Excerpt: ...law-an assumption quite unwarranted in any country where freedom of conscience exists, and with us one of the penalties for maintaining an established State Church-that every parishioner is a Churchman. Now, as a matter of fact, votes are recorded at these elections by Romanists, by Dissenters of various shades of opinion, by those who are unattached to any religious denomination, and by many who never, at other times, take a great interest in Church of England affairs. At the last election even trustees of Nonconformist chapels were empowered to vote if they were householders, and the trust in respect of which they qualified had been constituted by a properly executed deed. So it can scarcely be claimed that the choice of minister rests solely with those most concerned, namely, the congregation, the customary worshippers at St. Giles's Church. Resuming the story of the benefice at the election of 1788, it is said that Mr. Moreton having been elected, the then lords of the manor declined to present him to the bishop on the ground that they did not regard him as a fit and proper person. Litigation ensued, and the High Court of Justice declared the election void, and ordered a new one. Meanwhile, the income seems to have sequestrated, probably lying in the hands of the churchwardens till the new minister should be properly instituted. The electors for a second time returned Moreton, and the lords of the manor then took up the attitude that it was not part of their duty to live in litigation, either with the electors or with Moreton, they had expressed their opinion of the man in the strongest manner possible, and this they considered relieved them p. 101 from further responsibility, so now at the electors' wish they nominated him to the bishop for induction, and in due course he was formally inducted. The new incumbent of Willenhall was popularly given out to be an illegitimate "nephew" of George III., he bore a...