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though in many parishes such a practice has too much prevailed. Burying in the church or chancel, particularly where they are small, is inconvenient and offensive: it is an interference with the use of the building, is happily getting much out of use, and ought to be discouraged. In this very case it may interfere with the convenient occupation of the vicar's pew.

Whether the faculty ought to be granted at all may be very doubtful; but at present no particulars are stated to warrant such grant, or to enable the Court to form any judgment on its propriety or expediency. In other respects, the application coming from the owner of the freehold undoubtedly comes in as favourable a shape as possible; unless indeed the vicar can convince the Court that his consent must precede the leave of the ordinary. If any other parishioner wanted to make a vault in the chancel the consent of the lay rector must be had; he must be called before the Court not merely because the freehold is in him, but because the burthen of repair is upon him.

The fixing a tablet against the wall is far less objectionable; and indeed is rather to be favoured. The necessity for the leave of the ordinary is admitted; and consequently plans and dimensions must be submitted to guide his judgment. That the vicar is entitled to show cause against such leave being granted, if he shall so be advised, is also admitted. But what cause does the vicar show against the faculty that is prayed? He does not object to the tablet as inconvenient to the parishioners, or as injurious to the fabric, or even detrimental to its beauty; but he states that he is the sole judge of that, and that his consent is to be purchased by a reasonable payment. It may be doubtful whether the consent of the vicar is necessary to the construction of a vault, or to the affixing of a tablet even in the body of the church, or whether he has in such a case a claim to a fee unless when established by a special custom; but that is not the question here here, the question relates solely to the chancel. Even if the consent of the vicar to the actual interment of bodies

were required, or his right to a fee in such case were conceded, it would not necessarily follow that a faculty for the construction of a vault, or the erection of a tablet in the chancel, must be refused unless he consented to the grant. The grant of the faculty would not preclude the vicar from enforcing his fees if he were legally entitled to them.

That it belongs to the vicar of common right arbitrarily to consent or dissent in such cases seems to me extremely questionable. It is difficult to find out any principle upon which this right could appertain to him. The opinion of the vicar against the expediency of such a grant would have its due weight with the ordinary; but if the cause shown by him be not something better than his mere will and pleasure, it will be insufficient to stay the issuing of the faculty: still more so, if his consent be matter of purchase and barter. If, as is stated in the act on petition," he is to judge in each particular case whether it will occasion inconvenience or deformity, or be otherwise improper:" that judgment must be formed, not " by a reasonable payment," but without money and without price. If the vault were allowed to be constructed, and the vicar's consent to interments therein were necessary, he might object on proper grounds, such as that the party were not fidelis; but it cannot be tolerated that his decision on the moral fitness of the individual to be buried in the chancel, should be guided by the amount of the fee paid. This strange notion of payment for consent seems to spread, and to meet with no unwilling assent in some quarters, whereas no fee of the kind is due of common right; it can only be due by special custom, and the amount must be limited by the same custom. If such a custom could have a reasonable foundation it must at least be strictly proved, and this Court would not carry it one step beyond such proof; the introduction of such a practice would be most dangerous: and it would require very strong authority, much stronger than any I have heard cited in this case, to satisfy me that the vicar could, by

custom, possess a right of refusing his consent to an interment in the chancel, à fortiori, to the grant of a faculty for a vault or a tablet, unless not a fixed but a reasonable fee is agreed to be paid.

Upon the whole, both parties seem to have mistaken their rights. The lay rector is not, on the ground that the chancel is repaired by him, entitled to a faculty without laying before the ordinary such particulars as will afford the vicar and parishioners an opportunity of judging of it, and as will satisfy the ordinary that what is proposed to be done may be carried into execution without interrupting the parishioners in the use and enjoyment of the chancel; in which case the Court would pay due attention to the application. On the other hand, the vicar has not a positive right of refusal, though he may very properly show cause against the grant of the faculty by stating the grounds of his objection but in this case he has not made out any legal ground of resistance. Whether the parties choose to enter into the merits, in order to show that

a faculty ought or ought not to be granted, is for their consideration. Vaults, either in the chancel or in the body of the church, are not, in my judgment, to be encouraged: they are far better made in the churchyard; yet, if all parties are consentient, the Court may be induced to grant the faculty. Tablets, I repeat, stand on a much more favourable ground; and if shown not to be injurious to the convenience, the beauty, and the stability of the fabric, a faculty for their construction would probably be granted. At present, however, no ground either for making or refusing such a grant having been shown on either side, I shall refuse the faculty, and dismiss the case, without costs, unless the parties desire to proceed. Faculty refused.

