In 1824, the rate-payers of Paddington were seduced, in a manner hereafter to be mentioned, to resign into the hands of the wealthy proprietors, and a certain number of vestry-men, elected under the detestable principles of Sturges Bourne’s Act, those inherent rights which their predecessors had protected, with more or less determination, for centuries; and the next year saw the official representatives of this select body, and the curate of the parish, joining the Bishop of London and his lessees, in beseeching his Majesty that the several objects contained in the aforesaid Act, might be accomplished. One object was, to increase the quantity of land to four hundred acres, for which building leases might be granted; and another, to exclude the “Curates of Paddington, the said Churchwardens and their successors” from “all estates, right, title, interest, benefit, claim, or demand whatsoever of, into, out of and upon the lands and hereditaments comprised in or which are or may be subjected to” “the lease granted by Bishop Porteus, in 1795; excepting in so far as is expressed in this Act.” And in consideration of this wholesale surrender of all the interest, benefit, &c. which the inhabitants of Paddington ought at this time to receive out of the Rectory and other lands, William (Howley) Bishop of London, and his lessees were graciously pleased to consent, that it may be enacted, “that the Curate’s former stipend of £120 a-year shall be increased to £200 per annum;” that ground may be granted for the site of the said Curate’s residence, “not exceeding one acre;” and “that any quantity of the said estate not exceeding four acres may be conveyed by deed to trustees or commissioners, appointed under Church Building Acts.” Having already analysed preceding Acts, it only remains for me to notice here, that this ponderous piece of private legislation, which occupies no less than seventy-three pages of the statute book, is chiefly a resume of that which had been before enacted. It provides, however, as we have seen, for double the number of houses, and therefore for a vast increase in the revenues of this estate; it provides for the increase of a curate’s stipend, by eighty pounds per annum; and it grants sites for churches—“if at any time hereafter it should on account of the increase of the population, or on any other account, be found necessary or convenient to erect and build the same.” It also provides for the appointment of new trustees both at the present, and any future period; for altering the conditions in the covenants in under-leases; and for raising an additional twenty thousand pounds by mortgage.