corporate, their heirs and successors, to give, grant, alien, assign, devise, bequeath, or dispose of in mortmain and perpetuity or otherwise, for the use, or in trust for the said society and their successors, any lands, rents, annuities or hereditaments, not exceeding the yearly value of 12,000l., and any sum or sums of money to any amount, and any ships goods or chattels, of whatever value, for the charitable purposes of the said society; all which gifts, grants, conveyances, assignments, bequests and dispositions, the said society are authorized to receive, accept, and hold, &c.

By stat. 4 Will. IV. c. 38, the vice-presidents and treasurers and governors for the time being of St. George's Hospital, at Hyde Park Corner, are incorporated by the name of "The President, Vice-Presidents, Treasurers, and Governors of St. George's Hospital," and by the same name are enabled, without incurring the forfeitures of the statutes of mortmain, to hold and retain certain property therein mentioned, and by will, gift, purchase or otherwise, to obtain, acquire, hold and retain, for the purpose of the said institution, any lands and hereditaments of whatsoever kind the same may be, either in fee, or for terms of life or years, so as such lands and hereditaments, exclusive of the hospital and certain pieces of land therein mentioned, and exclusive of any lands and hereditaments that may at any time after the passing of the act be vested in them, or in any trustees for them, by way of mortgage, or upon which any sums of money belonging to the said institution may be charged, do not exceed the clear yearly value of 20,000l. over and above all charges and reprizes, computing the same at the rack rent, which might have been gotten for the same at the time of the obtaining or acquisition thereof. And also by will, gift, purchase or otherwise, to obtain, acquire, hold, and retain for the purpose of the said institution, any monies and other personal estate and property, of what nature or kind soever, including monies secured on mortgage of or charged upon any lands or hereditaments; and also to grant, alien, demise, assign, and dispose of any lands, hereditaments, monies, and other personal estate and property, for the time

being belonging to the said institution; and to do and execute all such acts, deeds, matters, and things as may be necessary for the effecting and completion of any such grant, alienation, demise, assignment, or disposition (ƒ).

By statute 9 Geo. IV. c. 40, s. 25, the visitors appointed under that act for the erection and regulation of County Lunatic Asylums for the purposes of that act, have full power, capacity, and ability to accept and take from any person willing to give the same or otherwise, to purchase, take, hold and enjoy any lands, tenements and hereditaments, and any interest therein, and any money issuing out of, or charged upon, or to arise from the sale of lands, tenements and hereditaments, of and to any value or amount whatever; the statutes of mortmain, or any other statute or law to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding.

2. Workhouses.] By statute 13 & 14 Charles II. c. 12, s. 5, the corporations of workhouses established by that act, for the poor of the cities of London and Westminster, and of the counties of Middlesex and Surrey, are enabled, without license in mortmain, to purchase or receive any lands, tenements or hereditaments, not exceeding the yearly value of 3000l. per annum, of the gift, alienation, or devise of any person or persons, who are thereby enabled without further license to give the same, and any goods, chattels, or sums of money whatever, to the uses therein mentioned.

By statute 22 Geo. III. c. 83, s. 21, it is enacted, "that the visitor and guardian for the time being of every parish, township and place, or of the several parishes, townships and places which shall be united under the provisions of that act, from and after they shall respectively have adopted the provisions of that act, shall be and are thereby respectively declared to be one body politic and corporate, and be called by the name of visitor and guardian,' or visitors and guardians of the poor, for the parish, township or place of ——

(f) As to the power to invest see 4th & 5th sections of the act. monies of the hospital on mortgage,

E

in the county, &c. of ——, or of the united parishes, townships or places of and, in the county, &c. of as the case shall be; and are thereby authorized and enabled by that name to sue and be sued, and to accept, take and hold by purchase or lease, any lands, tenements or hereditaments of inheritance, or for lives or years, or for years determinable on the death of any life or lives, not exceeding in any city or town one acre, and not exceeding in the open country 20 acres of statute measure, for the site of a house or houses to be built, and for lands to be occupied for the purposes of that act; and the said corporation is also thereby authorized and enabled to accept, take, and hold all voluntary grants and donations of lands, tenements or hereditaments of inheritance, or for lives or years, or for years determinable on lives, or of personal property which shall be made to them for the use and benefit of the poor within such respective parishes, townships or places."

Where several parishes, incorporated under this act, have a common workhouse, the appointment of a governor by one of such parishes only is void (ƒ).

