When, then, the commissioners have settled a scheme for the application of funds to a different purpose than contemplated by the donor, the Bill, by a most extraordinary provision, and a singular misapplication of words, enacts (Sec. 42), That "all trustees who shall refuse or neglect to obey the directions of this Act, or the directions of the commissioners lawfully given under the provisions of this Act, shall be deemed guilty of a breach of trust, and shall be subject to removal on application to the Court of Chancery by petition in a summary way; and all the costs of such petition shall be paid by the trustees so offending or otherwise, as the said Court of Chancery shall direct."

The Review further proceeds :-" To defend such extraordinary powers, it must be shewn, first, that they are necessary, or, at least, clearly and undeniably expedient; and secondly, that the commissioners to whom they are to be confided, are likely to be properly selected, and when selected, properly controlled."

The qualifications required by the Act are (Sec. 2), that the commissioner be either a person "holding the office of vicechancellor, or master in ordinary of the High Court of Chancery, or a person who shall have held either of such offices, or the office of chief justice of the supreme court of judicature in Bengal, or a sergeant or barrister-at-law in actual practice, and of not less than twelve years' standing at the bar."

"If one thing more than another can add to the absurdity, and heighten the iniquity of this proceeding, it is a consideration of the position of the parties who are to carry this scheme into effect. It is currently reported, that of the gentlemen to be dignified by commissionerships under this Act, one is a Roman Catholic, another a Churchman, and a third a Unitarian. Any two may be a quorum for the purposes of summary jurisdiction over these scholastic establishments. Thus, Church of England schools may be regulated by a Papist and a Socinian; Roman Catholic schools by a Socinian and a heretic; Dissenting schools by a Churchman and a Papist; Unitarian schools by a Papist and a Trinitarian! Here is confusion worse confounded,' with a vengeance. Pass this Bill, and there is not an educational foundation in England, great or small, or of whatever religious denomination, which will be safe from the meddling and innovation of men who have neither sympathy nor respect for the principles therein inculcated!"*

The inquisitorial nature of the Bill deserves especial notice. All or most of the great companies, the religious and charitable societies, are perfectly willing to have their accounts examined; and, with regard to many of them, the accounts are not only annually audited, but published and circulated amongst the members and subscribers, who thus know how their funds are disposed

• Address t› the Lords Spiritua' an 1 Tempora', p. 30.

of, and possess a controlling power over the administration of them, so as to prevent or remedy any perversion.

But the powers conferred by this Bill are vexatious, tyrannical, uncalled-for. The power to two or three commissioners or inspectors to examine all accounts, to appoint the way in which they shall be kept, to displace trustees and appoint others in their room, to examine witnesses upon oath, to impose fine and imprisonment for disobedience, to require the register and copies of all deeds or documents affecting the charities, and to tax each charity to the amount of three-halfpence or threepence in the pound, or 1007. per year,* is such a novelty in our legislation, such a forced interference with voluntary societies, that we are absolutely without being able to find a precedent for it in the proceedings of our ancestors, and trust our senators will not, by adopting the measure, supply such a precedent to posterity.

On the subject of depositing copies of all deeds, the master, wardens, and court of assistants of the Merchant Tailors' Company, thus express themselves in their Petition to the House of Lords, praying that the Bill may not pass into law, or that the Company may be exempted from the operation of it, and may be permitted to appear by counsel at the bar of their Lordships' House.

"Your petitioners further humbly state, that the obligation to deposit in the office of the commissioners attested copies or abstracts of all conveyances and assurances, by which any property subject to any charitable trusts shall be affected, together with the power given to the commissioners to require the registration or deposit of copies of muniments of title, and the provisions for giving the public access thereto, would by reason of a large portion of the corporate property of the company being charged with the payment of small annual sums to charities, impose a great tax on your petitioners, and also an unnecessary exposure of their private affairs."

It is said that the expense of copying all the deeds relating to the various properties belonging to Christ's Hospital would alone be 3,000l. The whole of these deeds would be open to the inspection of any one, on paying one shilling, and the charity might be involved in a variety of expensive litigation by any person malevolently inclined.

