at the least, as many persons of the working class as may be displaced in the area, with respect to which the scheme is proposed, in suitable dwellings, which, unless there are any special reasons to the contrary, should be situate within the limits of the same area, or in the vicinity thereof; it has also to provide for proper sanitary arrangements. By the Amending Act of 1879 (42 & 43 Vict., c. 63), the confirming authority has power, on application, if satisfied that ' equally convenient accommodation can be provided for any persons of the working class displaced,' 'at some place other than within the area, or the immediate vicinity of the area,' and that such accommodation has been, or is about to be, provided, to authorise or modify an improvement scheme accordingly. After due advertisement and notice served on owners, lessees, and occupiers, the local authority presents a petition, copy of the scheme, &c., and the names of owners or lessees who have dissented in respect to the taking of their lands are sent to the confirming authority (i.e., in the Metropolis to a Secretary of State, or in the case of an urban sanitary authority, to the Local Government Board), who then directs a local inquiry to be held to ascertain the correctness of the official representation made as to the area, the sufficiency of the scheme provided for its improvement, and any local objections to be made to such scheme. The confirming authority then makes a provisional order authorising the scheme with or without modifications. This order the local authority circulates among the owners and lessees; but it is not valid till confirmed by Act of Parliament. If the local authority do not act on an official representation, they have to send a copy of the representation to the confirming authority, who may thereupon direct a local inquiry to be made.* Now, under the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1885, when in the Metropolis the official representation has been made, and the local authority have submitted to the Secretary of State a resolution to the effect that in their judgment the proposed improvement is, or is not, one of general importance to the Metropolis, the Secretary of State may cause inquiry to be made; and he may determine whether proceedings should be taken under the Artizans' Dwellings, or under the Artizans' Dwellings Improvement, Act. The Act of 1882 provides that in the Metropolis and the City of London, the confirming authority may allow provision of accommodation for one-half of the persons of the working classes who are displaced. But he can only do this on a report from the officer who conducts the local inquiry, that a modification should be made, 'having regard to the special circumstances of the locality, and to *It is not possible to refer here to the provisions in these and other Acts for the acquisition of land, compensation, &c. Amendment as to displaced work ing classes. Limitation of Artizans' and ment Acts. The provi sion of lodging houses to the labouring classes by the local authority. the number of artisans and others belonging to the labouring classes within the area, and being employed within a mile thereof.'* If the official representation has regard to an area of not more than ten houses, the County Council has to direct the officer making the same to report the case to the Vestry or District Board, whose duty it shall be to deal with it. III.-ACTS TO PROMOTE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF LODGING-HOUSES. In regard to these Acts it is here necessary to refer only to some of the clauses of Lord Shaftesbury's Act (1856) for encouraging the establishment of lodging-houses for the labouring classes. These clauses have been revivified by the Act of 1885, which altered the whole machinery for their enforcement. A local authority—in the Metropolis, the London County Council; in the City, the Commissioners of Sewers-may now appropriate any lands vested in them or at their disposal, or may purchase or rent lands for the erection of any buildings suitable for lodging-houses for the labouring classes, or they may convert any buildings into such lodging-houses. And they may from time to time alter, enlarge, repair, and improve their lodging-houses, and fit up, furnish, and supply them with all requisite furniture, fittings and conveniences. They may also purchase on lease existing lodging-houses for the purpose. Gas and water companies may, 'in their discretion,' supply the houses, either without charge, or on such favourable terms as they may think fit.' The local authority may also exchange lands for the purposes of the Act. If the lodging-houses become too expensive, they may, with the approval of the Treasury, sell them, and pay any surplus to their credit, or to that of the General District rate, the Improvement rate, or the Poor's rate. They may also make 'bye-laws for the management, use, and regulation of the lodginghouses, and of the tenants or occupiers thereof, and for determining from time to time the charges for the tenancy and occupation of the lodging-houses.' For any breach of the bye-laws they may inflict a penalty of not more than £5. The lodging-houses are to be at all times open to inspection by the Local Board of Health.' Any person who, or whose wife or husband at the time of tenancy, receives poor relief other than relief on account of accident or temporary illness, is disqualified from continuing to be tenant.† * For the Orders of the House of Lords, in regard to the obligations placed on promoters of Bills to make provision for the labouring class, see Addenda, p. clxxv. + In the Addenda, p. clxxxi., will be found also a section of the Act of 1885, under which houses, let for habitation by persons of the working classes, are let under an implied condition of habitability. There is thus placed in the hands of the municipality the amplest means of providing for the labouring classes, lodging-houses at what rents and under what conditions they please. They may become the absolute managers of the houses, and they may, with the aid of the local rates, supplant private endeavour, wherever they may wish to do so. Impatient of slower processes, and even of enormous' improvements, they may apply this short and summary method of dealing with the ill-housed poor, trusting to their own sagacity to carry out, with good results to the community, that which others have failed to do. LX.-ENDOWED CHARITIES. endowed charities, as at present adminis tered. The creation of the Charity Commissioners was the first sys- The evils of tematic attempt to provide for the proper administration of the charitable endowments in England and Wales, and to turn them to better uses. That race of poor persons known as 'gift-hunters' are kept in existence by the smaller charitable endowments. The injury that many of these endowments have done, and are doing, is incalculable. They are seldom managed on the principle of adequate relief, and are administered rather as an official trust than as a remedial charity. They are frequently hemmed in by numer. ous restrictions, which necessitate a distribution to persons who comply with their conditions, rather than to persons who require their benefits. The poor have to be assisted in compliance with the terms and (if one may say so) for the benefit of the trust. instead of the trust being available for all such purposes as will meet the special wants of the individual. The administration of the trust is usually wholesale, inelastic, and official. It should be discriminating, adaptable to the various needs of charity, and personal. In 1879, Sir Arthur Hobhouse said* : 'A charitable endowment or, in curt popular language, "a charity," has absolutely nothing to do with the virtue so called. It is simply a gift to be made to public uses, and to be governed for indefinite periods of time by the will of the giver. It need not be for the benefit of the poor; it need not be beneficial or wise; if not illegal or contrary to public policy-a source of objection which has been allowed an extremely narrow range-it is a good gift to "charity," and must take effect accordingly. Neither need it be made from any good motive. 