THE SKINNERS' COMPANY VERSUS THE IRISH SOCIETY AND OTHERS. Bill in Chancery, filed 16th July, 1832, the prayer of which is as follows: And that it may be declared that your Orators and the other Companies who contributed to the expenses of the said new plantation of Ulster as aforesaid, and to whom and for whose benefit the said lands and hereditaments were allotted and conveyed as aforesaid, are beneficially entitled to the rents and profits of the said ferries, fisheries, and town lands, subject only to the payment of the said yearly sums to the Bishop of Derry and the Governor of Culmore Castle, and to the charges (if any) to which the same are subject under the said articles of agreement and the said charters respectively; and that it may be declared that the said Irish Society of London are trustees of the same rents and profits (subject as aforesaid) for your Orators and the said other Companies, and that an account may be taken by and under the direction of this honourable Court of the rents and profits of the said ferries, fisheries, and town lands, which have been received by the said Defendants, the Irish Society of London, or by any person or persons on their behalf or for their use, or which, without their wilful neglect or default might have been so received, and that a partition of the said ferries, fisheries, and town lands, between your Orators and the said other Companies may be decreed, and that the same may be effected by proper conveyances; or if this honourable Court shall be of opinion that such partition ought not to be made, then that the said Irish Society of London may be removed from being trustees of the said ferries, fisheries, and town lands; and that one or more of the said Companies, or such person or persons as to this honourable Court may appear best, may be appointed trustee or trustees of the said ferries, fisheries, and town lands; or that such other arrangement, as to this honourable Court may appear just and proper, be made, securing to your Orators and the said other Companies the due payment of their respective proportions of the rents and profits of the said ferries, fisheries, and town lands, and that in the meantime a receiver or receivers of the said rents and profits may be appointed under the decree of this honourable Court; and that the said Defendants, the Irish Society of London, may be restrained by the injunction of this honourable Court from collecting, getting in, and receiving the same rents and profits, and every part thereof; and that your Orators may have such further and other relief as the nature of the case may require, or to your lordships shall seem meet. THE JUDGMENT OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD LANGDALE, MASTER OF THE ROLLS, LORD LANGDALE. The plaintiffs in this Cause are the Company of the Skinners of the City of London: the defendants are the Society of the Governor and Assistants, London, of the new plantation in Ulster, within the realm of Ireland, who are usually called the Irish Society: the Company of Mercers, and about forty other Companies of the City of London; the Corporation of the City of London, John Thomas Thorpe, Henry Schultes, and Her Majesty's Attorney-General. The Irish Society is a corporate body, possessed of, and entitled to, certain ferries, fisheries, and town lands in Ireland; and the Bill prays "that it may be declared, that the plaintiffs, and the other Companies who contributed to the expenses of the new plantation in Ulster, are beneficially entitled to the rents and profits of the said ferries, fisheries, and town lands, subject only to certain payments and charges; and that the Irish Society are trustees of the same rents and profits, so subject, for the plaintiffs and the other Companies." The Bill further prays for an account of such rents and profits, and for a partition of the ferries, fisheries, and town lands between the plaintiffs and the other Companies; or (if such partition ought not to be made) for the removal of the Irish Society from being such trustees, and that other trustees may be appointed, or that some other arrangement may be made for securing to the plaintiffs and the other Companies the due payment of their respective shares of the said rents and profits. The Bill also prays for a receiver and injunction, and for further relief. There are four distinct parties whose interests or claims have been brought into question: First, the Companies of the City of London, for whom the plaintiffs insist that the Irish Society are mere trustees for them, bound to account to them, and without any right or discretionary power to apply any part of the income of the property vested in them for any public, charitable, or other purpose. Secondly, the Irish Society, who admit that they have no beneficial interest in the property, and that they are trustees for the Companies of any surplus which may remain after answering certain public purposes, but claim to have a discretionary power to apply so much of the income as they may think fit for those public purposes without being liable to account for the same to the Companies. Thirdly, the City of London, who resist the claim of the plaintiffs, and claim for themselves a species of visitatorial or superintending power, enabling them to control the conduct and proceedings of the Irish Society. And, Fourthly, the Attorney-General, who, on the behalf of the Crown, suggests that the rents and profits are applicable to public purposes. As nothing can be determined as between co-defendants on the present occasion, the substantial question in the Cause is, whether the Irish Society has, independently of the Companies, and without being subject to account to them, a discretionary power to apply any part of the rents and profits of the estates vested in them for purposes which they deem beneficial to the public with reference to the plantation in Ireland, which is mentioned in the pleadings. The Irish Society might be answerable to the City of London, or to the Companies, as represented or protected by the City of London, or to the Crown; yet if it is not answerable to the Companies severally in this Court, the plaintiffs are not entitled to the relief which they ask by this Bill. On the other hand, if the Society have no such discretionary power as they claim, and are as trustees answerable to the Companies severally for all their receipts and payments, the plaintiffs are entitled to relief, their right has been denied, and accounts have been refused to them. The Irish Society now subsists under a Charter of King Charles the Second, dated the 10th of April, 1662. That Charter was principally, and as to most of its details, founded on a former Charter granted by King James the First, on the 29th of March, 1613; and from the mode in which the case was stated and argued on all sides, it appears to me necessary to consider the circumstances under which the first Charter was granted, so far as those circumstances are proved by the evidence in this cause. And from the evidence, it appears, that in the year 1608, the greatest part of the six several counties of Armagh, Tyrone, Coleraine, Donegal, Fermanagh, and Cavan, had by escheat or forfeiture come into the possession of the Crown, and that King James the First, being desirous to promote the public peace and welfare of Ireland by a civil plantation of what were called "those unreformed and waste countries," proposed to induce English and Scotch persons to emigrate thither and undertake the plantation on certain terms; and for that purpose he caused to be published a collection of such orders and conditions as were to be observed by the undertakers upon the distribution and plantation of the lands. It is plain, from these orders and conditions, that the King did not merely contemplate the benefit of the persons who should undertake the plantation, or colony, as it is called in another document; but that he had a great public object in view, and to carry that into effect, desired to engage such of his subjects, as well of Great Britain as of Ireland, as being of merit and ability should seek the lands with a mind not only to benefit themselves, |