and if any vacancy occur in the office of any Commissioner by death, resignation, incapacity, or otherwise, Her Majesty may, by warrant under the royal sign manual, appoint some other fit person, being a Communicant of the said Church, to fill the vacancy. The said Church Body Commission shall be a body corporate, with a common seal, and a capacity to acquire and hold land for the purposes of this Act. Judicial notice shall be taken by all courts of justice of the corporate seal of the Commissioners, and any order or other instrument purporting to be sealed therewith shall be received as evidence without further proof.

7. That any power or act by this Act vested in or authorised to be done by the Church Body Commission may be done by any one of them, with this qualification : that any person aggrieved by any order of Commissioners may require his case to be heard by the whole body.

8. That the said Church Body Commission may from time to time appoint and remove a Secretary, and may appoint and remove such officers, agents, clerks, and messengers as they deem necessary for the purposes of the Act. They may also employ such architects, actuaries, surveyors, and other persons as they may think fit for the purpose of enabling them to carry into effect any of the provisions of this Act.

9. That the Members of the said Church Body Commission shall receive no salary, but shall be remunerated at the conclusion of their work in such manner as the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury shall approve.

10. That the said Church Body Commission may pay out of the properties at their disposal

(1) To the Secretary, Officers, Agents, Clerks, and Messengers such Salaries as the Commissioners think fit, rendering an account of them as hereinafter to be provided.

(2) To any Architect, Actuary, Surveyor, or other person as aforesaid, such remunerations as the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury shall approve.

(3) All incidental salaries and expenses of carrying this Act into execution, which shall be taken to include the reimbursement to every claimant of all reasonable costs and expenses properly incurred by him in establishing any claim under this Act.

11. Subject to such appeal as is hereinafter mentioned, the Commissioners shall have full power to decide all questions whatsoever, whether of law or fact, which it may be necessary to decide for the purposes of this Act, and they shall not be subject to be restrained in the due execution of their powers under this Act by the order of any court, nor shall any proceedings before them be removed by certiorari into any court.

The Commissioners with respect to the following matters, that is to say

(1) Enforcing the attendance of witnesses, after a tender of their expenses, the examination of witnesses orally or by affidavit, and the production of deeds, books, papers, and documents;

(2) Issuing any commission for the examination of witnesses;

(3) Punishing persons refusing to give evidence or to produce documents, or guilty of contempt in the presence of the Commissioners or any of them sitting in open court:

(4) Making or enforcing any order whatever made by them for the purpose of carrying into effect the objects of this Act,

shall have all such powers, rights, and privileges as are vested in the High Court of Justice in England for such or the like purposes, and all proceedings before the Commissioners shall in law be deemed to be judicial proceedings before a court of record.

The Commissioners may review and rescind or vary any order or decision previously made by them or any of them; but save as aforesaid, and as hereinafter provided, every order or decision of the said Commissioners shall be final.

12. That no Member of the Church Body Commission, and no person appointed to any office by the said Commission, shall hold his office for a longer period than three years next after the passing of this Act, and thenceforth until the end of the next Session of Parliament, and no Member of the said Commission shall, during his continuance in office, be capable of being elected to or sitting as a member of the House of Commons.

13. That no person shall after the passing of this Act be appointed by Her Majesty or any other person or corporation, by virtue of any right of patronage or power of appointment now existing, to any Archbishopric, Bishopric, Benefice, or Cathedral or other preferment in or connected with the said Church.

14. That this Commission shall, immediately upon the passing of this Act, supersede the present Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England,' appointed by a statute passed in the Session 6 and 7 William IV., which Commissioners shall then transfer to the said Church Body Commission all Ecclesiastical properties and interests of every kind, real or personal, which shall at that time be vested in them. 15. That from and after the first day of January, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-one, all tithes and other dues then legally payable to any ecclesiastical person or corporation shall absolutely and for ever cease to be so paid, and the lands and persons chargeable with such payments shall be free for the future from all such liability; and all other ecclesiastical properties whatever, whether glebe or other lands, moneys invested in public or private funds, or any other whatsoever, shall be vested in the above-named Church Body Commission, which shall deal with them as is hereinafter directed: Provided always, that all such tithes or other charges formerly paid to the said Church as are now payable to lay persons or corporations, shall continue to be so paid; and provided also that all the ecclesiastical property so vested in the said Church Body Commission shall be held by them subject to all quit-rents, head-rents, leases, and other charges and incumbrances affecting the same.

16. That on the said first of January, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eightyone, every ecclesiastical corporation in England and Wales, and in our town of Berwick-upon-Tweed (whether sole or aggregate), and every Cathedral corporation in England and Wales, as defined in that Act, shall be dissolved, and on and after that day no Archbishop or Bishop of the said Church shall be summoned to or be qualified to sit in the House of Lords as such: Provided that every present Archbishop, Bishop, Dean, and Archdeacon of the said Church shall in all other respects during his life enjoy the same title and precedence as if this Act had not passed.

