soi 



PARISH. 



PARLIAMENT, IMPERIAL. 



302 



for the maintenance of the incumbent at a time when almost all the 

 wants of life were supplied from the immediate produce of the earth, 

 and, together with the right of receiving the other ecclesiastical profits 

 which arose within the territory limited by the founder, became the 

 settled revenue of the church, and annexed to it in perpetuity. The 

 last concession made to the lay founder was probably the patronage or 

 right of presenting the clerk to the church, which by the primitive 

 constitution, belonged exclusively to the bishop ; and when this was 

 obtained, these limited territories differed in no material respect from 

 our modern parishes. Indeed it can scarcely admit of doubt that our 

 parochial divisions arose chiefly from these lay-foundations, the differ- 

 ences in extent being accounted for by the varying limits appointed 

 for them at their origin. Their names were derived from some 

 favourite saint, from the site, or the lordship to which they belonged, 

 or from the mere fancy of the respective founders. Such appears to 

 have been the origin of the lay parishes ; and it is reasonable to con- 

 clude that as soon as this practice was established, the bishops and 

 religious houses, in the districts or parishes in which they had reserved 

 to themselves the right of presentation, followed the same course by 

 limiting the ecclesiastical profits of each church to the particular in- 

 cumbent, and restricting the devotions as well as the offerings of the 

 inhabitants to that church only. 



The earliest notice of these lay foundations of parishes is by Bede, 

 about the year 700 (' Hist. Eccl.' lib. v., c. 4 and 5). By the end of 

 the 8th century they had become frequent, as clearly appears from the 

 charters of confirmation made to Croyland Abbey, by Bertulph, king 

 of Mercia, in which several churches of lay-foundation are compre- 

 hended. In the laws of king Edgar (A.D. 970) there is an express 

 provision that every man shall pay his tithes to the most ancient 

 church or monastery where he hears Qod's service ; " Which I under- 

 stand not otherwise," says Selden, " than any church or monastery 

 whither usually, in respect of his commurancy or his parish, he re- 

 paired : that is, his parish church or monastery." (' History of Tithes,' 

 chap, ix., 1-4.) 



Although the origin of parishes generally in England is pretty 

 clearly ascertained, the history of the formation of particular parishes 

 is almost wholly unknown. As these divisions originated in an un- 

 lettered period, and were too local and obscure to be recorded in the 

 chronicles or general histories of the times, and for the most part too 

 ancient to be preserved in any episcopal registers DOW existing, it 

 would be unreasonable to expect any satisfactory evidence of their 

 particular origin ; and as a matter of fact, no evidence whatever can 

 be produced on the subject. 



However satisfactory this account of the origin of parishes may be 

 with reference to country parishes, it furnishes no explanation of the 

 origin of parishes in towns a subject which is involved in great ob- 

 scurity ; and indeed the changes which the latter may be shown to 

 have undergone within time of memory seem to point to a different 

 principle of formation. 



The country parishes appear to be nearly the same in name and 

 number at the present time as they were at the time of Pope Nicholas's 

 'Taxation,' compiled in the reign of Edward I. (A.D. 1288); but in 

 some of the large towns the number of parishes has very considerably 

 decreased. Thus, in the city of London there are at present 10$ 

 parishes, though at the time of the ' Taxation ' the number was 140; 

 in like manner in Norwich the number has been reduced from 70 in 

 the time of Edward I., to 37 at the present day. In other ancient 

 towns, such as Bristol, York, and Exeter, the number does not appear 

 to have materially changed, but the names have been often altered. 

 The particular causes of these variations it would be difficult to trace ; 

 but greater changes might reasonably be expected in towns than in 

 the country parishes, in consequence of mure frequent fluctuations of 

 wealth and population in the former. Where a decrease has taken 

 iii the number of town parishes in the three last centuries, it is 

 ily to be accounted for by the great reduction since the Reforma- 

 tion in the amount of oblations and what are called pmunal tithes, 

 which in cities were almost the only provision for the parochial clergy. 



The size of English parishes vanes much in diihireut districts. In 

 the northern counties they are extremely large, forty square miles being 

 no unusual area for a parish ; and, generally speaking, parishes in the 

 north are said to average seven or eight times the area of those in the 

 southern counties. The boundaries of parishes in former times appear 

 to have been often ill-defined and uncertain ; but since the establish- 

 ment of a compulsory provision for the poor by means of assessments 

 of the inhabitants of parishes, the limits have in general been ascer- 

 tained with sufficient precision. 



It is not easy to ascertain the exact number of parishes in England 

 and Wales ; for although they have been enumerated on several occa- 

 sions, the number ascertained has usually depended upon the object 

 and purpose of the particular enumeration. Thus in the returns under 

 the Poor Law Commission, a parish is generally considered as a place 

 .rict supporting its own poor, and from these returns, in Ib54, 

 it appear* that the total number of such places is 14,603, and the num- 

 ber u constantly increasing with the increase of population. But in this 

 t-r are included many subdivisions of parishes, such as the town- 

 ship* in the northern counties, which by stat. IS 4 14 Car. II., c. Ii, f. 21, 

 are permitted to maintain their own poor, and also other places which 

 by act of parliament, though not parishes, have the same privilege. 



