the assent of the careful inquirer. But whenever such a case occurs, he who would explore and endeavour to explain any branch of the Law-especially a branch like the present, which concerns the inner life and deepest interests of every local neighbourhood-is bound, as an honest man, not to be content with the blind copying of any mere "collection of recollections," but to try every modern decision by the test of fundamental and pre-established Principles; and if these are found to have been either unwittingly overlooked, or in any way departed from, he is bound plainly and unhesitatingly to show it, and to reaffirm those Principles.

As regards the Church, while neither the fact of the ecclesiastical usurpations that have been made and attempted, both in past times and, at least equally, in our own day, nor the enormous social and moral mischiefs that have sprung from them, can be questioned, or scarcely exaggerated, it is certain that it is not the best and worthiest of her ministers who strive

for, or approve, these graspings at ecclesiastical domination; but precisely the reverse. In the course of this work, I have received cordial and valuable assistance from known ministers of the Church, who are thoroughly aware of the true value and importance of that which constitutes the Basis of the inner life of the Nation, the sound and practical means for securing its social and moral well-being,-the secular Institution of THE PARISH.

CHAPTER I.

THE PARISH: ITS ORIGIN: CHARACTERISTICS: FUNCTIONS:

DIVISIONS.

AN examination of the most authentic records shows that the Parish is the original secular division of the land; made for the administration of Justice, keeping of the peace, collection of taxes, and the other purposes incidental to civil government and local well-being. There were by no means, originally, churches or priests to every parish. These were things of much later introduction. The Parish, being already in existence and active life, was simply the obvious and natural territorial division to which separate churches were allotted, when the piety of the wealthy led them to build and endow these.

The division of the land into hundreds is of very great antiquity. Traces are supposed to be found of the division of the hundreds into integral parts under the name of tythings.* In some few records, practical mention is made of "tythings;" and the name of tythingman remained long, and even still remains, in use in some places. Elsewhere, the name headborough, and elsewhere that of borsholder, was and is in use. We find the term provost also often used. They all mean the same thing, the Head of the men of the neighbourhood. The name of tything, however, if ever used territorially, gave way, many

* It seems, however, very doubtful whether such a name was ever in itself territorial. The facts seem to point to the term being used only in reference to the inhabitants. "Tun" (town) is the old name: and each original "tun" had a "tything" of inhabitants. When more populous, it had two or more tythings of inhabitants. This view seems to me the only one consistent with the records; and it explains why, in some divided Parishes, the smaller divisions are, even now, sometimes called "tythings" to distinguish them from the whole Parish.

+ See after, Chap. IV.

See, as to the meaning of Provost, Chap. IV.

centuries ago, as a practical name, to that of Town, Parish, or Vill; terms commonly used to express the same thing.* From a remote time the integral divisions of the hundreds are not found called, in the records, by the name of tything, but by that of parish, or that of vill or town, unquestionably used to express the same division we now more commonly call parish. Very few cases are found in which the word tything occurs, even mentioned on the Rolls of Parliament. There can be no doubt that, either the name parish has become substituted for that of tything (if the latter was ever used territorially), to express the same division of the land; or the division of the tything has given way, for precisely the same purposes, to the one which we now call the Parish. Everything points to the former as the correct mode of stating the fact. The careful inquirer can, indeed, come to no other conclusion.

The earliest records which we have of the proceedings of Parliament, find Parishes treated as the known and established integral subdivisions of the hundred. It is decisive on this point that it was through the Parishes that, among other things, the public taxes were assessed and collected. The form of procedure is preserved to us, more or less complete, in many different cases. Under date of A.D. 1297 (25th of Edward I.) it is ordained by Parliament, that, in each parish, four men shall be chosen by the Parishioners, who shall return the assessment

* See after, p. 33.

In a petition from Dorset, the hundred and "dizeme" are named: 21 Edw. III., A.D. 1347; petitions on Rolls of Parliament of that year, Number 8. See also, Year Books, 8 Edw. III. fo. 55, where it is "dozeine." See after, p. 20.

It is decisive of the point as to the identity of the Parish, as an Institution, with the Tything of freemen and their tythingman, that the existence of a separate constable is an unquestionable criterion of the separate recognition of a Parish. See Rex v. Horton, 1 Term Reports, p. 376, and see after, p. 37 note, and Parke, B., in Elliot v. South Devon Railway Co., 17 Law Journal Reports: Exchequer, p. 264. It is not thus implied that every former tything is represented by an undivided present Parish. (See note on preceding page.) Divisions, as will presently be shown, have from time to time been made but the criterion, identifying the idea or essence of the tything with whatever such divisions have been made, remains the same ; thus very strikingly illustrating the point that the original fact and idea of the Parish as a whole were inseparable from those of the tything. See, in illustration of this, Rolls of Parliament, Hen. VI., at end, "de annis incertis," bundell 2, No. 4 :—“Chescun Conestable, Tithyngman, ou chief Plegge, de chescun Ville ou Hamell."