17. That all consecrated Churches and Chapels, as well Cathedral and Collegiate as Parochial, together with all plate, furniture, and other moveable chattels belonging thereto, shall continue to be the property of the said Church, provided that the said Church shall, before the time of this Act coming into operation, appoint fitting Trustees, who shall have authority to take charge of these buildings, with the plate, furniture, and other moveable chattels belonging thereto, as aforesaid, and insure their being kept in sufficient repair.

18. That in every Diocese or Parish in which the residence for the Bishop or for the Rector, Vicar, or Perpetual Curate as the case may be, may be contiguous or in close proximity to the Cathedral or Parish Church, and of modest size, according to the necessity of each case, and not be, in the opinion of the Commissioners, burdensome by the sumptuousness of itself or its appurtenances, it shall continue to be used as the said Diocesan or Parochial residence: Provided always, that if there be two or more such residences, all, except the one aforesaid contiguous or in close proximity to the said Churches, shall be sold, and the price be vested in the Church Body Commission: and provided also, that where there is one residence only, but which is in the opinion of the Commissioners too large and costly for the circumstances of the said Church, it shall be sold, and out of the proceeds a fitting

residence be provided, the surplus money being paid into the hands of the said Church Body Commission.

19. That it shall be lawful for the Church Body Commission, in the case of any Parish which shall make application to it to that intent, to assign a portion of the glebe, or acquire a piece of ground in a more desirable part of the Parish, if it think fit, at the cost of the ecclesiastical properties vested in it under this Act, and to inclose the same, and otherwise fit and prepare it for use as a Burying Ground available for all residents in the Parish without any distinction: Provided that nothing hereby enacted shall be held to restrain the burials in the old churchyard, or in the burial ground of any Religious Denomination in the Parish, unless any such burying ground be liable to be closed under any other Act of Parliament, and that the said old churchyards shall be vested in and under the control of the Trustees appointed by the said Church.

20. That on or before the thirtieth day of June, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-one, any Archbishop, Bishop, Dean, Canon of a Cathedral or Collegiate Church, or any Rector, Vicar, Perpetual Curate, Licensed Curate or other ecclesiastical person who may desire to avail himself of any of the compensations to be hereinafter named, shall signify such his wish to the Archbishop of the Province in which he shall be ministering at the time; and the said Archbishop shall cause his name and a statement of his claim to be entered in a book to be kept for that purpose, and to be forwarded to the Secretary of the Church Body Commission to be laid before the Commissioners; and that all or any of such persons who shall not have signified their names in the manner aforesaid on or before the said thirtieth day of June, shall be disqualified from receiving any compensation whatever.

21. That any ecclesiastical person of whatever order who shall claim such compensation, shall resign all offices which he shall at the time hold in the said Church, and enter into a bond not to hold a definite ecclesiastical charge, or to discharge any remunerative clerical office or work in the said Church, at any time after he shall have become entitled to such compensation.

22. That every Archbishop or Bishop applying for compensation shall receive for the term of his natural life the full yearly Income of his See, or, if he prefer it, a sum of money equivalent to the life value of the same, according to the ordinary Tables of Annuities. Further, if there be two Episcopal residences belonging to the See he shall have the use, for the term of his natural life, of the one which is situated most remote from the Cathedral, or the value of such life interest in one sum, at his option. If there be but one such residence, and it be situated at a considerable distance from the Cathedral town, or if it be too large or costly to be available for a Disestablished Church, he shall, in like manner, enjoy the use of it for the term of his natural life, or receive the life value thereof. If however there be but one such residence, and it be of moderate size and near to the Cathedral Church, he shall receive the life value of it.

23. That in like manner any Dean, Canon, Rector, Vicar, or Perpetual Curate, who shall choose to retire from his work on a compensation, shall enjoy his full Annual Income, with the use of the Residence, if any, of his Benefice, subject, however, in all points to the same limitations and conditions concerning such Residence as are provided in the preceding clause in regard to Archbishops and Bishops. And further, that any licensed Curate and other Ecclesiastical person subject to all the aforenamed conditions, may lay his claim for compensation before the said Church Body Commission, and be entitled to such compensation as his circumstances seem to them to demand.

24. That all lay persons, being owners of donatives, patrons of benefices, holders of rights in chancels, chapels, or chantries, or having any other claim to which a money value can be assigned, shall receive a full compensation, according to the character of their claim, to be arranged with the aforesaid Church Body Commission; but that all other such lay rights or prerogatives shall, from the aforesaid

first day of January, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-one, utterly cease and determine.

