If there is a dispute as to whether a Churchwarden is legally elected or not, it is sometimes supposed that it is the Archdeacon's business at his visitation to decide the question. Of course Archdeacons are at all times ready, willing, and anxious to advise any persons who apply to them for advice to the best of their power. But it is no part of their duty, nor are they by law authorised to decide a disputed return. Their duty is simply that of returning officers to declare the election as certified to them by the Vestry. A copy of the minutes of the Vestry, in case of a dispute, should be laid before them, and the aggrieved party can, if he wishes to do so, apply for a mandamus commanding the Rector and Churchwardens to convene a Vestry to make a fresh election. It is for the court to grant or to refuse the application. I hope I may not be understood as recommending this course. I am merely stating what the law is. {12} But all these matters should, if possible, be settled out of court. Law-suits are apt to leave an unpleasant taste behind. If such a case should unhappily arise it might be advisable for the Archdeacon to suggest to the parties that they should agree to submit to his decision of the disputed question, and waive their right of appeal to a Court of Common Law. If this were agreed to the case might be amicably settled at once without resource being had to any external litigation. If a Churchwarden duly elected ceases in the course of the year to reside in the parish he does not _ipso facto_ vacate the office, though it is a good reason for resignation and the appointment of another in his place. {13} The Churchwardens being thus duly elected, and having made the legal declaration at the visitation, continue in office until their successors are elected, and have in their turn made the said declaration. What, then, are their duties? The Local Government Act, 1894, has in many ways affected them. Churchwardens in rural parishes are no longer _ex-officio_ Overseers of the Poor. {14} An additional number of Overseers may be appointed to replace the Churchwardens, and reference in any Act to the Churchwardens and Overseers, shall, as respects any rural parish (except so far as those references relate to the affairs of the Church), be construed as references to the Overseers, and the legal interest in all property vested either in the Overseer of a rural parish (other than a property connected with the affairs of the Church, or held for an Ecclesiastical Charity), shall, if there is a Parish Council, vest in that Council.--V. 2, (_a_), (_b_), (_c_). The Poor Relief Act, 1819, _i.e._, 59 Geo. III, cap. 12, enabled Churchwardens and Overseers of a parish to acquire lands, &c., and they were made a Corporation for that special purpose alone, and for the specific purposes mentioned in the Act. Such lands, as regards rural parishes having a Parish Council, now come under the management of the Parish Council.