The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-19 00:00:00

trustees that were connected with the charities of
the country. And then all these charities were to be
taxed for the maintenance of this machinery. The good and
well-administered charities, those in whom the trustees acted
in the most fair and impartial manner, were to be saddled with
the expense of those that were badly and carelessly adminis-
tered. The mode in which the trustees already appointed
were to be interfered with met with his decided opposition, as
uncalled for and unjust. On these grounds he objected to the
second reading of the Bill. The Noble and Learned Lord (the
Lord Chancellor) had promised them some amendments in the
Bill, but all that had yet been proposed was the exception ei
some few charitable bodies from its operation. The general
features of the Bill to which he objected still remained. He,
therefore, called on their Lordships to vote against its second
reading.—( Hear, hear. )
The Bishop of SALISBURY said, that notwithstanding
what had fallen from the Noble and Learned Lord who
had just sat down, he must support the second read-
ing of the Bill. The abuses that existed in those
charitable trusts were such as imperatively required a measure
of the present kind. The Cout tof Chancery at present was a
most expensive quarter from whence to expect redress and a
cheap and simple sutestitute was required. Unless a measure
of the present kind was carried he did not see any means by
which a remedy could be effected. The Noble and Learned
Lord (Lord Campbell) had talked of the reformation of the
Court of Charcery as the proper step to be taken, but it was
notorious that there was little hope of effecting a change at
present in that quarter. Judging from the period that a re.
formation in the Court of Chancery had been deemed neces-
sary, and how little had been done to accomplish it, he had but
small expectation of much being done in that direction for
some time. What was wanted was a cheap, efficient, and
summary jurisdiction. and this Bill he apprehended would pro-
vide that. Seeing no hope in any otherquarter, in spite of all the
objections that had been urged, he would vote in favour of the
second reading of the Bill. He had come to the House with
the impression of voting against it, but after the speech of the
Noble and Learned Lord (the Lord Chancellor) in moving the
second reading, though he (the Bishop of Salisbury) keerstill
objections to some of the details, he would support it in the
present stage. Any defects in the Bill might be amended in
Committee.

Lord A BINGER supported the second reading of the Bill.
It was his impression that while the administration of charities
would be placed on a fair and efficient footing, they would be
more secure and better protected than under the present state
of the law. He had not heard any good reasons advanced
why the Bill should be rejected.
Lord WROTTESLEY wished to say a few words on the
present measure. He had listened carefully to the objections
urged against the Bill, but he did not think they
had been successful, or had made out a case
why the Bill should not be allowed to pass. At
this late hour he was not anxious to trouble their Lordships
at any length, but he must really shortly state some of the
abuses of the present system. Nearly three-fourths of the
small charities of this country were swallowed up by the officers
and parties who administered them. Surely then it was high
time to establish some tribunal—some corrective authority.—
to see that these charities were properly dealt with by those
who had the administration & them. At present, a vacant
trusteeship could not be filled up without an expensive appli-
cation to the Court of Chancery, and it was this difficulty and
this obstacle which caused so much mischief, and so erten led
to those misapplications or misappropriations of the charities
which the public so loudly complained of.—( Hear, hear.) The
fact was, the machinery of the Court of Chancery was far too
costly to be resorted to for correcting abuses in respect of small
charities. Indeed, the idea of employing the Court of
Chancery for furthering the interests or correcting the mis-
application of small charities was almost as absurd as it would
be to employ a ponderous steam-engine to pick up a pin at the
foot of the Woolsack.—( Hear, hear, and laughter.) He was,
therefore, favourably disposed to this Bill, which, in his opi-
nion, would establish a very useful, and, in the present state of
public charities, a very necessary domestic tribunal.—( Hear,
hear.) He could not understand the opposition of trustees to
this measure, for one would have thought that they alone, of
all others, would be anxious to obtain every assistance in their
power for carrying out the objects of the charity intrusted to
their care ; and he, for one, was inclined to believe this oppo-
sition assumed a very sinister aspect.—(Hear, hear.) He had
other details which he should have been glad to have gone into
at an earlier period of the evening, but he hoped enough had
already been said to induce their Lordships to give a second
reading to this Bill.

Their Lordships then divided, when there appeared—
Contents
Non-contents 4l
Majority ..
The Bill was consequently lost.
Their Lordships then adjourned at a Quarter-pest Twelve.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, May 18.
The SPEAKER. took the Chair at Four o'clock.
WEST YORKSHIRE RAILWAY.
On the motion of Mr. BROTHER TON,. this Bill was read
a second time, and ordered to be committed.