25. That in case of any endowment having been given to any Church since the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-two, by one single donor, or by two or more who may have joined together to endow such Church in equal or otherwise definitely arranged proportions, if the said donor or donors be still living the capital sum, or sums, invested for such endowments shall be repaid to the said donor or donors; but if such donor or donors or any of them, being dead, have left children, or brothers' or sisters' children in the first or second generation, the said capital sum shall be paid to and form part of the estate of the deceased person or persons.

26. That where such endowments as aforesaid have been collected in small sums from many persons, and by reason of their number and the smallness of the sums, it would, in the opinion of the Church Body Commission, be difficult to apply the provisions of the preceding section, the said endowments shall be paid into a fund for the Cathedral Churches, to be spent in the repair of the fabrics of such Churches and the Chapterhouses and Cloisters belonging thereto, and in no other way. And that if the money arising from such endowments shall be too large for this purpose, the residue shall be given to hospitals for sick people or lunatics, at the discretion of the Church Body Commission, and shall be applied to the repair of the fabrics of such hospitals, and for no other purpose whatever.

27. That the said Church Body Commission having received the properties of the Church, and continuing to receive them, on the death of those who shall have duly laid claim to compensation shall apply them first to the payment of such compensations as shall have been so claimed as above provided; secondly, to the compensations of lay persons, being either owners of donatives or patrons of benefices or holders of any other valuable rights; thirdly, to the re-payment as above of endowments since the year 1832; and further, to any other charges to which the Church property in their hands may be fairly liable.

28. That the said Church Body Commission shall annually prepare a detailed account of all payments received and all properties made over to it in trust under this Act, and also of all claims made upon it, showing those claims which have already been satisfied, and those which still remain to fall in, together with the particulars of payments made under this Act; and that the said Church Body Commission shall transmit a copy of such account at the commencement of each Session to each of the two Houses of Parliament, to be laid on the table of such House, and also to each of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and to each Diocesan Bishop for the time being; and that as soon as the said Commission shall have received all the said properties and satisfied all the said claims, it shall prepare and present to the same Houses and persons a final statement of all their transactions under this Act; and, this being done, the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury shall forthwith award' out of the residue of the Church property to the Commissioners appointed under this Act, such remuneration as they shall think fit.

29. That at the time mentioned in the last clause all the moneys and other properties remaining in the hands of the Church Body Commission, after satisfying all claims upon it, shall be transferred into the hands of the Parliament to be disposed of at its discretion: and the Church Body Commission shall cease to exist.

30. That if it shall happen that all the Archbishops and Bishops shall elect to withdraw from the Church at the time of its disestablishment, with the compensations provided above, they shall be bound individually and collectively before such withdrawal and the receiving of such compensation, to execute their office for the Consecration of so many as shall be duly presented to them to fill the office of Archbishops and Bishops to supply their places in the said Church, and that no such Archbishop or Bishop shall receive such compensation or any part of it until such successors shall have been consecrated.

BARRY CORNWALL.1

THE chief interest of this contribution to the mémoires pour servir of literary history and biography is due less to the intrinsic importance of the materials than to the character of the memorialist, whose personality is pleasantly discernible as a distinct centre of attraction amid an assemblage of more striking figures, and as a keen observer of certain features in them which have been misapprehended or overlooked by other eyes. No small part of the writer's charm lies in his unconsciousness, a quality not too common among writers of biography, and still more rare in an autobiographer. None, perhaps, was ever less of an egotist than Procter. The fragmentary chronicle which he kept of his own career ends at a date when the promise of his youth was unfulfilled; and, with the exception of one depreciatory reference to a dramatic success of which any ordinary man would have been proud, he has left no notice of the literary achievements that distinguished his life, upon one at least of which his title to fame. is well founded. Even in this fragment he is careful to disclaim having shown any early indication of genius or of the ambition commonly allied with and sometimes mistaken for it, and is content to note only such incidents of his youth as chiefly impressed his memory and imagination, called forth his feelings, and influenced the formation of his opinions and tastes. Upon these he dwells at no length, finding more pleasure in recalling the features of the great contemporaries with whom it had been his privilege to be intimate, and of whom any observations at first hand cannot fail, he thinks, to possess a higher interest than reminiscences of himself. In spite of such self-obliteration, however, the writer's individuality is sufficiently reflected either in what he says or in what he omits to say. The reflection, as we know from other sources, is imperfect, and does injustice to some of his higher qualities, but within its limits it is faithful. One cannot fail to trace in it the tenderness and gentleness of heart, the tolerant temper, generous impulses, and simple sincerity that endeared him to his family and friends; the clear, well-balanced

› Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall): an Autobiographical Fragment, and Biographical Notes with Personal Sketches of Contemporaries, unpublished Lyrics, and Letters of Literary Friends. (George Bell and Sons, 1877.)