Untitled - Electric Scotland

176 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. vn.
rents paid under these leases were, in most cases, of
merely nominal amount, but the conditions of tenure in
volved the payment by the lessees from time to time, and
at necessarily uncertain dates, of a fine, which some
times amounted to several thousands of pounds ; such
fines going into the pockets of the then members of
the Capitular bodies, and constituting one of the main
sources of their revenue. Neither owners nor tenants
were able, under this mischievous and complicated system,
to calculate with any accuracy their future income or
probable outgoings. And yet it was practically impossible
for them, in the absence of powers of sale and purchase,
to bring the wasteful process to a close.
The great Cathedral Acts, the first of which was
passed in 1840, provided for the gradual
transfer to the
Ecclesiastical Commission of portions at least of the
estates hitherto belonging to the Cathedral bodies. The
Commissioners steadfastly
refused to renew *
on fine the
beneficial lease of any property which thus came under
their control, and in 1851 another Act of Parliament was
passed, 1 the outcome of much discussion,
"
to facilitate the
management and improvement of Episcopal and Capitular
estates." It would be impossible, without wearisome and
technical details, to enter fully into the origin
and results
of that important Act. Suffice it to say that it afforded a
process whereby the property belonging
to the Cathedral
Corporations could be economically and advantageously
administered for the benefit alike of the tenants, the
chapters, and the Church at large. But the changes
involved in adopting the new system were considerable,
and could not be applied without difficulty. They involved
much laborious, responsible, and costly work on the part
of the chapters, and, like other measures of Church reform,
1
14 and 15 Viet. cap. 104.