Gregory. These considerations give them no authority here; for the legislature of England doth not, nor ever did, recognise any foreign power as superior or equal to it in this kingdom, or as having a right to give law to any, the meanest of her subjects. But all the strength that either the papal or imperial laws have obtained in this realm (or, indeed, in any other kingdom in Europe) is only because they have been admitted and received by immemorial usage and custom in some particular cases and some particular courts, and then they form a branch of the leges non scriptæ or unwritten laws; or else because they are in some other cases introduced by consent of Parliament, and then they owe their validity to the leges non scriptæ, or Statute Law."-1 Bl. Com., 79.

The conclusions to be drawn from the foregoing extracts are:-1st, That neither the Canon or Civil Law have intrinsically any force or validity in this kingdom. 2ndly, that those rules of the Canon and Civil Law which are adopted in this kingdom, have their effect either as being part of the Common Law of England, from their immemorial usage, or from their being incorporated by Acts of Parliament into our Statute Law. 3rdly, that the Common Law of England rests its foundation upon customs which have been immemorially used, and of so ancient an origin that neither history nor the memory of man runneth to the contrary. 4thly, that the established rules of the Common Law are inconsistent with, and negative the existence of any previous law or usage of a contrary effect, and that consequently where any rules of the Common Law are at variance with the Canon or Civil Law, those rules of the Canon or Civil Law can never have had any validity in this kingdom; inasmuch as the customs upon which the rules of the Common Law are founded have been immemorially, or always, to the contrary. Consequently, that the rules of

the Canon Law, which threw the obligation of the repairs of the churches first of all on the bishops, and afterwards on the rectors, cannot have been, at any period, the law of this country, for the Common Law declares that for time immemorial the parishioners have borne the burthen.

The question on the subject has mainly taken its rise from positions laid down in Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, and from a similar one in Blackstone's Commentaries; and as both are doubtless founded upon the same authority, it is presumed that an examination into those quoted by Burn must be equally conclusive, with regard to Blackstone, and the more especially as the latter quotes the law without giving any reference to authorities. The following is the passage in 1 Burn's E. L., p. 350:—

"Anciently the bishops had the whole tithes of the diocese, a fourth part of which, in every parish, was to be applied to the repairs of the church; but upon a release of this interest to the rectors, they were consequently acquitted of the repairs of churches."-Degge, p. 1, c. 12.

"And by the Canon Law the repair of the church belongeth to him who receiveth this fourth part; that is, to the rector, and not to the parishioners."-1 Salkeld, 164. "But custom (that is, the Common Law) transferreth the burthen of reparation, at least of the nave of the church, upon the parishioners; and likewise sometimes of the chancel, as particularly in the City of London, in many churches there, and this custom the parishioners may be compelled to observe, where such custom is."tLindwood, 53, k.

The passage in Degge from which Burn professes to have quoted his first position, does not, by any means, support it, as being or as having been the law of England; it is given at length underneath, with a view to a clear comparison between them.

"Anciently the bishops had a third part of the tithes and offerings,-in some places a moiety, and in some places a fourth part,—and in consideration thereof were bound to the repairs of the whole church; but upon a release of this interest to the rectors, they were acquitted of the repairs of churches, and had only two shillings, for the honour of the bishop's chair, in lieu thereof, called cathedraicum, which duty (as I take it) was never paid in England, and the reason might be because the bishops here were never charged with the repair of the churches, and had no share of the offeringst-tamen inde quære.

Nothing appears in 1 Salkeld's Reports, p. 164, to which the second position of Burn can refer, but such second position is evidently taken from the same page in Lindwood, from which the third position has been extracted. Burn states this second position to depend entirely upon the Canon Law, and although he does not give the Canon Law as his authority for his first position, yet it is most evident that, from the connexion between the two positions, this law is the only foundation of both. This, however, will be more satisfactorily elucidated by the passages subsequently extracted from Lindwood and Ayliffe. Burn mentions the Canon Law as his authority, and both Lindwood and Ayliffe refer to the Roman Canon Law, as their ground-work authority for the points of law severally stated by them to the same effect as that mentioned by Burn; it may, therefore, be concluded

1 Burn's E. L., 350.
VOL. IV.-Dec. 1833.

+ Ibid.

Degge, part 1, c. 12. 4 s

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