only say that we are glad that the conscience of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln is not in our keeping. The land is now valued at 13117. a year.1 Let us now take one of the charities belonging to the Drapers' Company in the city of London, and certified by the Commissioners to the Attorney-General. Opposition to the bill is anticipated on the part of the London companies; it will be well therefore to take an instance of their management to show whether they have less neglected their trust than others. It appears that Thomas Howell died at Seville about the year 1540, and by will left to the Drapers' Company the sum of 12,000 ducats,-directing "them to buy property of 400 ducats rent yearly, and to pay the rent of the said property yearly in marriage to four maidens, being orphans, and of his lineage and blood, so that each of them should have 100 ducats; and in default of maidens of his own blood, then to give the same sum to other four maidens of good name and fame; and if the said sum of 12,000 ducats should produce more than 400 ducats yearly, to bestow the residue in marriage of maidens being orphans, and to the increase of the aforesaid maidens' marriage, as best should seem to the wardens of the said house." With the money eventually received by the company they purchased property, the rental of which was 1057. or thereabouts, but which now amounts to nearly 3000l. Only the sum of 841. per annum is paid for marriage portions. The property consists of houses and land in the city, and the company's hall stands on part of such land. No rent was paid for this land, until the Court of Chancery compelled the company to purchase it at a sum commensurate to its present value. The company have appropriated the residue of the 3000l. a year to their own purposes.2 The Hospital of St. John, in Northampton, is another good case. The exact date of its foundation is unknown. In Ďugdale's Monasticon it is mentioned as a foundation for infirm poor. From various charters, the last of which is in the reign of Charles I., this was evidently the original object of its endowment. It appears from documents, which we have not space to extract, that this hospital has at times possessed very large estates, part of which are now lost, and that the allowance to the poor has, instead of increasing, gradually diminished. We 'This case was certified to the Attorney-General by the Charity Commissioners, and under a decree of the Court of Chancery the whole of this sum will be applicable to the purposes of charity when the present lease expires. 2 This case also was certified to the Attorney-General, and under a decree of the Court of Chancery the whole income of the property will in future be devoted to charitable purposes. have tracked our way through a mass of old charters and documents of various kinds applying to this charity collected in the reports. Articles have continually been exhibited against the master, and petition after petition has followed on the part of the poor. As far back as can be traced, the hospital has been conducted in the same manner as at present. The establishment consists of a master, two co-brethren and eight almspeopleseven old women and one old man, who acts as clerk. The mastership is in the patronage of the Bishop of Lincoln. The co-brethren are always in holy orders; but there have been seven masters who were laymen. The eight old people receive 1s. 2d. a week each, and besides this are on parish pay, as the hospital allowance is so small. The commissioners estimate the present yearly value of the property belonging to this hospital at 17007., and quaintly state that it is clear the funds of the hospital, as at present administered, are of little use to any body but the Master. This case is also certified to the Attorney-General. We hope we have not wearied our readers by the rather long details of these cases; we think they will be read with interest, and have felt it advisable to give them, that the propriety of introducing the present Bill may be fully apparent to those who were not previously acquainted with the subject. Had we space, we could cite hundreds of a similar nature collected together in the various reports-of which St. Cross's Hospital at Winchester, Spital Hospital, and Bridewell Hospital, are perhaps the most notorious. In many cases the revenues of charities have been lost irrecoverably from the want of some proper authority to watch over and guard the trust,-others have been abused and diverted from their proper objects, because persons locally acquainted with the circumstances have declined to incur the pecuniary responsibility, or the odium of instituting legal proceedings. Again, legal difficulties and expense have sometimes prevented the trustees from carrying into full effect the intentions of the founder. And an ancient and traditional mode of managing the trust has acquired so strong a hold on the minds. of all the parties concerned, that it is more than can be expected of the present trustees to make any attempt to break the established usage, however faulty. Besides, there are a considerable number of charities wherein the present maladministration is wholly attributable to ignorance and want of information on the part of the trustees; who, under competent advice and direction, would be quite willing to correct what is irregular and defective. But at the same time the commissioners say, that they have met in many cases with the most determined opposition to the inquiry on the part of those interested in these matters; no information being given which could by any means be withheld; and they naturally say that in these cases the only inference to be drawn is, that gross peculation and mismanagement prevail. 