bishop shall cause a declaration as in Schedule B. to be prepared, inserting therein the amount of pension so allowed out of the revenues of the benefice to the retiring incumbent, and the day, not being less than one month after the date of the declaration, when the incumbency shall be void and the pension shall commence, and the times of payment, not being oftener than twice a year, and shall sign the same in triplicate in the presence of one witness, and shall cause one copy thereof to be delivered or sent prepaid by post to the patron of the benefice, and another copy thereof to be delivered or sent in like manner to the incumbent of the same, and the third copy to be filed in the registry of the diocese, and such declaration shall be the title deed of the retiring incumbent to the pension assigned therein to him; provided that no benefice shall at any time be subject to the payment of more than one pension.

10. [Pension to be a charge on the benefice.] The pension so allowed shall be a charge upon the revenues of the benefice, and shall be recoverable as a debt at law or in equity from the incumbent of the said benefice by the retired clerk, his executors, administrators, or assigns, but such pension shall not be transferable at law or in equity.

11. [Annual value of benefice.] The annual value of a benefice for the purposes of this Act shall be the net annual value after deducting all rates, taxes, and charges assessed upon and payable out of the benefice, exclusive of the parsonage, vicarage, or other place of residence of the incumbent.

12. [Patron to present to resigned benefice.] After the filing of such declaration as aforesaid the benefice shall, ipso facto, be vacant on the day fixed in such declaration; and the patron thereof shall be entitled to present a clerk for the same as if it had been vacated by the death of the incumbent thereof, and the clerk who shall be collated, instituted, or licensed thereto shall be entitled to the revenues of the same, subject nevertheless to the payment to the retired clerk of such sum as may be allowed to him as pension; and such clerk shall have the same right and claim in respect of dilapidations as if the benefice had been vacated by the death of the incumbent thereof.

13. [Pensioned clerk amenable to ecclesiastical discipline.] Every pensioned clerk shall remain amenable to ecclesiastical discipline, and be liable to suspension from or forfeiture of pension for offences which would have involved suspension from or forfeiture of the benefice had he remained incumbent thereof, and proceedings under the Act 3 & 4 Vict. c. 86, intituled "An Act for better enforcing Church discipline," may be taken against every offending pensioned clerk in the same manner as if he had remained incumbent of the benefice, and in the same manner in all respects as if the offence alleged to have been committed had been committed within the said benefice :

Provided always, that in case any offending pensioned clerk shall reside elsewhere than in England or Wales or the Channel Islands it shall be lawful for the bishop by a letter or summons under his hand, with the consent of the archbishop of the province, to be signified by his countersigning such letter or summons, addressed and sent prepaid by post to such pensioned clerk at his last known place of residence, to require such clerk to attend in England and appear to any proceedings which may be instituted against him for any such offence by him committed or alleged to have been committed, and to appoint a place in England where service of all subsequent process, articles, and documents may be made, and service of such process, articles, and documents at such place shall be sufficient; and if such pensioned clerk shall neglect to appear to such proceedings within three calendar months after such letter or summons shall have been sent to him as aforesaid, and to appoint such place for service, such proceedings may be prosecuted in his absence.

14. [Parsonage house to belong to new incumbent.] It shall in no case be lawful to assign the house of residence of the incumbent as any part or the whole of the pension for a retired clerk; but such house of residence shall belong to and be enjoyed by the incumbent of the benefice as if the benefice were free from all claim by a retired clerk.

15. [Pension to cease or to be altered under certain circumstances.] The right of a retired clerk to the pension assigned to him shall cease upon the enrolment of any deed of relinquishment by the clerk under the 33 & 34 Vict. c. 91, or on and after the day on which he is admitted to another benefice; and in the event of any retired clerk undertaking clerical duties elsewhere than within the benefice from which he retired, it shall be lawful for the incumbent of the benefice to bring the same to the notice of the bishop, who shall cause inquiries to be made into the facts, and upon his being satisfied that such retired clerk is or has been undertaking such clerical duties and receiving a remuneration for the same, it shall be competent for such bishop to determine whether the pension payable to such retired clerk shall cease or be diminished in any and what proportion or for any and what period: Provided always, that such retired clerk may, within one month after a notice of the determination of the bishop shall have been sent to him by post, appeal to the archbishop of the province, who shall confirm, annul, or vary the decision of the bishop as to such archbishop shall appear just and proper, and the cessation of or the alteration, if any, made in the pension shall be stated by endorsement on the declaration filed in the registry, and the title of the retired clerk to receive and the liability of the existing incumbent to pay a pension out of the revenues of the benefice shall cease or be

altered in accordance with such endorsement, and a copy of such endorsement signed by the bishop shall be delivered on application to the incumbent and patron of the benefice.

