Project Canterbury

IT is proposed by means of an analysis and re-grouping of the provisions of the Welsh Church Act to explain the general scheme of disestablishment and disendowment of the Church in Wales, the means adopted for carrying it into effect, and some of the principal consequences.

It is desired to make the account of the Act complete in itself, but anyone having to deal practically with any question arising out of the Act ought obviously to turn to the Act, and full references to the Sections are therefore given both for ease of verification and for amplification of abbreviated or condensed extracts. The object is to explain the Scheme, which is now being put in operation, and not to deal with the numerous questions that may be suggested in respect to particular provisions.

S. E. D.
January, 1915.

THE Welsh Church Act, 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. V., c. 91), was passed on September 18, 1914 (date of Royal Assent indorsed on the Act), and therefore by virtue of the Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act, 1793, and Sec. 36 of the Interpretation Act, 1889, it came into operation at midnight between September 17 and 18, 1914. Anything happening on or after September 18, 1914, falls 'after the passing of the Act,' and the 'passing of the Act,' being as above mentioned the time of its coming into operation, is the date for the application of a great many of the provisions of the Act, of all in fact except those which by the Act are expressed to take effect from the 'date of disestablishment.' Nothing in the Suspensory Act hereinafter mentioned has postponed the immediate coming into effect of any provision which operates from the date of the passing of the Welsh Church Act.

By the Welsh Church Act (Sec. i) it was provided that the 'date of disestablishment' should be 'the day after the expiration of six months or such extended period as His Majesty may fix by Order in Council, not being more than twelve months, after the passing of this Act.'

But this date of disestablishment is postponed by the 'Suspensory Act, 1914' (4 & 5 Geo. V., c. 88, Sec. 1(1)), until 'twelve months from the passing of the Welsh Church Act, 1914, or, if at the expiration of those twelve months the present war has not ended, until such later date (not being later than the end of the present war) as may be fixed by His Majesty by Order in Council.'

A possible (and one may reasonably suppose, having regard to the work to be performed, a highly probable) twelve months' interval between the passing of the Act and the date of disestablishment has been converted into a certain twelve months with a possible extension, if the present war continues, to the end of the war, but not later.

This is the sole concession made by the Suspensory Act.

If His Majesty in Council should propose to exercise the power of further postponement of the date of disestablishment, it would seem that the Order must be prophetic, subsequent to the date it fixes or repeat the indefinite terms of the Act by extending the time to 'such and such a date or the end of the present war if earlier.' One thing, however, is certain, that the date of disestablishment cannot be earlier than September 18, 1915.

The area of operation of the Act and the Institution with which it deals are described as 'the Church of England, so far as it extends to and exists in Wales and Monmouthshire' (Sec. i).

The line of division between the disestablished portion of the Church and that which remains established is, therefore, a county boundary line, and as this does not coincide with the boundary between dioceses of England and dioceses of Wales, it is the fact that disestablishment will extend into some of the present English dioceses, while parts of the present Welsh dioceses will remain in the Established Church.

To meet this state of things, the Act provides (by Sec. 9 (i)) that where part only of any ecclesiastical parish is situate in Wales or Monmouthshire, it is to be included or excluded from the operation of the Act according as the Welsh Commissioners (hereinafter mentioned), 'with reference to the general wishes of the parishioners,' determine that such parish is to be treated as wholly within or wholly without Wales or Monmouthshire (subject to an appeal by any parishioner against such determination to H.M. in Council, to be heard by the Judicial Committee). Until the fate of these border parishes has been so finally settled, the limits of the area of the operation of the Act are not precisely known.

It is provided (by Sec. 9 (2)) that the Ecclesiastical Commissioners are to transfer to English dioceses, as from the date of disestablishment, all parishes now in Welsh dioceses, but not in Wales or Monmouthshire, and any parish partly in Wales or Monmouthshire, which, by the determination of the Welsh Commissioners (or, on appeal, the Privy Council), is to be treated as wholly outside Wales or Monmouthshire.

It is further provided (by Sec. 9 (3)) that any parish situated wholly in Wales or Monmouthshire, or to be treated (in accordance with a similar determination) as so situate, and which now forms part of an English diocese, is, as from the date of disestablishment, to cease to form part of such English diocese and is to be attached to such Welsh diocese as may be determined in manner provided by the constitution and regulations of the Church in Wales.

The Act is not otherwise to affect any English diocese (Sec. 9 (4)).

The number of parishes affected by these necessary rearrangements is considerable.

The list of those partly in an English county and partly in a Welsh county comprises the following:--

Llansilin (Denbigh and Salop); Llanymynech (Salop and Montgomery); Rhyd y Croesau (Denbigh and Salop); Sara, Holy Trinity (Montgomery and Salop); Threapwood--Extra Parochial (Chester and Flint, but wholly in the administrative county of Chester).

Dixton Newton (Monmouth and Hereford); Cwmyoy with Llanthony (Monmouth and Hereford, but wholly in the administrative county of Monmouth).

Dodleston (Chester and Flint); Lache cum Saltney (Chester and Flint).

Alberbury (Salop and Montgomery); Brampton Bryan (Hereford and Radnor); Brilley with Michaelchurch on Arrow (Hereford and Radnor); Churchstoke (Montgomery and Salop); Great Wollaston (Salop and Montgomery); Hyssington with Snead (Montgomery and Salop); Kentchurch with Llangua (Hereford and Monmouth); Lydham (Salop and Montgomery); Mainstone (Salop and Montgomery); Middleton (Salop and Montgomery); Old Radnor (Radnor and Hereford); Presteigne (Radnor and Hereford)-

Ellesmere (including Penley) in counties of Salop and Flint.

Parishes situate in Wales and Monmouthshire which are included in ENGLISH Dioceses

Whitewell (Co. Flint, Dio. Chester); Criggion (Co. Montgomery, Dio. Hereford); Evancoyd (Co. Radnor, Dio. Hereford); Forden (Co. Montgomery, Dio. Hereford); Knighton (Co. Radnor, Dio. Hereford); Montgomery (Co. Montgomery, Dio. Hereford); New Radnor (Co. Radnor, Dio. Hereford); Norton (Co. Radnor, Dio. Hereford); Trelystan (Co. Montgomery, Dio. Hereford).

Parishes NOT situate in Wales or Monmouthshire which are included in a Welsh Diocese

Hengoed; Kinnerley; Knockin; Llanyblodwell; Melverley; Morton; Oswestry; Oswestry, Trinity; St. Martin; Selattyn; The Lodge; Trefonen; Welsh Frankton; Whittington; Halston--Extra Parochial (all in the County of Salop and in the Diocese of St. Asaph).

The scheme of disestablishment and disendowment consists of four parts, viz. (i) Disestablishment; (ii) Re-constitution of the Disestablished Church; (iii) Disendowment, and (iv) Distribution of Endowments (including alienation to secular purposes and partial restoration to the Church in Wales).

In addition, the Act contains sections relating to the machinery for carrying the general scheme into effect, some general provisions for matters of ecclesiastical and civil law affected by the Act, and a detailed scheme of commutation for dealing with the vested interests of Incumbents of Benefices and other holders of ecclesiastical offices, holding at the date of the passing of the Act.

THE express provisions as to disestablishment are as follows:--

(a) Declaration of Disestablishment.--The Church of England, so far as it extends to and exists in Wales and Monmouthshire (i.e. 'the Church in Wales ') on the date of disestablishment, is declared to cease to be 'established by law' (Sec. i).

From the date of disestablishment, therefore, the Church of England in this area loses whatever privileges and is released from whatever obligations and disabilities are attendant merely upon 'establishment.'

What these privileges, obligations, and disabilities may be, apart from anything mentioned in the Act, it is not proposed here to discuss: the Act proceeds to deal with specific matters which may, perhaps, be regarded as comprehending the elements of 'establishment' conceived to be affected by this statutory abrogation.

(b) Provision as to Patronage.--No person can, after the passing of the Act, be appointed or nominated to any ecclesiastical office in the Church in Wales by His Majesty or any person by virtue of any right of patronage existing at the passing of the Act (Sec. i).

As this provision in relation to ecclesiastical patronage is made to take effect not from the date of disestablishment but from the passing of the Act, particular temporary provision has to be made for the interval between the passing of the Act and the date of disestablishment. This is contained in Section 21, and is as follows:--

As to vacancies occurring between the passing of the Act and the date of disestablishment--

(i) In Bishoprics.--The King may nominate on the petition of the Archbishop of Canterbury or of the surviving Welsh bishops.

(ii) In any other ecclesiastical office.--The same person may nominate in the same manner as if the Act had not been passed.

The provisions (i) and (ii) are expressed to apply to vacancies 'occurring' in any ecclesiastical office between the passing of the Act and the date of disestablishment, and there is therefore no provision for the case of an ecclesiastical office vacant at the date of the passing of the Act and to which the patron at that date had made no presentation. Presumably the bishop may fill any such vacancy by virtue of his right and responsibility to provide for the cure of souls.

While provision is thus made for appointments on vacancies occurring in the interval between the Act and the date of disestablishment, it is not provided that the right of appointment given by the Act shall be exercised before the date of disestablishment, but the right of any private patron would lapse at any rate after six months from the date of the occurrence of the vacancy, if it is not of necessity destroyed by the dissolution of corporations which takes place on the date of disestablishment.

Probably patrons will not be anxious to exercise their rights of patronage in respect of vacancies occurring after the passing of the Act, as such appointments will not confer any 'existing interest' (Sec. 2 (3)) in the endowments or emoluments of the benefices, and the patrons will have no power, save by undertaking a personal obligation, to assure their presentees of any income from the benefice, at any rate after the date of disestablishment.

(c) Dissolution of Corporations.--On the date of disestablishment 'Every cathedral and ecclesiastical corporation, whether sole or aggregate, is dissolved' (Sec. 2(1)).

There is no definition of an 'ecclesiastical corporation' but 'cathedral corporation' is defined (Sec. 38 (i)) to 'mean any dean and chapter and also any corporation of minor canons or Vicars Choral or any other subordinate corporation of or belonging to or connected with any cathedral or collegiate Church in Wales.'

The dissolution of corporations is not solely a 'disestablishment' provision but also, as will be observed later, a 'disendowment' provision. The Church could doubtless remain 'established' even if all corporations within it were destroyed, and, on the other hand, however unlikely such a scheme of disestablishment may be, it could be 'disestablished' even if all the corporations within it were continued in legal existence. But the dissolution of the corporations destroys a system which, in fact, is the basis of the organisation for finance and administration of the Established Church. In the Established Church the incumbent of a benefice is not merely an ecclesiastical officer exercising his functions within the particular area of a parish, but he forms, with his predecessors and his successors in the office, a perpetual undying corporation, to which the law gives an existence and personality apart from that of the incumbent for the time being. The law endows the corporation with certain capacities, in particular that of owning property, from which flow relations as between the corporation and other bodies and persons and as between the individuals who are successively the constituent members of the corporation. What is commonly called Church property is the aggregate of the properties of these several corporations. The constitution of the Church is based upon their existence, and the destruction of the corporations necessitates the setting up of some new system, particularly for the administration of the property of the Church.

(d) Provisions as to Rights and Privileges of Bishops, Dignitaries, and Clergy of the Church in Wales:--

(i) As from the date of disestablishment no bishop of the Church in Wales as such may be summoned, sit or vote as a Lord of Parliament (Sec. 2 (2)), and this applies before the date of disestablishment to any bishop who may be appointed after the passing of the Act (Sec. 21). Bishops of the Church in England are to take the places in the House of Lords vacated by the disqualification of the Welsh bishops (Sec. 2 (3)).

(ii) As from the date of disestablishment bishops, priests, and deacons holding 'ecclesiastical offices' in the Church in Wales, or, if no longer holding any ecclesiastical office, whose last ecclesiastical office in any case was an ecclesiastical office in the Church in Wales, cease to be disqualified by reason of having been ordained to the office of priest or deacon from sitting or voting in the House of Commons (Sec. 2 (4)).

