vicar or incumbent thereof, and his successors accordingly, without any license or writ ad quod damnum, notwithstanding the statute of mortmain or any other statute or law to the contrary (h).

5. Building of new churches.] By 43 Geo. III. c. 108 (i), every person not being an infant, insane, or feme covert, having in his own right any estate or interest in possession, reversion, or contingency, in lands or tenements, may, by deed inrolled in England according to statute 27 Henry VIII. c. 16, and in Ireland according to 10 Charles I. stat. 2, c. 1, s. 17, or by will duly executed three months before the death of the grantor or testator, give or vest in any person, or body politic or corporate, their heirs and successors respectively, any lands not exceeding five acres, or goods and chattels not exceeding 500l. towards erecting, rebuilding, repairing, purchasing or providing any church or chapel where the liturgy and rites of the united church of England and Ireland are observed, or any house for the residence of the officiating minister, or any outbuildings, offices, churchyard or glebe for the same respectively, and to be for those purposes applied according to the terms of the deed or will, the consent of the ordinary being first obtained; and if no such direction is made in the deed, the gift shall be applied as shall be appointed by the patron and ordinary with the consent of the incumbent; and the grantees are enabled to take, as well from persons charitably disposed to give the same, as from others willing to sell to them, any lands, tenements or chattels, without license or writ of ad quod damnum, notwithstanding the statute of mortmain. The second section provides, that only one such gift or devise shall be made by one person; and where either exceeds five acres or 5007. value in goods and chattels, the Lord Chancellor, on petition, may order its reduction to that amount, but no glebe of more

(h) As to endowing churches with glebe in Ireland, see Ir. Stat. 15 Charles I. c. 11, 8 Geo. I. c. 12, 1 Geo. II. c. 15, 3 Geo. II. c. 11, 4

Geo. IV. c. 86, 7 Geo. IV. c. 66.

(i) Amended by 51 Geo. III. c. 115, 52 Geo. III. c. 161, s. 27, and see 53 Geo. III. c. 45, s. 33.

than 50 acres can be augmented by more than one acre, and any excess therein shall be reduced by the Lord Chancellor.

By 51 Geo. III. c. 115, the king is enabled to grant to any persons or corporate bodies, their heirs and successors, for the same purposes as are mentioned in the 43 Geo. III. c. 108, any lands within the survey of the Court of Exchequer, or of the Duchy of Lancaster, not exceeding five acres in any one grant. By the second section of the 51 Geo. III. c. 115, any person having the fee simple of a manor, may grant five acres of the waste to the rector, vicar or other minister of any church or chapel, in which the service of the church of England shall be performed, or to be erected for that purpose, with the license of the ordinary of the diocese.

By statute 58 Geo. III. c. 45, s. 33, the commissioners appointed for carrying into execution the act for building additional churches in populous parishes, are empowered to accept and take any building and land not exceeding what may be sufficient for a church or chapel, or churchyard and convenient approach thereto, from any person willing to give the same; and every such site, when conveyed to the said commissioners, and the church erected thereupon, is to become for ever thereafter devoted to ecclesiastical purposes only, in order that the same may be consecrated by the bishop to public worship according to the rites of the established church; and the commissioners may accept and take from any person willing to give the same, any house, garden and appurtenances, not exceeding 10 acres in the whole, for the residence of the spiritual person serving such church or chapel, or any land not exceeding the said 10 acres in quantity, for erecting such house and appurtenances, and making such garden, and the same shall (immediately upon or after the consecration of such church or chapel) become and be the house and glebe belonging to such church or chapel, and vest in the incumbent for the time being.

By the 34th section of 58 Geo. III. c. 45, the commissioners of woods and forests, with the consent of the Treasury, Duchy of Cornwall, and any body politic, corporate or collegiate, or corporation aggregate or sole, may grant any such building

or buildings, or any site or sites for the building any such churches or chapels, with or without cemeteries thereto, and any house or appurtenances and garden, for the residence of the spiritual person who may serve the church or chapel.

By statute 5 Geo. IV. c. 103, s. 14, it is declared, that after the completion of every church or chapel, the land and site whereon the same is built shall be vested in the person or persons, and their successors for ever, by such name and style as shall be specified in the sentence of consecration; and such persons are to have perpetual succession, and to hold such lands and sites as bodies corporate, without incurring any of the forfeitures of mortmain (i).

6. Corporations.] The Corporation of the Bedford Level, which was established by statute 15 Charles II. c. 17, has power, by the second section of that act, without license of mortmain, to purchase manors, lands, tenements and hereditaments, not exceeding 2001. per annum, and goods and chattels, and to dispose thereof in the name and for the use of the corporation. This limited power of purchasing has, it is said, been exceeded by almost all corporations. From peculiar and local circumstances, the Bedford Level Corporation is now possessed of considerable freehold property, consisting almost entirely of public houses (k).

