The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-17 00:00:00

sent, leaving the trustees to attend to them and administer
the funds, That bill did not become law. In 1853 the
Whig Government again brought is a bill, and pledges
were then given as to the mode of carrying the yrov',-10ne
of the measure into effect, which, he would show the &mese,
had been violated. The Lord Chancellor a tt at day, Lord
Russell, who was then a member re'i tse r cuss, and the
noble viscount opposite, had given pledges and made state-
ments with regard to the which had all been violated.
'The Lord Chancellor, w..nen proposing the bill known as
the Charitable 'Trusts Act of 1853, stated that the expense
of the board would not exceed £5,000 a year. But the ex-
pense for the present year was £18,250. Lord John Rus-
sell, when enoving the second reading of the bill, referred
to the report of the select committee of the House of Lords,
and stated that the opinion of the committee was, that the
commissioners should be entirely separated from the into-
rests of party. But that recommendation was set at nought
in every appointment that was made, fer there was not a
feingle man tinged with Conservative principles upon the
board. The hon. member then went through the list of offi-
cials in connectionwith the commission,contending that they
were all political appointments. made in gross violation of
the assurance given by Earl Russell that party politics
would have no influence in the appointments made under
the Charities Act. Having referred to the appointment
of Mr Bouse, as inspector under the board, that gentleman
having been previously election agent of a private secretary
of the noble lord at the head of the Government, he con-
tinued—What did they say in the West of England ? Why,
that the private secretary of the noble lord had paid his
election expenses through the appointment of Mr Bouse,
If a select committee were appointed, he believed that cir-
cumstances anything but creditable to the noble lord and his
private secretary would come out. He now came to the third
inspector, Mr John Symonds, who was declared by the right
hon. member for Caine (Mr Lowe) to be "a gentleman who
has not been, as far as I (Mr Lowe) am aware, brought up
to anything." (Loud laughter.) He (Mr Ferrand) would
tell the house who Mr John Symonds was and what he had
been, and he would show how the public taxes were squan-
dered by the Whigs in office, who were pledged to peace,
retrenchment, and reform. (Laughter.) This gentleman was
not Mr John Symonds—he was John Symonds, jun. (Loud
laughter.) John Symonds, jnn., was an uneducated man,
who could write indifferently,-but could not spell. (Loud
laughter.) Let the house bear in mind a charity inspector
ought to be a man of the highest integrity, and above all
suspicion, coming as he did in contact with trustees who
were charged with the administration of vast property,
(Hear, hear.) Now this John Symonds, jun:, was a coal and
potato dealer in the Hampstead.road—(roars of laughter)—
there could be no doubt about it. " Here is his card," said
the hon. member, amidst roars of laughter, "as black as a
coal and as dirty as a rotten potato." (Sensation.) To use
the language of the right hon. member for Caine when he
refused a return of the trade, profession, and calling of
this man, it might have "lain on the floor of a grocer's
shop for twelve months, or been nailed to a coster-
monger's barrow." (Great laughter.) Here is the address,
"John Symonds, coal merchant, Bridge Wharf, Regent's
Canal, Hampstead-road." At the end of 1853 this coal
and potato dealer—(laughter)—fled to Australia, but
while there he was reduced to beggary, and became a
hired labourer. In 1855 Mr Wood, the chairman of the
Inland Revenue Board, was dangerously ill, and the inten-
tion was immediately formed that John Symonds, jun.,
should be appointed to his place, with a salary of £2,000- a
year. Mr Wood, however, did not die until October in the
following year, and, Sir G. Lewis being Chancellor of the
Exchequer, so the coal and potato dealer had to be provided
for as third inspector under the Charity Commissioners.
(Hear, hear.)
Sir J, FERGUSSON—At what salary ?
Mr FERRAND—£BOO a year. Ihe Charity Act received
the royal assent on Aug. 14, and immediately John
Symonds, jun., was written to in Australia, desiring
him to come home, as a lucrative Government office had
been provided for him by one of the highest in the land.
According he arrived in England early in 1856, and he had
to undergo two months' preparation before his friends dared
to let him enter the office of the Charity Board. At the
expiration of that time he was recommended to her Majesty
as duly qualified, and he received his appointment from the
Queen on April 21. Now one of the creditors of this newly
appointed charity inspector to whom he owed £2,800, money
which he had received as his agent, had authorised him (Mr
Ferrand) to state that he was prepared to come before a
select committee and prove that the appointment of this man
was one of the most disgraceful acts ever perpetrated by any
Minister. If the house desired, he would give the name of
this gentleman, who was one of the most eminent members
of the Coal Exchange. He said that, knowing the antece-
dents of the man, he would have as soon have expected a
costermonger to have been appointed to the office, This
gentleman went to the offiee in St. James's-equare, where
he found his runaway debtor. He demanded his money,
but the inspector pleaded poverty, declaring that he was
living in lodgings at 8s a week. The creditor, however,
discovered that he was living in a large, well-furnished
house. In 1857 the inspector was sued for the debt—he being
then a charity inspector in receipt of a salary of £BOO, and
was described as ame;ng the most industrious, honourable,
and valuable of her Majesty's public servants—and met this
demand by pleP.ding the statute of limitations, and thus
defrauded his, creditor. On June 24, 1859, the noble lord
the member for Tiverton was gazetted First Lord of the
Treasury, and on the following day the Hampstead-road
coal r.nd potato dealer, the runaway fraudulent debtor, the
Australian day labourer, the statute of limitations pleader,
vies presented to her Majesty at a court levee by Viscount
Palmerston, who stood by and witnessed this insult to his
sovereign, (Laughter.) This corrupt appointment was
connected with a scandalous transaction in which a Cabinet
Minister was deeply implicated. lie was prepared to name
him, (Cries of " Name.") The noble viscount opposite.
