"the mother of ignorance and melancholy herself, and in the very lap of

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Eternity, amongst so many divine souls, "I take my seat, with so lofty a spirit "and sweet content, that I pity all our "great ones and rich men, that know not "this happiness."

Numerous Legacies have been left for the purchase of Books, for establishing Libraries in several Grammar Schools, and a laudable desire has been manifested in some of them to extend such a useful appendage. A small sum is deducted from the last payment of every Exhibitioner on STEPHENS's foundation, to be employed in buying books towards forming a Library for the Free School of Exeter. And a good collection of books belonging to the Grammar School of Appleby, is increasing regularly by donations from different boys upon their leaving School.

Nothing, then, can be more humane or judicious than such benefactions to Country Schools, to Vestries, or Parsonagehouses upon poor Benefices.

A blameable want of care appears, however, to have prevailed in some of these Establishments. Some valuable old books which were contained in the Library of the Grammar School at Frome, are surmised to have been sold, together with the property of a former Master. The Library of SANDES's Hospital and School at Kirkby Kendal, consists chiefly of ancient editions of the Fathers,-but as there is not now frequent reference made to these works, the books are neglected and in a state of decay. The collection was extensive and valuable in that class of Literature.

IMPROPRIATIONS.

In the ancient manner of Appropriation of Benefices to Religious Houses it was necessary, that the consent of the King, of the Bishop of the Diocese, of the Patron, and of the Rector of the Benefice to be appropriated, should be obtained, and, usually, the confirmation of the Pope. When these sanctions were procured, the Bishop proceeded to endow the Vicarage, that is, to settle between the Body to whom the Benefice was to be appropriated, and the Vicar then to be appointed, what part of the Revenues of it should belong to the former, and what part should be allotted to the latter. Ordinarily, the smaller Tythes and Oblations were allotted to the Vicar,-and where these did not amount to a third part of the whole, some part of the greater Tythe of Corn and Hay was allowed to make up the deficiency, — which is the true reason of

many Vicarages being so endowed. After the Appropriation was made, the Bodies so endowed, were called, "The Impropriators,”—and, as often as the Church so appropriated to them became vacant, they were obliged to present a new Vicar to the Bishop, to be instituted to the Cure.

On the Dissolution of the Religious Houses, the Benefices which had been so appropriated to them, were granted, amongst their other estates, in many instances, to Laymen, who were thenceforth called "The Lay-Impropriators,”. and who succeeded to them under the same conditions, restrictions, and limitations with which their former possessors had holden them.1

At the Dissolution of Monasteries, the Appropriations of the several Parsonages, which belonged to those respective Religious Houses, amounting to more than one-third of all the Parishes in England,—

1

Manning and Bray's Hist. of Surrey, Introduction,

p. xci.

K

would have been by the rules of the Common Law disappropriated, had not a clause in the Statutes enacted by HENRY the Eighth intervened, to give them to the King in as ample a manner as the Abbots, and other Superiors, formerly held the same, at the time of their Dissolution. This, though perhaps scarcely defensible, was not without example,for the same was done in former reigns, when the Alien Priories,-that is, such as were filled by Foreigners only,—were dissolved and given to the Crown. Hence have sprung all the Lay Appropriations of Secular Parsonages, which we now see in the Kingdom,-they having been afterwards granted out from time to time by the Crown.2

To restore these spoliations to the Established Church has been the anxious desire of many Pious persons, who have bequeathed extraordinary sums for such a reasonable duty,-especially Mr. HENRY

2 Blackstone's Comment. vol. i. p. 385, edit. by Archbold.