such parish (whether for estates of free- | hold or copyhold, or by virtue of lease, for terms of not less than fifteen years absolute, or determinable upon a life or lives, shall have consented thereto, such consents to be given in writing under the hands of all persons and corporation sole, and of the president or head member of corporations aggregate, and of the husbands, guardians, committees, trustees, attoruies, or agents of femes covert, minor, insane persons, and persons out of the kingdom, and of the major part of the trustees for any charitable or other purpose.

disgraceful to all concerned. It is not without reluctance we endure such excolours, and cockades, personal insults, cesses as open houses of entertainment, and broken heads, at Political Elections; but, at elections of Sacerdotal persons, they are infinitely less endurable. Yet, on the present occasion, there will not be wanting those who will-" suppose, that as the parish raises the money, and pays the expenses, at least the nomination of the incumbent will be in the parish." The Act determines otherwise. This accession of patronage to gentlemen already patrons, will form no objection in their minds-nor in the minds of the clergy" incumbents of the church ;"-but, it will strike others differently.

PATRONAGE.

It is evident, that there must be some strong inducement to incline the whole parish to burden itself with rates, for the benefit of a part only of that parish and these rates may continue to be imposed on future generations. Would it have been impossible to have laid the burden on those who derive the benefit, Sect. 67. The nomination or appointand to have directed the formation of ment of the spiritual persons to serve all a fund for the gradual reduction of the district churches and chapels, shall belong incumbrance ?-Why not, an addition to the patron of the parish or place out of of one per cent. per annum, as a sink-which the district shall be taken; and the ing fund; as in the case of National loans?

spiritual person so presented and instituted, or licensed by the bishop, shall be subject to the same jurisdiction and visitation as the incumbent of the parish.

Sect. 68. Where chapels shall be built wholly or in part by rates, the nominations of the minister shall be in the incumbent of the church.

Sect. 56. All money expended in purchasing sites, and advanced by commissioners to any parish, under the act, or paid by commissioners, in case of neglect to provide sites, and all sums expended or advanced under the act, in carrying the It must, however, be remarked, and purposes thereof into execution, shall be it will be remarked with pleasure, that charged on the church rates; and the in all Churches built under this Act, a churchwardens are required and empower-considerable portion is reserved as “ free ed to make sufficient rates for repaying such expences and advances within the periods or at the times specified by the

commissioners.

Sect. 57. Where money shall have been expended in purchasing sites, or advanced by commissioners, under the act, for extra parochial places, in which no church rate shall be made, any justice on the requisition of the commissioners shall appoint two or more persons to make and levy rates for making all payments and repayments as may be required under the act, who shall have the same powers as churchwardens, and all such rates shall be deemed church rates, and all laws reJative to church rates shall be applicable thereto.

It must he confessed, that the scenes in and around London, on occasion of the election of clergymen to Parochial duty, have been sometimes notoriously

seats" for the poor, for ever: the Act also directs that these "sittings" shall be so marked. For ourselves, we confess, that these markings, and distinctions in places of public worship, where "the rich and poor meet together, and acknowledge one Lord, the maker of them all," have rather an odd appearance: we have seen them in churches; but, the churches in which we saw them, did not seem to be the most perfect patterns of Christian humility.

Sect 62. Power to commissioners to build or cause to be built churches or chapels, under the act, upon such plans as they deem most expedient for affording accommodation for the most persons at the least missioners, with consent of the bishop, expence; and such part thereof as comunder his hand and seal, shall direct, arranged in pews, to be disposed of and let

under the act; and the part not so arranged, | King in council, stating the proposed shall be assigned for free seats, to be used by the parishioners or inhabitants, without any payment.

Sect. 63. Commissioners may order the amount of rents for pews or seats; and the produce thereof shall form a fund, out of which provision shall be made for the minister and clerk.

bounds of such division with the relative proportions of glebe lauds, tithes, moduses, and other endowments, and the estimated amount of fees, oblations, offerings, or other ecclesiastical dues or profits within each division: Provided that it shall not completely take effect till after the death, resignation or avoidance of the existing incumbent.

Sect. 75. Before consecration of any church or chapel under the act, a seat or Sect. 21. If commissioners shall think pew sufficient to hold six persons at least, it not expedient to make such divisions as shall be set a part in the body or ground aforesaid, but that it is expedient to divide floor of the church or chapel, near the any populous parish or extra parochial pulpit, for the use of the minister and his place into such ecclesiastical districts, as family; and other seats, not among the they, with the consent of the bishop, may free seats for not less than four persons, for deem necessary for affording accommodathe minister's servants; and that pews, sit- tion for attending divine service in the tings or benches, in every such church or churches and chapels already built or to be chapel, to be marked with the words" Free built therein, as may appear to the comSeats," amounting to not less than 1-5th of missioners convenient for the due performthe whole sitting in every such church or ance of all ecclesiastical duties; and for chapel, which shall be built wholly or in the due ecclesiastical superintendence of part out of any rates, or with money raised such district, and the preservation and on the credit of any rates shall be appro- improvement of the religious and moral priated for the use of poor persons resorting habits of the persons residing therein, the thereto, for ever; upon which pews or sit-commissioners shall represent such opinion tings, no rent shall be charged. Another commendable provision is on proposed to be described; and if His Mathe subject of

BURIALS.