(iii) Every person who is, at the passing of the Act, a bishop, dean, canon, or archdeacon of the Church in Wales, or the holder of any ecclesiastical office in the Church in Wales, shall, during his life, enjoy the same title and precedence as if the Act had not been passed (Sec. 2 (2)).

(e) Jurisdiction of Ecclesiastical Courts.--As from the date of disestablishment 'Ecclesiastical Courts and persons' in Wales and Monmouthshire cease to exercise any jurisdiction (Sec. 3 (i) ).

'Ecclesiastical person' means a bishop and the holder of any ecclesiastical office who is in holy orders (Sec. 38 (i) ).

This provision apparently introduces anarchy into the Church in Wales (tempered by the provision next hereinafter mentioned so as to protect property rights) until the Church frames a fresh constitution and regulations (including, if she chooses, the establishment of new Ecclesiastical Courts) under the power hereinafter mentioned (Sec. 13).

(f) Ecclesiastical Law.--As from the date of disestablishment Ecclesiastical law of the Church in Wales ceases to exist as law (Sec. 3 (i) ), but 'the then ecclesiastical law and the then existing articles, doctrines, rites, rules, discipline, and ordinances' of the Church of England (subject to modifications or alterations duly made for the Church in Wales as in the Act provided) shall be binding 'on the members for the time being of the Church in Wales in the same manner as if they had mutually agreed to be so bound and shall be capable of being enforced in the temporal Courts in relation to any property which, by virtue of the Act, is held on behalf of the said Church or any members thereof . . . 'as if such property had been expressly assured upon trust to be held on behalf of persons who should be so bound' (Sec. 3 (2) ).

While the presumed agreement is thus made enforceable only in relation to property of the disestablished Church or its members, it is to be borne in mind that proceedings in disputes which affect other questions than those of property can very generally be so framed as to have relation to property.

(g) Exclusion from Convocation.--As from the date of disestablishment bishops and clergy of the Church in Wales cease to be members of or to be represented in the Houses of Convocation of the Province of Canterbury (Sec. 3 (5)).

(h) Constitution of Ecclesiastical Commission and Queen Anne's Bounty.--As from the date of disestablishment bishops of the Church in Wales cease to be members of the Ecclesiastical Commission and Queen Anne's Bounty. (Sec. 22 (2)).

(i) Provisions in relation to mixed matters of civil and ecclesiastical law.--

(i) Vestries and Churchwardens--The powers, duties, and liabilities of vestries and churchwardens (except so far as they relate to the affairs of the church or to ecclesiastical charities) are transferred to the borough and urban district councils (Sec. 25). Inasmuch as no date is expressed at which this provision shall come into force, presumably it dates from the passing of the Act.

(ii) As to Marriages--It is provided (Sec. 23) that as from the date of disestablishment 'the law relating to marriages in churches of the Church of England (including any law conferring any right to be married in such a church) shall cease to be in force in Wales and Monmouthshire, and the provisions of the Marriage Acts, 1811-1898, relating to marriages in registered buildings shall apply to marriages in churches of the Church in Wales, and every such church may accordingly be registered under and subject to the conditions imposed by those Acts.'

As to churches in which, immediately before the date of disestablishment, marriages could lawfully be solemnised, they become 'registered buildings' without any step having to be taken for that purpose.

But the incumbent of a parochial benefice must make application to the Registrar-General (and on such application is entitled) to be appointed as the 'authorised person' to perform marriages pursuant to and subject to the provisions of the Marriage Acts in 'all churches within his spiritual charge as such incumbent' which have so become 'registered buildings.'

(iii) Notaries--As from the date of disestablishment the powers of the Archbishop of Canterbury in respect to the appointment of notaries public to practice in districts wholly within Wales or Monmouthshire are transferred to the Lord Chancellor (Sec. 37).

THE Church which is disestablished by the Act is 'the Church of England, so far as it extends to and exists in Wales and Monmouthshire (in this Act referred to as the Church in Wales)' (Sec. (i) ).

But the expression 'the Church in Wales' appears not to be confined in the Act to the Church before disestablishment: it is constantly employed to describe the Church after disestablishment, as in the following references:--

After disestablishment, 'no bishop of the Church in Wales shall as such be summoned ... as a Lord of Parliament' (Sec. 2 (2) ).

After disestablishment, 'no person shall be disqualified . . . for sitting . . . in the House of Commons by reason of having been ordained to the office of priest or deacon if the ecclesiastical office he holds is an ecclesiastical office in the Church in Wales . . . .' (Sec. 2 (4)). After disestablishment, existing ecclesiastical law, &c., subject to authorised modifications made 'according to the constitution and regulations for the time being of the Church in Wales' shall 'be binding on the members for the time being of the Church in Wales as' &c., &c. (Sec. 3(2)).

These instances seem to be sufficient to show that after, as well as before, disestablishment the title employed by the Act is 'the Church in Wales,' and that this is, therefore, the statutory title of the disestablished Church.

The Act recognises a continued unity of the disestablished Church with the established Church of England by the provision of Sec. 38 (3), that the enactments and provisions relating to the Church of England of statutes, deeds, and other documents in which 'mention is made' of the 'Church of England' are to be construed as including the Church in Wales but as to the Church in Wales subject to the provisions of the Welsh Church Act, 1914.

Occasions in which 'mention is made' in statutes of the 'Church of England' are not so numerous as might be expected: such Acts for instance as the Pluralities Acts or Church Building Acts are not expressed to be enactments in reference to the Church of England. Mention of the Church of England is made more frequently in cases where 'membership of the Church of England' is a qualification for some office or reference is made to services conducted 'in accordance with the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England.' In such cases the expression will be deemed hereafter to include the Church in Wales.

There is one notable instance, however, in which the Church of England is expressly mentioned, viz. in Magna Carta (confirmed by statute), which contains the provision 'Quod Anglicana ecclesia libera sit et habeat omnia jura sua Integra et libertates suas illaesas.' It seems somewhat cynical to provide that the expression 'Anglicana ecclesia' in this enactment shall henceforth be deemed to include the Church in Wales 'subject to the provisions of the Welsh Church Act, 1914.'

So far as any statute mentioning the Church of England embodies ecclesiastical law (which is consequently made applicable to the Church in Wales, subject to the Welsh Church Act, 1914), it may be modified by the new constitution and regulations for the Church in Wales which may be made as hereafter appears (Sec. 3 (4)).

As appears from the express provisions in relation to disestablishment, and particularly the dissolution of ecclesiastical corporations and the removal of all sanction from ecclesiastical law (except so far as may be necessary to protect rights of property), the foundations of the organisation of the Church are largely destroyed by disestablishment, and it becomes necessary to make provision to enable the Church to re-organise itself on a new voluntary or disestablished basis. For this purpose it is enacted (by Sec. 13 (i) ) that 'the Bishops clergy and laity' of the Church in Wales may

(i) hold synods (an expression denned by Sec. 38 (i) to 'include any assembly or convention');

(ii) elect representatives thereto;

(iii) by themselves or by their representatives, elected in such manner as they think fit, frame constitutions and regulations for (a) the general management and good government of the Church in Wales and the property and affairs thereof, whether as a whole or according to dioceses, and (&) the future representation of members of the Church in Wales in a general synod or in diocesan synods or otherwise.

The constitutions and regulations, which the bishops, clergy, and laity by themselves or their representatives may frame, are subject to the condition that in so far as they effect 'an alteration in the articles, doctrines, rites or save so far as may be rendered necessary by the passing of this Act in the formularies of the Church in Wales' such alteration shall not be 'so far binding on any ecclesiastical person having any existing interest saved by this Act as to deprive him of that interest if he, within one month after the making of the alteration, signifies in writing to the Representative Body hereinafter mentioned his dissent therefrom' (Proviso to Sec. 3 (2) ).

It is expressly enacted that the 'constitution and regulations' so to be framed as aforesaid may provide for the following specific matters viz.:--

(i) For the establishment of Ecclesiastical Courts and, if the Archbishop of Canterbury consents, for appeals to the Provincial Court of the Archbishop (but no further), and such Courts shall not exercise any coercive jurisdiction (Sec. 3 (3) ).

(ii) For altering and modifying ecclesiastical law so far as it is embodied in the Church Discipline Act, 1840, the Public Worship Regulation Act, 1874, the Clergy Discipline Act, 1892, the Ecclesiastical Dilapidations Acts, 1871 and 1872, or any other Act of Parliament (Sec. 3 (4)).

(iii) For the mode of attaching to Welsh dioceses parishes which, before disestablishment, were in English dioceses but situate wholly in Wales or Monmouthshire, or to be treated as so situate (Sec. 9 (3))

While these are express provisions as to constitutions and regulations which the bishops, clergy, and laity of the Church in Wales may by themselves or their representatives establish, the general purpose of such constitutions and regulations (described as 'the general management and good government of the Church in Wales and the property and affairs thereof') would appear to comprehend every matter of doctrine, rites, rules, discipline, and ordinances of the Church, and this is confirmed by the provision of Sec. 3 (2), that the ecclesiastical law and articles, doctrines, rites, rules, discipline, and ordinances of the Church of England shall be binding on the members of the Church in Wales as if accepted by mutual agreement 'with and subject to such modification or alteration, if any, as may be duly made therein according to the constitution and regulations for the time being of the Church in Wales.'

It is quite obvious that there will be at once matters of immediate and practical importance for which regulations will have to be made; e.g. as to how appointments to ecclesiastical offices are to be made in the disestablished Church; as to how the emoluments of these offices are to be determined; as to the terms upon which the holders of ecclesiastical offices are to be allowed to occupy the official residences: and as to the tenure of ecclesiastical offices.

It is to be observed that throughout Sec. 3 reference is made to the 'constitution and regulations for the time being of the Church in Wales,' whereas by Sec. 13 the bishops, clergy, and laity are authorised by themselves or their representatives to frame 'constitutions' (not a constitution) 'and regulations for the general management and good government of the Church.' A constitution would, however, in fact be the aggregate of 'constitutions and regulations' framed by the representatives of the Church in Wales together with so much of the old law and organisation as is adopted or left standing.

It is contemplated by the Act that the bishops, clergy, and laity of the Church in Wales, having been given power as above-mentioned by themselves or by elected representatives to frame regulations for (inter alia) the management of the property of the Church in Wales, will, as one step towards this, form a body to hold Church property, and it is provided that

'if at any time it is shown to the satisfaction of H.M. the King that the said bishops, clergy, and laity have appointed any persons to represent them and hold property for any of their uses and purposes His Majesty in Council may by charter incorporate such persons (in this Act referred to as the Representative Body) with power to hold land without licence in mortmain.' (Sec. 13 (2)).

It does not appear to be a necessary consequence of the formation of the Representative Body that it should be entrusted with any powers but those of holding and managing the property of the Church (including funds as well as real property), and getting in the revenues therefrom. With a view to the greatest efficiency in such management, and the securing for the Church of the greatest advantage from the endowments re-transferred to it, or which may hereafter be added to its possessions, it will doubtless be advisable that the fullest powers of managing, selling, exchanging, leasing, investing, and re-investing shall be given to the Representative Body, but it does not follow that the Representative Body should be the final authority to determine the way in which the capital or income of the property vested in them should be applied for the general benefit and advancement of the Church in Wales.

It appears to be consistent with the scheme of things contemplated by the Act that the Representative Body should be subject, as to the application of the revenues arising from their management of the Church's property, to--

(a) Any special trusts affecting special properties.

(b) The necessity of discharging all liabilities in respect of the properties (including all payments necessary to preserve 'existing interests').

(c) The directions of the bishops, clergy, and laity of the Church in Wales or their duly appointed representatives expressed in constitutions and regulations framed for the general management and good government of the Church in Wales, and the property and affairs thereof.

