perform the duties of the office, and I should like to know the distinction between a Roman Catholic and a Quaker, or why even a Jew might not be liable, if it were a matter of course that he might serve by deputy.

"It has been said, that I am bound by the Toleration Act to compel any dissenter who may be chosen by the parish to serve this office. It is true, that the statute referred to allows dissenters to act by deputy, but I am yet to learn, how such a permission is to be construed as compulsory upon the ecclesiastical judge, to admit all dissenters, of every description, to the discharge of this office. Such a construction would be totally irreconcilable with the dictum of Lord Stowell, with respect to Papists and Jews, in the case of Anthony v. Seger. "Again; it has been argued that Prideaux has not inserted Quakers in the list of those persons who are not liable to fill this office: but in the enumeration given by Prideaux, we do not find an alien, a Jew, or a Papist. What then do I infer from this? That there may be cases, in which there is a discretion in the Court, whether it shall feel itself called upon to enforce the performance of these duties. The obligation is not compulsory on all. I must not be understood to say, that all dissenters are exempted, or to specify whether any, and if any, what class may be exempted. If that ques

tion comes before me, it will then be time to distinguish between the cases, according to circumstances and facts. Far be it from me to allow any assumption of a religious cloak, to prevent persons from discharging a legal obligation; but the Society of Friends are known; they are a marked and peculiar caste-are privileged even as to their exemption from the forms of marriage, enjoined by the legislature— their tenets, doctrines, and habits, are recognised to be such, as to make it impossible to consider that they can discharge the duties of churchwarden. Having the means of knowing the conscientious scruples of this sect, a judge of an ecclesiastical court ought seriously to pause, not only before he attempts to violate the religious scruples of this class of persons, but also for the purpose of asking himself, whether he can conscientiously admit into the bosom of our Church, persons who are disqualified from obeying her sanctions, and giving full force and effect to her institutions and ordinances.

"Upon the whole, from the best consideration I can apply to the case, I have come to the determination, that the parish must proceed to the election of some other person, as I will not compel this individual to serve the office. And consequently I dismiss Samuel Theobald from further observance of justice in this case."

HINTS RESPECTING

IF any bad votes are on the overseers' lists for towns or counties, they may be objected to by any other person on the register; but written notice of such objection must be given on or before the 25th day of August inst.

In counties, a notice signed by the objector, and with his place of abode inserted, must be given to the overseer of the parish in which the person objected to is registered, and another notice must be served upon the party objected to, either by delivering it to him personally, by leaving it at his place of abode as described in the register, or by delivering it personally

Question. If a clergyman shall refuse to solemnize marriage upon the registrar's certificate, as enjoined by this Act, what proceedings can be had against him? Will a mandamus lie from the Court of Queen's Bench? Will committal to the Fleet follow a perseverance in the refusal? Will the discipline of the Church, and the Clergy's ordination vow, afford them any protection?

Opinion of Sir Chas. Wetherell, Knt.

I think that clause 36 of the Act is mandatory, and, consequently, that any

clergyman who refuses to marry parties who produce a certificate, framed according to the requisitions of the clause, is liable to all legal suits and proceedings which may be instituted on that refusal. In point of law, the clause 36 carries with it a dispensation from, or abolition of, canonical obedience. And the canons could not, I think, be set up in bar to justify the refusal of a clergyman to comply with the provisions of the Act.

CHARLES WEtherell, Lincoln's Inn, July 21.

THE following circular, containing instructions as to forms of appointment and maps, has been issued by the Commissioners appointed under the English Tithe Commutation Act:

The amended Tithe Act, which you will receive with these instructions, has considerably changed what would otherwise have been both the form and the substance of the instruments of apportionment.

The value of the gross sum agreed for having been once set out in wheat, barley, and oats, no further calculations in corn will be necessary.

Considerable change is made as to mapping. By the first section of the amended Act the Commissioners are relieved from the necessity of certifying the accuracy of the map, and they will therefore be willing to confirm appointments without being satisfied of the accuracy of the maps which may be annexed to such apportionments; but in these cases no seal will be affixed to the maps, and these maps will not be received in evidence of the quantities or boundaries of the lands referred to.

The maps forwarded to the Commission will therefore be divided into two classes:

The first class will consist of such as the Commissioners will feel justified in sealing, and thus making satisfactory evidence of contents and boundaries under the 64th section of the original Tithe Act.

For the accuracy of these maps the Commissioners will still be responsible; they will therefore require proof of their correctness. The mode of proof which will be least expensive to the parties will be to leave the lines of construction upon the map, and to forward the field-books with the map to the Commission.

To this class of sealed maps the instructions circulated by Lieut. Dawson, Assistant Tithe Commissioner, dated January, 1837, will still be found applicable, with the exception of the conventional signs, which are not considered essential, and may be used or not as the parties find convenient. The maps which will be most acceptable to the Tithe Commissioners are the plain working plans, with the lines of construction, names, and reference figures, shown upon them, and with no other ornament or colour whatever; and the most ready way of obtaining the seal of the Commission will be to send up the actual working plan.