Sect 80. None to be permitted in any church or chapel to be erected under the act, or in the adjacent cemetery, at a less distance than 20 feet from the external wall, except in vaults wholly arched with brick or stone, under any church or chapel, and to which the only access shall be by steps on the outside of the external walls, under the penalty of 50%.—

to His Majesty in council, and shall state the bounds by which such districts are

jesty in council shall think fit to direct such division to be made, such order shall be good for effecting such division.

CHURCHES.

Sect. 25. Built or acquired under the act, and appropriated to district parishes, to be Perpetual Curacies, and considered as benefices presentative, so far only that that the licence thereto shall operate in the same manner as institutions to any such benefice, and the spiritual person serving the same shall be deemed the incumbent

He was a wise and a great man, who said "Churches are for the living; thereof and such incumbents shall have church-yards for the dead:" we acknowledge that we participate his senperpetual succession, and shall be bodies timent. We should have been pleased dowments in lands or tithes, or any augpolitic and corporate, and may receive ento have seen in this instance the sancmentations granted to them; and all such tion of the Legislature to a better cus- incumbents, and persons presenting them, tom. Nothing but use reconciles the shall be subject to all jurisdictions and mind to the continuance of an impro-laws, and to lapse, on neglecting to nomipriety so obvious as burials in churches. nate an incumbent for six months, as in cases of actual benefices.

ECCLESIASTICAL DISTRICTS.

Sect. 16. If commissioners shall think it expedient to divide any parish into two or more separate parishes, for all ecclesias tical purposes, they may, with consent of the bishop of the diocese, under his hand and seal, apply to the patron of the church for his consent, and upon his signifying it under his hand and seal, the commissioners shall represent the whole matter to the

Sect. 27. Laws relating to banns of marriage, matrimony, christenings, churchings and burials, and the registering thereof, and to all ecclesiastical fees, oblations or offerings, shall apply to distinct parishes and district parishes, when complete, after avoidance of the existing incumbent, and to the churches and chapels thereof, and to the ecclesiastical persons serving them, in like manner as if they

had been antient seperate parishes an dand decency of behaviour in the church or parish churches.

has lately directed its endeavours to this

subject: sorry we are to say, that no Origin of the Pinduries; preceded by adequate reformation has yet been effected in it.

Is this Act the first of a series intended to infuse new spirit into our religious establishment, or is it merely a solitary endeavour terminating on itself?

Historical Notices on the Rise of the different Mahratta States. By au Officer in the Service of the Hon. East India Company. 8vo. 7s. Murray, London.

1818.

This is a well written narrative of

so much employ to the Anglo-Indian
forces. As the nature of the Mahratta
Empire is sufficiently known from the
sketch of it contained in the Marquis of
Wellesley's history of the Mahratta war
(published at London in 1804), we
shall pass over our author's Account of
that empire, and direct the reader's
attention to the Pindaries.

If the more equable division of parishes the origin and power of those maraudshould engage the attention of the Le-ing Tribes, who have lately furnished gislature, much remains to be done: that a single clergyman, whatever be his merit, should receive thirty thousand pounds for his stipend, is a reproach on the church and the nation, too bitter to be endured; that he should have the cure of twenty, or thirty thou sand souls, is an offence against every principle of godliness, and good manners. The first step to the enforcement of clerical duty would be a proper division of parishes: the present Act has made some provision for it: the continuation may do more. Accident and lapse of time has produced the evil; good sense and equity must remedy it. We should be glad that the opportunity were taken, which peace presents; in time of war four public officers have too much on their hands, to allow them time and convenience for any thing short of the absolute salus populi.

We can build churches; can we build churchmen? That the number of young men brought up to the priesthood is likely to be very great, all allow. They must be provided for; and they ought to look higher than mere curacies. If the too extensive and the too populous parishes should be divided, a better provision might be expected by the clergy, generally.-Nor should we again be mortified, as we have been lately, by the knowledge that an incumbent had raised the value of his living from a thousand a year to fifteen hundred, urging that the advowson had cost a certain sum, for which he must have better interest. While such principles are but too well known, we say nothing of the simonythere is no wonder if the old adage ascribed to the famous Daniel Burgess be quoted with vexation, by those whom it concerns, "It is not the shepherd, but the sheep with a bell that the flock follows."