Such great questions, therefore, as that of the pooling of the Church resources for the purpose of application (as distinguished from management) need not be assumed to be left to the discretion of the Representative Body without guidance or direction.

On the other hand, the Act itself makes the Representative Body the responsible authority, exclusive of any synod or other assembly of the Church, to decide and act in one vastly important matter, that is to say, as to the acceptance or rejection of commutation in accordance with the principles laid down in the Act--' If before or within one month after the date of disestablishment the Representative Body signify by notice in writing to the Welsh Commissioners that they have adopted the Scheme of commutation hereinafter set forth' (Sec. 18), then the Scheme becomes binding on the Church and all incumbents having existing interests without ratification from any external authority.

The bishops, clergy, and laity could not, if they wished to do so, constitute the Representative Body subject to such terms as to deprive that Body of this discretion or of some other opportunities for the exercise of an unfettered discretion which are given to the Representative Body by the Act, e.g. as to the choice of glebe lands to be retained by the Church on payment of their value (Sec. 8 (i) (a) (vii) and Sec. 18 (6)), and as to the transfer of property held by an ecclesiastical corporation upon charitable trusts (Sec. 22 (i)). In these matters (all relating to property and finance) the Act treats the Representative Body as having authority to bind the Church, and in fact thereby gives it such authority.

If and when a Representative Body is duly constituted, it may be assumed that the synod or other law-making authority of the Church in Wales will be only too glad to be able to delegate to such body a great mass of executive and administrative functions, and it will be strange indeed if it does not become a general Executive Committee, with great responsibility and power in all matters affecting the constitution, organisation, and administration of the Church in Wales; but it is important to keep well in view that the essential function of the Representative Body is not to 'represent' the Church in Wales for all purposes of government, but to hold and manage the property of the Church.

THE endowments of the Church in Wales which are affected by the Act consist of--

(1) Property of the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty;

(2) property of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners; and

(3) property held by or in trust for ecclesiastical corporations or the holders of ecclesiastical offices in the Church in Wales.

In this class (3) are comprised not only the glebe lands and tithe rent-charge belonging to incumbents of benefices and other ecclesiastical corporations, but also large funds held by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty for such corporations, and the cathedral and other churches, the residences of bishops, deans, canons, and incumbents of benefices and others, and funds and property devoted to the maintenance of, or other expenses in connection with, such buildings.

(i) The Property of Queen Anne's Bounty.--The property of Queen Anne's Bounty (other than property or funds held by the Bounty as trustees for benefices and other ecclesiastical offices), which is regarded by the Act as forming part of the endowments of the Church in Wales, consists of their right to receive first-fruits and tenths in respect of ecclesiastical dignities and benefices of the Church in Wales.

Queen Anne's Bounty, during the term of their existence of upwards of two centuries, have made, either out of the Royal Bounty Fund (i.e. the revenues derived from first-fruits and tenths of English and Welsh preferments) or out of the Parliamentary Grants Fund (sums given for that purpose by Parliament between 1809 and 1820), grants to Welsh benefices which are now either held by Queen Anne's Bounty as capital in trust for such benefices, or are represented by property purchased therewith and vested in the incumbents of such benefices, or by the proceeds of such property.

The first-fruits and tenths of Welsh preferments, since the constitution of Queen Anne's Bounty, amount in the aggregate to about one-third of the total amount of the grants made out of the Royal Bounty Fund to Welsh benefices. One-third of such grants is therefore deemed to have been derived from Welsh Church property of Queen Anne's Bounty, and the remaining two-thirds from non-Welsh (i.e. English) resources.

(2) The Property of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.--The property of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (other than that which the Commissioners hold as trustees for benefices and other ecclesiastical offices), which is regarded for the purposes of the Act as forming part of the endowments of the Church in Wales, consists of lands, tithe rent-charges, and other property, situate in England and Wales and originally derived from corporations (bishoprics, deans and chapters, prebends, benefices) of the Church in Wales and the proceeds of sales of and other dealings with properties so derived.

Some of this property is situate in England. On the other hand, some property of the Commissioners, situate in Wales or Monmouthshire, has either been purchased by them or has been derived by them from ecclesiastical corporations not belonging to the Church in Wales (e.g. the Dean and Chapter of Westminster and the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester).

With a view, presumably, to convenience in respect to the ultimate destination of this property, and to secure that, as far as possible, the real property alienated to secular purposes shall be situate in Wales or Monmouthshire, the following arrangement is made:--

(a) The purchased property in Wales or Monmouthshire is classified with property derived from corporations of the Church in Wales, and the purchase money is to be deducted from the proceeds of sales of other property of that class.

(b) Property in Wales or Monmouthshire, derived from Church preferments or corporations in England, is classified with the property derived from corporations of the Church in Wales, but on the other hand there is excluded from that class (by way of exchange) property in England derived from corporations of the Church in Wales, and provision is made for the necessary adjustments by way of 'equality of exchange.' These adjustments are set out in Part I and Part II of the First Schedule to the Act, and the net result is that the whole of the property of the Commissioners in Wales and Monmouthshire, together with funds representing proceeds of sales (or, as the case may be, subject to a charge for any sum beyond the proceeds of sales which may be necessary for effecting the adjustments above mentioned), forms one class of endowments of the Church in Wales which may be called the 'Welsh Church property of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners,' and represents in value the whole of the property (whether in England or Wales) derived by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners from corporations of the Church in Wales and the proceeds of dealings with such property at any time since the property was transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

The Ecclesiastical Commissioners are charged with payments of perpetual annuities for non-parochial purposes of the Church in Wales (viz. for the stipends of bishops, deans, canons, and archdeacons, and for the corporate incomes of some deans and chapters) amounting in the aggregate to a sum greater than the revenues of the whole of the 'Welsh Church property of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.' Although these charges are now upon the general funds of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, the Act very reasonably treats the 'Welsh Church property of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners' as the primary source from which these charges are paid, and proceeds to apportion these charges, from the date of disestablishment for so long as they shall continue, primarily upon the 'Welsh Church property of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners' to the relief, so far as such property can bear them, of all other property of the Commissioners. Only the excess of these charges over the revenues of the 'Welsh Church property of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners' is therefore regarded as coming out of resources of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners not derived from the Church in Wales.

The Ecclesiastical Commissioners have further charged themselves in favour of Welsh benefices with perpetual or terminable annuities granted for the endowment or augmentation of such benefices and the provision of curates' stipends, and they hold large capital sums for those purposes, similarly granted and set apart by them. Inasmuch as the 'non-parochial' charges on their common fund exceed the income from their 'Welsh Church property,' it is clear that all capital sums and annuities granted in favour of parochial benefices, as well as this excess, have been provided out of resources derived by them from some other source than the Church in Wales--in fact, from resources derived by the Commissioners from preferments of the Church in England.

The Commissioners have further granted to benefices of the Church in Wales actual lands and tithe rent-charge in Wales, derived by the Commissioners either from preferments of the Church in Wales or from preferments of the Church in England. The properties so granted are naturally treated by the Act as derived from resources of the Church in Wales, when they have come to the Commissioners from preferments of the Church in Wales; but, quite illogically and to the disadvantage of the Disestablished Church, they are also treated as being derived from resources of the Church in Wales, when they have been derived by the Commissioners from preferments of the Church in England.

Properties so granted by the Commissioners to benefices are now vested in incumbents just as glebe lands and tithe rent-charge forming their ancient endowments, and are treated throughout the Act precisely as ancient glebe lands and tithe rent-charge.

(3) Property held by or in trust for Ecclesiastical Corporations of the Church in Wales.--This class of endowments of the Church in Wales comprises:--

(a) Churches, including the cathedral churches, and burial grounds and residences of the incumbents of benefices and other holders of ecclesiastical offices.

(b) Glebe, tithe rent-charge, &c., belonging to benefices and vested in the incumbents (which may be either ancient possessions or derived from grants of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners or Queen Anne's Bounty or from private benefactions), and some properties of deans and chapters vested in the chapters for the maintenance of the fabric and services of the cathedral and for stipends of the cathedral dignitaries and officers.

(c) Capital grants and annuities given to benefices by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners or Queen Anne's Bounty as above mentioned.

(d) Other capital funds or property held by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, Queen Anne's Bounty, the Supreme Court, trustees or other custodians on behalf of benefices and representing proceeds of sales of glebe, of the working of minerals under glebes, and private benefactions.

The Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty are not ecclesiastical corporations of the Church in Wales, and the provisions of the Act as to disestablishment and the dissolution of ecclesiastical corporations would leave the Ecclesiastical Commissioners unaffected as regards their 'Welsh Church property' as above described, but would destroy the property of Queen Anne's Bounty in Wales, consisting, as it does, of first-fruits and tenths which are occasional and annual charges upon ecclesiastical offices or the holders thereof.

In respect of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, however, express provision is made for taking from them their 'Welsh Church property' as above described.

As regards the third class of endowments of the Church in Wales, viz. those held by or on behalf of benefices and other ecclesiastical corporations and offices, the dissolution of the ecclesiastical corporations, which takes place on the date of disestablishment, would immediately deprive the Church in Wales of all such properties: as there would be no corporations, there would be no persons entitled to the properties as being the constituent members of corporations, and the incumbents of benefices and others, who before the dissolution of the corporations were in enjoyment of those endowments in that capacity, would be immediately deprived of the property and revenues. As, however, it is not the intention of the Act to effect such an immediate or total disendowment, but to confirm 'the Church' in the permanent possession of some portion of the endowments, and also to preserve to existing incumbents or holders of ecclesiastical offices the enjoyment of the revenues in which they have acquired vested interests, so that the disendowment will take effect gradually as such vested interests drop, the operation of disendowment is effected by two steps, (i) a saving of existing interests and (2) the transfer of ecclesiastical property subject (so far as it is subject) to such 'existing interests' to the Welsh Commissioners and other bodies. These transfers complete the disendowment; they arc followed by the re-distribution of the property.

First, as to existing interests there is saved, by way of reservation or re-grant to every holder at the date of the passing of the Act of any ecclesiastical office 'held by freehold tenure or by any tenure which, in the opinion of the Welsh Commissioners, is in practice equivalent to freehold tenure,' his 'existing interest' in the emoluments of that office 'so long as he holds that office or any other ecclesiastical office in the Church in Wales to which he may be nominated or appointed after the passing of this Act, whether before or after the date of disestablishment' (Sec. 14 (i)).

The effect of this is that, although on the date of disestablishment the corporation in which any endowments are vested ceases to exist, the property of the corporation and all rights classified as 'emoluments' of the person who at the date of the passing of the Act constituted such corporation are retained by him for the limited period defined by the Act. What may be described as a reversionary interest only is alienated on the date of disestablishment in the property of every ecclesiastical office of freehold tenure, of which there was a holder at the date of the passing of the Act who continues to hold any ecclesiastical office in the Church in Wales on the date of disestablishment. This is modified, as will be hereafter explained, as regards tithe rent-charge of a parochial benefice.

The nature and incidents of an 'existing interest' will also be dealt with later.

Through whatever changes of legal ownership the property may go, it passes subject to this existing interest (Sec. 8 (2)).

Secondly, the property which is conclusively re-distributed by the Act between secular bodies and the disestablished Church is all, as a first step, vested in the Welsh Commissioners (hereinafter described), but subject to all existing interests therein (Sec. 4). The property so vested includes a great deal which, in the re-distribution, is to be restored to the Church in Wales. But there are classes of property, viz. funds and property derived from capital grants to benefices and ecclesiastical offices made by Queen Anne's Bounty and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners out of resources not derived from the Church in Wales, which are restored, not to the Church in Wales, but to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty respectively. These are not vested in the Welsh Commissioners, but are either re-vested in Queen Anne's Bounty or the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (Sec. 5 (3) ), or, being already so vested, are allowed to remain in their hands (Sec. 5 (i) and (2) and First and Second Schedules) subject to existing interests therein.