The cause was not further prosecuted-See Clifford v. Wicks, 1 Barn. and Ald. 498. Hopper v. Davis, 1 Ecclesiastical Cases temp. Sir George Lee, 640. Seager v. Bowle, 1 Addams, 541. Bardin and Edwards v. Calcott, 1 Consistory Reports, 14.

POLITICAL RETROSPECT.

THE NEW PARLIAMENT.

GENERAL LIST OF MEMBERS RETURNED IN THE COUNTIES, CITIES, AND BOROUGHS OF SCOTLAND AND IRELAND.

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R. Sullivan.

Nicholas Fitzsimon.
Hon. J. C. Westenra.
Colonel Thomas.
Lord Clements.
Samuel White.
Hon. R. Fitzgibbon.
W. S. O'Brien.
William Roche.
David Roche.
Henry Meynell.
Sir R. Bateson.
Captain Jones.
Sir R. A. Ferguson.
Lord Forbes.
A. Lefroy.
P. Bellow.

M. Bellow.

C. D. O. Jephson.
Sir W. Brabazon.
Dominick Browne.
Henry Grattan.
Morgan O'Connell.
E. Lucas.

Hon. H. R. Westenra.

D. C. Brady.

J. H. Talbot.

Colonel Dawson Damer.
Sir C. Coote.

Vesey.
Fitzstephen French.
O'Connor Don.
Colonel Perceval.
E. J. Cooper.
John Martin.
R. L. Sheil.

R. Otway Cave.
Maurice O'Connell.
Lord C. Hamilton.
Henry Corry.

Sir R. Musgrave.
R. Power.

Waterford City......... H. W. Barron.

Westmeath

Thomas Wyse. ............ Sir R. Nagle. M. L. Chapman.

Wexford County ...... J. Maher.

J. Power.

Wexford Town......... C. A. Walker. Wicklow

Youghal.............

James Grattan.

Ralph Howard. John O'Connell.

The first act in the Politica! Drama has been sadly rehearsed; but in the words of our excellent contemporary, THE STANDARD

It is gratifying to Englishmen to know, and it must be consolatory to Sir Charles Manners Sutton to reflect, that the base injustice which the right hon. gentleman has suffered, has not been inflicted by his own countrymen. Notwithstanding all the political power conferred upon the several municipal masses of ten-pound householders throughout the kingdomnotwithstanding the predominant Radi

calism of great towns and manufacturing districts in England, had the election been limited to English representatives, Sir Charles would have succeeded by a respectable majority, though certainly not by such a majority as his own merits entitle him to, and as our care for the honour of England could make us wish.

The following is an analysis of the division with reference to the English and provincial members; there may be a trifling inaccuracy in the numbers, as doubtless the published list is not perfectly accurate, but the proportions will be found to be substantially correct:—

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Thus, upon the English representation, notwithstanding the effect of the Reform Bill, Sir Charles would have had a majority of thirty-four. He has been beaten by the representatives of the unenlightened Roman Catholics of Ireland, and by the delegates of the newly enfranchised Scotch constituencies, appointed and pledged - bound by these constituencies, in the naturally intemperate exercise of a newly-acquired, and of course unwonted power. is not pleasant to see the deliberate sense of a people, like the English, long habituated to the exercise of political rights, and uninfluenced by alien motives, thus, as it were, drowned by the votes of the provinces; but it would be still more mortifying to believe that the people of England could generally participate in the barbarian and tyrannical disposition of the O'Connell faction in Ireland, or in the temporary intoxication of our Scottish fellow-subjects, aided by the national prejudice in favour of a Scotch candidate, which, however, told for something.

We regret that Mr. Denison, the member for West Surrey, should have lent himself as the ready tool of O'Connell, and the Destructive party.

The subjoined copy of the King's Speech will be read with lively interest. The debate upon it terminated at too late a period for us to make any observations. We will not, however, despair of the safety of the State.

My Lords, and Gentlemen,

I avail myself of the earliest opportunity of meeting you in Parliament, after having recurred to the sense of my people.

You will, I am confident, fully participate in the regret which I feel at the destruction, by accidental fire, of that part of the ancient Palace of Westminster which has been long appropriated to the use of the two Houses of Parliament.

Upon the occurrence of this calamity, I gave immediate directions that the best provision of which the circumstances of the case would admit should be made for

your present meeting; and it will be my wish to adopt such plans for your permanent accommodation as shall be deemed, on your joint consideration, to be the most fitting and convenient.

I will give directions that there be laid before you the report made to me by the Privy Council in reference to the origin of the fire, and the evidence upon which that report was founded.

