Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/319

P A R P A R 297 The Parish in Scotland. There can be little doubt that about the beginning of the 13th century the whole, or almost the whole, of the kingdom of Scotland was parochially divided. It seems probable (though the point is obscure) that the bishops presided at the first formation of the parishes the parish being a subdivision of the diocese arid at any rate down to the date of the Reformation they exercised the power of creating new parishes within their respective dioceses (Duncan, Parochial Law, p. 4). After the Reformation the power of altering parishes was assumed by the legislature. The existing parochial districts being found unsuited to the ecclesiastical requirements of the time, a general Act was passed in 1581, which made provision for the parochial clergy, and, inter alia, directed that "a sufficient and competent" district should be appropriated to each church as a parish (1581, cap. 100). Thereafter, by a series of special Acts in the first place, and, subsequent to the year 1617, by the decrees of parliamentary commissions, the creation of suitable parochial districts was pro ceeded with. The powers conferred on the parliamentary commis sions embraced what are technically known as (1) the disjunction and erection of parishes, (2) the union of parishes, and (3) the disjunction and annexation of parishes. In altering and defining parochial areas in those several ways, the object which the com missioners had in view was to provide for the spiritual wants of particular districts of the country, and to procure from the lands in the parish a proper stipend for the clergy. In the year 1707 the powers exercised by these commissioners were permanently transferred to the Court of Session, whose judges were appointed to act in future as "Commissioners for the Plantation of Kirks and Valuation of Teinds" (Act, 1707, cap. 9). Under this statute the areas of parishes continued to be altered and defined down to 1844, when the Act commonly known as Graham s Act was passed, (7 & 8 Viet. c. 44). This Act, which applies to the disjunction and erection of parishes, introduced a simpler form of procedure, and to some extent dispensed with the consent of the heritors, which had been required under the earlier statute. Since 1844 proceedings for disjunction and erection of parishes have been taken under it. The main division of parishes in Scotland as they now exist is into civil and ecclesiastical, or, to speak more accurately, into parishes proper (i.e., for all purposes, civil and ecclesiastical) and ecclesiastical parishes. This division is expressed in legal language by the terms, parishes quoad ornnia (i.e., quoad civilia et sacra) and parishes quoad sacra civilia, being such matters as church rates, education, poor lav, and sanitary purposes, and sacra being such as concern the administration of church ordinances, and fall under the cognizance of the church courts. There are other minor divisions which will be noticed below. (1) The Parish Proper. In a number of instances it is difficult to determine the exact areas of such parishes at the presen t day. The boundaries of the old ecclesi astical parish were nowhere recorded, and the descriptions in the titles of private properties which appear to lie in the parish have sometimes to be taken as evidence, and sometimes the fact that the inhabitants attended a particular church or made payments in favour of a particular minister. Where there has been a union or disjunction and erection of parishes the evidence of the boundaries is the relative statute, order in council, or decree of commission or of Court of Teinds. The total number of parishes proper in Scotland is eight hundred and eighty-six, and they vary to a great degree both in size and population. For ecclesiastical purposes, the minister and kirk-session constitute the parochial authority. The minister is vested with the manse and glebe, to be held by him for himself and his successors in office, and along with the kirk-session he administers church ordinances and exercises church discipline. For purposes of local government, on the other hand, the Scottish parish, unlike that of England, has been largely utilized by modern legislation. The oldest governing authority is the meeting of the heritors or landowners of the parish. Though shorn of much of its old importance, the heritors meeting has still the power of imposing an assessment for the purpose of providing and maintaining a church and churchyard and a manse and glebe for the minister. It also possesses power to assess under the Parochial Buildings Acts of 1862 and 1866. In a certain number of parishes also, which have not adopted a parochial board under the Poor-Law Act, 1845, the heritors along with the kirk-session provide for the relief of the poor, and administer the funds legally destined for that purpose. In the great majority, however, of civil parishes the chief governing authority is the parochial board, which in non-burghal parishes is composed of owners of land of 20 annual value and upwards, and representatives of the kirk-session and of the magistrates of any burgh within the parish and of the rate-payers the number of representative