ew years. Of this I am quite certain, that if an uninsured
Church were unfortunately burned down, those in the parish interested in
the erection of a new Church would have the greatest possible difficulty
in raising the necessary funds, in the face of such a manifest want of
due caution and forethought on the part of the proper authorities in past
years.

It is, perhaps, hardly necessary for me to say that a strictly accurate
record of every sixpence that is spent upon these and such like matters
must be kept by the Churchwardens, so that at the close of their year,
when they pass on the parish books to their successors, they may be
enabled to lay before them a clear and detailed account of all the
receipts and expenses of the preceding year, with vouchers for all
payments, and to hand over the actual balance remaining after all
liabilities have been met.

It is often supposed that Church Rates are abolished. But such is not
the case. _Compulsory_ Church Rates are done away with by 31 and 32
Vict., cap. 109, except in cases where the rates have been legally
mortgaged, or are subject to private Acts of Parliament. Section 6,
however, of the above Act states distinctly that "this Act shall not
affect vestries, or the making, assessing, receiving, or otherwise
dealing with any Church Rate, save in so far as relates to the recovery
thereof"; and Section 9 authorises the appointment of trustees, the
Incumbent, and two householders or owners or occupiers of land in the
parish, to be nominated, one by the patron, the other by the Bishop of
the Diocese in which the parish is situate. These trustees form a body
corporate, and may, as circumstances require, pay to the Churchwardens
any funds in their hands for the building, rebuilding, enlargement, and
repair of any Church or Chapel, and any purpose to which, as before
defined in the Act, Church Rates may be applied.

Questions are so often put to me as to the relation existing between
district parishes and the mother Church, that it may be useful if a few
points are mentioned with respect to which difficulties occasionally
arise. The preliminaries of marriage and the solemnization of the rite
itself are a fruitful source of difficulty. They have however, as a
matter of fact, been set at rest by a decision in the Court of Queen's
Bench, in the case of Fuller _v._ Alford, before Mr. Justice Cave and Mr.
Justice Day, which affects all new parishes hitherto created, or that