There are also excluded from the vesting in the Welsh Commissioners 'all charges on the Common Fund of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners which at the passing of the Act belonged to or were appropriated to the use of any ecclesiastical office or cathedral corporation in the Church in Wales or the holder of any such office as such' (Sec. 4 (i) (&))

The property vested in the Welsh Commissioners includes the 'Welsh Church property' of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and properties and funds held by or on behalf of any 'ecclesiastical office or cathedral corporation in the Church in Wales or the holder of any such office as such' (Sec. 4 (i) (a) (b)).

It will be observed that the property is not only ecclesiastical property affected by the dissolution of the corporations but all property belonging to 'ecclesiastical offices,' which may not all be corporations.

'Ecclesiastical office' is denned (Sec. 38 (i)) to mean any bishopric, ecclesiastical dignity, or preferment within the meaning of the Church Discipline Act, 1840, and to include any lay office in connection therewith or in connection with any cathedral corporation.

'Preferment' in the Church Discipline Act, 1840, comprehends 'every deanery, archdeaconry, prebend, canonry, office of minor canon, priest-vicar, or vicar-choral in Holy Orders and every precentorship, treasurership, subdeanery, chancellorship of the Church and other dignity and office in any cathedral or collegiate church and every mastership, wardenship and fellowship in any collegiate church and all benefices with cure of souls comprehending therein all parishes, perpetual curacies, donatives, endowed public chapels, parochial chapelries and chapelries or districts belonging to or reputed to belong or annexed or reputed to be annexed to any church or chapel and every curacy, lectureship, readership, chaplaincy, office, or place which requires the discharge of any spiritual duty. . . .' To remove doubt in one particular case it is provided (Sec. 38 (4)) that the Principal or other Member of Jesus College, Oxford, holding the Rectory of Llandyssil, shall be deemed a lay impropriator and not the holder of an ecclesiastical office.

Property, therefore, 'belonging to or appropriated to the use of any ecclesiastical office or cathedral corporation,' together with the property of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, practically includes all property permanently and inalienably devoted to particular spiritual uses or to the support of lay offices in the Church in Wales. It does not include (and disendowment does not extend to deprive the Church of) property (such as church rooms) held upon charitable or educational trusts, although of ecclesiastical character, but not 'appropriated to the use of any ecclesiastical office in the Church in Wales or the holder of any such office as such.' Funds, for instance, of societies for the general advancement of Church objects in Wales or particular localities (as dioceses), but not so appropriated, are not affected by the Act.

It is expressly provided (Sec. 22 (i)) that, where any such 'charitable trust' property (and this includes property held upon trusts whether of an ecclesiastical or secular nature other than a trust for payment to the holder of an ecclesiastical office in the Church in Wales) is held by one of the dissolved corporations, the property shall vest in the Welsh Commissioners, to be transferred on request of the Representative Body to that body or to persons appointed by them, subject to the trusts affecting the same.

Where ecclesiastical persons are entitled to be trustees of charitable property the right is continued in the persons who may after disestablishment discharge duties similar or analogous to those discharged by such ecclesiastical persons and in succession to them (Sec. 22 (2)).

For the purpose of the collection together as above described with a view to re-distribution of all the property devoted to spiritual uses or to the support of lay offices of the Church in Wales, which is affected by the Act, such property is classified under the following heads:--

I. Property vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

(i) 'Welsh Ecclesiastical property' vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, viz.--

(a) The 'Welsh Church' property of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners as before described (Sec. 5 (i) and First Schedule, Parts I and II).

(b) Property held by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for ecclesiastical offices or cathedral corporations in the Church in Wales and not derived from grants of the Commissioners (Sec. 5 (i) and First Schedule, Part I (2)).

These classes of property (I (i) (a) and (b)) are transferred to the Welsh Commissioners (Sec. 4 (i) (")).

(2) Not 'Welsh Ecclesiastical property.' Property held by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners on behalf of ecclesiastical offices or cathedral corporations in the Church in Wales and derived from grants of capital or annuities charged by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners on their Common Fund, all such grants being in fact derived from non-Welsh sources (Sec. 5 (3); exclusion from First Schedule, Part. I (2) of property derived from grants of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and exclusion from Sec. 4 (i) (b) of property consisting of charges on the Common Fund of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners).

This class of property (I (2)) is left vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

II. Property vested in Queen Anne's Bounty.

(i) 'Welsh Ecclesiastical property' vested in Queen Anne's Bounty, viz.--

(a) Property held by Queen Anne's Bounty for any ecclesiastical office or cathedral corporation in the Church in Wales and representing one-third of all grants from the Royal Bounty Fund (Sec. 5 (2) and (3) and Second Schedule).

(b) Property held by Queen Anne's Bounty for any ecclesiastical office or cathedral corporation in the Church in Wales and representing all grants out of the Parliamentary Grants Fund or arising from any source other than grants out of the Royal Bounty Fund (Sec. 5 (2) and (3) and Second Schedule).

These classes of property (II (i) (a) and (b)) are transferred to the Welsh Commissioners (Sec.

4 (i) (1))

(2) Not 'Welsh Ecclesiastical property.'

(a) Property held by Queen Anne's Bounty for the benefit of ecclesiastical offices, &c., and representing two-thirds of grants by Queen Anne's Bounty to Welsh benefices out of the Royal Bounty Fund (Exclusion from Second Schedule).

This class of property (II (2) (a)) is left vested in Queen Anne's Bounty.

(b) First-fruits and tenths of Welsh ecclesiastical offices so long as they continue payable (Sec. 20).

First-fruits are abolished from the passing of the Act (Sec. 20 and Sec. 21 (2)) and tenths are abolished after the dropping of existing interests (Sec. 20) and until then are made payable to the Welsh Commissioners or as they may direct (Sec. 20).

III. Property not vested In the Ecclesiastical Commissioners or Queen Anne's Bounty.

All property (other than that included in I and II) belonging to 'any ecclesiastical office or cathedral corporation in the Church in Wales or the holder of any such office as such' (Sec. 4 (i) (&)).

This class of property (III) is transferred to the Welsh Commissioners (Sec. 4 (i) (&)).

IV. Moveable Chattels.

Plate, furniture, &c., belonging to any Church affected by the Act or used in connection with the celebration of divine worship therein not being the property of a private individual (Sec. 4 (2)).

This class of property (IV) is vested in the Representative Body, and until the incorporation of that body remains vested as before disestablishment.

The two steps by which disendowment is effected (that is to say, first, the saving of existing interests and, secondly, the transfer according to the classification above described of the various properties subject to the existing interests) result, therefore, in the vesting as from the date of disestablishment (or in some cases from an earlier date) of the whole of the endowments which are affected by the Act in four bodies: the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, Queen Anne's Bounty, the Welsh Commissioners, and the Representative Body (the last two being bodies created by or under the Act), and in the hands of each of these bodies the properties are subject to the existing interests of holders of ecclesiastical offices who were holding offices at the date of the passing of the Act.

The Act makes no special provision for the ascertainment of the property which is left vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners or Queen Anne's Bounty, but prescribes the mode of ascertaining that which is to be transferred from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty to the Welsh Commissioners. Such property is collectively described as 'Welsh Ecclesiastical property vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners' and 'Welsh Ecclesiastical property vested in Queen Anne's Bounty,' and the duty is placed upon those two bodies 'to ascertain and by order declare' of what such Welsh ecclesiastical property consists, and this duty is to be performed 'as soon as may be after the passing of the Act and before the date of disestablishment' (Sec. 5 (i) and (2)). The respective orders are to be made with the concurrence of the Welsh Commissioners or in default of such concurrence with the approval of His Majesty in Council. It is the duty of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty also to declare what portions of such properties constitute private benefactions, and further to inform the Welsh Commissioners of any other private benefactions made through them respectively.

Property so declared to be Welsh ecclesiastical property (including private benefactions) vests in the Welsh Commissioners 'as from the date of disestablishment' (Sec. 4 (i) (a)).

All other property 'belonging to or appropriated to the use of any ecclesiastical office or cathedral corporation in the Church in Wales or the holder of such office as such 'is vested in the Welsh Commissioners 'as from the date of disestablishment' (Sec. 4 (i) (V) ) by virtue of the Act, and without a declaration by any authority. The Welsh Commissioners are not for that purpose required to ascertain of what it consists, but it will be necessary for them to do so in order to carry out their further duty under Sec. 8 of transferring it 'by order' to the several bodies among whom the whole of the property vested in the Welsh Commissioners is distributed.

It will be the duty of the Welsh Commissioners to ascertain what portion of such property consists of private benefactions in addition to any included in orders of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty, or of which those bodies inform the Welsh Commissioners.

In the general rules to govern their proceedings under the Act, of which the Welsh Commissioners have given notice, it is provided that the Welsh Commissioners 'shall as soon as may be cause to be circulated to every ecclesiastical person known to them as holding an ecclesiastical office in the Church in Wales a form setting out the particulars of such information as they may require, and such form filled in with the information desired by the Commissioners shall be returned to the Commissioners within two months from the date of the issue of such form, together with such documents in verification of the particulars as may be in the possession of the person making the return.'

In connection with the properties the Welsh Commissioners become entitled to the books and documents relating thereto, and the duty is imposed upon Registrars of Diocesan and other Registries, and all other officers having such documents, &c., in their possession, and upon the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty in respect to documents in their possession relating exclusively to such property, to deliver them to the Welsh Commissioners (Sec. 29).

THE collection together in the bodies mentioned in the preceding chapter of all the endowments affected by the Act is made only with a view to the re-distribution thereof (subject to existing interests) by

(1) Compulsory transfer by way of restoration to the Church in Wales;

(2) Permissive transfer by way of restoration to the Church in Wales;

(3) Transfer to secular uses.

The constitution of the Welsh Commissioners will be described hereafter: for the present it is sufficient to bear in mind that they are a body created by the Act, but to remain in existence only for a short period.

The whole of the property transferred to them is to be promptly re-transferred to other bodies or authorities.

Everything transferred by way of restoration to the Church in Wales is transferred to the Representative Body.

The application of other property to secular uses is effected by transfers to a variety of bodies, viz. County Councils (including Councils of County Boroughs), Local Burial Authorities, the University of Wales.

(i) Moveable chattels (including plate, furniture, &c.) belonging to any church, or used in connection with the celebration of divine worship therein, are by the Act transferred directly to the Representative Body on its incorporation, and until such incorporation they remain vested as before disestablishment (Sec. 4 (2) ). This property docs not pass through the Welsh Commissioners.

(ii) The Welsh Commissioners are directed to transfer to the Representative Body--

(a) Private Benefactions (Sec. 8 (i) (a) (vi) ).

These will consist of land, tithe rent-charge, and funds, and some burial grounds and portions of burial grounds (closed or open).

The net value of these private benefactions (other than burial grounds) was estimated to be in 1906 as follows:--Land, £2,618 per annum; tithe, rent-charge, £3,281 per 'annum; funds or annual payments, £13,091 per annum.

Private benefactions are denned by the Act as comprising--

Any property or proceeds of property 'given by any person out of his private resources since the year 1662 or money raised by voluntary subscriptions since that year or voluntarily given since that year out of funds not liable under any statutory provision to be applied to ecclesiastical purposes' (Sec. 7 (i) and (2)), and

Any property derived from the proceeds of sale of advowsons sold under the Lord Chancellor's Augmentation Act and applied for the augmentation of any livings in Wales or Monmouthshire (Sec. 7 (i)).

(b) The one-third (or proceeds of one-third) of grants by Queen Anne's Bounty out of the Royal Bounty Fund and the whole of grants (or proceeds of grants) by Queen Anne's Bounty out of the Parliamentary Grants Fund (Sec. 8 (i) (a) (iv) (v)).

The net value of this property in 1906 was estimated to lie:--Land, £6,460 per annum; tithe rent-charge, £538 per annum; funds or annual payments, £8,113 per annum.