members being in each case fixed by the Board of Supervision. Another local authority of great importance is the school board, created by the recent Education Acts. Speaking generally, the matters administered in the civil parish are poor relief, education, public health, burial, registration, and church rates. _(2) QuoadSacra Parishes. The ecclesiastical or quoad sacra parish is a modern creation. Under Graham s Act, above mentioned, a parish may be disjoined and erected quoad sacra tantum on the application of persons who have built and endowed a church, and who offer securities for its proper maintenance. The creation is made purely on a consideration of the spiritual interests of a par ticular district, and not for any purposes of civil administration. By the Education Act of 1872, however, the quoad sacra parish has been adopted as a separate school district. There are three hun dred and twenty-five such parishes in Scotland. (3) Extra-Burghal Parishes. For sanitary purposes, highways, and some others, cer tain classes of burghs have been made separate areas from the parishes in which they lie. This fact creates a set of incomplete parishes, which are called extra-burghal. (4) Burghal, Land ward, and Burghal- Landward (or Mixed) Parishes. This division of parishes depends, as the names imply, upon local character and situation of the parochial districts. The importance of the dis tinction arises in connexion with the rule of assessment which is to be adopted for various parochial burdens, and the nature of the rights of the minister and corresponding obligations of the parishioners. (5) Combined Parishes. Under the Poor-Law, Education, and Registration Acts power is given to the central authority to combine parishes for purposes of local administration. The Parish in the United States. The term " parish " is not in use as a territorial designation except in Louisiana, the fifty-eight parishes of which correspond to the counties of the other States of the Union. The principal records from which information may be gained as to the oldest parochial system in England are the records called A omina Villarum, the Taxatio Papx Nicholai made in 1291, the Nonarum Inqtiisitiones relating to assessments made upon the clergy, the Valor Ecclesiastic its of Henry VIII., the lay subsidies from the reign of Edward III. to that of Charles II., the hearth-tax assessments, and the land-fax accounts. On the subject of the parish generally the reader should consult Stubbs s Constitutional History, Glen s Parish Law, Toulmin Smith s work on the Parifh, lloldsworth s Handy Book of Parish Law, and M. D. Chalmers s work on Local Government, published in the English Citizen Series. For fuller information regarding the Scottish parish the following- works mity be consulted: Connell on TeinJs ; Duncan s Parochial Ecc esinstical Laic; the Cobden Club essays on Local Government and Taxation in the United Kingdom, published in 18S2 ; Goudy and Smith s Local Government in Scotland. PARK, MUNGO (1771-1806?), a celebrated African traveller, was born in Selkirkshire, Scotland, on the 20th September 1771, at Fowlshiels on the Yarrow, the farm which his father rented from the duke of Buccleuch. He was the seventh in a family of thirteen. Having received a good education (at home from a private tutor, and afterwards at the grammar school of Selkirk), he was apprenticed to a surgeon named Anderson, in Selkirk, and then attended the university of Edinburgh for three sessions (1789-91). By his brother-in-law, James Dickson, a botanist of repute, he was introduced to Sir Joseph Banks, and through his good offices he obtained the post of assistant-surgeon on board the "Worcester" East Indiaman. In this capacity he made the voyage in 1792 to Bencoolen in Sumatra, and on his return in 1793 he con tributed a description of eight new Sumatran fishes to the Transactions of the Linnean Society. Park next offered his services to the African Association, then looking out for a successor to the unfortunate Major Houghton, and, again supported by the influence of Sir Joseph Banks, he was successful in his application. On the 21st June 1795 he reached the Gambia, but it was not till December 2d that he started for Pisania with only two Negro servants (Johnson and Demba) on the hazardous and difficult expedition into the interior, from which he was to return with the proud distinction of being the first of modern Europeans to reach the well-nigh fabulous waters of the Niger. Striking north-eastward across the upper basin of the Senegal, he advanced through Kaarta and El Bodh, and descended upon the great river of his quest a* Segu on the north bank, about 13 5 N. lat. and 6 20 W. long. Though he was not able to proceed down stream any farther than Mursan and Silla, he managed on his home journey to follow the river valley as far up as Bamrnako, a distance of about 300 miles. By the 10th June he was again at Pisania, but he did not reach England till December 22, 1796. An account of his journey was at once drawn up for the Association by Bryan Edwards, and a detailed narrative from his own pen appeared in 1799 (Travels in the Interior of Africa}. Abundance of incident, and an unaffected charm of style, at once rendered XVIII 38