Number of

No matter shall be heard, nor shall any order, report or judges present. recommendation be made, by the said judicial committee, in pursuance of this act, unless in the presence of at least four members of the said committee; and no report or recommendation shall be made to his majesty, unless a majority of the members of such judicial committee present at the hearing shall concur in such report or recommendation: provided, that nothing herein contained shall prevent his majesty, if he shall think fit, from summoning any other of the members of his said privy council to attend the meetings of the said committee.'

When bishops are to sit as judges.

Proceedings of the court.

But it shall be lawful for his majesty, by order in council, or special direction under his royal sign manual, having regard to the nature of the said appeal or other matter, and in respect of the same not requiring the presence of more than three members of the said committee, to order that the same be heard; and when so ordered, it shall be lawful that the same shall be accordingly heard by not less than three of the members of the said judicial committee, subject to such other rules as are applicable to the hearing and making report on appeals and other matters by four or more of the members of the said judicial committee."

And in several of those cases of appeals in ecclesiastical causes which have been mentioned, it is provided, that every bishop and archbishop of the United Church of England and Ireland, who may be a member of the privy council, shall be a member of the judicial committee, for the purpose of hearing such appeals; so that in those cases which are, in the more strict sense of the word, ecclesiastical, the ultimate court of appeal is of a mixed character, composed partly of laymen and partly of ecclesiastics; wherein, if as many of the latter as are qualified should choose to attend, they would probably usually constitute a majority."

The following are the regulations for the proceedings of the court upon the hearing of appeals.

In any matter, which shall be referred to such committee, they may examine witnesses by word of mouth (and either before or after examination by deposition), or direct that the depositions of any witness shall be taken in writing by the registrar, or by such other person or persons, and in such manner, order and course, as his majesty in council or the said judicial committee shall appoint and direct; and the said registrar, and such other person or persons so to be appointed, shall have the same powers as are now n See post, Bishops, &c.

1 Sect. 5.

m 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 38.

possessed by an examiner of the High Court of Chancery

or of any court ecclesiastical."

In any matter which shall come before them, it shall be Witnesses. lawful for the said committee to direct that such witnesses shall be examined, or re-examined, and as to such facts as to the said committee shall seem fit, notwithstanding any such witnesses may not have been examined, or no evidence may have been given on any such facts in a previous stage of the matter; and it shall also be lawful for his majesty in council, on the recommendation of the said committee, upon any appeal, to remit the matter which shall be the subject of such appeal to the court, from the decision of which such appeal shall have been made; and, at the same time, to direct that such court shall rehear such matter, in such form, and either generally or upon certain points only; and upon such rehearing take such additional evidence, though before rejected, or reject such evidence before admitted, as his majesty in council shall direct.

The committee may further direct issues to try any fact, May direct and may direct the depositions to be read at such trial, and issues to be tried. may make such orders as to the admission as are used to

be made in like cases by the Court of Chancery; and may direct new trials of such issues generally, or upon certain points only.P

The committee may also refer any matters to be examined References to and reported on to the registrar, or to such other person the registrar. or persons as shall be appointed by his majesty in council, or by the said judicial committee, in the same manner and for the like purposes as matters are referred by the Court of Chancery to a master of the said court; and for the purposes of this act, the registrar, and the person or persons so to be appointed, shall have the same powers and authorities as are now possessed by a master in chancery."

The president for the time being of the privy council may require the attendance of any witnesses, and the production of any deeds, evidences or writings, by writ to be issued by such president, in such and the same form, or as nearly as may be, as that in which a writ of subpoena ad testificandum, or of subpoena duces tecum, is now issued by his majesty's Court of King's Bench at Westminster; and every person disobeying any such writ so to be issued by the president, shall be considered as in contempt, and shall also be liable to such penalties and consequences as if such writ had issued out of the Court of King's Bench, and may be sued for such penalties in the said court."

Time for appeal

ing.

Orders enforced

against persons

pronounced contumacious,

Costs of appeals.

All appeals shall be made within such time respectively as the same may now be made, where such time may be fixed by any law or usage; and where there is no such law or usage, then within such time as shall be ordered by his majesty in council; but with regard to the time of appealing in ecclesiastical matters, such as appeals from sentences of the bishops under the Church Discipline Act, from their orders as to residence, &c., from orders declaring bishops incapacited, and several others, the time within which the appeal must be prosecuted is expressly limited in each case, and will be found mentioned in each case in the places where those subjects are treated of.