By statute 22 Charles II. c. 6, any bodies politic or corporate are enabled to purchase and retain any fee farm rents, or other rents therein mentioned, to them and their successors, notwithstanding any statutes of mortmain.

By statute 5 & 6 Will. & Mary, c. 20, s. 20, their majesties were empowered to incorporate certain subscribers and contributors, their heirs, successors, or assigns, to be one body corporate and politic, by the name of The Governor and Company of the Bank of England, and by that name to have perpetual succession, and a common seal; and that

(1) See other acts as to building churches: 59 Geo. III. c. 134; 3 Geo. VI. c. 72; 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 72; 1 & 2 Will. IV. c. 38; 2 & 3

Will. IV. c. 61.

(k) See Wells's Hist. of Bedford Level, vol. i. 526.

they and their successors, by the name aforesaid, should be able and capable in the law to have, purchase, receive, possess, enjoy and retain, to them and their successors, lands, rents, tenements and hereditaments of what kind, nature or quality soever; and also to sell, grant, demise, alien or dispose of the same, and by the same name to sue and be sued ; and by statute 8 & 9 Will. III. c. 20, s. 26, other subscribers were incorporated with the company, with a similar power to purchase and dispose of lands.

The governor and company of the Royal Exchange Assurance, and of the London Assurance, are enabled by 6 Geo. I. c. 18, to purchase, take and enjoy lands not exceeding the value of 1000l. per annum, and to grant, alien, demise or dispose of the same, or any part thereof, at their free wills and pleasures; and by 11 Geo. IV. and 1 Will. IV. c. 74, the same companies, and their successors, are enabled to purchase annuities upon lives, and to lend money or stock upon mortgage, and are authorized to hold lands under the act without license in mortmain.

By statute 26 Geo. II. c. 22, s. 14, it was declared, that for the better execution of the purposes of that act, the trustees thereby appointed should be a body politic and corporate in deed and in name, and have succession for ever, by the name of The Trustees of the British Museum; and should also have the power, capacity and ability to purchase, take, hold and enjoy, for the purposes of that act, as well goods and chattels as lands, tenements and hereditaments, so as the yearly value of such lands should not exceed 500l. above all charges and reprizes; the statute of mortmain, or any other law or statute to the contrary thereof, in anywise notwithstanding (1).

(1) The following statutes relate to the British Museum: 5 & 6 Anne, c. 30 (Cottonian Library); 26 Geo. II. c. 22 (making one general repository for Sir H. Sloane's Museum, the Harleian Collection, and Cottonian Library); 27 Geo. II. c.

16, s. 3 (election of trustees); 28 Geo. II. c. 3 (private act for vesting buildings); 7 Geo. III. c. 18 (enabling the trustees to sell and exchange duplicates of books, &c.); 39 Geo. III. c. 73 (exemption of specific legacies from duty); 45 Geo.

By the 3rd section of the statute 5 Geo. IV. c. 39, it is enacted, that the trustees of the British Museum shall, for the purposes of the several acts relating to the same, and for the enlargement, improvement, and better endowment of the said museum, and for any purposes connected with the said museum, have full power, capacity, and ability to purchase, take, hold and enjoy any lands, and to accept any gifts, grants, devises and bequests of lands, and of any interest therein, and of any money issuing out of, or charged upon, or to arise from the sale of lands, to any value and amount whatsoever, notwithstanding the statutes of mortmain.

By statute 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 88, certain persons who had subscribed, or should thereafter subscribe for making a railway from London to Southampton, were incorporated by the name of The London and Southampton Railway Company, with power to purchase lands to them and their successors and assigns for the use of the undertaking, without incurring any of the penalties or forfeitures of mortmain; with full power to sell and demise or otherwise dispose of the said lands, in manner directed by the act. Many other corporations have been created for similar purposes by several modern acts of Parliament, with power to purchase and hold lands without incurring the forfeitures of mortmain (m).

III. c. 127 (to vest Townleian Collection in the trustees, for the use of the public); 47 Geo. III. sess. 2, c. 36 (to enable trustees to sell and exchange articles); 56 Geo. III. c. 99 (to vest Elgin Collection of Marbles in trustees, for use of the public); 5 Geo. IV. c. 39 (appointment of additional trustees, &c.); 5 Geo. IV. c. 60 (to carry into effect the

bequest of R. P. Knight, Esq.); 2 Will. IV. c. 46 (to enable the king to appoint a trustee); 3 Will. IV. c. 4, s. 18 (Private act, enabling Sir J. Soane to bequeath his museum to the British Museum).

(m) References to Private Acts on this subject will be found in Bramwell's Table of the Private Statutes. See ante, p. 26.