Rates, Church

Rates, Church, money raised annually in the parishes of England for the maintenance or repair of the parish church, etc. Rates are agreed on by the parish in vestry assembled; and they are charged, not on the land, but on the occupier. The parish meetings are summoned by the church-wardens, who, if they neglect to do so, may be proceeded against criminally in the ecclesiastical courts. SEE CHURCH-WARDENS. Not fewer than eighteen bills have been before Parliament these last twenty years for the modification or settlement of church-rates. In Ireland, these rates have been altogether abolished by the Church Temporality Act of 1833.