Atkins, Mr Wrottesley, Mr Abel Smith, Mr Abercromby, and Mr Warre. On the 22d and 27th of April, Mr Brougham moved the committal of a bill for inquiring into the abuse of charitable funds. He again dwelt on the extensive abuses which the committee had discovered. In Berkshire, they had been assured, on good authority, that the incomes of the charitable funds had been returned at 7000l. a-year, while their real income was 20,000l. a-year, of which not more than 5000l. was expended in the manner directed by the benefactors. Many misrepresentations had gone abroad on the subject of this inquiry. The present was stated to be a bill which would interfere with the management of charitable funds. A more gross misrepresentation never was set afloat. It was a bill, not to interfere with the management, but with the mismanagement of charities-and that by inquiry and report. It was next stated, that the bill went to trench on private property. This was as gross a misrepresentation as the former. The fact was, that persons receiving money for charitable purposes, were, as much as any officer of the government, entrusted with public property, and had a right to account for it. The powers of the bill were not greater than those granted to the commissioners of accounts in 1781, to the commissioners of naval inquiry in 1803, and of military inquiry in 1804.-Lord Folkestone regretted the exception of the universities, and of Westminster and Winchester schools, and Mr Brougham heartily wished these learned foundations had challenged inquiry into the administration of their affairs. That venerable man, Earl St Vincent, had afforded an example on such subjects, which, whenever they were considered, it was impossible too often to press upon the attention of the House, and to hold up to imitation. He meant his noble example in putting at the very head and front of the inquiry into the abuses in public offices, the offices of the lords commissioners of the Admiralty, he being at that time himself the first lord. The noble earl said, " let the commissioners come into his office, and examine all papers, and all persons in the office, in all departments, from the top to the bottom." Mr Bathurst and Mr Peel, however, insisted that the universities could with no propriety be included. On the 8th May, previous to the House going into a committee on this bill, Mr Brougham gave a full and interesting view of its nature and objects. "In considering the want of education among the poorer classes of society, and the best measures for supplying it, we shall do well to regard the subject in two distinct points of view; attending, first, to the situation of the people in cities and towns of considerable size; secondly, to the circumstances of the people in small towns or villages, and in districts wholly agricultural, where hardly even a village exists. The House will soon perceive that a due attention to this division, and the diversities of situation upon which it is founded, furnishes a clue to guide us a great part of the way in our inquiries, if indeed it does not lead us to the conclusion. Now, in large towns, in those, I mean, where the population exceeds seven or eight thousand inhabitants, there exist, generally speaking, sufficiently ample means of instructing the poor; not that there is almost any town where all can at present be taught, but that the laudable exertions of individuals are directed everywhere to this object, and are daily making such progress as will in time leave nothing to be wished for. Societies are formed, or forming, of respectable and opulent persons, who, to their infinite ho nour, besides furnishing the necessary funds, do not begrudge what many withhold who are liberal enough of pecuniary assistance their time, their persevering and active personal exertions. It is difficult to describe such conduct in terms of adequate praise: nor is it confined to the metropolis and the larger cities. We find hardly a town of any note in which some association of this sort has not been formed, and there can be no doubt, that a sufficient number of schools to educate all the poor of such populous places may be maintained by the voluntary contributions of such bodies, if the obstacle is removed which the first expense of the undertakings, the providing school-houses, occasions. Where so powerful a disposition to carry on this good work exists in the community itself, we should be very careful how we interfere with it by any legislative provisions. The greatest danger is to be apprehended of drying up those sources of private charity, by an unguarded interposition of the public authority. The associations to which I refer, act for the poor, both as benefactors, as advocates, and as trustees. They contribute themselves; they appeal to the community through the usual channels of private solicitation, of public meetings, and of the press; they raise sums by donations to begin the undertakings, and by annual subscription to meet the current expenses; they manage the expenditure, for the most part, with a degree of economy, which I am afraid can never be hoped for in the distribution of any portion of the state revenue. The line traced out for Parliament with regard to the populous districts, by all the evidence given to the committee, seems suffi. ciently plain. It should confine its assistance to the first cost of the establishments, and leave the yearly ex penses to be defrayed in every case by the private patrons. When we turn from the considerable towns and populous districts, to parts of the country more thinly peopled, we perceive a very different state of things, in all but one essential particular, in which every quarter of the kingdom seems to agree. The means of instruction are scanty; there is little reason to look for their increase, but the poor are everywhere anxious for education. From the largest cities to the most solitary villages to remote districts, where the inhabitants lived