(c) Churches (Sec. 8 (i) (a) (i)), including cathedrals with chapter houses and cloisters and other precincts of cathedral churches (Sec. 38 (i)).

(d) Ecclesiastical residences (Sec. 8 (i) (a) (ii)), including curtilages or gardens appurtenant to, or usually occupied with, the residences (Sec. 38 (i)).

(e) Fabric or repair funds for churches and ecclesiastical residences (Sec. 8 (i) (a) (hi) ).

(f) Glebe or other land (not comprised in any other of these divisions and not being burial ground) which the Representative Body may request to have transferred to them at its value (Sec. 8 (i) (a) (vii) ). The Welsh Commissioners may allow the purchase price or any part of it to be paid by instalments over a period of years or to remain on mortgage of the land (Sec. 27 (3) ).

(g) Burial grounds closed before the date of disestablishment which the Representative Body may request to have transferred to them (Sec. 8

(1) (a) (viii) ). As to closed burial grounds so transferred there will be no obligation on the local authorities to maintain them (Sec. 25 (i) (b)).

(2) PERMISSIVE TRANSFER BY ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSIONERS AND QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY TO THE REPRESENTATIVE BODY BY WAY OF RESTORATION TO THE CHURCH IN WALES

(i) The Ecclesiastical Commissioners are permitted within one year from the date of disestablishment to transfer to the Representative Body certain property vested in them and before the passing of the Act devoted to Welsh Church purposes (Sec. 6 (c) ), viz.--

(a) Capital grants (or the proceeds thereof) made by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to ecclesiastical offices or cathedral corporations in the Church in Wales and annual grants by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to parochial benefices in the Church in Wales (including grants for curates) (Sec. 6 (c) and Third Schedule, Part I, and Third Schedule, Part III (i) ).

The net value of these grants was estimated in 1906 to be:--Land, £50 per annum; tithe rent-charges, £280 per annum; funds or annual payments, £46,603 per annum.

(b) The excess of the annual charges on the Common Fund of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for non-parochial Welsh purposes over the annual value of the 'Welsh Church property' (see p. 28) of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (Third Schedule, Part III (2) ).

The net value of this excess was estimated in 1906 to be £3,060 per annum.

(ii) The Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty are permitted within one year of the date of disestablishment to transfer to the Representative Body certain property vested in them and before the passing of the Act devoted to the use of Welsh benefices (Sec. 6 (c) ), viz.--

Two-thirds (or the proceeds of such two-thirds) of grants made by Queen Anne's Bounty out of the Royal Bounty Fund (Third Schedule, Part II).

The net value of this property was estimated to be in 1906:--Land, £9,738 per annum; tithe rent-charge, £580 per annum; funds or annual payments, £8,287 Per annum.

In addition to permitting the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty to make these restorations to the Church in Wales, the Act also permits them to make certain further provision for the Church in Wales out of their own resources not at present appropriated to that purpose. Such further provision is as follows:--

(iii) The Ecclesiastical Commissioners are permitted to give to the Representative Body in any year after disestablishment by way of further provision for the Church in Wales (Sec. 6 (d)) a sum to be determined from year to year by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to be granted by them (over and above any grants existing at the date of the passing of the Act) and not exceeding the average amount of the annual appropriations from the surplus income of their Common Fund which, during the seven years ended October 31, 1911, has been allocated to benefices and curates in Wales (Third Schedule, Part IV).

The net value of this was estimated to be about £28,000 per annum.

(iv) Queen Anne's Bounty are permitted to give to the Representative Body in any year after disestablishment by way of further provision for the Church in Wales (Sec. 6 (d)) a sum to be determined from year to year by Queen Anne's Bounty to be granted by them (over and above the share as above mentioned of grants existing at the date of the passing of the Act), such sum. being absolutely in the discretion of the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty.

As introduced the Bill contained a limitation similar to that in the case of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the net value of the further provision so limited was estimated to be about £3,000 per annum.

(3) TRANSFER TO SECULAR USES

(i) First-fruits and Tenths:--

First-fruits are destroyed from the passing of the Act (Sees. 20 and 21 (2)). Tenths are destroyed from the cessation of existing interests, but during their continuance are from the date of disestablishment to be paid to the Welsh Commissioners or as they may direct (Sec. 20).

(ii) The Welsh Commissioners are directed to transfer to Local Burial Authorities (Sec. 8 (i) (b)) burial grounds not closed and such closed burial grounds as the Representative Body do not ask to have transferred to them, and excluding burial grounds acquired through private benefaction.

(iii) The Welsh Commissioners are directed to transfer to County Councils or the Councils of County Boroughs:--

(a) Tithe rent-charge of any parochial benefice (Sec. 8 (i) (c)) other than such tithe rent-charge as is included in the foregoing classes.

This is in effect the ancient tithe rent-charge of parochial benefices and such as has been annexed thereto by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and the net value of the whole was estimated to be in 1906 £106,068 per annum.

(b) Glebe of a parochial benefice not included in any of the foregoing classes (and moneys paid by the Representative Body for the purchase of any such glebe) and all other property of parochial benefices (Sec. 8 (i) (d)).

The net value of this property was estimated in 1906 to be:--Land, £17,003 per annum; funds or annual payments, £7,567 per annum (before any purchases of such land by the Representative Body).

The County or County Borough Council to which property is to be transferred is in the case of tithe rent-charge or proceeds of redemption of tithe rent-charge that County or County Borough in which the land is situate from which the tithe rent-charge arises. The land may be situate in England, in which case the tithe rent-charge is, however, to go to a County Council in Wales or Monmouthshire. The Welsh County Council to be so favoured is to be chosen by the Welsh Commissioners (Sec. 8 (i) (c)), but the principles to guide their choice are not stated.

In the case of land or the proceeds of land the County Council is to be that containing the ecclesiastical parish to the use of which the land was formerly appropriated (Sec. 8 (i) (d)).

(iv) The Welsh Commissioners are directed, subject to making provision for the expenses incidental to carrying the Act into effect, to transfer to the University of Wales all other property vested in the Welsh Commissioners (Sec. 8 (i) (e)). Such property will be the 'Welsh Church property' of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (see p. 28) Tenths in respect of existing interests and the property of any offices or corporations other than parochial benefices, e.g. of deans and chapters and lay offices.

The net value of the Welsh Church property of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners was estimated in 1906 to lie £26,700 per annum--approximately: Land, £9,800 per annum; tithe rent-charge, £16,900 per annum, and no estimate was produced of the other properties included in this class.

For the purpose of the re-distribution, funds representing property of any class which has been converted into money, and funds held upon trust to be applied in building, purchasing, repairing, or making good dilapidations in property of any class are to be dealt with as if they were properties of that class (Sec. 8 (3)).

The annual revenues dealt with and the mode of their distribution are set out in the subjoined tabular statement. This omits non-existing revenues (viz. the further provisions which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty are permitted to make as set out under (2) (iii) and (iv) on p. 49).

The figures given in this chapter and those in the tabular statement are the figures which were used in the official statements published while the Bill was under discussion, and it will be observed that they purport to be the net revenues, as in the year 1906, from properties of various origins. The source of them all is the Return of Revenues of the Church in Wales, furnished by Sir Lewis Dibdin to the Royal Commission on the Church in Wales, and printed as Appendix A to the Report of the Commission (Cd. 5432, 1910). But the figures in that Return are gross (the tithe rent-charge being given at the commuted amount), and the net figures for 1906 (based on these gross figures) are taken immediately from the Memorandum of Archdeacon Evans and Lord Hugh Cecil, printed as a supplement to the same Report (see pp. 84-87 of vol. i. of the Report).

Complete official figures have not been published for any subsequent year, and no calculations can properly be based on those for 1906. In the first place the amount of 'private benefactions' will require considerable modification, both in respect of the difference of date between that adopted in Sir Lewis Dibdin's Return (viz. gifts made since 1703) and the date adopted in the Act (since 1662), and in respect of the further benefactions since 1906. Considerable additions to Welsh Endowments have also been made by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty since 1906, while the revenues from ancient endowments have not remained the same---the value of tithe rent-charge in 1914 is considerably more than in 1906, some glebe land has been converted into money, and other changes in the properties made.

Moreover, the Return to the Welsh Church Commission is not conclusive as to the amounts and origins of the revenues with which it deals: the whole investigation has to be repeated for the purpose of the distribution of the properties: and, with whatever care the Return was prepared for the purpose of giving the best information possible to the Royal Commission, it would be absurd to suppose that it is accurate in every particular.

It should be borne in mind that the Return was made before the Bill, which has now become the Welsh Church Act, 1914, was in draft, and the distribution of the properties must now be made in accordance precisely with the provisions of the Act.

The transfers of property effected under the Act are transfers of the full ownership, subject to rights and interests expressly preserved, and the Welsh Commissioners and ultimately Local Burial Authorities, County Councils, and the Welsh University will be absolute owners, subject to incumbrances, leases, mortgages, &c., of land, tithe rent-charge and funds.

In these circumstances the Act gives to these authorities certain express powers of management, sale, &c.

The Welsh Commissioners and any local authority (which expression includes County Councils and Burial Authorities) are given (Sec. 27 (i)) 'power to manage and, as incidental thereto, power to sell, lease, or exchange'; but as to the power to sell, lease, or exchange, in the case of the Welsh Commissioners, with the consent of the Treasury, and in the case of a local authority with such consent as is by law required for those purposes in respect to land of such authority, and no power is conferred on any authority to sell any part of a burial ground.

As to investments the Welsh Commissioners are given power to invest moneys in their hands in accordance with regulations made by the Treasury in any securities for the time being authorised by Parliament as investments for savings bank funds (Sec. 31 (2)).

As to the University of Wales, power is given to them (Sec. 27 (2)) to manage and, as incidental thereto, to sell, lease, or exchange, but not without the consent of the Treasury, while the University continues liable to make payments for the purpose of preserving existing interests.

No express powers of sale, leasing, &c., are given to the Representative Body which will hold its property for the general purposes of the Church in Wales.

All properties transferred in accordance with the foregoing provisions are (Sec. 8 (a)) to be held 'subject to all existing public and private rights . . . and all tenancies charges and incumbrances which may at the date of the transfer be subsisting therein . . . and to existing interests,' subject to which existing interests such properties were transferred to the Welsh Commissioners (Sec. 4 (i)).

As regards 'existing interests' this is modified in the case of tithe rent-charge transferred to County Councils, i.e. the bulk of the tithe rent-charge of parochial benefices. Such tithe rent-charge goes over to the County Councils in possession, freed from any existing interest; but there is given to the person who would, but for this provision, have an existing interest in such tithe rent-charge an existing interest of like extent in an annuity equal to the net annual value of such tithe rent-charge. Under Section 15 the County Councils are required to pay to the Representative Body in trust for such persons half-yearly (the payment being a debt from the County Council and charged upon the County Fund) the net annual value of such tithe rent-charge according to the septennial average for the time being, after deduction of such sum as may be allowed by the Welsh Commissioners for cost of collection, rates, and other outgoings, the benefit of half-rates so long as that benefit is continued in respect to tithe rent-charge belonging to a benefice being extended to such tithe rent-charge in the hands of County Councils during the continuance of existing interests (Sec. 15 (i) (2) (3)).

Pensions out of ecclesiastical offices granted before the date of disestablishment are charged upon the 'existing interest' so long as that lasts, and thereafter on the properties out of which the emoluments of the office were payable, so as to be payable in due proportions by the persons or bodies in whom such properties have become vested (Sec. 14 (7)).

Charges by way of mortgages of the revenues of ecclesiastical offices created before the passing of the Act are to be apportioned as between properties passing to the several authorities, but during the continuance of any 'existing interest' will be charged upon the 'existing interest': after the determination thereof such charges become charges on the properties for the purpose of which the moneys were raised and on the County Fund of the county to which the property is transferred, or on the property for the time being vested in the Representative Body (Sec. 33).

