The Express.
London, England, 1853-01-20 00:00:00

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IHE DEAN AND CHAPTER OF

TO Till IDITOIL 07 TNI =PRON.

sis,—To the many memorabilia of 1832 may be
added the fact that the Chapter of Rochester have
signalised its close,
.by augmenting stipends which,
hhirring the diminution of one to three-eighths of its
summit, and the discontinuance of another for three-
gnu of a century, had remained unaltered since
151.1. The details are these:—The four students
are to have 301. 10s. each, instead of 61. ; the twenty
whalers 16/. 13s. 44., instead of 21. 13s. 4d. ;
the siz bedesmen 141. 13s. 4d., instead of
61. 1:1s. 4d.; and the preceitor and sacrist, 101. and
61. respectively, instead of 21. each, making a
total increase of 4421. a year. Excepting the four
students (and perhaps to two of them) the augmen-
tations were actually paid last Christmas; the
bedesmen further receiving the re-payment of 15s.
each, previously deducted on account of their cloaks.
To appreciate all this it must be remembered that
for 60 years 401. a year was paid to the cathedral
Domes, instead of the bedesmen, although, indeed,
Pr. Lushington suggested that the Chapter would
not have benefited thereby if it had not been 40i.,
but 4,0001. a year. Moreover, the average income of
each canon for seven years before 1849 has been
proved to have been not 6801., but about
I.OOOL a year. However, a substantial beginning
has been made; privileges have been partially con-
ceded, which the Bishop said " had been in abeyant*
for 300 years, if they ever existed ;" and although
justice hue not yet been done, nor the statutes as yet
fulfilled, enough has, I think, been granted, to re-
lease me from the obligation of going to Chancery to
ascertain the amount to which every member of the
cathedral is entitled. Considering also the pledge
which has been given for Cathedral Reform by the
commission of the late government, and the
prospect of legislation thereupon under the pro-
sent, I think that there are additional reasons
against a Chancery suit between the Chapter and my-
self: Still, there are observations in their recent
letter, and in the Bishop's judgment, which I wish to
notice, premising that they had previously ad-
dressed la o other letters to his lordship, bearing
date respectively, June 29, and Oct. 29, 1849.
Well, in their last letter they "earnestly request
to be informed what are the statutes which have not
been carried into strict execution." Now, after the
Bishop's caution, I will not here republish my
charges, but I may, of course, defend his judgment,
and state, that, out of thirty-nine, there are
at least a dozeu "not strictly executed," an answer
which his lordship may safely return to the Chapter,
though 1 could not so readily assist him, if he were
requested to inform them what statutes have been
"strictly executed." However, in 1849, they drew a
very different conclusion, from the fact of the Bishop
haviug sent me to Chancery. From this, said they,
" we are perhaps entitled to infer that your lordship
did not appreheud us to have been guilty. of any
violation of our statntable duties, since an infringe-
ment of our statutes would have made us immediately
arm noble to your jurisdiction as our visitor." If
then they are not " erroneous" in their " data," and the
Bishop is right in his judgment, who has neglected
his duty but the judge. who has punished MO so
severely for exceeding mine.
Again, say they, " We never rejected Mr. Whiz-
ton's claims, &c." But on July 21, 1849, they " dis-
sented from the conclusion at which they presumed
I wished to arrive, and desired to close the cor-
respondence, since they could not admit the princi-
ple upon which my application was founded. This
I thought a conclusive rejection : and the corres-
pondence directly contradicts their additional asser-
tion that "in December, 1849, my claims for the
scholars were encumbered with a variety of others,"
and proves indeed that they never were.
Then, say the Chapter, " Since 1848, we have been
prevented by Mr.Whiston's proceedings from adopting
any specific conclusions ;" forgetting, perhaps, that the
Bishop and themselves once pleaded the "interest of
the Ecclesiastical Commissioners," and the " necessity
of consulting a higher authority," as a reason for de-
lay. However, they may now easily make due re-
paration, by paying the arrears of augmentation to
every boy who has been on the foundation for the
last four years, or even by founding an additional
scholarship with the amount, plus the arrears of
salary which the Bishop has kindly relieved them
from paying to me.
Another of their statements is, " We have merely
followed the appellant into the courts of law before
which he brought us." But they also commenced
against me two actions in ejectment: one they could
not prosecute from informality of service, the other
they abandoned after putting me to the expense of
preparing to defend it.
They plead also " Their duty to maintain the
visitors' jurisdiction, ex y. provided for the
toady and inexpensivedetermination of such ques-
tions,' on which grand, indeed, our judges have
hitherto upholden it. But as the last appeal was
made in May,lB3l, and not heard till April, and not
decided till October 19, 1852, there really seems
some quiet irony against the Bishop in talking of
his "readiness;" and as for the " inexpensiveness," I
will not criticise it, because the Chapter may insinuate
thereby that counsels' fees and lawyers' bills have
oast much more than the graceful concession, under
good advice, of my claims would have done.
I now proceed to the declaration in the judgment
that " cathedral trusts" is libellous. I admit it ;
and so is anything which reflects injuriouupon
say man. But then Judge Pennon said, Whether
there is &justification for the libel is a very different
question ." and if, as one of the chapter commiesion,
he will mill before him the other members of cathe-
drals, as well as deans and canons, he may readily
determine it.

