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![handle is hein.slavery/ussccases0357 and id is 1 raw text is: Dec. 1872.] BoULDIN V. ALEXANDER. 131
Syllabus.
disturbed by the burning of a court-house, or the loss, de-
struction, or theft of a public record-, when evidence, such
as was adduced in this case, could be supplied to show that
the acts upon which their titles depended had been duly
performed by the proper public officers. And courts would
be derelict in their duty to the community if they did not
sternly rebuke speculative attempts to rob people of their
just inheritances under such circumstances. Mere lapse of
time and continuance of possession without pretence of title,
or under pretence of a void title, cannot, it is true, be set
up against the government; but long possession is, never-
theless, a strong weapon of defence in the hands of one who
can show reasonable proof that the title of the government
has been parted with, and has devolved to him.
As to the sufficiency of the evidence adduced in this case,
it is not the part of this court, on a writ of error, to pro-
nounce. That was the province of the court below sitting
as a jury. That court determined it to be sufficient, and
found the issue for the defendant. We think that the evi-
dence was admissible, that it was pertinent to the issue, and
tended to prove that issue on the part of the defendant, and
that the law of the case, as declared by the court, was cor-
rect.
JUDGMENT AFFIRMED.
BOULDIN V. ALEXANDER.
1. When a person conveys in fee to persons whom he names a lot and
church edifice upon it for the use of a Baptist church-an unincorporated
religious body-specified, the trustees are not removable at the will of
the cestui que trusts and without cause shown.
2. Although a withdrawal by one part of a church congregation from the
original body of it and uniting with another church or denomination is
a relinquishment of all rights in the church abandoned,-the mere as-
semblage in a church (as ex. gr., the Baptist) where the congregational
form of government prevails, of a majority of a congregation forcibly
and illegally excluded by a minority from a church edifice in which as
part of the congregation they had been rightfully worshipping, in an-](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.slavery/ussccases0357&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)