The assurances which I receive from my allies, and generally from all foreign princes and states, of their earnest desire to cultivate the relations of amity, and to maintain with me the most friendly understanding, justify, on my part, the confident expectation of the continuance of the blessings of peace.

The single exception to the general tranquillity of Europe is the civil contest which still prevails in some of the northern provinces of Spain.

I will give directions that there be laid before you articles which I have concluded with my allies, the King of the French, the Queen Regent of Spain, and the Queen of Portugal, which are supplementary to the treaty of April, 1834, and are intended to facilitate the complete attainment of the objects contemplated by that treaty.

I have to repeat the expression of my regret that the relations between Holland and Belgium still remain unsettled.

Gentlemen of the House of Commons,

I have directed the estimates for the ensuing year to be prepared, and to be laid before you without delay.

They have been framed with the strictest attention to economy; and I have the satisfaction of acquainting you that the total amount of the demands for the public service, will be less on the present than it has been on any former occasion within our recent experience.

The satisfactory state of the trade and commerce of the country, and of the public revenue, fully justifies the expectation that, notwithstanding the reductions in taxation which were made in the last session, and which, when they shall have taken full effect, will tend to diminish the existing surplus of the public revenue, there will remain a sufficient balance to meet the additional annual charge which will arise from providing the compensation granted by Parliament on account of the abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions.

I deeply lament that the agricultural interest continues in a state of great depression.

I recommend to your consideration

whether it may not be in your power, after providing for the exigencies of the public service, and, consistently with the steadfast maintenance of the public credit, to devise a method for mitigating the pressure of those local charges which bear heavily on the owners and occupiers of land, and for distributing the burden of them more equally over other descriptions of property.

My Lords, and Gentlemen,

The information received from the governors of my colonies, together with the Acts passed in execution of the law for the abolition of slavery, will be communicated to you.

It is with much satisfaction that I have observed the general concurrence of the colonial legislatures in giving effect to this important measure; and, notwithstanding the difficulties with which the subject is necessarily attended, I have seen no reason to abate my earnest hopes of a favourable issue.

Under all circumstances, you may be assured of my anxious desire, and unceasing efforts, fully to realize the benevolent intentions of Parliament.

There are many important subjects, some of which have already undergone partial discussion in Parliament, the adjustment of which, at as early a period as is consistent with the mature consideration of them, would be of great advantage to the public interests.

Among the first in point of urgency is the state of the Tithe Question in Ireland, and the means of effecting an equitable and final adjustment of it.

Measures will be proposed for your consideration, which will have for their respective objects, to promote the commutation of tithe in England and Wales, to improve our civil jurisprudence and the administration of justice in ecclesiastical causes, to make provision for the more effectual maintenance of ecclesiastial discipline, and to relieve those who dissent from the doctrines or discipline of the Church from the necessity of celebrating the ceremony of marriage according to its rites.

I have not yet received the report from the commissioners appointed to inquire into the state of Municipal Corporations, but I have reason to believe that it will be made, and that I shall be enabled to communicate it to you at an early period.

I have appointed a commission for considering the state of the several dioceses in England and Wales, with reference to the amount of their revenues,

VOL. XVII. NO. III

and to the more equal distribution of episcopal duties; the state of the several Cathedrals and Collegiate Churches, with a view to the suggestion of such measures as may render them most conducive to the efficiency of the Established Church; and for devising the best mode of providing for the cure of souls, with reference to the residence of the clergy on their respective benefices.

The especial object which I have in view in the appointment of this commission, is to extend more widely the means of religious worship according to the doctrines of the Established Church, and to confirm its hold upon the veneration and affections of my people.

I feel it also incumbent upon me to call your earnest attention to the condition of the Church of Scotland, and to the means by which it may be enabled to increase the opportunities of religious worship for the poorer classes of society in that part of the United Kingdom.

It has been my duty, on this occasion, to direct your consideration to various important matters connected with our Domestic Policy.

I rely with entire confidence on your willing cooperation in perfecting all such measures as may be calculated to remove just causes of complaint, and to promote the concord and happiness of my subjects.

I rely also, with equal confidence, on the caution and circumspection with which you will apply yourselves to the alteration of laws, which affect very extensive and complicated interests, and are interwoven with ancient usages, to which the habits and feelings of my people have conformed.

I feel assured that it will be our common object, in supplying that which may be defective, or in renovating that which may be impaired, to strengthen the foundations of those institutions in Church and State which are the inheritance and birthright of my people, and which, amidst all the vicissitudes of public affairs, have proved, under the blessing of Almighty God, the truest guarantees of their liberties, their rights, and their religion.

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