"It cannot be said that any of their general powers, those which we have designated as No. 1, are absolutely necessary, and we are inclined to doubt whether all of them are expedient. The two first powers, those to authorize the selling, mortgaging,

Indeed it may be a question how far each local association is not à distinct society for the purposes of this Act; and whether, therefore, instead of taking 1007. from the London Society, they may not take threepence in the pound also from every missionary society in every town and village of England and W ales.

exchanging, and leasing all charity lands, and the compromise of all suits, might unquestionably, in the hands of corrupt or merely careless commissioners, be the means of nearly unlimited jobbing. Under the first, they may authorize almost any use whatever to be made of the Charity property. It may be thrown into a park, or removed out of sight, or converted into money, or let to a friend; and, as every transaction which they sanction is to be valid at law and in equity, there will be no means of correcting their errors. Under the second power they may screen any amount of fraud or misconduct. They are empowered to put a final bar to all actions or claims on the part of a Charity. We do not say that these powers ought not, in the present state of public morality, to be given, but we venture to affirm, that if such powers had been granted a hundred years ago, or, perhaps, fifty years ago, very little land would now be in the hands of charity."-Edinburgh Review.

But it is not against the power of thus dealing with the property of charities, the total value of which is estimated by the Review now quoted at from seventy-five millions to one hundred millions, that we chiefly protest; but we object to the annoyance to the personal feelings, the danger to personal reputation and liberty, involved in the spirit and provisions of this Bill.

There is no country gentleman, no landed proprietor, having any charge upon his property for charitable purposes, who may not be called upon to have his title deeds inspected, and to deposit copies or abstracts of certain portions of them with the commissioners.

Trustees, and other persons administering the charity, may be cited to appear before them, and compelled to travel any distance at their own expense, whilst other persons may be required to travel, at their own expense, any distance not exceeding ten miles, as often as the commissioners may like to require, and any one of the commissioners, or any one of the inspectors, may examine upon oath or affirmation (Sec. 25) any person whom they are empowered to call before them to be examined; whilst any persons refusing to appear, or to be examined when they do appear, are liable to removal, on application to a Court of Chancery by petition, in a summary way, the costs to be paid by them (Sec. 41), or to the payment of any such fine, to be enforced by attachment, as the Court of Queen's Bench or Exchequer may, on the application of the commissioners, decide (Sec. 40).

To summary convictions, except in cases of contempt, the common law is a stranger; and though, in several cases, a power of summary conviction has been given by various Acts of Parliament, Sir W. Blackstone observed in his time that such power had of late been so far extended as to threaten the disuse of the ever admirable and truly English trial by jury, and that the

power of various public officers over the property of the people had increased to a very formidable height.

The extensive powers given by this Bill cannot be carried out by two or three commissioners and inspectors. The number must be greatly increased; and these powers, which in the hands of men of honour are highly formidable, may, as the number of commissioners is increased, fall into those of very inferior grade, may be perverted to mere party objects, and scandalous purposes, to the low ends of selfish ambition, avarice, or personal

resentment.

From these ill consequences we may collect the prudent foresight of our ancient lawgivers, who suffered neither the property nor the punishment of the subject to be determined by the opinion of any one or two men; and we may also observe the necessity of not deviating any further from our ancient constitution, by ordaining new penalties to be inflicted as summary convictions.

There are those, we know, who may deem the introduction of this, and similar topics, into our periodical as needless and uncalled for; some who regard such subjects as utterly unworthy of their attention, and as interfering with that spirituality of mind which should ever characterize the devoted and pious Christian. Our Protestant readers, however, must not imagine that such things are beneath their notice as Christian men, nor be led away with the idea that these points are to be neglected or despised. If Paul could plead the privileges of a Roman citizen, to protect himself from unmerited punishment, administered by those who had legally and constitutionally no jurisdiction over him; if he did not think that the holiness of his mission was impaired, or his ministerial usefulness diminished thereby-let not us, from any feelings of mawkish sensibility, abstain from repelling unjust invasions of our rights and liberties as Christian freemen and British citizens.* No; rather let us oppose this and similar Bills, as so many meshes of a net to entangle us―so many links of a chain, widely thrown to encircle our free institutions, and hand them over to the tender mercies of those who will seek to destroy, where they cannot corrupt or pervert them.

A pure faith was delivered to our ancestors, and when corrupted by the errors of the Church of Rome, it was purified by our Reformers, and handed down to us with an open Bible.

To maintain, protect, and propagate that religion, many foundations-charitable institutions, and voluntary societies-have been formed, and the efficiency of each one of these may be more or less impaired by the operation of this Bill.

* See the admirable speech of the Rev. Hugh M'Neile, "England's Cæsar,” published as a tract, for extensive circulation, by the Protestant Association.

[FROM A CORRESPONDENT.]

THE TEST; OR, WHAT SAITH THE SCRIPTURE?
BY X., A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

(Continued from page 121.)

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC THE PROTESTANT CHRISTIAN; OR,

"WHAT SAITH THE SCRIPTURE ?"

(21) OF INDULGENCES AND (21) OF INDULGENCES AND JUBILEES.