Another difficulty, which has probably affected all the enumerations 

 which have hitherto been made, is the large number of doubtful 

 parishes. It is somewhit uncertain at the present day what circum- 

 stances constitute a parish church. In the Saxon times, and for some 

 centuries after the Conquest, the characteristics which distinguished a 

 parish church from what were called field churches, oratories, and 

 chapels, were the rights of baptism and sepulture. (Selden, ' History 

 of Tithes,' chap, is., 4; Degge's ' Parsons' Counsellor,' part i., chap, xii.) 

 But in modern times this line of distinction would include as parish 

 churches almost all chapels-of-ease, and also the churches and parochial 

 chapels erected under the stat. 58 Geo. III., c. 45, " for building addi- 

 tional churches in populous places." The various views entertained of 

 the constituents of a parish will in a great measure account for the 

 different results of the several enumerations which have been made ; 

 and this is in fact one of the reasons assigned by Camden for the 

 difference between the number of the parish churches in England and 

 Wales stated to Henry VIII. in 1520, by Cardinal Wolsey, and that 

 stated about a century after to James I., the former being 9407, and 

 the latter 9284. (Camden's ' Britannia,' 161-2.) The number of the 

 parishes mentioned in Pope Nicholas's ' Taxation' above referred to, as 

 nearly as can be ascertained, appears to be between these two accounts. 

 Blackstone says, that the number of parishes iu England and Wales 

 had been computed at 10,000. Perhaps the number of parishes in 

 England and Wales (meaning by the term simply a district annexed 

 to a church whose incumbent is by law entitled to tithes in that 

 district) may be taken to be about 11,000. 



(See Holland's ' Observations on the Origin of Parishes,' in Hearne's 

 Discourses, vol. i. p. 194 ; and Whitaker's History of W/ialley, book ii. 

 chap. 1.) 



PARK. This term, in its legal signification as a privileged enclo- 

 sure for beasts of the forest and chace, is at the present day nearly 

 obsolete. Under the ancient forest-laws, the franchise of the highest 

 degree was that of a forest which was noixen generalissimum, and 

 contained within it the franchises of chace, park, and warren. The 

 only distinction between a chace and a park was, that the latter was 

 enclosed, whereas a chace was always open, and they both differed 

 from a forest, inasmuch as they had no peculiar courts or judicial 

 officers, nor any particular laws, being subject to the general laws of 

 the forest ; or as Sir Edward Coke maintains, to the common law 

 exclusive of the forest-laws. (4 ' Inst.,' 314.) A chace and a park 

 differed from a forest also in the nature of the wild animals to the 

 protection of which each was applied. The beasts of the forest, or 

 beasts of venery, as they were called, were taidum silristrcs, that is, 

 as Manwood explains the phrase ('Forest Laws,' chap, iv., sec. 4), 

 animals such as the hart, hind, hare, boar, and wolf, which " do keep 

 the coverts, and haunt the woods more than the plains." On the 

 other hand, the beasts of chace or park were tmittim campatres, that 

 is to say, they haunted the plains more than the woods. According to 

 the strict legal meaning of the term, no subject can set up a park 

 without the grant of the Crown or immemorial prescription, which is 

 presumptive evidence of such a grant. In modern times the term is 

 little known, except in its popular acceptation as an ornamental 

 enclosure for the real or ostensible purpose of keeping fallow deer, 

 interspersed with wood and pasture for their protection and support. 

 (Blackst. ' Comm.' Mr. KBIT'S ed. vol. ii.) 



PARK OF ARTILLERY. [ARTILLERY PARK.] 



PARK, ENGINEER, is the term applied to the whole equipment of 

 stores, intrenching tools, &c. belonging to the engineer department in 

 the field, and to the depot where these are stored, and where the 

 officers and men of this branch of the service are camped. In a siege 

 the engineer park should be as near as possible to the siege works, but 

 covered from the enemy's fire. Natural positions, in hollows and 

 behind hills, affording such protection, may generally be found within 

 1000 yards or so of the first parallel. 



PARKS, PUBLIC. [ARBORETUM.] 



PARLIAMENT, IMPERIAL, the legislature of the United King- 

 dom of Great Britain and Ireland, consisting of the king or queen 

 [Kiso], the lords spiritual and temporal [Louns, HOUSE OF], and the 

 knights, citizens, and burgesses [COMMONS, HOUSE OF] in parliament 

 assembled. 



The word is generally considered to be derived from the French 

 purler, to speak. " It was first applied," says Blackstone, " to general 

 assemblies of the states under Louis VII. in France about the middle 

 of the 12th century." The earliest mention of it in the statutes is in 

 the preamble to the statute of Westminster, A.D. 1272. 



OBIOIN AMD ANTIQUITY OF PARLIAMENT. 



The origin of any ancient institution must be difficult to trace, 

 when in the course of time it has undergone great changes ; and few 

 subjects have afforded to antiquaries more cause fof learned research 

 and ingenious conjecture than the growth of our parliament into the 

 form which it had assumed when authentic records of its existence and 

 constitution are to be found. Great council* of the nation existed in 

 England both under the Saxons and Normans, and appear to have 

 been common amongst all the nations of the north of Europe. They 

 were called by the Saxons michtl-synoth, or great council ; niichd- 

 yemote, or great meeting ; and wittena-gemote, meeting of wise men by 

 the last of which they are now most familiarly known. 



