The Press.
London, England, 1853-07-09 00:00:00

CHURCH•BUILDING BILL.

The Earl of HARROWBY, on Monda, described the
provisions of this bill, which stood for committal iu
the House of Lords. Its object, he suid, was two-
fold :

" First, to give facilities fur the aggregation of small
livings in populous cities and towns. In the city of Lon-
don, fur example, there was an immense accumulation of
churches, forming, no doubt, a great architectural attrac-
tion to the metropolis, but doing little for its spiritual wel-
fare. In one instance there were no fewer than tire
churches to serve an area and population nut larger than
that of eirosvenor-square, and several other similar cases
might be named. Now, the population of the City had
not only diminished, but the number of those who ft..
mained within its precincts on Sunday had decreased to
an even larger extent. The truth was that the causes
whieli had in ancient times caused vast populations to be
pent within walls had long since ceased, and London was
now fast becoming u city of shops mid warehouses. ( Hear,
hear.) The question then was, whether it was not better
that the churches and endowments should follow the peo-
ple ? (Hear, hear.) The present law gave the bishop the
power to order by a faculty a church to be pulled down,
aild also to unite contiguous benefices; but in the former
ease the process was inconvenient, and in the latter the ne-
cessity fin. the benefices to be contiguous would interfere
with the end in view. The first clauses of the bill proposed
bi deal with this part of the subject."

The second object of the bill was to provide a remedy
for certain evils and disabilities now existing with
regard to Church patronage. Between seven and
eight hundred benefices were in the gift of the Lord
Chancellor, and many more in that of various public
and corporate bodies, of which a great number were
of extremely insignificant value. The measure pro-
posed accordingly to empower the several holders so
to deal with their patronage as to consolidate certain
benefices, improve the revenue of others, create new
parishes, and in other ways render the gross income
more available for the spiritual wants of the popula.
tion.

The Earl of Bowls raised some objections to the
bill. It was an odd way of beginning Church exten-
sion with an extensive destruction of churches. Who
could foretel that population would never flow back
even to the city of London ? Small parishes and
benefices were also useful as places of retirement to
clergymen when exhausted by their labours.
The Bishop of LONDON stated that the bill ema-
nated from no private source. It was founded on the
report of a commission issued for the purpose of in-
quiring into the means of subdividing large parishes,
and making better provision for poorer benefices.
Respecting the chief objections to the measure, based
on the probable pulling down of consecrated edifices,
the sale of their materials, conversion of their sites
and adjacent burial-grounds to secular uses, d:c.
he remarked that they referred entirely to matters cf
feeling, which must sometimes be surrendered to
public expediency.
The bill was then passed through committee.

REPRIEVE OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS.
Leave to bring in a hill transferring the testa-
menta' y jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts to
the courts of common law and county courts was on
Tuesday moved for by
Mr. COLLIER. He recapitulated some of the facts
and arguments he had employed on a former day,
when moving for a committee of inquiry into the sub-
ject, aud, stating that the Government had then in-
duced him to withdraw his motion on the promise
that they would bring in a bill of their own, remarked
that their failure to keep that promise, at all events
for the present session, led him to proceed with the
measure he had himself prepared. Describing the
remedies which he proposed for abuses in the courts
in question, he remarked that his present suggestions
were limited to the testamentary jurisdiction. As
for the evils in other departments and jurisdictions
appertaining to the ecclesiastical courts, the only re-
medy to be devised was their total abolition :

" His proposal differed from that of the Solieitor-Genersll
inasmuch as the hitter designed to do away with all but the
diocesan coatis. whereas he would do away with all. Hr
would abolish altogether the testamentary jurirldietion of
the ecclesiastical courts. He proposed that all wills about
which there was so dispute should be proved in the vomit)"

JULY 9, 1853.

courts. He would create comity districts, corresponding
to the circuits of the county court judges. The undisputed
will of any man should be proved in the circuit in which
he dwelt at the time of his death, and thus he would get
rid of the legal difficulty of bona nolabilin. He would
establieh a system of rewstratiow every will should be re-
gistered in the county eourts, and transmitted to regisuar-
general in London. Each county court judge should
app:iint a registrar out of the present ecclesiastical courts,
whereby men of experience would be gained and compen-
sation be saved. file jurisdiction of the county courts
should extend over real and personal property. Where a
dispute arose it should, where the cause in dispute was
under :Ma, be tried in the locality where it occurred, and
lie would give the county courts an equitable jurisdiction.
He considered the tecimieal didieulties of testamentary
questions to be overstated, and lie referred to the old his-
torical character of the county Courts in proof of the effi-
ciency they had possessed. He would give jurisdiction in
higher cases, and also appeals, to the superior courts of
common law, which should retain their power over real
property, to which jurisdiction should be added that of the
ecclesiastical courts as regarded iwrsonalty. He would
appoint 1411 (dicer. to be called the clerk of probates. to
each of the superior courts. The metropolitan jurisdie•
tion should be concentrated into one court. Compensation
blond(' be given to those who were deprived of oniees, bin
not to the praetitioners ; and proctors should be admitted
ti practise us tittOrllC)ti iu all the superior courts."
Dwelling upon the necessity of the saute sweeping
reform of the law which had been adopted in other
institutions, Mr. Collier urged the subject on the con-
sideration of the llovertnnent.

The ►notion having been seeonded by Mr. :,
Lord PALMMOCTON pa►d a high compliment to the
hon. member for the grasp of the subject he had
evinced, and the ability of the measure which he had
devised. lie excused the Government for their de•
lay in bringing in a bill themselves, on the plea of
the utter hopelessness of carrying it, if intr►duced at
a time when the house was engrossed with other
►natters. There was also a exuan►is.iou appointed
(as he believed) by the late Government, for whose
report it bad been judged better to wait, in the hope
that it would throw some light on the subject. lie
cordially agreed with the motion for leave to bring
in theibill, trusting that the Ministry would be there-
by aided in contriving some measure early next ses-
si,on calculated to correct the evils which Mr. Collier
ha►l pointed out.
Leave was accordingly given to bring in the bill.