It is to be observed that the scales of three and four chains to the inch are the scales commonly used by landsurveyors for their working plan, and consequently the adoption of these scales by the Commissioners entails no additional expense on the parties, but, on the contrary, saves the expense of reducing. When working plans upon these scales, with the genuine and original field-books, are sent up, no expense for testing will be apportioned on the parties, excepting in

cases where indications of inaccuracy or fraud appear on the face of the map, in which cases further tests must be resorted to.

Maps on a smaller scale than four chains to an inch do not admit of being accurately tested as to qualities; and no map on a smaller scale can therefore receive the seal of the Commission.

The second class of maps will consist of those which three-fourths of the landowners are desirous to use, but which the parties do not mean to submit to the test of the Commission.

These maps should be agreed to at a parochial meeting, attended by threefourths in number and value of the landowners. That they should be agreed to at a parochial meeting, that public notice shall be given to the landowners, and that every landowner should thus have an opportunity of expressing his opinion upon them, is highly desirable. But, looking to the spirit of the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons, upon which the amended Tithe Act is founded, the Tithe Commissioners, when the maps have once been adopted at parochial meetings, regularly convened, will allow the requisite number of signatures to be affixed after the meeting, if three-fourths of the landowners have not been present at the meeting.

As to these maps the Commissioners have no remark to make, but to remind the parties that if, on an appeal against an apportionment, such maps, and the estimated quantities founded on them, are shown to be inaccurate, the Commissioners may be obliged to direct fresh maps to be made.

To prevent the multiplication of appeals on the grounds of inaccurate admeasurements, the Commissioners will, unless any serious inconvenience is found to result from the practice, refuse to receive appeals against apportionments, on the grounds of inaccurate admeasurements, from any parties who have signed the requisition to the Commissioners to receive the maps actually used in the apportionment. Those cases will, of course, form an exception in which improper means have been made use of to obtain such signatures.

Two copies of the map and apportionment must be made, one for the use of the parish, and one for the registry of the diocese. It is not quite clear from the wording of the Act, whether these copies should be paid for by the parties, as expenses incident to the apportionment, or whether they are to be included under the expenses not specially provided for in the Act, and payable out of the consolidated fund. The question has been submitted to the proper authorities, and their decision will be communicated as soon as received. In the mean time it may be satisfactory to the parties to know that there are competent persons in London willing to contract for copies of the maps and books of reference at the price of twopence per acre for maps and two books of reference, including every expense; or the maps may be lithographed on the six chain scales, and six impressions obtained at a cost of threepence per acre; being only one penny an acre more than would be paid for making the two copies. Any additional number of lithographic impressions may afterwards be had for the mere cost of paper and printing (probably less than a shilling a copy for every 2,000 acres.)

Where parties wish the copies to be deposited in the parish chest, and bishop's registry to be sealed and made evidence, as well as the original maps, the copies nust, of course, be facsimiles of the map itself.

The copies may be either made before or after the confirmation of the apportionment, but if made before confirmation they would be subject to any alteration which might be found necessary to the map itself. If the draft of the apportionment and the map annexed to it are returned to this office for confirmation, without any copies of the map, the original map cannot again be parted with, and the two copies, which will ultimately be required, must be made in this office.

To obviate the objections arising from the expense of surveying and mapping parishes containing large tracts of waste or mountain land, or lands covered by a modus, on which a small rent-charge is to be affixed, the Commissioners think it expedient to

call the attention of the landholders to the 58th section of the Tithe Act, which makes it legal for any landowner to fix the rent-charge upon a portion of his estate, provided only that it shall be of an annual value equal to three times the amount of the rent-charge. By this means the rentcharge may be always apportioned upon the cultivated lands; and the unproductive lands, and lands now covered by modus thus exonerated, will not require to be included in the map or survey.

With this you receive a skeleton form of apportionment, which will assist in constructing it in its most convenient shape.

The valuers who send in drafts of an apportionment should recollect that, by the 55th section of the Tithe Act, the agreement on which the apportionment is founded must be set forth in that draft.

Tithe Commission Office, London, August, 1837.

DOMESTIC.-The time of parliament has been mainly occupied by the settlement of the Civil List for her Majesty's reign, which has passed without any other incident worthy of notice than the increasing dissatisfaction of the ministerial phalanx with their leaders, and with one another. A Bill, however, for augmenting the income of the Duchess of Kent to the sum of 30,000l. per ann, met with considerable difficulty, chiefly caused by the extreme want of tact displayed by the Ministers themselves in its original introduction, and in the manner of defending the measure. Although there is little doubt of the Bill being ultimately passed, there has been a necessity of postponing the final steps of legislation in respect of it, till after the recess.

The recess itself has been materially shortened in consequence of the news from Lower Canada, where, at the instigation of M. Papineau, and similar grievance-mongers, an actual rebellion