Next, the Bishop and his assessors say that I was
"misled by legal opinion of high authority, though
given on erroneous data." Did they, then, ever see
the case submitted to counsel P If not, how could
they declare judicial that the "data" were "erro-
neous?" If they did, they must have had some es
parte communication with the Chapter or their agents,
for no one else had a copy of it.
But, anyhow, the following letter to myself is con-
clusive on this subject :
Oct. 28, 1862.
My dear Sir,—l can have no hesitation in ansTering your
inquiry as to the nature of the partiesslan or "formats,
upon which the opinion upon your case was given by Sit
J. Busily and myself in November, 11148.
I well recollect that the only documents upon which
weasel then advised were the Letters Patent and Charters
of Henry VIII., in the original Latin, with an English
epitome of them, and the Statutes 3 sad 4 Vict., c. 113, and
• general statement to the effect that the income of the
cathedral estates at the time of the endowment was very
nearly exhausted by the apportionment of the statutable
stipends, but that it had sines increased, so as to raise the
question how the surplus was applicable.
La nearly as I can recollect, these alone were the Ingre-
dients in the formation of our opinions. But you will, of
course, understand that I speak only as to the papers which
were laid before counsel, upon which the advice was given
and I write this upon my own authority merely, without
any communication upon the subject from the distinguished
person with whom I bad the honour to be joined as, your
eonaeol. I am, Lc.,
WILLIAM DAVID LZWIA.
The only possible error, then, must have been in
my statement, that "the annual value of the cathe-
dral estates was originally exhausted by the statu-
table allowances;" upon which was founded the
opinion of counsel, "that the income of the rents
became applicable to the augmentation, pro rata, of
the various specific payments." But this question
of exhaustion is quite ez abundanti : for any one may
learn that the Court of Chancery applies this prin-
ciple as a test of a founder's intention, on which I
have throughout relied as the chief support of my
claims. A pro rata augmentation I have never once
demanded, whatever may be the legal right to it,
well knowing that summum jut may be stemma en-
Juna. Nor was the assertion of the "erroneousness"
of the data unfounded merely: it was unpardonably
at variance with the facts. For the Bishop, and
Baron Parke and Dr. Lnshington were bound to ex-
amine the opinion, and if they did they must have
seen that, so far as I was misled by it, it was inde-
pendent of any data but those given by the founder.
" We are of opinion (say counsel) that the Dean
and Chapter are, by virtue of the letters patent and
charters of Henry VIII., respectively called the
Dotatio, and Statuta, under an obligation
in the nature of a trust, to allow to the four students
a M/11:1 of money sufficient for their maintenance at
the Laiversity." So again—" We are of opinion that
ander the same letters patent and charters, they are
under the like obligation to defray the costs of the
maintenanceof the 20 foundation scholars."
here, then, are the erroneous data; unless, in-
deed, the Dean and Chapter have no title to their own
menace? Bid further on this heal The judgment

