extra-parochial, they no longer enjoy the immunity from local burthens which they formerly possessed. For by the 20 Vict. c. 19, s. 1, it is enacted, that every place entered separately in the report of the RegistrarGeneral on the Census of 1851, or which is there reported to be extra-parochial, and wherein no rate was then levied for the poor, shall for all the purposes of the assessment to the poor-rate, the relief of the poor, the county, police, or borough rates, the burial of the dead, the removal of nuisances, the registration of parliamentary and municipal voters, and the registration of births and deaths, be deemed a parish for such purposes, and shall be designated by the name assigned to it in such report; and justices having jurisdiction over such place, or the greater part thereof, shall appoint overseers therein; and with respect to any other place being, or reputed to be, extra-parochial, and wherein no rate is levied for the relief of the poor, such justices may appoint overseers of the poor. By sect. 4, the quarter sessions or the recorder of a borough (if situate in a borough subject to his jurisdiction) may annex any extra-parochial place to an adjoining parish.* And then it was provided by

*It is provided by the 42 & 43 Vict. c. 54, s. 6, that where a parish was, at the time of the passing of the Act 20 Vict. c. 19, an extra-parochial place, and a representation is made to the Local Government Board that, by reason of the relative size and shape of such parish, and its position in respect to other parishes, the relief of the poor can be better administered if the same or any part or parts thereof were amalgamated with the adjoining parish or parishes, an order may be made in pursuance of the Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act, 1876, in relation to such parishes in like manner as if the said parish was a divided parish (see post, p. 5).

the 29 & 30 Vict. c. 113 (the Poor Law Amendnient Act, 1866), that in all statutes, except there shall be something inconsistent therewith, the word "parish” shall signify a place for which a separate poor-rate is or can be made, or for which a separate overseer is or can be appointed. By these two Acts taken together, all extra-parochial places have now been completely absorbed into the parochial system of the country, at any rate, in so far as relates to the administration of the poor laws.

The boundaries of parishes generally depend upon ancient and immemorial custom. In most parishes in the country" perambulations" are made in Rogation week, for the purpose of keeping up the memory of those boundaries; and it is well established that parishioners are entitled to go over any man's land in their perambulations. But an entry into a particular house cannot be justified, or a custom to that effect supported, unless the house stands on the boundary-line, and it is necessary to enter it for the purpose of the perambulation.

When a dispute arises with respect to the boundaries of a parish, the proper mode to decide the question is, in general, by an action in one of the courts of common law. For the purposes of rating, indeed, the justices of the peace in sessions may decide in which of two neighbouring parishes improved wastes and drained and improved marsh-lands lie. Under the General Enclosure Act (8 & 9 Vict. c. 118, s. 39), the enclosure commissioners may settle the boundaries of any parish or manor in which land is to be enclosed.

* Under the 17 Geo. II. c. 37.

And a similar power is given to the tithe commissioners (1 Vict. c. 69, s. 2), when the tithes of any parish or district are to be commuted.

They can, however, only exercise it at the request of two-thirds in value of the owners of lands therein, signified in writing under their hands, or the hands of their agents, and signed at a parochial meeting called for the purpose. By the Local Government Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict. c. 41, s. 5), the County Councils are entrusted with large powers for the alteration of parochial and other boundaries, but those powers can only be exercised with the sanction of the Local Government Board, and subject to confirmation of Parliament.

It sometimes happens that a parish is divided so as to have its parts, or some of them, isolated in some other parish or parishes, or otherwise detached. In this case the Local Government Board may (under 39 & 40 Vict. c. 61), after local inquiry, make an order, to take effect at some period not less than three months from the date thereof, either for constituting separate parishes out of the divided parish, or for amalgamating some of the parts thereof with the parish or parishes in which the same may be locally included, or to which they may most conveniently be annexed, and providing where requisite for a change in the county of the parish or part of a parish* If, however, one-tenth in number and rateable value of the ratepayers in any parish affected by such order object in writing within three months, the order will only be deemed "provisional "-i.e., it will require

*See, as to the construction of this section, 42 & 43 Vict. c. 54, s. 5.

confirmation by Act of Parliament. The order of the Local Government Board is not to affect ecclesiastical divisions or municipal boundaries; but if the parish affected by the order be included in a highway district, its condition therein, and the appointment of the way warden thereof, is to be changed according to the terms of the order.* Overseers are to be appointed for the parish so created. And the order is not to affect any charitable endowment for the benefit of a divided parish. The operation of this Act, as subsequently extended by the 42 & 43 Vict. c. 54, which provides that when part of a parish is on one side, while the residue of the parish is on the other side, of the boundary of a municipal borough or of a county, or of a river, estuary, or branch of the sea, or where part of a parish is so situate as to be nearly detached from the residue of the parish, or is so situate as to render the administration of the relief of the poor, or the local government of such part in conjunction with the residue of the parish inconvenient, the said parish shall be deemed a "divided" parish, and the provisions of the 39 & 40 Vict. c. 61, shall apply thereto. Further provision on the same subject was also made by the Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act, 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. 58), which enacts that where any part of a parish (not wholly or partly situated in the metropolis) was isolated or detached from the other parts of the parish, and was wholly surrounded by another parish, such part shall, after the 25th of March, 1883, be amalgamated with the last-mentioned parish in the same way as if the

*As to this see also 42 & 43 Vict. c. 54, s. 7.

amalgamation had been effected by an order of the Local Government Board under the principal Act.

We have hitherto spoken of "parishes" which bear that character both for civil and for ecclesiastical purposes. There is however, a class of parishes generally called "new parishes," which have reference only to the latter. Under certain acts of parliament,* the ecclesiastical commissioners may, by an order in council, divide any parish into two or more separate parishes for all ecclesiastical purposes, and fix the respective proportion of tithes, glebe lands, and other endowments which are to remain to each. To this division the consent of the patron of the living, and of the bishop of the diocese, is requisite; and it can only take effect (except with the consent of the incumbent) at the next vacancy in the living. The incumbent of every new parish thus formed has the exclusive cure of souls within it, and the exclusive right of performing all ecclesiastical offices within its limits for the resident. inhabitants thereof, who are thenceforth, for all ecclesiastical purposes parishioners thereof.

For instance, when a district in which a church is built is separated from an existing parish, and constituted "a new parish for ecclesiastical purposes," the law as to the solemnization of marriage applies to persons who dwell in such new parish. Such persons are not entitled to resort to the old parish church for the publication of banns or solemnization of marriage, these being ecclesiastical purposes in respect of

* 6 & 7 Vict. c. 37; 7 & 8 Vict. c. 94; 19 & 20 Vict c. 104; and 47 and 48 Vict. 65.