The liability in respect of the ownership of tithe rent-charge for the repair of the chancel of any church falls upon the holder of an existing interest so long as that lasts, although the tithe rent-charge is vested in a County Council and an annual payment by the County Council substituted therefor (Sec. 15 (4)).

The liability of lay impropriators of tithe rent-charge for the repair of chancels is continued and made enforceable in the temporal courts at the instance of the Representative Body as if arising from convenant with the Representative Body running with the tithe rent-charge (Sec. 28 (i) (2)).

The County Councils are not, by reason of having tithe rent-charge transferred to them, to be liable for the repair of any ecclesiastical building (Sec. 28 (i)), so that the right to the repair of a chancel out of tithe rent-charge formerly belonging to a parochial benefice comes to an end on the termination of an existing interest.

There will be a good deal of tithe rent-charge included in the property transferred to the Welsh University, and some of this is now liable for the repair of chancels: this liability will presumably continue, the Welsh University becoming lay impropriators of tithe rent-charge.

As nearly all the property re-distributed under the Act, except such as belonged to benefices or other ecclesiastical offices vacant at the date of the passing of the Act, will be 'subject to existing interests' or the payment of such an annuity as above mentioned in lieu of an interest in tithe rent-charge, it is important to analyse and ascertain precisely what is involved in an 'existing interest.'

1. By the definition clause 'existing' means existing at the passing of the Act (Sec. 38).

2. 'Any person who at the date of the passing of the Act holds an ecclesiastical office affected by the Act by freehold tenure or by any tenure which in the opinion of the Welsh Commissioners is in practice equivalent to freehold tenure shall retain his existing interest in the emoluments of that office so long as he holds that office or any other ecclesiastical office in the Church in Wales to which he may be nominated or appointed after the passing of this Act whether before or after the date of disestablishment' (Sec. 14 (i)).

The term 'ecclesiastical office' includes (see p. 35) lay offices, e.g. the offices of diocesan chancellor and registrar, offices under the dean and chapter of a cathedral, or of an archdeaconry and parochial offices (e.g. of the clerk and sexton). If the holders of any of these offices are ecclesiastical corporations, such corporations are dissolved on the date of disestablishment. If they are not corporations, nevertheless any property belonging to them or appropriated to their use (as holders of ecclesiastical offices) is vested in the Welsh Commissioners (Sec. 4 (i) (b) ). Whether the holders constitute 'ecclesiastical corporations * or not, if they hold these offices by freehold tenure or by a tenure equivalent thereto in the opinion of the Welsh Commissioners they retain their 'existing interests' therein subject to the same provisions as other holders of existing interests, but so far as that existing interest is in any case an interest in a burial ground attached to the office it comes to an end on the holder of the existing interest vacating the particular office (Sec. 14 (i) (b) ).

It is, however, expressly provided (Sec. 24 (i) ) that 'during the incumbency of an existing incumbent of an ecclesiastical parish,' 'nothing in the Act shall affect the right of any existing clerk or sexton to fees in respect of burials' 'in the burial ground of the parish including the consecrated portion of any burial ground provided under the Burial Acts, 1852-1906.' From this it may be inferred that the interest of a clerk or sexton in burial fees does not give him an 'existing interest' in the burial ground.

The office must be held by freehold tenure or tenure equivalent thereto 'in the opinion of the Welsh Commissioners.' Presumably this will not include the office of assistant curate, although a curacy of this nature appears to be within the definition of an 'ecclesiastical office.'

3. Every corporation sole continues to be a corporation sole until the date of disestablishment, but the person constituting the corporation sole who was the holder of his office at the date of the passing of the Act appears to be holding the property of the corporation from that date in the capacity of the holder of an 'existing interest.' From the date of the passing of the Act, therefore, his powers are affected.

4. The existing interest is an interest in the 'emoluments' of the office. 'Emoluments' is a comprehensive term and would include all the profitable rights of an incumbent of a benefice, e.g. the right to occupy the official residence (but as to this there is special provision in the case of the holder of an existing interest moving from one office to another), to occupy the glebe or take the rents thereof, if let, and the right to receive fees for services rendered, monumental fees, pew rents, and every other source of income enjoyed by virtue of the office, whether in the nature of endowments affected by the Act, or income of any other kind.

5. The express provisions of the Act show that the existing interest in endowments consisting of land is more than a mere right to receive the income, it is in fact an estate for life, but determined by the holder ceasing for a period of six months to hold any ecclesiastical office in the Church in Wales (Sec. 14 (2) ).

It is further provided that 'where the emoluments of an ecclesiastical office ... do not consist of an interest in specific property, but of a right to receive a fixed annual sum,' then the right shall be deemed to be an existing interest in the property on which the annual sum is charged. (Sec. 14 (5) ).

This state of things will exist where a benefice is now entitled to a fixed annual charge upon another benefice, and particularly in the case of annuities payable by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to the bishops, deans, canons and others holding non-parochial offices, such annuities being by the Act itself primarily charged upon the net 'Welsh Church property' of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, which, subject to such existing interests, for the most part goes over to the Welsh University.

The ownership retained as an existing interest will carry with it the right to exercise such acts of ownership as the holder of the ecclesiastical office had the right to exercise before the passing of the Act, including rights of 'selling, leasing, mortgaging, exchanging, or otherwise disposing of or dealing with the property' subject to necessary consents. This is expressly confirmed by Section 26 of the Act, by which, however, other consents are substituted for those which would have been necessary before the passing of the Act, viz., the consent of the Representative Body in respect to any property which is transferred or to be transferred to that body, or the consent of the Welsh Commissioners, so long as they continue to exist, and thereafter of the County Council or (on appeal) of the Board of Agriculture in respect to any property transferred or to be transferred to a county council; and the proceeds of any such transaction are to be paid to the Representative Body or County Council as the case may be, and to belong to them respectively subject to the existing interest.

6. The 'existing interest' of the holder is something larger in point of duration than would be his interest in his office if the Act had not passed, because it is made to continue 'as long as he holds that office or any other ecclesiastical office in the Church in Wales to which he may be nominated or appointed after the passing of the Act' (Sec. 14 (i) ), and until six months after his ceasing to hold any such ecclesiastical office (if the holder still lives) (Sec. 14 (2) ), provided, however, that on nomination or appointment to such other office (a) he loses his interest in any burial ground and in any ecclesiastical residence attached to the office (14 (i) (b)), and (b) he is to pay the net income of the office held by him at the passing of the Act to the Representative Body (14 (i) (a)), or, if appointed to a new office after the passing of the Act and before the date of disestablishment, he is to pay the income of the office he held at the passing of the Act to the bishop of the diocese until the date of disestablishment for the bishop to make provision thereout as he may think proper for the discharge of the spiritual duties of that office (Sec. 21 (4)).

When the holder of an existing interest ceases to hold any ecclesiastical office in the Church in Wales by resignation of his last office, with the consent of the Representative Body, on the ground of incapacity, by permanent mental or bodily infirmity, for the performance of his duties, his existing interest comes to an end, but he becomes entitled to receive for the rest of his life an annuity equal to one-third of the net income of the office which he held at the passing of the Act (exclusive of the annual value of any residence), to be payable out of the property from which the emoluments of the office were derived and by the several persons or bodies in whom those properties have become vested (Sec. 14 (2)).

The interests of laymen as well as of clergy are directly affected by the disestablishment of the Church in two directions: (i) as to patronage belonging to laymen and (2) as to lay offices.

(i) As to patronage.--As benefices are destroyed the rights of appointment thereto are necessarily done away with, and this is expressly provided to take effect as from the date of the passing of the Act (Sec. i). A modified right is re-granted in respect of vacancies occurring in any ecclesiastical office in the Church in Wales between the passing of the Act and the date of disestablishment (Sec. 21), but as an appointment on such a vacancy confers no 'existing interest' (Sec. 21 (3)) and the appointee merely becomes entitled to the revenues of the benefice (if they are not the subject of an existing interest in some other person) until the date of disestablishment, the value of an advowson is in fact destroyed as from the passing of the Act.

For this the Act provides (Sec. 16) limited compensation to be paid to patrons of benefices other than the Crown, Cathedral and Ecclesiastical Corporations in the Church in Wales sole or aggregate (being corporations dissolved by the Act), and trustees, officers, and other persons acting in a public capacity. The compensation takes the form of a payment to the patron of a sum not exceeding 'one year's emoluments of the benefice' on the average of the three years preceding the passing of the Act. Within that limit the amount is to be such a sum as the Welsh Commissioners think just. It is not clear whether a decision of the Welsh Commissioners on this point would be subject under Sec. 12 (i) to appeal to His Majesty in Council. The compensation is to be paid at the expiration of two years from the date of disestablishment or on the occurrence of a vacancy of the benefice if one happens after the date of disestablishment before the expiration of the two years. The compensation must be claimed by the patrons within six months after the passing of the Act, i.e. on or before March 17,-1915, Trustees are not bound to claim it. The compensation is to be paid out of the property which is secularised.

(2) As to lay officers in the Church in Wales, holding their offices at the date of the passing of the Act 'by freehold tenure or its equivalent in the opinion of the Welsh Commissioners,' if deprived by the operation of the Act of any emoluments, the Welsh Commissioners may pay compensation to such persons in the form of such annual or lump sum as they may, with the consent of the Treasury, determine, this compensation being payable out of the secularised property (Sec. 17).

It will be observed that this compensation is payable not in respect of loss of property (as in the few cases where lay offices are endowed the officers holding by freehold tenure at the date of the passing of the Act will retain their existing interests in such endowments as holders of 'ecclesiastical offices'), but on the ground of the officers being 'deprived of emoluments by the operation of the Act.' The provisions should therefore apply, e.g., to loss of burial fees by clerks and sextons of benefices vacant at the passing of the Act or thereafter vacated while such clerks or sextons retain their offices.

ALL property transferred to the Representative Body by the Welsh Commissioners will be held by the Representative Body 'subject to all public and private rights with respect thereto existing at the date of the passing of the Act' (Sec. 8 (2)). This provision applies to the cathedral and other churches and certain closed burial grounds and to open churchyards or burial grounds or portions of such open churchyards or burial grounds where the same have been derived from private benefaction: it is not expressed to be applicable to moveable chattels (plate, furniture, &c.) belonging to churches, as these are transferred to the Representative Body without the intervention of the Welsh Commissioners.

There is no other express provision as to the purposes for which property transferred to the Representative Body (including that transferred pursuant to permission given by the Act as well as that compulsorily transferred) is to be used. But the Representative Body is a body to be incorporated at the request of the 'bishops, clergy, and laity' of the Church in Wales to hold property 'for any of their uses and purposes' (Sec. 13 (2)). All property transferred to the Representative Body by or pursuant to the Act must therefore be held by them for the uses and purposes of the bishops, clergy, and laity of the Church in Wales who may make 'constitutions and regulations for the general management and good government of the Church in Wales and the property and affairs thereof whether as a whole or according to dioceses' (Sec. 13 (i)). In addition to the property which is transferred to the Representative Body permanently for the purposes of the Church in Wales that body will also be the recipients of emoluments of benefices or other ecclesiastical offices during the continuance of existing interests therein in all cases in which those who held benefices or other ecclesiastical offices at the time of the passing of the Act afterwards move to other ecclesiastical offices in the Church in Wales and so retain their existing interests

(Sec. 14 (1)(1)) The Act does not say what the Representative Body is to do with income so paid over to them, whether, that is to say, they are free to use it generally for the benefit of the Church in Wales or whether it is their duty to make provision thereout for (a) the ecclesiastical office to which such emoluments belonged at the passing of the Act, or (6) the individual who was holder of the ecclesiastical office at the passing of the Act but has since been transferred to another office. It is not altogether easy to say which of these courses was contemplated by the framers of the Act. The object of preserving existing interests is in general that injury may not be done to individuals by taking from them that which they have already acquired, and it would seem that this must .be regarded as the object in the present case, although the interest preserved is greater than that which the individual had acquired in any particular property, being, except in relation to burial grounds and ecclesiastical residences (Sec. 14 (2)), for the term of his continuous service in the Church in Wales and not merely for his incumbency or holding of the particular benefice he had at the date of the passing of the Act. The reason for this extension of the existing interest is to avoid the embarrassment that would otherwise be caused to the Church in being unable to move men from place to place if such removal meant an immediate loss of income. Even that, however, is in the interests of the individual as well as of the Church. Moreover, the holder of an office has a reasonable expectation that, unless he has to retire on the ground of infirmity, he will not lose his office except upon voluntarily taking another.