pronounces upon the " legal rights" of the Chapter,
although the assessors said repeatedly that all they
had to decide was, whether my offence was a gravisss
dellettem, and that point only was it competent for
them to determine. Nor is this all. My original I
appeal in 1848 was on that very question, whether or
not the Chapter "had illegally taken a disproportion-
we share of the Cathedral revenue." Upon this
the Bishop sent me to Chancery, wad, so, in
1849, they spoke of "those legal questions which
he had not considered to fall within his pro-
vince as visitor," i.e., when specially cad upon
to determine them. So again, "as to the
division of the surplus income of our estates, this
we conceive to be one of the questions which your
kniship has been advised to remit to another tribe-
meL• Then in October, 1849, they said, "As to the
tenure of our corporate property, your lordship had
been advised upon high authority (Lord Langdale's,
and coincident, it would seem, with other high au-
thority), that the consideration of such questions did
not fall within your province as visitor," i.e., when
these questions only were before him.
Now, my object in all this is to prove that the
judgment is worthless as a precedent, and that it does
not derogate from the value of the legal opinion
which did not mislead me, and which I utterly repu-
diate as an excuse for my " misconduct," and deny to
have furnished any materials for my " calumny."
Even if the interests of truth did not demand this
other considerations would, especially when it is
represented, as it has been here, that the augmenta-
tions are gratuities and acts of bounty for which the
recipients have to thank the Chapter, not the Founder.
Were Rochester alone concerned, this might pass as
of no practical bearing. But there is Canterbury,
with 60 boys, reduced from 41. to 11. 16s. Bd.
each ; Worcester, with 40, lately raised from
Ss. 10d. to 2!. 13s. 4d.; Ely, with a lay
clerk (if I mistake not) for second master, and 24
boys, still at 31. Be. Bd., and a canon on the Chapter
Commission. There is Peterborough, too, with 20
boys, at 21. 13s. 4d.; and Chester, with 24, only just
restored to their long lost 31. 6s. Bd. All this will
now stand before the public, illustrated by the ex-
ample of Rochester, and soon to be contrasted with
the exhortations of cathedral dignitaries, to " liberal
contributions," under the Queen's Letter in aid of
the National Society for the Education of the Poor.
If these dignitaries can learn and practise wis-
dom and justice, they will at once turn the
edge and blunt the points of such a con-
trast, by following that example, and grant-
ins of their own accord what will otherwise
be exacted by the law or the legislature. If they
doubt this, let them consider what the world must
think of them, when a Solicitor-General, and he a
Chancery lawyer, has publicly proposed to apply
their revenues as a substitute for church rates, with-
out a voice being raised against him. Well, indeed,
after this, may it be said, in the words of their own
advocate, that " if Chapters had done their duty—if
their visitors had applied themselves to their legiti-
mate powers, those bodies would have held so high
a station in the opinion of this country, that it would
have then impossible that we should ever have had
such a measure as this suggested. But so it is :
first we neglect and abuse the institutions of our
ancestors, and then we turn upon them in anger, or
in hastiness, and destroy that as useless which it
only rested with ourselves to make most useful."
Let us hope it is not too late to prevent this. If
chapters and their visitors will even now, in this their
eleventh hour, awake to discharge their duties, and
with a generous activity emulate what has been
begun here; if the Capitular Commission, one-sided
and unsatisfactory as it is, will but act with a due
regard to the wants and intelligence of the
age, and in the liberal and comprehensive spirit of
the authors of those statutes, which the Bishop of
London says have been " notoriously disregarded,"
why then we shall cease to hear of capitular estates
being taken for church rates, and our glorious cathe-
drals, with their " service high and anthems clear,"
may yet remain a possession to us for ever, winning
the respect and the affection of those around them,
ministering not to the aggrandisement of a few, but
to the welfare and so to the loyalty of the many—
enduring monuments of the piety of our forefathers,
the stout bulwarks of our protestant faith, and the
strong towers of our national church. Should these
results follow—and what well-wisher of his country
but will hope that they may P—l trust I may with-
out presumption feel that I have not laboured for an
unworthy object, nor altogether in vain.
I 11111, air, your very obedient servant,
Rochester, Jan.l7. ROBERT WI:LISTON.

LETTER FROM THE DEAN AND CHAPTER
OF ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL TO THE RIGHT
REVEREND THE LORD BISHOP OF ROCHES-
TER.