'No ground of policy or expediency can be assigned for allowing [the founder] to dictate for ever, or for centuries, the mode in which his property shall be used. No human being, however wise and good, is able to foresee the special needs of society even for one or two generations. And yet our law says that anybody, although he may be a person whose opinion we should never think of taking in any subject whatever during his life, may compel us to take for all time property with almost any amount or kind of conditions not positively immoral. They may be foolish at the outset; change of circumstances may have made them useless or hurtful; still we must obey them. We do not allow such things to be done when the gift is to individuals or to families. An individual legatee, if he *The Dead Hand.' Addresses on Endowments by Sir Arthur Hobhouse, Q.C. k Chancery and charitable en dowments. dislikes the condition, may decline the gift. The consequences of so absurd Under these circumstances an almoner can hardly overlook almost the only machinery that exists for reforming these charities. On the power and efficiency of the Charity Commissioners, and the gradual remodelling of charitable trusts on wise principles through their agency, and that of persons co-operating with them, depends the removal of one of the best proven and most powerful causes of pauperism and misery. LXI.-JUDICIAL CONTROL OVER ENDOWMENTS.* The Court of A very ancient department of the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery, now merged into the High Court of Justice, is that which relates to Charitable Trusts. The Court has jurisdiction to compel all trustees, and among them trustees of endowments, to perform the trusts reposed in them. In the case of endowments, which are for the benefit of the public and which never come to an end, the Court assumed a further jurisdiction, not existing in the case of ordinary trusts which are for the benefit of private individuals and which come to an end in, at least, the second generation after the donor's death. If the founder of an endowment failed to state his purpose with sufficient clearness, or if he omitted to prescribe the details requisite for carrying his purpose into effect, the Court could supply what was wanting. Again, if it was found that the particular objects contemplated by the founder did not exist, or if the details prescribed by him were found to be unworkable, the Court could remodel the arrangements. But the Court has dis. claimed the power of remodelling arrangements made by the founder merely because they are inconvenient or even pernicious to society. The creation of a tribunal, with power to remodel pernicious or useless arrangements, is a cardinal point in dealing with endowments, is earnestly insisted on† by all who have studied the subject, and is sternly and successfully resisted by others. In order, therefore, that those who wish endowments to work well, instead of working in the way described in the preceding section, should have a clear idea what is the defect in our law, it will be well to illustrate it by examples of circumstances in which the Court can and cannot alter the founder's arrangements. At a period of our history people * See, for a most useful Memorandum on the origin and scope of the relations between the Charity Commissioners and Trustees of Charities, Appendix A, 39th Rport of the Charity Commissioners for England and Wales, 1882. ་ † See The Dead Hand,' quoted above; also the Reports of the Charity Commissioners, &c. of difficul endowed were in the habit of devoting property to the ransom of Christians enslaved by the Mahometan powers. The time came when slaves of this kind ceased to exist. In these cases it has been held that the Court can devote the property to some kindred purpose, cy-pres, Illustrations as the legal phrase goes. At the period of the Reformation, zeal ties in for improved education led a great many persons to give property remodelling to maintain what were called grammar schools. What happened charities. may be exemplified by the case of the Leeds School. In the year 1552 the founder had given property to pay a schoolmaster to teach in the Grammar School. In the early part of this century the people of Leeds wanted to learn other things than Greek and Latin, which alone were taught in the school. So the school became useless to them, and stood empty, or nearly so. The trustees and the AttorneyGeneral proposed to introduce some modern subjects of learning. The schoolmaster resisted that. Lord Eldon decided in his favour. He held that it was not in the power of the Court to direct that anything but Greek and Latin should be taught in a grammar school. Other things might be very useful to the people of Leeds, but could not possibly be represented as useful to that charity.' In other words, an endowment in Leeds, for the people of Leeds, could not be made useful to them because the founder, nearly 300 years before, had contemplated, as the objects of his foundation, a schoolmaster to teach in a grammar school; and those objects, though useless and a scandal, were capable of existence. The Leeds case is taken as a striking illustration, but is illustration only; not because it stood alone, for numbers of schools throughout the country were in a similar position, but because the requisite reform has been effected so far as regards educational endowments. As regards other endowments, they are still, with one exception, under the narrow law just set forth. The Charity Owing to its dilatory, cumbrous, and ruinously expensive procedure, the Court of Chancery was found totally inadequate as an administrator or supervisor of endowments. After attempts ex- Powers. tending over fifty years, and during that time successfully resisted by the actual managers of endowments, a new machinery was created in the shape of the Charity Commissioners. They were established in 1853, and their jurisdiction was greatly enlarged in the years 1855 and 1860.* ad vice. In the first place, they possess the important power of inquiring (1) Inquiry into the condition and administration of the great bulk of charitable endowments. They exercise this power through a staff of inspectors, and they register annual accounts of the income and expenditure of the trustees. It is important to all persons interested in the working of an endowment to know that, by inquiring at the * The principal Acts are 16 & 17 Vict., c. 137; 18 & 19 Vict., c, 124; 23 & 24 Vict., c. 136. Their office is at Gwydyr House, Whitehall. |