It is to be observed that, where an incumbent having an existing interest is moved to another ecclesiastical office in the Church in Wales before the date of disestablishment, special provision is made in respect of the period until the date of disestablishment as to what is to be done with the income in which he retains an existing interest. During that period he has to pay it over (Sec. 21 (4)) to the bishop in order that the bishop may make thereout provision for the discharge of the spiritual duties of the benefice in respect of which the income arises. As already stated, there is no such special direction in reference to the period after disestablishment (when the income is paid over to the Representative Body). This special direction, in reference to the period before disestablishment, would seem to indicate an intention that the existing interest should be preserved for the benefit of the place where it arises, but it is probably not on this account that it is given but for the amply sufficient reason that, if this were not done, the holder of the existing interest would be enjoying two incomes in most cases, viz. that of the office he held at the passing of the Act, and that of the office to which he has moved.

After the date of disestablishment it is clear that the incumbent is in a position to make an arrangement with the Representative Body on his removal from one office to another--he can say, if he chooses, that if he accepts a new office an income at least equal to that which he surrenders and which goes to the Representative Body shall be secured to him in his new office.

There are finally two indications that the individual is intended to benefit by the retention of the existing interest, viz. (i) in Sec. 14 (2) it is provided that an incumbent who finally retires on the ground of incapacity with the consent of the Representative Body shall be entitled by way of pension to an annuity for life equal to one-third of the net income of the office in which he had an existing interest; and (2) in Sec. 18 (e) it is expressly provided that the person who but for commutation would have an existing interest in any property (for which existing interest a commutation payment is made to the Representative Body) shall (subject to any arrangement between him and the Representative Body) receive from the Representative Body an annuity equal to the value of the commuted income. This, however, is to be treated as part of the emoluments of the office held at the passing of the Act, and, if the incumbent has moved to another, there is an obligation under Section 14 (i) to pay2 over the income of the former office to the Representative Body.

(i) Tenths from the date of disestablishment and during the continuance of existing interests (Sec. 20) or until the date of commutation (Sec. 18 (a)) .--These will fall into the fund available for the payment of the expenses of carrying the Act into effect (Sec. 19 (i) (b) ), and subject thereto go over to the University of Wales.

(ii) Property transferred to Local Burial Authorities, being burial grounds not closed and not derived from private benefaction, and such closed burial grounds (not derived from private benefaction) as the Representative Body do not ask to have transferred to them.--These burial grounds are transferred 'without prejudice to any existing public and private rights of burial therein' (Sec. 24 (2) ), and subject during the incumbency of the incumbent holding the benefice at the time of the passing of the Act to existing powers or rights with respect to burials and also to the right to fees in respect of such burials of any clerk or sexton holding his office at the time of the passing of the Act (Sec. 24 (i) (a) and (b) ).

The 'existing interest' in a burial ground, it will be observed, continues only during the incumbency of any incumbent in possession at the passing of the Act (Sec. 14 (i) (b) and Sec. 24 (i) ).

In the case of any burial ground adjoining a church vested in the Representative Body it is to be held by the Burial Authority (after the determination of the incumbency of any existing incumbent) subject to a right of way for those resorting to the church and for the purpose of repairing the church or for any other lawful purpose (Sec. 24 (3) (a)). Funerals shall not take place during times of ordinary services. Regulations are to be made by the Secretary of State for preventing interference by persons attending funerals with the clergy and congregation attending the church; any road across the burial ground to the church is to be kept in repair by the Burial Authority: any part of the burial ground required for use for enlargement of the church or for its repair may be used to the same extent as if the Act had not been passed: a portion used for the enlargement of the church becomes vested in the Representative Body (Sec. 24 (3) (b) (c) (d) ).

Subject to these conditions such burial grounds, after the determination of the incumbency of the existing incumbent, are to be held by the Local Burial Authorities as and for the purposes of burial grounds provided under the Burial Acts, 1852-1906 (Sec. 24 (4)).

(iii) Property transferred to County Councils.-- This consists of the ancient endowments in glebe and tithe rent-charge of parochial benefices and funds representing the same or the proceeds thereof. Such property is to be applied 'to any charitable or eleemosynary purpose of local or general utility, including the aiding of poor scholars,' and schemes are to be framed for such application by County Councils jointly or separately and to be approved by the Secretary of State (Sec. 19 (i) (a) ). In schemes for such application due regard is to be had to the wants and circumstances of (a) the parish in which the property is situate or from which it is or has been derived, and (3) the parish comprising the ecclesiastical parish to which any such property was attached (Sec. 19 (2) ). Precisely what (a) means is not very clear, but the provision relates to actual real property (land and tithe rent-charge) which has a local situation and to proceeds of the sale of or derived from such property, and presumably it is meant that regard is to be had to the wants and circumstances of the parish in which is situate the actual property or the property from which such proceeds have been derived. The provision is something like an echo of the 'local claim' provision in the statutes relating to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who are directed in the application of revenues derived by them from bishoprics, chapters, and other Church preferments to have due consideration to the wants and circumstances of the places in which such revenues arise (see e.g. Sec. 67 of 3 & 4 Vic. c. 113).

The property transferred to County Councils has to share with the property transferred to the University of Wales the burden of payments for compensation to lay patrons (Sec. 16 (4) ), and to lay holders of freehold offices (Sec. 17).

(iv) Property transferred to the University of Wales.--This property is to be applied (a) towards payment of the expenses of carrying the Act into execution (that is to say, mainly the expenses of the Welsh Commissioners), and subject thereto (b) by the University of Wales for the benefit of the University and the following institutions, that is to say, the three University Colleges of Aberystwyth, North Wales and South Wales, and the National Library of Wales, one-fourth to each University College, and one-eighth to the National Library (Sec. 19 (i) (b) ). The Colleges are to have regard to the needs of poor scholars.

The property transferred to the University of Wales has to share with the property transferred to County Councils the burden of payments in respect of compensation to lay patrons for the extinction of their rights of patronage (Sec. 16 (4) ) and of payments of compensation to lay holders of freehold offices (Sec. 17).

FOR the execution of the Act provision is made for the appointment of a temporary commission, and the commissioners are constituted a body corporate by the name of 'The Commissioners of Church Temporalities in Wales,' shortly referred to as the 'Welsh Commissioners' (Sec. 10).

The expenses of carrying the Act into effect (including salaries and remuneration of paid commissioners and of their staff) are to be paid by the Welsh Commissioners 'out of moneys in their hand in pursuance of this Act, but not so as in any way to diminish the property to be transferred to the Representative Body or County Councils' (Sec. 10 (6)); that is to say, out of funds which would otherwise go to the Welsh University.

The powers of the commissioners are to continue for three years from the end of the year 1914, but may be extended by His Majesty on the advice of the Privy Council for a further period not exceeding two years (Sec. 10 (7) ).

The commissioners (three in number) were appointed on September 23, 1914, and are the Right Hon. Sir Henry William Primrose, K.C.B. (chairman), Sir John Herbert Roberts, Bart., M.P., and Sir William Plender.

The Secretary to the Commission is Mr. T. Huws Davies, and the office is at No. 119, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W.

The Welsh Commissioners have full power to decide all questions, whether of law or fact, which it may be necessary to decide for the purpose of the Act, and there is no appeal from any decision of theirs except such as is expressly provided for by the Act in relation to particular matters (Sec. ii (i) and (3)).

They may act by any one of their number, but any person aggrieved by an order of one commissioner may require re-consideration of the order, and the order must then be re-considered on rehearing by the three commissioners (Sec. 10 (3)).

Proceedings before the Welsh Commissioners are in law judicial proceedings before a court of record, and the commissioners have the same powers as are vested in the High Court for enforcing attendance of witnesses and production of documents and issuing commissions to examine witnesses, punishing persons guilty of contempt 'in the presence of the commissioners or any of them sitting in open court,' or refusing to give evidence or produce documents, and for 'making or enforcing any order made by them for carrying the Act into effect' (Sec. ii (2) ).

The Welsh Commissioners may rescind or vary any order, but otherwise (and subject to any appeal allowed by the Act) every order or decision of the Welsh Commissioners is final (Sec. ii (3)).

In respect to questions arising under the Act between different local authorities, and as to any adjustment of rights or liabilities incidental to the distribution of property under the Act among such local authorities (i.e. County Councils, Burial Boards, and others), the decision rests with the Welsh Commissioners (Sec. 34).

The Welsh Commissioners are to make general rules for regulating their procedure under the Act (Sec. ii (4)), and of certain proposed regulations they have already given notice. Appended to these are forms in which applications for compensation may be made by (i) lay patrons of benefices or ecclesiastical offices, and (2) lay holders of freehold offices.

Appeals from the Welsh Commissioners (under Sec. 12 (i) and (2)) lie to His Majesty in Council (to be referred to the Judicial Committee in like manner as appeals from a court from which an appeal lies to His Majesty in Council) with respect to any question as to--

(a) What constitutes a private benefaction,

(b) What sum should be paid as compensation to any person (e.g. lay holder of a freehold office).

(c) What sum should be paid to any person in substitution for, and in satisfaction of, his interest in any tithe rent-charge.

Any parishioner of a 'border parish' may also appeal to His Majesty in Council (and such appeal is to be referred to the Judicial Committee) against any order of the Welsh Commissioners determining whether such parish is to be treated as wholly within or wholly without Wales or Monmouthshire (Sec. 9 (i) ).

There is also something in the nature of an appeal to the Privy Council in certain other matters as it is provided by Sec. 5 (4) that the Orders of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty respectively as to what is 'Welsh Ecclesiastical property' vested in them at the passing of the Act shall be made with the concurrence of the Welsh Commissioners or, in default of such concurrence, with the approval of His Majesty in Council given on the advice of the Judicial Committee; and by Sec. 7 (4) that orders of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty declaring as to property transferred by them what part constitutes private benefactions shall be made with the concurrence of the Welsh Commissioners, and that the Orders of the Welsh Commissioners declaring other private benefactions shall be made with the concurrence of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners or of Queen Anne's Bounty as to any benefice with respect to which the Ecclesiastical Commissioners or Queen Anne's Bounty have given to the Welsh Commissioners particulars of any private benefactions made through them, and if the required concurrence be not given such orders shall be made with the approval of His Majesty in Council on the advice of the Judicial Committee. Arbitration under the Arbitration Act, 1889, is prescribed (Sec. 36) as the mode of settling a number of questions that may arise in carrying the Act into effect in the event of disagreement between the parties concerned, viz.:--

(1) As between the Representative Body and any holder of an existing interest moving from one ecclesiastical office to another in the Church in Wales, any question as to the amount of the net income of the ecclesiastical office to be paid over by him to the Representative Body (Sec. 14 (3)).

(2) As between the same parties in the event of the holder of an existing interest claiming on the ground of permanent incapacity to retire with a pension of one-third of his existing interest, any question of such incapacity (Sec. 14 (3)).

(3) As between the holder of an existing interest retiring on the ground of permanent incapacity and the bodies in whom the properties in which he has an existing interest have been vested, any question of the amount of the pension payable to him or the proportions in which such bodies are liable to contribute (Sec. 14 (3)).

(4) As between an incumbent retired before the date of disestablishment on a pension under the Incumbents' Resignation Act and the bodies in whom the properties of the benefice have become vested, any question as to the liability of any such body and the proportions in which such bodies should contribute (Sec. 14 (7)).