The judicial committee have the power of committing to prison for contempt of court; and in all causes of appeals from ecclesiastical courts, in which any person, duly monished or cited, or required to comply with any lawful order or decree, and neglecting or refusing to pay obedience to such lawful order or decree, or committing any contempt of the process in ecclesiastical causes, shall reside out of the dominions of her majesty, or shall have privilege of peerage, or shall be a lord of parliament, or a member of the House of Commons, it shall be lawful for the said judicial committee, or their surrogates, to pronounce such person to be contumacious and in contempt, and, after he shall have been so pronounced contumacious and in contempt, to cause process of sequestration to issue under the said seal of her majesty against the real and personal estate, goods, chattels and effects, wheresoever lying within the dominions of her majesty, of the person against or upon whom such order or decree shall have been made, in order to enforce obedience to the same, and payment of the expenses attending such sequestration, and all proceedings consequent thereon; and to make such further order in respect of, or consequent on, such sequestration; and in respect to such real and personal estate and effects sequestrated thereby, as may be necessary; or for payment of monies arising from the same to the person to whom the same may be due; or into the registry of the High Court of Admiralty and Appeals, for the benefit of those who may be ultimately entitled thereto.*

The costs, as well of defending any decree or sentence appealed from, as of prosecuting any appeal, or in any manner intervening in any cause of appeal, and the costs on either side, or of any party, in the court below, and the costs of opposing any matter which shall be referred to the judicial committee, and the costs of all such issues as

shall be tried by their direction respecting any such appeal, shall be paid by such party as the said judicial committee shall order". And such costs arising out of any ecclesiastical cause of appeal shall be taxed by the registrar of the High Court of Admiralty of England for the time being, who may be appointed to be registrar of the queen in ecclesiastical causes, and who is empowered to appoint an assistant registrar, and who shall, while he shall be registrar of the High Court of Admiralty, hold his office of registrar of her majesty in ecclesiastical causes; and shall do all such things, and shall have the same powers and privileges in respect to the same as belong to his predecessors in the office of registrar of her majesty in ecclesiastical causes.*

The surrogates and examiners of the Arches Court of Canterbury, and such persons as shall from time to time be appointed surrogates or examiners of the said court, shall be surrogates and examiners of the judicial committee of the privy council in all causes of appeal from ecclesiastical courts.

CHAPTER V.

THE ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSION.

THIS Commission, which must now and henceforth be re- Origin of. garded as a most important part of our Church establishment, and to which a great part of the power and authority, both of the parliament and of the supreme head of the Church has been delegated, is of very recent origin. In the early part of the year 1835, the general feeling of dissatisfaction with all existing institutions which then for a time pervaded the nation, had extended to the Established Church; and the chief authorities of the Church at that time, mistaking a transient effervescence for an expression of settled hostility to the establishment, became anxious to effect of themselves those extensive changes which they feared would otherwise be carried on by others. The consequence of this feeling on the part of the heads of the Church was the establishment of the Ecclesiastical Commission, which, by reason of the several powers that have at subsequent times been conferred upon it, may probably be productive of much good to the Church establishment; and may be able, in some degree, to compensate for the unfortunate errors which caused its origin.

Error com

mi d in its origin.

For, in its origin, the important principle on which the inviolability of the Church establishment depends, that the Church generally possesses no property as a corporation, or which is applicable to general purposes; but that each particular ecclesiastical corporation, whether aggregate or sole, has its property separate, distinct, and inalienable, according to the intention of the original endowment, was given up without an effort to defend it. The wealthier endowments of our ecclesiastical corporations aggregate, -the reward and dignified ease of many who had spent their lives in the arduous discharge of the duties of their professions, and the inducement alike to the higher ranks of society and to brighter talents to undertake those duties, and which had rendered the body of our clergy so superior to those of other countries,—were overthrown and ruined without a struggle. The regrets, both of laymen and ecclesiastics, and the dissatisfaction of the commissioners themselvees at the results of the labours of their commission, have unfortunately come too late. Establishments which had survived the Reformation were not found sufficiently utilitarian to survive the scrutiny of commissioners, who were, for the most part, selected from ecclesiastics. But the Church cannot complain of a spoliation which would probably never have been attempted, had its members shown the slightest resistance; nor unless those members had themselves been desirous to effect the extensive change.

The consequence of this feeling was, that in February, 1835, two commissions were issued to persons therein named, directing them to consider the state of the several dioceses in England and Wales, with reference to the amount of their revenues, and the more equal distribution of episcopal duties, and the prevention of the necessity of attaching by commendam to bishoprics, certain benefices with cure of souls, and to consider also the state of the several cathedral and collegiate churches in England and Wales, with a view to the suggestion of such measures as might render them conducive to the efficiency of the Established Church, and to provide the best mode of providing for the cure of souls, with special reference to the residence of the clergy on their respective benefices. And it was provided, that in the meantime, where certain specified dignities or benefices should become vacant, all the profits and emoluments arising from them should be paid to the treasurer of Queen Anne's Bounty, to whom were granted the same remedies for recovering these profits, &c. as a successor would have had, provided that he should