By statute 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 76, s. 21, the powers given by the statutes 22 Geo. III. c. 83, and 59 Geo. III. c. 12(g), and all the powers given by every other act of Parliament, general as well as local, for or relating to the building, altering or enlarging of poor-houses and workhouses, and to the acquiring, purchasing, hiring, holding, selling, exchanging and disposing thereof, or of land whereon the same may have been or may thereafter be erected, are to be exercised, subject to the rules and orders of the Poor Law Commissioners; but they or the Assistant Commissioners have no power to order workhouses to be built or hired, except under the terms contained in the act 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 76. By the 23rd section of the last-mentioned act, the Poor Law Commissioners, with the consent of the majority of rate-payers, are empowered to order the overseers or guardians of any parish not having

(f) Rex v. Hambledon, 6 Dowl. & Ryl. 554.

(g) See ante, p. 30, and 4 & 5

Will. IV. c. 76, edited by Theobald, 75-95.

a workhouse, to build one; and to purchase or hire land for the purpose of building workhouses.

3. Augmentation of small livings.] By 17 Charles II. c. 3, s. 7 (h), every owner of any impropriation, tithes, or portion of tithes in any parish or chapelry in England or Wales, may give and annex the same, or every part thereof, unto the parsonage or vicarage of the said parish church or chapel, where the same do lie or arise, or settle the same in trust for the benefit of the said parsonage or vicarage, or of the curate or curates there successively, where the parsonage is impropriate and no vicar endowed according to his or their respective estates, without any license of mortmain; and by the eighth section of the same act, if the settled maintenance of any parsonage, vicarages, churches and chapels, united under that act, or of any other parsonage or vicarage with cure in England or Wales, shall not amount to the full sum of 1007. a year, clear and above all charges and reprizes, the parson, vicar and incumbent of the same, and his succesors, may take and purchase to him and his successors, lands, tenements, rents, tithes or other hereditaments, without any license of mortmain.

By statute 2 & 3 Anne, c. 11, s. 4, all persons having in their own right any estate or interest in any lands or hereditaments or chattels, are enabled, by deed inrolled according to the statute 27 Henry VIII. c. 16, or by will duly executed according to law, to give and grant to and vest in the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty, lands, goods and chattels for the purposes of that corporation, which has full capacity and ability to purchase, receive, take, hold and enjoy, for the purposes of that charity, as well from persons as shall give, as from all persons willing to sell or alien to that corporation, any manors, lands, tenements, goods and chattels, without any license or writ ad quod damnum notwithstanding

(h) The object of this act is ex- c. 2, authorizes the restitution of tended by 29 Charles II. c. 8, and impropriations, either by deed or 1 & 2 Will. IV. c. 45. See Appen- will, without license in mortmain. dix. The Ir. stat. 10 & 11 Charles I.

the statute of mortmain; and by the 43 Geo. III. c. 107, s. 1, it is declared, that the above provision shall remain in force, notwithstanding the 9 Geo. II. c. 36.

By 1 Geo. I. c. 10, s. 4, the churches, curacies and chapels augmented by the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty, are made, from the time of such augmentations, perpetual cures and benefices; and the ministers duly nominated and licensed thereunto, and their successors, are declared to be bodies politic, to have perpetual succession, and a legal capacity to take in perpetuity to them and their successors, all such lands, tenements, tithes and hereditaments, as shall be granted unto or purchased for them by the said governors.

4. Parsonage houses.] By 17 Geo. III. c. 53, s. 10, where new buildings are necessary for the residence of the rector, vicar or other incumbent, the ordinary, patron and incumbent of a living may purchase a convenient habitation and land, not exceeding a certain number of acres, according to the value of the living, to be held therewith. By the 43 Geo. III. c. 107, s. 3, the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty may purchase a suitable residence for the minister of a living augmented by them. By 55 Geo. III. c. 147, s. 12, a general power is given to all owners of land, to convey to the parson, vicar or other incumbent of any ecclesiastical benefice, any messuage and land in exchange for any parsonage house and glebe lands, and to sell and convey to any such parson, vicar or other incumbent, any lands not exceeding twenty acres, with the necessary buildings.

By 7 Geo. IV. c. 66, s. 1, all messuages, buildings, and lands, to be purchased for the use of benefices under that act, or the statutes 17 Geo. III. c. 53, s. 10, 43 Geo. III. c. 107, s. 3, and 55 Geo. III. c. 147, s. 12, are directed to be conveyed unto and to the use of the parson, vicar or other incumbent of the benefice, curacy, or chapelry, for the residence and occupation of the parson, vicar or other incumbent whereof the same shall be purchased, and shall for ever after the conveyance thereof become annexed to the same benefice, curacy or chapelry, and be holden and enjoyed by the parson,