(5) As between the Representative Body and the Welsh Commissioners, any question as to the value of glebe or other land which the Representative Body may elect to purchase (Sees. 8 (i) (a) (vii.)and 18 (6)).

(6) As between the Welsh Commissioners, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, Queen Anne's Bounty, the Representative Body, the University of Wales and Local Authorities or any of them, any question of the adjustment or apportionment of any property, income, debts, liabilities, and expenses (so far as affected by the Act or by any scheme or Order under the Act) of the parties (Sec. 35).

In respect to one question a special form of arbitration is provided; that is to say, that in the event of the adoption of commutation by the Representative Body and any difference arising between that body and the Welsh Commissioners in the computation of the values of existing interests as to 'the proper allowance to be made' (for the adaptation of the prescribed Tables of Mortality) 'on account of the greater longevity of the clergy as compared with other classes of the community, and on account of any prospective decrease in the death rate,' then the amount of such allowance is to be determined by an actuary appointed by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council after giving the parties, if they desire it, an opportunity of being heard.

The responsibility of the Welsh Commissioners to Parliament is secured in three ways.

t (i) The general rules for regulating their procedure which they are authorised to make have to be submitted to His Majesty in Council for confirmation, and when confirmed are to be laid before both Houses of Parliament and thereupon have statutory authority (Sec. n (4) ).

(2) The Welsh Commissioners are to make an annual report to the Secretary of State, which is to be laid before Parliament (Sec. n (5) ).

(3) The accounts of the Welsh Commissioners are to be made in such form and with such particulars as the Treasury direct, to be audited by the Controller and Auditor General, and to be laid before Parliament with his report thereon (Sec. 31 (i) ).

CHAPTER VIII
COMMUTATION OF EXISTING INTERESTS

TVHE nature of an 'existing interest' has been set out in Chapter V, and it has been observed that practically all the property distributed under the Act, whether it goes to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, to Queen Anne's Bounty, to the Representative Body, to County Councils or to the University of Wales, is transferred subject to the existing interests of bishops, deans, canons, archdeacons or incumbents who held their offices at the date of the passing of the Act.

If no other provision were made the effect of this would be, in the case, say, of a County Council, that on the date of disestablishment the Council would become the owner of glebe and tithe rent-charge in, it may be, fifty or more parishes, but subject in practically every case to an outstanding life interest entitling its holder to receive the actual income the tithe rent-charge from (indirectly) the County Council and to continue in the possession and management of the glebe land. This is not a happy position and, apart from the opportunities it creates for disputes, it would tend to hamper the County Council in framing schemes 'either alone or jointly with any other County Council' for the application of the revenues to the purposes prescribed by the Act: it might be some years before a County Council obtained any advantage from the property transferred to it, and forty years or more before the whole advantage would be secured.

In these circumstances it is doubtless wise that something should be done to accelerate the falling of the properties into the actual possession of their new owners and the extinguishment of interests which postpone that result. If the secularised properties be looked at as a whole they may be said to be divided between the Church and the secular bodies, the Church retaining (through the holders of ecclesiastical offices) the aggregate of the existing interests, carrying the immediate enjoyment of the property, and the secular bodies being given the aggregate of the reversionary interests falling into possession as the existing interests lapse. The suggestion is obvious that, in the interests of both parties, an arrangement should be made for dividing the value of the whole into two parts, one being the value of the existing interests and the other the residuary value; and, if the whole property be transferred in possession to the secular bodies, subject to their paying to the Church the value of the existing interests, then, while the inconveniences of dual ownership are avoided, neither the Church nor the secular bodies are put in any worse position.

This is the operation of 'commutation of existing interests' but it is complicated by the fact that the existing interests do not belong to any one body, 'the Church,' but to a large number of individuals, the holders of ecclesiastical offices, subject to their performing the duties attached to their offices. It would not be practical to pay to each individual the capital value of his life interest and so allow him to 'anticipate' his income from his office for the rest of his life. This would be feasible if disestablishment implied the relief of the Church from its duties: but this is not so: the work has to go on and the officers must go on doing it: their vested interests are coupled with the obligation to perform the duties of their offices, and it is necessary to provide that they shall receive the value of their existing interests in the form in which they are already entitled to it--that is to say, as income. This necessity is met by arranging that the price to be paid for the capital value of the existing interests shall be handed over to the Representative Body of the Church, and this body is to undertake the liability to pay to all those who have existing interests, and for as long as their interests continue, an income equal to that of which they are deprived by the transfer of the properties to the secular bodies.

In so far as capital sums and securities which are secularised may not be available for the payment of the purchase price of the existing interests, the capital will have to be borrowed, and powers of borrowing for this and other purposes are given to the Welsh Commissioners with the consent of the Treasury by Section 30 of the Act. The secularised property constitutes the security for any loan, repayment of which may also be guaranteed by the Treasury, and the Welsh Commissioners have authority to determine the shares in which the various properties secularised shall bear the burden of the loan.

In the event, therefore, of commutation being adopted, the various properties will go over to the County Councils and other secular bodies, freed from any existing interests, but charged with the sums borrowed for clearing off such existing interests. That will in no way affect the holders of existing interests.

The Scheme of Commutation is set out in Section 18 of the Act, and the Fourth and Fifth Schedules, and it may be useful to draw attention to the following points:--

(1) The adoption of the scheme is optional, but no option is given to any individual holder of an existing interest. It is for the Representative Body to decide whether commutation shall be adopted, and, if they desire to adopt it, they must notify their decision to the Welsh Commissioners 'before or within one month after the date of disestablishment.'

(2) 'The date of commutation,' or the date from which commutation comes into force, is the date of disestablishment or the date of such notification as above mentioned to the Welsh Commissioners of the adoption of the scheme, if that date be later than the date of disestablishment.'

(3) Commutation affects only the secularised property and abolishes all existing interests therein.

(4) To the individual 'holder of an existing interest' the adoption of commutation means only that in respect of secularised property in which he had an existing interest he will receive from the Representative Body so long as he would have retained his existing interest, and subject to any arrangements he may voluntarily make with the Representative Body, a fixed income equal to the net income which he was receiving at the date of disestablishment, instead of himself collecting the rents of glebe and receiving the actual net income from tithe rent-charge and funds from the County Council or other authority to which such property is transferred, and himself discharging the^ outgoings in respect of the glebe.

The position of a holder of an existing interest in respect to property other than that which is secularised remains unchanged by commutation; he retains his existing interest therein. Such property will be vested in the Representative Body or (unless and until they shall transfer it to the Representative Body as they are authorised to do) in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners or Queen Anne's Bounty, but wherever it is it is subject to the existing interests, and the holders of the existing interests are entitled to the income as they have formerly received it.

(5) The security which holders of existing interests will have for the payment to them of their annuities in lieu of their existing interests in the secularised property will be absolute, as these annuities are charged (Sec. 18 (f)) not merely on the capital sum representing their aggregate value which is to be paid to the Representative Body on commutation, but upon all the property, capital and income, held by the Representative Body, which includes (inter alia) the aggregate of private benefactions, the funds and property representing the grants by Queen Anne's Bounty out of the Parliamentary Grants Fund, the annuities and capital grants of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty to the extent to which they restore them to the Church in Wales, and any new sums which from year to year the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty may grant to the Representative Body pursuant to the power for that purpose given to them by the Act. The whole of these properties, and not merely the value of existing interests therein, goes over to the Representative Body.

The income arising therefrom (except from any new grants to the Representative Body by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty) at first belongs mainly (though not as to the whole) to the holders of existing interests, but as particular interests cease, the capital funds remain charged with the payment of the annuities in commutation of the existing interests in secularised properties.

(6) The calculation of the commutation annuity to be paid to the holder of an existing interest is a matter for determination by the Representative Body, but the mode in which it is to be calculated is prescribed in the Fifth Schedule to the Act, and it is sufficient to say that that method ensures that the annuity shall not be less than the net income which the holder of the existing interest has been receiving from the property in respect of which his existing interest is destroyed, with some provision for the case of land in which there is a latent value not represented in the present rent. If there should be any difference of opinion between the holder of the existing interest and the Representative Body as to the amount of the annuity it is to be determined by arbitration (Sec. 18 (e) ).

(7) It will be for the Representative Body before they decide on the acceptance or rejection of commutation to collect the necessary information to enable them to judge whether the terms prescribed by the Act upon which commutation may be effected are such as in the interests of the Church in Wales can be accepted, as any financial advantage from the scheme will accrue to the benefit of the Representative Body and any loss will have to be borne by that body.

(8) The method of ascertaining the capital value of an existing interest is set out in the Fourth Schedule to the Act. Every existing interest has to be separately valued, and the aggregate of these values is the commutation sum which will be payable by the Welsh Commissioners to the Representative Body (but with the addition of 2\ per cent, thereon in respect of costs of administration of the Commutation Scheme). The Representative Body may, if they so choose, receive the commutation sum partly in the form of land, which would otherwise be secularised; and the selection of the land rests with them, its value being agreed between them and the Welsh Commissioners, or in default settled by arbitration (Sec. 18 (b)).

(9) The time of payment of the Commutation sum is a matter of great importance to the determination of the question whether it is advisable to accept commutation, and the provision of the Act upon this point is unfortunately not as precise as it might be. It may probably be a matter of negotiation between the Representative Body and the Welsh Commissioners. The intention of the Act is, however, reasonably clear, as it is enacted (Sec. 18 (b) ) that 'the Welsh Commissioners shall as soon as may be after the date of commutation' pay the commutation sum to the Representative Body. But some delay appears to be anticipated, as provision is made (Sec. 18 (b)) for the payment to the Representative Body of interest on the commutation sum at the rate of 3! per cent, per annum from the date of commutation to the date of payment, and further provision is made (Sec. 18 (d)) for the payment of sums on account primarily, but not exclusively, in respect of such interest.

(10) In the case of ecclesiastical offices vacant at the passing of the Act there will be no existing interest and consequently nothing to be valued.

(u) Where there is an existing interest to be valued the value is to be taken (Fourth Schedule, Clause i) 'to be the value as on January 1, 1913, of an annuity payable half-yearly commencing on that date during the life of the person who was at that date holder of the office of an amount equal to the annual value of the interest.' The 'annual value of the interest' is to be computed in accordance with provisions set out in other clauses of the Fourth Schedule, which aim at arriving at the equivalent of the net income from the secularised property, with some provision for the case of land in which there is a latent value not represented in the present rent.

(12) It is not clear how the value of an existing interest is to be ascertained in the case of ecclesiastical offices of which there was an existing holder at the date of the passing of the Act, but which were vacant on January i, 1913. Presumably a reasonable basis of valuation will have to be agreed between the Representative Body and the Welsh Commissioners, as it is clear that the value of such existing interests must form part of the aggregate.

(13) It will be observed that the person to whom the Representative Body will have to pay an annuity equal to the annual income from the secularised property will, in some cases, be a different person from the one on whose life the capital value of the existing interest has been computed: commutation may be based upon an older life than that of the holder of the existing interest entitled to the annuity from the Representative Body or on a younger: these cases (being those in which there has been a change in the holder of the ecclesiastical office between January I, 1913, and September 17, 1914) will all be known, and the Representative Body will be in a position to calculate to what extent the advantages of commutation are affected by this consideration. The probability is that the cases are not so many nor the aggregate sum affected so large as to weigh substantially in the consideration of the acceptance or rejection of commutation.

(14) In the valuation of the life annuities, interest is to be calculated at the rate of 3^ per cent, per annum, and special provisions are made as to the Tables of Mortality to be adopted, &c., which would appear to secure, as well as can be secured, that due weight shall be given to the considerations affecting the longevity of the special class of lives. The rate of interest and these other provisions will be matters for careful examination by the Representative Body as elements in the decision as to the acceptance or rejection of commutation, but they are beyond the scope of this analysis of the provisions of the Act.

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