measure, the secular
jurisdiction of the Archbishop of York over the liberty of Ripon
and other places in Yorkshire, and the stoke of Southwell, in
Nottinghamshire; and the secular authority of the Bishop of Ely over the
Isle of Ely, were separated from the sees, and transferred to the king.
A third act was passed, imposing restrictions on the renewal of leases
by ecclesiastical persons. This bill provided, that where a lease had
been granted for more than two lives, no renewal of it should be given
till one or more of those lives had expired; and that, even then, the
renewal should be only for the surviving lives, or for such new lives
as, with the survivors, would make up the number of lives, not exceeding
three, for which the lease had been originally granted. Where the lease
had been granted for forty, thirty, or twenty-one years, it was not to
be renewable till fourteen, ten, and seven years respectively of the
original term had expired; and where it had merely been for years, no
new lease was to be given for a life or lives. It was further required,
that all leases should contain a recital, setting forth, in the case of
a lease for lives, the names of the persons mentioned in the original
lease as those on whose lives it was granted, and specifying such of the
lives as were still existing, or had been exchanged for some other life.
If the lease had been for a term of years, the recital was to set forth
that term, and how much remained unexpired; and every such recital, so
far as related to the validity of the lease containing it, was to be
deemed and taken as conclusive evidence of the matter so recited.

BILL TO AMEND THE ENGLISH MUNICIPAL CORPORATION ACT.

When the bill relative to the reform of municipal corporations came into
operation, in the end of 1835, it was soon discovered that some of
the details of its machinery would require amendment. A bill for that
purpose was brought in early in the present session. In some instances
the mayor and other corporate officers had been elected, when the person
presiding at the election was not legally entitled to preside; and the
bill enacted that, notwithstanding this, all such elections, and all
acts done by the officers so elected, should be good and valid. The
act passed directed that elections should be held before the mayor and
assessors; but, in some instances, there had been elections where there
were no assessors: the present bill proposed to declare, b