66 Before entering upon the present Bill and its provisions, it may be well to take a concise view of the law, and the course of proceedings relating to charities. The 43 Eliz. c. 4, is the first statute, and by it the Lord Chancellor is empowered to award commissions to inquire of all gifts to charitable uses, and of all abuses and breaches of trust relative thereto; and to make orders for the future management of the funds. But this act did not apply to universities and cathedrals, and all colleges, hospitals and free schools, having special visitors or governors. These commissions have long been disused, and their place supplied by remedies of a more simple and effective kind; but while in use, the commissioners returned their decree into the Petty Bag Office of the Court of Chancery, and the matter was contested on the equity side of that court. The proceedings for that purpose were treated as an original suit; the parties not being bound by the evidence before the commissioners, but having power to allege what new matter they might please. An appeal lay from the Chancellor's decree. Besides this remedy, the sovereign, as parens patriæ," has the general superintendence of all charities not otherwise sufficiently protected; and therefore, whenever it is necessary the attorneygeneral, at the relation of some informant (called the relator) files an information in the Court of Chancery to have the charity properly established. In these relator suits the relators need not be the parties principally interested; any interest in the charity, be it ever so remote, is sufficient; and in point of fact no interest is necessary, for entire strangers, in some instances the clerks of the attornies filing the information, have been made relators. These suits seldom result in any permanent benefit to the charity. If property be recovered, or if new directions be given for the future administration of the charity, the ignorance of the parties, and the want of all means in the court for an independent inquiry, leave the charity with little or no benefit from the proceedings. But in many cases even this end is not attained. The decree having been made by the court, and lengthened inquiries partially entered into, and a goodly bill of costs having by this time run up, the matter is compromised on payment of these costs, and all future attempts for the benefit of the charity effectually prevented. By a subsequent act, the 52 Geo. III. c. 101 (Sir J. Romilly's act), summary relief by petition on the part of the trustees only, and under the sanction of the attorney or solicitorgeneral, was granted in cases of breach of charitable trusts. An appeal lay within two years to the House of Lords. By another statute, passed in the same year, provision was made for the registry and securing of charitable donations in order to prevent the funds being lost. Again, by the statute of 58 Geo. III. c. 91, a commission was authorized to inquire into the amount, nature and application of the produce of any estates or funds from time to time appropriated to the education of the poor, which powers were afterwards extended to all charities of whatever description-subject to certain specified exceptions. By 59 Geo. III. c. 91, the commissioners were also entrusted with the additional duty of certifying to the attorneygeneral the particulars of any case that appeared to them to require the interposition of a court of equity; upon which certificate the attorney-general was authorized to proceed, either by petition, information or otherwise, in the Court of Chancery or Exchequer. This statute also authorized trustees of any charity, by consent of five or more of the commissioners, to present a petition to the Court of Chancery or Exchequer, praying for relief. 1 These various commissions finally terminated in 1837, having reported upon no less than 28,840 charities, 400 of which were certified to the attorney-general. Of these charities (as appears by the various reports) the aggregate income, down to 1837, was no less than 1,209,3951., and by the report issued by the commission appointed on the 18th September, 1849, it is stated that the present aggregate amount is much greater. The last Commission report, "that, notwithstanding all that has been done, it appears still to them to be necessary, in order to apply an effectual and permanent remedy to the various abuses and defects, to create by legislative enactment some public and permanent authority charged with the duty of supervising the administration of all those charitable trusts." And they then offer the following suggestions: "That trustees should be compelled to make out annual accounts of receipt and expenditure. "That these accounts should be audited before some local authority. "That they should be registered in some local office, where 'We need hardly remind our readers, that the constitution of the Court of Exchequer was remodelled in 1841, when its equitable jurisdiction was transferred to the Court of Chancery. they may be accessible to public inspection; and that copies should be sent to some public officer or board, at which office these accounts, and all other information respecting the various charities throughout the kingdom, should be preserved. "That this officer or board should have authority to institute or direct legal proceedings in such manner, and subject to such control, as parliament may think fit to provide. "That in the event of any local jurisdiction being provided for the easier and more economical regulation of charities of small amount, it should be required that all schemes ordered by such a local court be revised and confirmed by the proposed officer or board." They then state that "they are of opinion that the creation of such an authority would be the means of saving a large amount of charity property, by putting a stop to many actual abuses, either of neglect or misapplication, by advising a better administration to trustees, who are willing to be advised, and in many instances by preventing expensive litigation, which would seldom be found necessary when it was generally known that any instance of neglect or malversation would meet with a prompt and certain interference." The commissioners propose to pay the expenses of this board by a tax on the charities themselves, and state emphatically that the large revenues and benevolent intentions of the founders of these charities demand from the state some better security than at present exists, for their due and beneficial administration. In this recommendation a prolonged inquiry of very many years has terminated, and the result is the present Bill introduced by the Lord Chancellor. The time occupied in this inquiry is not matter of surprise, for there is a tenacity of life and an antiMalthusian tendency to multiply in all salaried commissions, only equalled by the feline race; the number of their lives is legion, and they crawl over the ground with stealthy step and slow, always apparently bearing in mind these lines of Euripides ἐπίσχες· οὔτί το ταχὺ την δίκην ἔχεί Phoeniss. 442, 443. It should also be remembered, that the labour of hunting up evidence of the deepest "black letter" character, and many hundred years old, as well as the hostile feeling experienced at almost every turn by the commissioners, rendered their task by no means light. It is highly creditable to them that they have accomplished it at all. The Bill which has just been introduced into the House of |