dispersed, without even a hamlet to gather them together; whether in the busiest haunts of men, the seats of refinement and civility, where the general diffusion of knowledge, and the experience of its advantages or pleasures might be expected to stamp a high value on it in all men's eyes; or in the distant tracts of country, frequented by men barely civilized, and acquainted with the blessings of education rather by report than observation-in every corner of the country the poor are deeply impressed with a sense of its vast importance, and willing to make any sacrifice within the bounds of possibility to attain this object of their ardent and steady desire." In these remote and thinly inhabited districts, there seemed no means of attaining the object except the parish school system, so long adopted in Scotland, and with the happiest effects. "The experience of above a century has borne irresistible testimony to the salutary tendency of this scheme. The expense attending it is moderate. The school-house is a building little better than a barn, which in Scotland may cost 401. or 50%.; and in England may be erected for 100l. or 150%. The yearly salary of the master, originally from 51. to 117., was raised in 1803 to its present amount of 161. to 221.* For sums no greater than these, expended in every parish, the whole of Scotland enjoys the inestimable benefits of an education, which extends to the poorest classes of her inhabitants, and, in its effects, confers a thousand advantages upon the highest orders in the state. The system is efficient as cheap-extensive as useful-permanent as salutary." After these general views, Mr Brougham proceeded to the more immediate object of the bill, which was to inquire into the state and management of charitable funds. The returns, in pursuance to the 26th Geo. Ill., commonly called Mr Gilbert's act, are known to be exceedingly defective; yet they make the yearly in come of charities about 48,000l. from money, and 210,000l. from land in the year 1788. It appears from evidence laid before the committee, that in one county, Berkshire, only a third part of the funds was returned. If we suppose this to be the average deficiency in the whole returns, it will follow that the whole income actually received from the charities was between 7 and 800,000l. a-year. There were also many circumstances connected with the negligence, or the want of due power vested in the hands of trustees, which tended to keep the income much below the amount to which it might be raised. A parliamentary inquiry had even been recommended by the report of 1786-7 in consequence of the returns under Mr Gilbert's act. Mr Brougham then enumerated many instances of gross abuse and misapplication. It was said indeed that the injured might resort to the Court of Chancery. "Come, all ye who labour under the burthen of fraud or oppression-enter the eternal gates of the Court of Chancery! True, you are the poor of the land-the grievance you complain of has robbed you of every thing: but pennyless though you are, you are not remediless-you have only to file a bill in equity, and the matter will take its course! Why, if there were nothing in the reality, there is something in the name of the Court of Chancery that appals the imagination, and strikes terror into the unlearned mind. I recollect a saying of a very great man in the Court of King'sBench. The judge having said of his client, Let him go into a court of equity.' Mr Erskine answered, in an artless tone of voice, which made Westminster-hall ring with laughter, Would your Lordships send a fellow-creature there?" Mr Brougham could not conclude without observing, that many abuses exist without blame being imputed to any one. Neglects may be handed down, as it were, from father to son, until the right course of administration is forgotten. A person may hold funds as his own which some remote ancestor diverted from their proper object, and for many years the existence of the misappropriation may have been unsuspected. Mr Brougham finally observed: "In the history of this country, public or domestic, I know of no feature more touching than the sight of those who every day before our eyes are seen devoting their fortunes, their time, their labour, their health, to offices of benevolence and mercy. How many persons do I myself know, to whom it is only necessary to say-there are men without employment-children uneducated-sufferers in prison-victims • By 43 Geo. III. c. 54. More accurately, the old stipends were from 5l. 11s. 1 to 111. 2s. 2d.; the new stipends are from 16l. 13s. 3d. to 221. 4s. 4d. and they are to be corrected every 25 years, according to the price of grain. of disease-wretches pining in wantand straightway they will abandon all other pursuits, as if they themselves had not large families to provide for, and toil for days and for nights, stolen from their own most necessary avocations, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and shed upon the children of the poor that inestimable blessing of education, which alone gave themselves the wish and the power to relieve their fellow-men! I survey this picture with inexpressible pleasure, and the rather because it is a glory peculiar to England. Lord Castlereagh said, that after the speech, so interesting and so full of information, which the House had heard from the honourable and learned gentleman, he should not long occupy its attention. He censured the remarks on the Court of Chancery as invidious, observing that the power of deciding quickly, and that of deciding equitably, were difficult to combine. He went along with the honourable and learned gentleman in thinking that a commission would do great good. They would do good, in the first place, by calling the attention of Parliament to the management of funds for education. Individuals who were interested must be impelled to diligent inquiry and active vigilance, by the knowledge that the disposal of the charities