The Express.
London, England, 1861-11-08 00:00:00

011311 CH a*m.

Mr. Coleridge (with whom wee Mr. Dowdeewell) showed
came maim& a rule obtained by Mr. Collier, calling upon
the judge ef the Consi.tory Court of Loudon to show canoe
why a prohibition %tumid not issue to prohibit him proceed-
aid further in a suit pending in that court rev rg a
church-rate made in the district parish of St. olomew,
Sydeoham. The rule was obtained oa the ground that the
rate was made for other purpume than the repairs of the
fabric of the church, to which, it was contended, the 514th
=z
lie I I. c. 45, under which district parishes are estab-
mi;ed the church•ratce to be named under ite pro-
visions. The items objected to were those for water,
lighting, printing, stationery. anal other matters incidental
to the proper celebnithiu of divine service in the church.
The learned counsel observed that the case was one of very
serious importance, a. it affected the performance of the
services of the church in all district parishes, of which there
were as many as 3,10) in the kingdom. The act was passed
is 1814 but up tall Dow the present question had not been
raised, and the person who brought it forward was solicitor
to the Anti-Church Rate Society. That might be no
minion for not deciding the point, • but it was one for re-
quiring the case against the rate to Le made out with the
greatest strictness.
. . _

Mr. Collier said the statement of Mr. Coleridge as to the
party who kink the initiative in the case was itieonect.
Mr. Coleridge said he merely staid what appeared on his
affidavits.

The trained counsel then submitted that the 58th George
111.,c. set up • common law church rate is the district
parishes it created, and that the word "repairs" which it
employed, should obtain the same eoastructioo which the
term had received by • series of well knows decisions at
common law. The question principally turned upon the
70th section, which provided that the repairs of a district
church or chapel should be made by rates raised is the die.
trict in like manner as the repairs of the pariah church by
the parish, and that every such district should be deemed by
law a separate and distinct pariah for that purpose. Mr.
Collier contended on applying for the rule, that as this sec.
hoe imposed a new tan on the subject, it should be construed
with the greatest strictness, and that repairs should re.eivo
the dictiouary interpretation ouly. Mr. Coleridge, however,
said that, as the incidental airmen's objected to, had
always been defrayed out of church rates in ordinary
parishes, the legislature must be supposed to have meant
that the word "repairs" included them, in accordance with
the decisions of common lew.
Mr. DowdesweLl. followed on the same side.
Mr. Collier, in supporting the rule, said it was eivideat
that the legislature contemplated, in passing the Church
Haiblieg Acta, that math of what was required for the pr.
formanes of divine senses in the district churches would be
supplied by the voluntary contributions od the laity, and in
point of (Act that was actually the cue in the greater part
of the created districts. The learned counsel then refined
to the different minims at the soil 000teoded that the
term " repairs* mount so more than repairs, midoot any
incidental expenses.
At the esaisioniaa of the learned gentlemen's argument
the case wan adjostniesi Monday, when Mr. Taylor will
be heard.