of Richard I.; for, as human memory is curiously supposed, by the common law, to be able to reach back to that period, it would not, in the eye of the law, be an immemorial, or time-out-of-mind, usage, if it commenced at any later date. But, since the statute 2 and 3 Wm. IV. c. 71 was passed (which is called "An Act for shortening the time of prescriptions in certain cases"), where there has been an enjoyment of any way or other easement, &c., by a person claiming a right to it, without interruption, for twenty years next before the commencement of any suit upon the subject, the prescriptive claim shall no longer be defeated (as it formerly might) by shewing that the enjoyment commenced at a period subsequent to the time of Richard I.

Now, it is apprehended that the amount of evidence necessary to support a prescriptive title to a pew will be measured according to the provisions of this act. The act does not, indeed, expressly mention pews by name: but it purports to shorten the time of prescription in all cases of easements; and a pew is considered to belong to the class of easements. The general meaning of which word is "a convenience unaccompanied by pecuniary profit, which a person enjoys in or

over the land of another." It is well known that the freehold of the soil on which a parish church is built is vested in the incumbent: from which it follows that the highest property which a parishioner can have in a pew, must be something inferior to the freehold, inasmuch as that is already disposed of. The right to a pew is in fact no more than an exclusive right to kneel, stand, and sit, during divine service, upon the spot in question. This right obviously falls under the definition of an easement as stated above.

Assuming, therefore, that the right to a pew annexed to a dwelling-house is in fact an easement in law, the proof of a prescriptive title to it will, in all cases which may occur subsequently to the 2 and 3 Wm. IV. c. 71, be materially affected by that act. When the uninterrupted enjoyment and use of it, by a person who claimed to do so as of right, for twenty years is proved, the title is prima facie complete; subject, however, to be defeated in any way in which it might have been defeated before the act passed, except by shewing the commencement of the usage within the time of legal memory. But, where the right has been so exercised for forty years, the title will be held

absolute and indefeasible, unless the enjoyment has been by virtue of a written consent, or agreement, which can be produced to prove the fact. (Vid. Fowler on Church Pews.)

Subject to these private rights, it is the duty of churchwardens, as observed before, to make all the seats of the church as available as they can for the accommodation of the parishioners, having regard, in the arrangement, to their respective stations and conditions. To enable the churchwardens to accomplish this, they may place or displace at pleasure, taking care not to exercise such power unnecessarily or capriciously. If any one, however, feel aggrieved by the conduct of the churchwardens, he may cite them to shew cause, in the Ecclesiastical Court, why they have so seated him or omitted to seat him.

OF A POSSESSORY RIGHT TO A SITTING, ETC.

When a person has been placed in a particular seat by the churchwardens, or been suffered for some time to occupy a sitting quietly, he is said to have a possessory right in it: but he is liable to be displaced by the churchwardens, when occasion shall require, with the sanction of the ordinary; for as he sat there originally

by their leave, express or implied, they may revoke such leave and displace him whenever the demand for church accommodation requires them to exercise the power.

The erection of a seat by an individual at his own charge-even with the leave of the minister, churchwardens, and parishioners—gives him no permanent interest in it; such an interest can only be obtained by a faculty.

Churchwardens must not permit seats to be altered in size or form, or the sides thereof to be raised to an improper height, at the mere pleasure of individuals; nor are they, on any account, to allow open sittings to be converted into close pews, without the consent of the ordinary.

Where there is a pew appurtenant to the house of an individual who lets his house and leaves the parish, he cannot covenant with his tenant that he shall not occupy it in order that he may let the pew to another. This, says Lord Stowell, is clearly illegal. If a pew is rightly appurtenant, the occupancy of it must pass with the house; and the individuals cannot, by contract between themselves, defeat the general right of the parish.

CHAPTER VII.

On their duties with respect to their Accounts, Sequestrations, and Presentments.

AS TO THEIR ACCOUNTS.

By the 89th Canon, churchwardens shall, at the end of their year of office or within a month after at the most, render before the minister and parishioners a full account of all the money they may have received, and particularly of all they have expended, in reparations and otherwise, for the use of the church. The vestry must be duly summoned for this purpose, and their accounts submitted to all who are interested and have a right to attend and see how the money, raised for the worship of God and the preservation of His sanctuary, has been expended. If their accounts are allowed, they ought to be entered in the church book of accounts which every parish ought to have for this purpose; and those who allow the account are then to set their hands to it. If there be any money