CRAFT= HOVIII, ROCNISTiIt, Nov. 30, 1362.
MY Lono,—We hare received a copy of your lordship's
judgment, "mitigating the sentence of removal," which
we had considered it our duty to pronounce against the
bead master of our Cathedral School; and we cannot dose
oar present general chapter without assuring your lordship
of oar dutiful obedience to your decision. The sentence,
indeed, in its present form, as your lordship cannot but be
aware, is one which we could not ourselves pronounce.
Under our statutes we could only admonish, or remove
from office. But we defer implicitly to the decision of our

visitor.
Upon the emaiderstioss which have lama your lord-
ship to mitigate the sentence we de set rams to ass
any remarks. Bet siege it is slated mem *gee as esidess-
dans " that seem at the aftestes girths outbid's' but net been
carried into strict exesetke=t se& Meese may have
been sanctioned by presage daring a leap series
of years, and in es* seepage by spines of the late
Archbishop of Castativey," we would esamsdy legume Is
be informed what the estates are to whisk this pusege
refers.
The last of them amass, indeed, obviously relates to
what took place in November, 1836 ; when the chapter re-
solved "to defer the gimes of two miser canons," to
supply micencies shish bed recently occurred, "in con-
formity," m it wee gensifiered, " with ea act of parliament
peeled on the 21st of August. 1836, for protecting the reve-
nues vacant divides, sesemies, during the
lag
.rte ggegieg the state of the
• end re
is expesmags et immures to be meow
mended miler the &se Weds' Regal Osemileisst gelatin
to the Mare appelistmest and diAge of mime assess. The
jahopew, hewer, being divided I. °pinks tapes the sub-
jpeeplicatiou was made to the late arabbishey as the &o-
tz hmmeter slabs Mantes • sea Ms grace was of
opinion that till absermselissei giesktisis of the chapter
wee " sot repormat to abs sletntee." thee " the existing
eirseaseness appeared to be a reassemble mese quite sufB-
- ter peetplaug the amass et-that time," and that
" should the same circumstenees essitinne to exist, there
may again be sufiicient grate& dee the farthertpone-
Meet el filling up the vacuoles." The segend Report of
his Majesty's Coatmneioners, in which they reemmended
a reduction of the number of aims einem appeared in
March, 1836. And this quinase was finally set at rest by
the Act of the 3 and 4 Victor a, a. 113, see. 46.
Your lordship may possibly refer also to an irregularity
which existed some time slam in the payment. to the
grammar boys ; but this we observed and corrected in 1843.
If the statement in the judgment refers to any other
statutes whieh are not at present, but which ought to be,
carried into strict execution, we are anxious to have them
pointed out. Our desire is, as we have often stated, to com-
municate with your lordship without reserve. in order to
the due fulfilment of our statutes.
But if, as we rather presume, the other statutes alluded
to are such as cannot any longer be executed strictly, and
whose disuse has been sanctioned not merely by long prac-
tice, but also by successive visitors, then it may be right
that with your lordship's consent we should at once apply
to the crown, to which the power of altering our statutes
be. been reserved by the founder, for the explicit correction
or repeal of obsolete statutes of this deeenp.tion. Many
reasons render such a course desirable, and it is clearly un-
desirable that statutes should remain which cannot be car-
ried into strict execution, but which may Ripply excuses for
misconduct or materials for calumny.
And now, at length, since the judgment of your lordship
and your learned assessors has relieved us from unjust im-
putations, and bas recognised our legal rights, we are at
liberty to declare our intentions relative to the claims ad-
vanced by the appellant, in the first instance on behalf of
the exhibitioners at the universities, and some months later,
on behalf of the glummer boys.
These claims, as we have more fully stated in our letters
to your lordship of June and October, 1849, we re
jetted ; and they were under our consideration eacumbered
as they then were with various other claims and questions,
and based upon principles to which we could not accede,
when the first appeal was made to your lordship in 1848.
We rejoiced at that appeal, trusting that it would lead to
a more satisfactory determination of all the questions
which had been raised than any at which we could have
ourselves arrived ; but, disappointed in that expectation
(your lordship having been advised to refer the appellant
to another tribunal), we have ever since been prevented by
legal proceedings, and by the second appeal to your lova-
ship, from adopting any specific conclusions upon the
subject. It was thought necessary to wait the issue of these
inquiries.
these investigations having now been closed, we may freely
state that we think the allowances to the exhibitioners and
the grammar boys ought to be increased. And we enclose

• The set of the S ifs II William IV, eh. SO. The preamble of dm
set Mates the intention of hit Majesty, of the two archbishops std
divers of the b:thoya, to deter any nootimition to vacant dignities, end
b !pekes without cure of era* Is their re•P•Mive Patf9•3lso diving
MIO Paging inT4iliii•