Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/129

§. 4. priated, formed a ditinct parih. Which will well enough account for the frequent intermixture of parihes one with another. For if a lord had a parcel of land detached from the main of his etate, but not ufficient to form a parih of itelf, it was natural for him to endow his newly erected church with the tithes of thoe disjointed lands; epecially if no church was then built in any lordhip adjoining to thoe out-lying parcels.

parihes were gradually formed, and parih churches endowed with the tithes that aroe within the circuit aigned. But ome lands, either becaue they were in the hands of irreligious and careles owners, or were ituate in forets and deart places, or for other now unearchable reaons, were never united to any parih, and therefore continue to this day extraparochial; and their tithes are now by immemorial cutom payable to the king intead of the bihop, in trut and confidence that he will ditribute them, for the general good of the church : yet extraparochial wates and marh-lands, when improved and drained, are by the tatute 17 Geo. II. c. 37. to be aeed to all parochial rates in the parih next adjoining. And thus much for the eccleiatical diviion of this kingdom.

2.&ensp; civil diviion of the territory of England is into counties, of thoe counties into hundreds, of thoe hundreds into tithings or towns. Which diviion, as it now tands, eems to owe it’s original to king Alfred; who, to prevent the rapines and diorders which formerly prevailed in the realm, intituted tithings; o called, from the Saxon, becaue ten freeholders with their families compoed one. Thee all dwelt together, and were ureties or free pledges to the king for the good behaviour of each other; and, if any offence was committed in their ditrict, they were bound to have the offender forthcoming. And therefore an- Rh