Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/318

296 P A E I S H counties, where the separate townships are organized for administrative purposes under an Act passed in 1662. In the southern and midland districts the parishes are for the most part subdivided into hamlets or other local divisions known as "tythings," "boroughs," and the like; the distinction between a parish and a subordinate district lies chiefly in the fact that the latter will be found to have never had a church or a constable to itself. The select committee of 1873, appointed to inquire into parochial boundaries, reported to the effect that the parish bears no definite relation to any other administrative area, except indeed to the Poor-Law Union. It may be situated in different counties or hundreds, and in many instances it contains, in addition to its principal district, several outlying portions intermixed with the lands in other parishes. Since the abolition of compulsory church rates in 1868 (subject to certain exceptions as to rates which had already been mortgaged), the old ecclesiastical parish has ceased to Lc of importance as an instrument of local governi lent. Its officers, however, have still important duties to perform. The rector, vicar, or incumbent is a corporation-sole, in whom is vested the freehold of the church and churchyard, subject to the parishioners rights of user ; their rights of burial have been enlarged by the Burial Laws Amendment Act, 1880, and an Act passed in 1882 to regulate the inter ment of suicides. The churchwardens are the principal lay officers. Their duties consist in keeping the church and churchyard in repair and in raising a voluntary rate for the purpose to the best of their power ; they have also the duty of keeping order in church during divine service ; and by Acts passed in 1860 and 1877 they are required to furnish annual accounts to the Local Government Board. The other officials are the parish-clerk and sexton. They have freeholds in their offices, and are paid by customary fees. The office of the clerk is regulated by an Act of 1844, enabling a curate to undertake its duties, and providing facilities for vacating the office in case of misconduct. It is said that the only civil function of the parish-clerk now remaining is to undertake the custody of maps and documents, which may be deposited under the provisions of the Railway Clauses Act, 1845. The Neiu Ecclesiastical Parish. Under the powers given by the Church Building Acts, many populous parishes have been subdivided into smaller ecclesiastical parishes. This division has not affected the parish in its civil aspect (Chalmers, Local Government, 39). The change has helped to increase the distinction between the ecclesiastical and civil parishes. Mi- Chalmers estimates that there are now about 15,000 civil and 13,000 ecclesiastical parishes in England, and that in 1871 not more than 10,000 civil parishes coincided with the ecclesiastical districts of the same names. The Poor-Law Parish. For the purposes of civil government the term " parish " means a district for which a separate poor-rate is or can be made, or for which a separate overseer is or can be appointed ; and by the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1866, this definition is to be used in interpreting ail statutes except where the context is inconsistent therewith. This district may of itself con stitute a poor law union ; but in the great majority of cases the unions, or areas under the jurisdiction of boards of guardians according to the Poor-Law Amendment Act of 1834, are made up of aggregated poor-law parishes. Each of these poor-law parishes may represent the extent of an old ecclesiastical parish, or a township separately rated by custom before the practice was stayed in 1819 or separated from a large parish under the Act of 1662, or it may repre sent a chapelry, tything, borough, ward, quarter, or hamlet, or other subdivision of the ancient parish, or an area formed by the merger of an sxtra-parochial place with an adjoining district under the Acts of 1857 and 1869, or by the union of detached portions with adjoining parishes under the Acts of 1876 and 1879, or by the subdivision of a large parish for the better administration of the relief of the poor under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1867 and the Local Government Board Act of 1871. The civil importance of the poor-law parishes may be dated from the introduction of the poor law by the statute of 43 Elizabeth, which directed overseers of the poor to be appointed in every parish, and made the churchwardens into CJG ojjicio overseers. The statute was preceded by tentative provi sions of the same kind enacted in the reigns of Edward the VI. and Mary and in the fifth year of Elizabeth, and after several renewals was made perpetual in the reign of Charles I. The chief part of the parochial organization is the vestry-meeting. It derives its name from the old place of assembly, which in parishes exceeding two thousand in population may now be replaced by a vestry- hail. The vestry represents the old assembly of the town ship, and retains so much of its business as has not been insensibly transferred to the court-baron and court-leet. The freemen, now appearing as the ratepayers, elect the " parish officers, " as the churchwardens and way-wardens, the assessors, the overseers, and (if required) paid assistant- overseers, a secretary or vestry-clerk, and a collector of rates if the guardians apply for his appointment. A meet ing for the election of guardians is held in April every year, subject to the rules laid down by the Local Govern ment Board as to the number of guardians for each parish, and the union of parishes for voting purposes. In case of a contest the election is conducted under Sturges Bourne s Act. Common vestries are meetings of all the ratepayers assembled on a three days notice ; the minister of the ecclesiastical parish is chairman, if present ; the meeting acts by show of hands unless a poll is demanded ; if demanded, the poll is conducted by plural voting according to payment of rates. Select vestries are regulated by the local custom, or may derive their power from Hobhouse s Act passed in 1831, now repealed in the Metropolitan District, and not much used elsewhere. The functions of the vestry, apart from elections, are practically confined to the management of the property of the parish. The vestry, however, has power to adopt the Free Libraries Act, or the Lighting and Watching Act of 1833, and may appoint a new burial board if a new burial-ground is required ; but with these exceptions, most of its active powers and duties have now been taken away by the Acts relating to the poor laws and public health. The Land-Tax Parish. The parishes or places sepa rately assessed for land tax form another class. They are described in the series of land-tax accounts from 1692 to the present time, and are also defined in the Taxes- Management Act of 1880. The Jiurial Acts Parish. The Burial Acts from 1852 to 1875 deal with areas which are treated as parishes for the purposes of those Acts, but Avhich have no necessary connexion with the boundaries of the civil and ecclesiastical districts known as parishes in the ordinary sense of the term, The Hif/hway Parish. The word " parish " is used in a very wide and vague manner in the Highway Acts.. It includes any civil district less than the county, such as wapentakes, hundreds, cities, liberties, or franchises, as well as subdivisions of the ordinary parish, such as town ships and hamlets, if by reason of tenure or custom or otherwise such larger or smaller district either maintains its own highways or would do so if it were not included in a highway district composed of several highway parishes or in an urban sanitary district. The constitution of the highway parish is discussed in the lleport of the Lords Committee on Highways. (c. I. E.)