These free booters first made their appearance in the early part of the last century, when several bands of them followed the Mahratta arinies during their wars in Hindustan. Their earliest chieftain or leader was named Ponapah; he was succeeded by Chingody and Hool Sewar who commanded 15,000 horse at the memorable battle of Paniput fought in 1761. Under these leaders the Pindarie system appears to have assumed a more regular form. They were divided into tribes commanded by Sirdars or Chiefs; people of every country and of every religion,-Mobammedans and Brahmins --were indiscriminately enrolled in this heterogenous community; and a horse and sword were deemed sufficient qualifications for admission. A common interest kept them united; the chieftains acquired wealth and renown in the Mahratta wars: they seized upon lands which they were afterwards tacitly permitted to retain; and transmitted, with their estates, the services of their adherents to their descendants.

Various leaders are mentioned by our intelligent author, as possessing considerable power: but, he justly remarks, in an association which is daily augmented by the admission of strangers, it is natural to suppose that influence will not be confined to hereditary claims, and that men of superior genius and enterprise will ultimately rise to the chief command. This has accordingly proved to have been the case; and Seetoo

is the most powerful of the three great Pindarie leaders, was, a few years ago, a person of no consideration. It is only of late years that these banditti have become really formidable; and had not their power been completely broken by the very active exertions of the Anglo-Indian Army, under the Marquis of Hastings's presidency, it is more than probable that they would have proved the most dangerous enemy that could arise to disturb the peace and prosperity of our Indian Empire.

or Cheetoo, as he is sometimes called, who | and if they should happen to be overtaken, they disperse, and re-assemble at an appointed rendezvous; or if followed into their country, they immediately retire to their respective homes. Their wealth and their families are scattered over that mountainous tract of country which borders the Nerbuddat to the north. They find protection either in castles belonging to themselves, or from those powers with whom they are either openly or secretly connected. They can scarcely be said to present any point of attack, and the defeat or destruction of any particular chief, would only effect the ruin of an individual, without removing the evil of a system equally inveterate in its nature, and extensive in its influence.

The climate and hardy habits of these plunderers render tents or baggage an unnecessary incumbrance; each person carries a few days' provisions for himself and for his horse, and they march for weeks together, at the rate of thirty and forty miles a day, over roads and countries impassable for a regular army. They exhibit a striking resemblance to the Cossacks, as well in their customs as in the activity of their movements. Their arms are the same, being a lance and a sword, which they use with admirable dexterity; their horses, like those of the Cossacks, are small, but extremely active; and they pillage, without distinction, friends as well as foes. They move in bodies seldom exceeding two or three thousand men, and hold a direct undeviating course until they reach their destination, when they at once divide into small parties, that they may with more facility plunder the country, and carry off a larger quantity of booty; destroying, at the same time, what they cannot remove. They are frequently guilty of the most inhuman barbarities, and their progress is generally marked by the smoking ruins of villages, the shrieks of women, and the groans of their mutilated husbands. At times they wallow in abun dance, while at others they cannot produce the common necessaries of life; and their horses, which are trained to undergo the same privations as their masters, often receive a stimulus of opium when impelled to uncommon exertion. Night and the middle of the day are dedicated to repose; and recent experience* has shewn us that they may be surprised with effect at such hours. Fighting is not their object, they have seldom been known to resist the attack even of an inferior enemy; if pursued, they make marches of extraordinary length,

This is a custom also practised by the Usbeck Tartars, and Turkomans, whose horses are much superior, and perform more wonderful journeys than those of the Pindaries.

The number of these marauders is variously estimated. Our author is of opinion that they may amount to between in a community like this, which is thirty and forty thousand borse. But, subject to such constant fluctuations, it is impossible to form any accurate idea of their number, which necessarily varies from day to day, and according to the caprice of individuals, and the condition of the adjoining countries.

Throughout the greater part of the territories of the native powers in central India, the busbandman is seldom permitted to reap the fruits of his labours; his fields are laid waste, his cottage reduced to ashes, and he has no alternative, but that of joining the standard of some lawless chief. Thus the numbers of the Pindaries may be said to increase in the same ratio, as the means of subsistence diminish; bunger goads them on to the work of destruction, and they rejoice in anticipation of the spoils of wealthy countries. Were they permitted to continue their merciless depredations without molestation, the pe ninsula of India would in time become a desert, and the few inhabitants that survived the general wreck, a band of savage and licentious robbers. The pastoral tribes of Arabia and Turkey, although sufficiently prone to pillage, where an occasion may offer, are not impelled by such motives of imperious necessity, as the predatory horse of Hindostan; their slender numbers cover extensive countries, and when their flocks have exhausted the pasture of one plain, they move with their families into another. The Pindaries are, on the contrary, confined to a tract of waste land which has become the general rendezvous of every vagabond

+ The Vindhya mountains, a long and narrow, but lofty, range which extends to the W. nearly as far as the Indus.