The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-11-15 00:00:00

THE CHARITY COMMISSION.

The Report of the Select Committee, on the
Charitable Trusts Acts, conveys but an inadequate
idea, of the charges brought against the Charity Com-
missioners from various quarters, which it was a
principal part of the committee's duty to inquire into.
The evidence, taken by the committee, filling some
4.50 large pages, has now been published, and both the
charges and the answers to them may be read at,
length. Great objection is taken, in some instances,
by trustees and others, to the conversion of charities
designed for one purpose to the service of another. The
principle on which such conversion is made is called
the cy pres doctrine, and, shortly stated, comes to this,
that when the object of a charitable bequest cannot be
literally fulfilled it must be fulfilled as nearly as the
circumstances will permit. The general effect of
the leading case, as stated by Mr. Longley, one
of the Commissioners, is that a gift of money
or bread, for example, may, under the cy pre,s
doctrine, be applied to other objects, keeping in view,
however, the benefit of the poor, for which the gift
was designed. The cypres doctrine would not, in Mr.
Longley's opinion, cover the diversion of the funds of
a bread charity to the promotion of education. A
notable instance of the application of the doctrine is
afforded by Betton's Charity. This was instituted
for the redemption of Barbary captives, but in time it
came to pass that there were no Barbary captives to
redeem. The Court of Chancery therefore sanc-
tioned the diversion of the money to the purposes of
education, and as many as 700 parishes in various
parts of the country now receive benefit from it.
According to Mr. Vaughan Hawkins, who has
been for fifteen years junior counsel to the
Attorney - General in cases relating to
charities, the divergence of the new arrange-
ments must be as small as possible even from
the words of the founder. Thus in a case
before Lord Eldon, where a gift originally intended to
apprentice two poor boys, sons of members of a
particular Presbyterian congregation, had very much
increased, and the trustees did not know what to do
with the money, Lord Eldon said the court was
absolutely bound to go by steps. They must first pro-
vide for all the poor boys of the congregation in that
parish; then for the poor boys of the congregation
out of that parish; then for the girls of the congre-
gation in that parish,; then for the girls of the con-
gregation out of that parish; cad so on by a series of
steps which he proceeded to lay clown. That decision
is still held to be binding on the framers of a new
scheme for an old charity.

A curious applicationOf the doctrine was proposed
to the Commissioners by a Yorkshire clergyman.
There was an almshouse charity for 12 brethren,
whose income amounted to £5O a year apiece. Upon
this they were passing rich, and used to get drunk
together several times a year, inviting a good many
friends to the entertainment, who no doubt got. drunk
also. The clergyman's proposal was that if the Com
missioners could do nothing better in the way of
reform they should double the number of brethren,
because they could then get only half as drunk. It
does not appear that the suggestion was adopted.
The Charity Commissioners claim no right to inter-
fere with a modern charity, but there is no fixed limit
of age to distinguish a modern charity from an
ancient one. The late Mr. Charles Reade, for example,
founded a dole charity of the medieval sort, against
the advice of the Commissioners, and they took no
steps to prevent it. Neither will they concern them-
selves with its working.
One of the greatest grievances brought before the
committee was alleged by certain Nonconformists, of
whom the Rev. Dr. Crosskey was the principal spokes-
man. This gentleman, for whom Mr. John Morley
seems to have acted as examining counsel in the com-
mittee, asserted that Dissenters are systematically
excluded by the Commissioners from the management
of charitable trusts. Dr. Crosskey also alleged that
in certain cases erdowynents intended for Noncon-
formist‘purpses had been alienated and converted to
the benefit of the Church of England. The commit-
tee appear to have regarded these allegations as
serious, for they had before them at their next sitting
Sir Arthur Hobhouse, who was appointed a Charity
C4„2n,cs in_lB66, who was subsequently one of
the Endowed Schools Commissioners, and whose
evidence was very largely directed to rebutting the
statements of Dr. Crosskey. Sir Arthrtr described
the chJg.es as baieiess, speaking of the Commission
as he knew it. "On the contrary," he said, "we
always struggled, so far as the law would
allow us, to get mixed bodies of trustees
for the school endowments with which we had to
deal." This, however, was net always possible. Sir
Arthur did not doubt tha.i trustees were in many cases
chiefly, or perhaps wholly, Church people, but that
was not due to their churchmanship. It arose from
the fact that the people who have most wealth and
leisure, and most readily come forward to administer
endowments, do, as a matter of fact, belong to the
Church. How then, the witness was asked, do you
account for the discontent that prevails? To this
question Sir Arthur's reply was, "I can only account
for it by their (the Nonconformists) thinking that they
are placed in a disadvantageous position under the
Endowed Schools Act and Education Acts, and then
mixing up all the work of the Commission together.
I can account for it in no other way." Another
representative of Nonconformity, Mr. J. T.
Beighton, secretary of the Countess of Hunting-
don's College tit Cheshunt, made a novel proposal
with regard to enlareing the powers of the Charity
Commissioners. It appears that the trust deeds of
the college require subscription on the part of younc,
men trained in it for the ministry, as well as by the
professors, to Fifteen Articles of Faith, which are an
amalgam of the Church of England's Thirty-nine
and the Church of Scotland's Confession. This is
felt in these days of free thought to be a bondage,
and Mr. Beightoa wisher that the Commissioners
should be able to emancipate those who complain of
it. How the emancipation should be effected Mn,
Beighton did not very clearly see, but he finally ac-
cepted as his opinion that the o,)mmissioners should
be empowered, at the request of the college trustees,
to run their pen through anything in the Fifteen
Articles which an intending subscriber might particu-
larly object to sign. That is to say, as Mr. Bryce
put it, with the witness's assent, he would trust the
Charity Commissioners to lay down a new creed
instead of that which they had already got.

Mr. Jesse Collings, M.P., was the spokesman before
the committee for people who are discontented with
the working of the Allotments Extension Act of 1882.
The effect of that Act is to make it compulsory on the
trustees of charity lands to break them up, if re-
quired to do so, and let them to labourers in lots of
an acre each. According to Mr. Collings, very great
discontent prevails in some parts of the country at
the refusal of trustees to cazry out the Act. In one
case the labourers had made up their minds to rr srt
to force, the first act of the intended demonstraon
being to cut the bell-ropes of the church. Fortu-
nately, as Mr. Collings put it, the men asked his
adrice before sharpening their knives for the
intended sacrilege, but hm believes that it is
only their knowledge of the fact that Mr.
Collings and his association are with them
that keeps them quiet. George Hughes, one of
several labourers called to support Mr. Collings's
allegation, said the labourers were very much dis-
couraged and disheartened. They had not given up
hope yet, but he had heard it said that the opposition
to the Act "deserved Irish treatment applied to it."
Evidence was called, on the other hand, to show that
in many cases the application of the Act would be
ruinous. Sir Seymour Fitzgerald, the Chief Commis-
sioner, expressed approval of its policy, but he could
not agree with Mr. Collings that it was intended to
be compulsory, whatever the consequences to the
original beneficiaries might be. It is not difficult to
gather from the evidence that the Act is being em-
ployed by agitators in the agricultural districts to
foment dissatisfaction among the labourers, who are
taught to believe that they are being kept out of their
rights for the benefit of people better off than them-
selves.