which they superintended was under the consideration of Parliament. The nature and the amount of the funds would thus be ascertain ed and directed to their proper object. He went along with the honourable and learned gentleman in thinking that those funds were in some respects public property; at least they were public property so far as that the laws ought, to attend to the management; but as they must have been appropriated to specific objects by the original donors, they ought not to be diverted from those objects. He suggested that men of rank and consideration should form part of the commission, who, though they should not enter into the laborious parts, would be aiding with their counsel and authority. A division took place on the proposition by Mr Robinson that Harrow school should be exempted, which was nega tived by 53 to 30. The bill now passed the Commons, and on the 27th May was introduced into the House of Lords by the Earl of Rosslyn, who recapitulated the leading arguments which had been used in its support. The Lord Chancellor stated, that he felt himself bound to give the bill his decided negative, as more detrimental to the interests of charities than any proceeding that could be devised. He and Sir William Grant had made the utmost exertion to remedy these evils, but had found the obstacles so insurmountable, that they were obliged to desist. If the legislature did not protect to the utmost all honorary trustees, in the execution of their trusts-if they were to be exposed to suspicious and vexatious inquiries into all the details of their duty-not one honourable man would be found in the kingdom to take upon himself the responsibility of a charitable trust. He should be glad to know where was the power of Parliament to interpose between the negligent schoolmasters and their scholars, even supposing they were negligent; but the fact was, that a foolish fashion prevailed of sending boys by dozens to private seminaries, so that the endowed grammar-schools in country towns were deserted, and the deficiency of pupils was unfairly attributed to the misconduct of masters. The 4000l. set apart in the bill would not pay the expenses of one-fortieth of the inquiries that must be instituted; for there was scarcely a parish in the kingdom that had not some charitable establishment or other. These important trusts were generally gratuitously discharged, and if a more temperate measure than this was not provided, no man would in future take upon himself such arduous and hazardous duties. Lord Redesdale also said, he had conversed with many trustees, who said that they would not have accepted of the trust, if they had been aware of such a measure as this. If such a bill passed, trustees would consist only of persons of great zeal and of little discretion. Lord Holland, however, strongly supported the bill, and Lord Carnarvon observed, that unless the House were prepared to remit all preliminary inquiry, and to receive only specific bills for every abuse, he could conceive no reason, and he had heard no reason, why the bill should not be committed. It might come out of the committee a bill much improved, and certainly a bill calculated to do infinite good. The commitment of the bill was carried by a majority of 10 to 8. The chief alterations made in the committee were, that the inquiry should be confined to charitable abuses connected with education, that the commissioners should not have the power to fine or commit, and that their inquiries should not extend to establishments which had special visitors. The Chancellor then stated, that he considered the bill as materially improved, and it passed without serious opposition. On the 3d June, Mr Brougham presented to the House the Report of the Committee on Education, which is inserted in the Appendix. He then animadverted with peculiar asperity on the changes which his bill had undergone in passing through the Upper House. On the restriction of inquiry to subjects connected with education, he observed, if commissioners were to be sent round the country for the purpose of inquiring into the application of the funds of the charities for education-if they were enabled to call for the attendance of witnesses-if they could demand the production of documents, and prosecute inquiries into abuses as to education, it seemed to him very natural that they should also avail themselves of the opportunity of inquiring into other abuses admitted by all to prevail, although existing in charities not connected with education. Those superior persons, however, who sat in the upper regions of legislation, and who, from their elevated height, were better qualified to take a more comprehensive view of human affairs, thought otherwise, and struck out that part of the bill. What! though the very steps these commissioners were to adopt in their investigation of abuses as to education might lead to a just suspicion of similar abuses in other charities-though the scene for such respective inquiries was the samethough the same witnesses might be examined as to the application of the funds of respective charities—were they to be precluded by a positive provision of law from extending their research? Yes! The House must not expect those abuses to be examined. The mouth of any witness about to afford evidence of such abuses must be stopped, in virtue of the bill as it was now returned to that House. He represented also the anomalous situation of parliamentary commissioners sent to make inquiries without any penalty by which to enforce attendance, or the production of papers-allowed to collect only volunteer evidence from persons whose interest was often inimical to disclosure. With regard to the exception of charities having special visitors, he would pledge himself to prove, that of all the charities in which abuses exist, none were greater or grosser than in those where special visitors were appointed. Indeed he could say positively, that the grossest case |