16. [Expenses of inquiry.] If a commission under this Act be issued on the representation of an incumbent, and the return thereto shall state that in the opinion of the Commissioners the ground for resignation of the incumbent is not proved, or the retirement of the incumbent is not expedient, then in such case all the expenses which shall have been incurred by or with the sanction or by the direction of the bishop in or towards carrying the provisions of this Act into execution shall be defrayed by the incumbent, and shall be recoverable from him by or for the bishop as debts in and by course of law. If the return to the commission issued on the aforesaid representation shall state that in the opinion of the Commissioners the retirement of the incumbent is expedient, then one moiety of the expenses incurred by or with the sanction or under the direction of the bishop in or towards carrying the provisions of this Act into execution shall be defrayed by the incumbent whose retirement is recommended, and the other moiety shall be a charge on the revenues of the benefice, and shall be recoverable as a debt at law or in equity from the incumbent thereof by or for the bishop.

17. [Costs incurred by registrar, &c.] The costs incurred by any secretary of a bishop and any registrar of a diocese in carrying into execution the provisions of this Act shall be fixed and regulated in accordance with and in the manner specified in the provisions of the 131st section of 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, as if the duties required of such secretary and registrar under this Act had been specified in the said recited Act.

18. [Resignation by lunatic.] The right of resignation and of doing any act leading to, connected with, or consequent on such resignation by this Act given to an incumbent, may, if the incumbent be a lunatic found such by inquisition, be exercised in his name and on his behalf by the committee of his estate.

I,

SCHEDULE A.

To the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of

being now, and having been for the last seven years continuously, rector [vicar, or incumbent,] of within your lordship's diocese, hereby represent to your lordship, that I, finding myself incapacitated, by permanent mental or bodily infirmity (as the case may be), from the due performance of the duties of my office, am desirous of resigning the aforesaid

benefice, on being allowed to receive a pension out of the revenues of the same.

Accordingly, I respectfully request your lordship to issue a commission under the provisions of the Incumbents Resignation Act, 1871, to inquire and report, as provided by the said Act, upon the expediency of my proposed resignation. As witness my hand, this in the year of our Lord 18.

day of

(L.S.)

Whereas on the

18

SCHEDULE B.

day of

in the year of our Lord

a commission was issued by us, the bishop of under the provisions of the Incumbents Resignation Act, 1871 on the representation of the Rev. incumbent of

within the diocese aforesaid, and in their return thereto the Commissioners stated that in their opinion the resignation of the said was expedient, and that a pension of pounds per annum out of the revenues of the said benefice should be allowed to the said Rev. on his retirement therefrom: And whereas the patron has consented, or not refused his consent, to such resignation, [or] the archbishop has determined that such resignation shall be accepted:

day of

, do declare

to

day

We by divine permission bishop of the said benefice void of the person of the said Rev. all intents and purposes of the law, on and after the of subject nevertheless to the payment by half-yearly payments from the next, out of the revenues thereof, of the said yearly pension of pounds, the first of which half-yearly payments shall be payable on future half-yearly payments at periods of six months from such day, or such other sum as may hereafter be assigned under the provisions of the said Act unto the said for his life, or

and

such less period as hereafter may be assigned by law and endorsed hereon.

As witness our hand this

18

day of

Witnesses to the signature of the bishop

in the year

34 & 35 VICT. CAP. 45.

An Act for amending the Law relating to Sequestration of Ecclesiastical Benefices. [13th July, 1871.]

BE it most Excellent spititual and

E it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and

Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1. [On sequestration bishop to appoint curate and assign stipend, as defined in 34 & 35 Vict. c. 44.] Where, after the 31st of August, 1871, under a judgment recovered against the incumbent of a benefice as defined in the Incumbents Resignation Act, 1871, or under the bankruptcy of such incumbent, a sequestration issues and the same remains in force for a period of six months, the bishop of the diocese shall from and after the expiration of such period of six months, and as long as the sequestration remains in force, take order for the due performance of the services of the church of the benefice, and shall have power to appoint and license for this purpose such curate or curates, or additional curate or curates, as the case may require, with such stipend in each case as the bishop thinks fit, the amount thereof to be specified in the license, and the bishop may at any time revoke any such appointment and license: Provided always, that such stipend or stipends shall not exceed in the whole the following sums; that is to say, if the population shall not exceed 500, the sum of £200 yearly; if the population shall exceed 500 but not 1000, the sum of £300 yearly; if the population shall exceed 1000 but not 3000, the sum of £500 yearly; if the population shall exceed 3000, the sum of £600 yearly: Provided also, that such stipend or stipends shall not exceed in the whole two thirds of the annual value of the benefice as defined in the last-mentioned Act.

2. [Application of enactments in Schedule, Part I.] Such of the provisions of the Act specified in the schedule to this Act as are described in Part I. of that schedule and all provisions of that Act relative thereto shall have effect for purposes of this Act as if they were re-enacted.

3. [Payment of stipend.] Every stipend assigned under this Act shall be paid by the sequestrator out of moneys coming to his hands under the sequestration, as long as the sequestration is in force, in priority to all sums payable by virtue of the judgment or the bankruptcy under which the sequestration issues, but not in priority of liabilities in respect of charges on the benefice.

4. [Application of enactments in Schedule, Part II.] Such of the provisions of the Act specified in the schedule to this Act