The Express.
London, England, 1868-03-21 00:00:00

FOUNDERS' INTENTIONS.

A VERY curious history might be written of
the purposes for which bequests have been made
or endowments founded. There is a churcliyard
in Surrey in which an eccentric man lies buried,
"eighteen feet under ground," who left • sum of
money to five poor boys to be nominated by
trustees, on condition that upon the anniversary
of his death they should lay their hands upon
his gravestone, repeat the Lord's Prayer, the
Apostles' Creed, and the Commandments, read •
chapter from the New Testament, and afterwards
write two verses of the chapter. These observ-
ances are, we believed, still retained, and it would
be amusing to know how many bequests, per-
haps equally strange and foolish, are in force
throughout the country. The Report of the School
Commissioners just issued contains a number of
odd statements which would turn to good account
in such a narrative. It shows how impossible or
how foolish it is to attempt, in the present state
of society, to carry out the charitable intentions
of men who died three hundred or four hundred
years ago. One founder, for instance, wishes a
psalm to be sung at his tomb and a prayer to be
offered for his soul ; another requires the scholars
to provide " clean wax candles to keep light in
" the school during the winter ;" a third
insists that every scholar, before his ad-
mission into the school, shall be able to read
perfectly both English and Latin. There was a free
school founded in 1512, the master of which is
" to make no potations, cock-fighting', nor drink-
" ings, but only twice • year ;" there was a
school founded by a certain ANTHONY PINCHBECK,
in which all scholars bearing the founder's name
are to be instructed without payment ; there is
another in which the pupils are required to pay
for rods, which seems hard upon them, consider-
ing for what purposes the rods are required. It
reminds us of the custom which pertains at Eton,
where, on the accession of a new head master, the
boys present him with • birch.

The Commissioners say truly that to interpret
literally the founders' intentions is simply to tra-
vesty them, and to render the schools not only
useless, but even harmful. On the other hand
these intentions are sometimes wholly disregarded,
and the very evil against which a founder provided
is suffered to prevail. Such, for instance, is the case
at a town in Wales, where the founder, although
himself a clergyman, forbade the schoolmaster to
have any cure of souls. Nevertheless, " the
" mastership has been regularly given to the
" curate of the pariah, who reads two or three
" services every Sunday, and has an
" extensive parish to look after." When
we read in this interesting report of school-
masters receiving a good income, but without
scholars, of masters sending their pupils
to private schools, of one-fourth of the grammar
schools in one county suffering from the physical
infirmities of the masters, of schools in which the
scholars are " profoundly ignorant on all subjects,"
of trustees who are paralytic or imbecile, of chil-
dren following their own devioes while the masters
are pursuing theirs, of one school boasting two
masters and one scholar, and of another which
has been closed for eight years owing to the
obstinacy of a trustee---it is evident that the dis-
graceful neglect of a founder's intentions is even
more injurious than their literal interpretation.
In either instance the necessity of reform is
obvious.