PARISH 



PARK 



769 



by Nonconformists. The powers of Churchwardens 

 and Vestry have been greatly limited by the Local 

 Government Act of 1894, which established dis- 

 trict councils, parish meetings, and parish councils. 

 The district councils are mainly the old rural and 

 urban sanitary authorities under a new name, and 

 have charge of highways, &c. The parish meeting 

 in every rural parish includes all persons registered 

 as parochial electors (all registered as parliamen- 

 tary or local government electors), and retains, even 

 where there is a parish council, the power of 

 adopting the Adoptive Acts (Lighting and Watch- 

 ing Act, Baths and Washhouses Acts, Burial Acts, 

 Public Improvements Act, Public Libraries Act), 

 and of controlling the expenditure of the parish. 

 When there is no parish council, the parish meet- 

 ing (which must take place at least once a year) 

 appoints the overseers, and may have some or the 

 powers of the parish council conferred on it by the 

 comity council. Every rural parish -with a popu- 

 lation of 300 in 1891 (though some parishes are 

 grouped, and some smaller parishes have had a 

 council given them by the county council) has 

 now a parish council of a chairman and from 

 five to fifteen councillors, elected annually at a 

 parish meeting by show of hands, or by ballot, 

 if demanded. The council, which is a corporate 

 body whose expenses are defrayed out of the poor- 

 rate, appoints overseers and assistant-overseers, has 

 the secular power once exercised by the overseer 

 (rating, nominating constables, &c.), the former 

 powers of the churchwardens, save in church affairs 

 anil charities, the carrying out of the Adoptive 

 Acts by the provision of public offices and recrea- 

 tion grounds, the duty of looking after wells, 

 streams, footpath*, rights of way, and minor nui- 

 sances, the power of acquiring and holding land 

 for allotments and other local pui poses, and the 

 appointment of trustees for parochial charities. 

 Both married and single women are eligible as 

 parish councillors, guardians, rural or urban dis- 

 trict councillors (not for borough or county coun- 

 cils). As parochial electors women may attend 

 parish meetings and vote. Husband and wife can- 

 not be qualified in respect of the same property. 



The Vestry of a parish is either a common 

 vestry a meeting of all the ratepaying inhabitants, 

 presided over by the incumbent or a select vestry, 

 elected under Hobhouse's Act (1831). In urban 

 parishes it is unaffected by the Local Government 

 Act of 1894 ; in rural parishes it now exists for 

 ecclesiastical purposes only. The administration 

 of the Poor-laws (q.v.) in England is unaffected by 

 that act, save that now rural district councillors 

 act as guardians. The care of the poor is almost 

 entirely in the hands of the guardians ; the over- 

 seers assist the guardians. The assistant-overseers, 

 when not appointed by the guardians, are officers of 

 the parish council. A woman may be an overseer. 

 See CHURCH-RATES, CHURCHWARDENS, CHURCH- 

 YARD, POOR-LAWS, VESTRY. 



In Scotland the ecclesiastical parishes are of very 

 ancient date. The Court of Session, acting as the 

 Commission of Teinds, has power to unite and 

 divide parishes, and to erect a disjoined part into 

 a parish quoad sacra i.e. for ecclesiastical purposes 

 only. The poor-law was formerly administered by 

 tin- kirk-session in county parishes and by magis- 

 trates in burghal parishes; but an act of 1845 

 introduced a system of parochial boards, which 

 since the Local Government of 1894 have been 



superseded by the parish councils. The church 

 fabric is supported by the heritors ; there are no 

 churchwardens in Scotland ; nor is there any meet- 



ing roi responding to the vestry. In the matter of 

 parish schools Scotland was formerly far in advance 

 of England ; the policy of the Education Acts is 

 now the same in both countries. 

 361 



In the United States the term parish is not un- 

 commonly used to denote the district assigned to 

 a church or minister, but there are no civil parishes, 

 except in the state of Louisiana. 



See Wright and Hobhouse, Local Government; and, 

 for the ecclesiastical part of the subject, Lord Selborne 

 on Churches and 'J'ithes. 



Parish Clerk. See CLERK. 



Park, MUNGO, the African traveller, was born 

 10th September 1771, at Koulshiels on the Yarrow, 

 a farmer's youngest child in a family of thirteen. 

 Educated at Selkirk, he was apprenticed to Dr 

 Thomas Anderson, a surgeon there, and afterwards 

 studied medicine in Edinburgh (1789-91). He was 

 then introduced to Sir Joseph Banks by his brother- 

 in-law, James Dickson, botanist, and 'obtained the 

 situation of assistant-surgeon in the Worcester, 

 bound for Bencoolen in Sumatra. On his return in 

 1793, the African Association of London had re- 

 ceived intelligence of the death of Major Houghton, 

 who had undertaken a journey to Africa at their 

 expense. Park ottered his services, was accepted, 

 and sailed from England 22d May 1795. He spent 

 some months at the English factory of Pisania on 

 the Gambia in making preparations' for his travels, 

 and in learning the Mandingo language. Leaving 

 Pisania on the 2d of December he travelled eastward ; 

 but when he had nearly reached the place where 

 Houghton lost his life, he fell into the hands of a 

 Moorish king, who imprisoned him, and treated 

 him roughly. Park seized an opportunity of 

 escaping (1st July 1796), and in the third week of 

 his flight reached the Niger, the great object of 

 his search, at Sego, in 13 5' N. lat. He followed 

 its course downward as far as Silla ; but meeting 

 with hindrances that compelled him to retrace his 

 st'eps, he pursued his way westward along its 

 banks to Bammaku, and then crossed a mountain- 

 ous country till he came to Kamalia, in the king- 

 dom of Mandingo (14th September), where he was 

 taken ill, and lay for some time. A slave-trader 

 at last conveyed him again to the English factory 

 on the Gambia, where Tie arrived, 10th June 1797, 

 after an absence of nineteen months. Bryan 

 Edwards drew up an account of his journey for 

 the Association, and Park published an account 

 of his travels after his return, under the title of 

 Tmrds in the Interior of Africa (1799), a work 

 which at once acquired a high popularity. He 

 now married a daughter of Dr Anderson, his old 

 Selkirk friend (2d August 1799), and settled as a 

 surgeon at Peebles, where, however, he did not 

 feel at home. He told Scott that he would rather 

 brave Africa and its horrors than wear his life out 

 in toilsome rides amongst the hills for the scanty 

 remuneration of a country surgeon ; and so, in 

 1805, he undertook another journey to Africa at 

 the expense of government. As he parted from 

 Scott on Williamhope ridge, his horse stumbled : 

 'I am afraid, Mungo,' said Scott, 'that is a 

 bad omen." To which Park replied with a smile, 

 ' Freits (omens) follow those who look to them.' 

 When he started from Pisania he had a com- 

 pany of forty-five, of whom thirty-six were Euro- 

 pean soldiers ; but when he reached the Niger 

 in August his attendants were reduced to 

 seven. From Sansanding on the Niger, in the 

 kingdom of Bambarra, he sent back his journals 

 and letters in November 1805 to the Gambia, and 

 embarked in an unwieldy half-rotten canoe with 

 four European companions. Through many perils 

 and difficulties they reached Boussa, where the 

 canoe was caught in a cleft of rock ; they were 

 attacked by the natives, and drowned as they 

 attempted to escape. An account of Park's second 

 journey was published at London in 1815. Mrs 

 Park was in receipt of a government pension till 