THE PARISH, THE HUNDRED, AND THE SHIRE.

17

of the parish to the shire authorities; and, to prevent any wrong being done, it is further required that the authorities of the shire shall afterwards go from hundred to hundred, and from parish to parish, to hear any complaints, and correct any errors in the assessment. A record of nine years later (34 Edw. I. A.D. 1306) is still more precise. It gives a striking picture of the mode in which Local Self-Government was then practically developed and active, and of the constitutional checks by which its sound and healthy action was maintained. It is the more remarkable, as showing that the Representative plan of the parishes, which is found expressly recorded in the summary of Laws compiled in the time of Henry I. (A.D. 1100), was, at this time, in full action. It is declared, that a jury of twelve men from each hundred shall deliver to the assessors of each shire their assessment; and that, in order to do this, such jury shall take to itself four men from each parish in the hundred, with the provost of each parish, to enable it to make true return as to the, parish: which four and the provost shall, in each case, give aid to the hundred jury, upon oath. To do what is needed for this, the hundred jury is to go from parish to parish, and, with the four and the provost of each, there to make true assessment of each parish. The assessors of the shire are, afterwards, to go from hundred to hundred, and from parish to parish, in order to see that no wrong has been done) Simplicity, completeness, and the true practical working of efficient Local Self-Government, under a sound system of Constitutional Checks, are here combined.*

Numberless cases might be quoted from the Rolls of Parliament, illustrative of the same practical method; showing, beyond possibility of question, that the integral part of the hundred has always been the parish; that the parish was, centuries ago, thus active; and that it formed the basis of the practical machinery set in motion on the important and entirely secular matter of national taxation. Happily, even the details remain. As if to free the important points involved from the possibility of doubt, the records are to this day extant, in a state almost entire, of the actual assessment and returns made by all the parishes in most of the counties of England, about the year 1340. The names, even, of the committees or juries of most of the hundreds and parishes are contained in this invaluable

* See after, note +, p. 23.

record. By many incidental allusions, as well as its whole direct tenour, this record proves the entire control of all the affairs of every parish to have been then in the hands of the inhabitants of the parish. In conformity with the principle of the Common Law, that "the Parish was made for the ease and benefit of the Parishioners and not of the "* and that parson, they control his secular affairs and not he theirs (which latter is a pretension set up in 'modern times only), the inhabitants assess and declare the value of the income of the Rector or Vicar (as the case may be) wherever necessary.†

It is remarkable enough, as illustrative of the spirit of independence that then existed, and of the respect which the Law compelled, from the highest to the lowest, that a case occurs in which the assessors of Shires report that no taxes can be got from Stafford and Salop, because, as the inhabitants allege, Magna Charta has been broken. Instead of using the unconstitutional means that later times have resorted to,-of a crownappointed irresponsible Commission,-inquiry is ordered to be made as to the facts of the breaches thus alleged, "on the oath of honest and law-worth men of those parts."

In further illustration of the purely secular character of the Parish, the Records show that a large part of the forces for war were raised by means of the parishes. Every parish is required to furnish one foot-soldier, equipped and armed,§ for sixty days. And Parliament is expressly declared to have granted that, in every Parish in the kingdom, the four men and the provost, who have already been named in another relation, shall be answerable for one man-at-arms.

It is to be remarked, as carrying on, still further, the illus

* Lord Chief-Justice Holt, in 3 Salkeld 88.

+ See, as to Inquisitiones Nonarum, after, pp. 26-28; see also Chap. VI. and Chap. VII. Sec. 12.

Rolls of Parliament, temp. Edw. II., Appendix, No. 18. § Ib., 9 Edw. II. No. 1.

Ib., Appendix, No. 25.

Ib., 4 Edw. III. No. 1. See after, Chap. III. Sec. 3 and Chap. VII. Sec. 12, as to the arms which each parish was in the habit, up to a very late period, of finding and keeping always ready for use. An entry some years later (27 Hen. VI. A.D. 1449) supplies a curious key to the population of the kingdom. Proclamation is ordered to be made "in every parisshe" that every thirty men should furnish one horseman; the whole number raised by which means is computed at 60,000. This would give a population of about nine millions at that time, if the term "men" means adults. If it be taken to mean simply "inhabitants," the population will be about two millions.