If he did not prove this statement in all its material bear.
ings, he was unworthy a seat in the house. (Hear, hear.)
Where was the Chancellor of the Exchequer ? Why was
he absent that evening—he who had taunted the gentlemen
sitting on the Opposition benches with being spendthrifts
of the public taxes? Why was he not upon that bench
looking at the noble lord ? Why was he not at home to-
night ? (Loud laughter.) Had he been in his place, he
(Mr Ferrand) should have told the right hon. gentleman it
was his duty, as guardian of the public purse, to demand
to-morrow a meeting of the Cabinet, and to have insisted
upon a distinct, positive, and truthful statement from the
noble lord of all his transactions connected with. this odious
and iniquitous appointment. And it he ;old the whole
truth, to-morrow's sun would set upon a 'oroken-up Cabinet
and a disorganised Ministry. (Greet laughter.) He ap-
pealed to the financial reformera opposite whether he had
not already made out a case ',A justify the appointment of
a select committee. (H.ear, hear.) He next came to the
appointment of an P.ccountant to the commission, which
was in violation of the law, as there was no authority in
the Act of Perliment for such an appointment. If what
he suspected was true, that appointment was a gross job.
Now, echo did the house suppose had got this appointment
When ho mentioned the name of Mr G. Goodenough
iiayter, the house would Bee whether it was a gross job or
not. This was not the hon, member for Wells, but he was
told he was his nephew. Then there were the financial
clerks, of whom the public would have known nothing had
not he (Mr Ferrand) made a violent speech on the 20th of
February, and made the Government give the returns, The
first clerk was T. W. Erie, who, he supposed, was the son
of Peter. (Laughter.) Then he came to another office,
constituted in violation of law, that of the record keeper,
with a salary of £320 a year. His name was Mr E. A
Qreville. They told him (Mr. Ferrand) he was a
Whig. (Laughter.) Then came eleven second-class
clerks, nine third-class (twenty-eight in all), two-thirds of
the appointments gross jobs. The expenses of the board in
1864 amounted to £18,243, although the Government had
Pledged themselves that it should not exceed £5,000 or
46,1)00, and to be reduced in four years to £1,200, of which
"2,2 e £7,560 was for the appointment under the Whig patron •
age of the First Lord of the Treasury, The cost of the three
additional job-inn
pectors had cost the tax-payers since 1855
£lB,OOO,
Za,uvu annually, for their salaries. The ex-
of tile Present board amounted already to £181,224;
the expenses of the commissioners before the board
amounted to £315 ane
514.
~,,,e0;7:011 t
, besides the printing, or a total sum
he 22d of October, 1853, the board
pens esd to £9,416,
wasounce 14.
In 1854 the ex
being nearly double the
amount theamounte Government had
pledged themselves should be
the cost to the taxpayers.
In 18,55 the expenses aft:mated to £10,833, including the
weret_ o be the Working power of
salaries of the three commii.ssioners. In 1856 three addi-
tional inspectors were appointed. In 1857 the expenses
were £14,291, and in 1864, as het had already told the house,
irribflurstetcnra,ooo circulars
were to go hrou.gh the country,
1 report, in
£18,250. The ThTeheinyspeetore
to visit
the different charities, public in every
to bring justice to th
part of Eryglaed and Wales, and they heti to report to the
which theycommission.
stated I n 1
tBhsa4t
previous to the 31st December, and there had been 30
or 40
appeared their
distributed
in which assistance and advice had been asked, but there
was no statement that an inspector had visited one. 1n
1855 there were 1,100 special applications, of which the
inspectors had investigated about 800. In 1857 they laid
their fourth annual report on the table, and in it the inspec-
tors reported that they had proceeded with their labours in
various charities. Up to 1863 even the names of the in.

spectors had not been mentioned, b; in that year)
after he
had given notice of his intention to bring the conduct of
the commission before the house, they said the inspectors
had been actively engaged in inspecting several charities,
particularly in the metropolis. Now, he had taken pairs to
ascertain what the charity inspectors had been doing, and
had got there an account of the travelling expenses of
Thomas Hate Skirrow, T. 0. Martin, Symonds, and Bouse.
The money allowed to Mr Hare for travelling throughout
the country to carry justice where it was required was £7l,
or a weekly average of £1 7s 6d. The next was Mr Skir-
row, who he believed remained at the Charity Board, and
was the most active and useful man among them. Hia
expenses were £6O 121, or £1 3s 6d weekly. Now he came
to T. O. Martin, whose appointment he was told was a
gross job ; and he believed it was so, too. He would not,
however, give the evidence he had in his possession, lest
he should defeat the ends of justice. (A laugh.) His ex-
penses were £1 16f, 8d weekly, or about £9B per annum.
In 1856 this man's travelling expenses—a man who was
absolutely necessary to zarry on the administration of the
law—amounted to £22 5.3. In the following year they were