Revenue of Charitable Foundations.

REVENUE

OF

CHARITABLE FOUNDATIONS.

PURSUANT to the 26th Geo. III. commonly called Mr. Gilbert's Act, returns were made by the ministers and churchwardens of charitable donations for the benefit of poor persons in England and Wales. An abstract of these returns, prepared by Mr. Rickman, was laid before the Education Committee in 1816. The results of this abstract we shall lay before the reader; specifying the sources whence the income is derived, whether from money, land, or rent charge; the total annual produce; and the number of donations.

Amount of charitable Donations for the Maintenance of Schools in the Year 1785, in England and Wales.

This statement only exhibits the amount of school charities; the yearly income from all charities, according to the same returns, was estimated at about £48,000 in money, £210,000 in land. But how defective these returns are we may judge from the following facts: in the East Riding of

Yorkshire, 73 places are said to possess 67 donations for schools, and their united revenue is stated at £880: whereas, it has since been ascertained, that one school alone, that of Pocklington, has a revenue of about £900 a year. In Middlesex, the whole revenue is returned under £5000, in 151 donations, possessed by 64 places; but the revenues of three schools, the Charter-house, Christ's hospital, and St. Paul's school, are proved to exceed £70,000 a year. It appeared from evidence laid before the Committee, that in one county, Berkshire, that only one-third part of the funds was returned; and supposing this the average deficiency in the whole returns, it will follow, that the whole income actually received by charities in the year 1785, was between seven and £800,000 a year. Allowing for the rise in the value of land since that time, and in some instances for the deficient powers of trustees for the most advantageous management of the property; and, "add to all these (says Mr. Brougham) the large, wilful, and corrupt abuse in its various branches; and we shall probably underrate the amount of the income which ought now to be received by charities, if we say that it is nearer TWO MILLIONS than fifteen hundred thousand pounds a year; by far the greatest part of which is derived from real property."-Speech of Mr. Brougham, May, 1818.

How rich are the poor! Here is a good, round, substantial sum belonging to them, arising too, not from the funds, or any fallacious security, but fixed; in great part, in the soil of the country. Shakspeare says, were honours and degrees distributed according to merit, how many would be covered that now stand bare; and how many be commanded that command and we may add, supposing every one had their own, how many would be, perhaps, sweeping the streets, over which they are now rolling their chariots.

This immense sum devised to the poor by the "higher orders" of former times, affords a singular contrast to the rapacity and injustice which generally pervade the same classes at the present day. As to their exclusive right to this immense fund, we think there can be little doubt. The very nature o a charity implies it is for the indigent: and it seems a paradox to contend, that any funds should ever be set apart for the education and maintenance of those, who are already possessed of the means for that purpose, independent of any such aid. But from all the statutes and ordinances we have seen relative to these endowments, it is clear, that they were not only intended to be confined to the poor, but the extreme poor, and they seem to o have been drawn up by their founders, with peculiar care, to prevent the intrusion of rank, birth, and opulence. The statutes of Eton and Win

Revenue of Charitable Foundations.

chester colleges require the scholars to swear they have not five marks (£3:6s.) a year to spend; and at the latter foundation it is ordained, that if ever any scholar comes into the possession of £5 a year he should be expelled. The Westminster statutes expressly forbid any boy being elected upon the foundation, “who has, or at his father's death will inherit, a patrimony of above TEN POUNDS." The charter of the Hospital and Free Grammar School in the Charter-house says, "One free-school for the instructing, teaching, maintenance, and education of POOR CHILDRen and schollars." Again, in respect of the Hospital, further on it says, that "the premises shall from henceforth and ever hereafter remain and continue, and be converted, employed, and used for an hospital and house for the abiding, dwelling, sustentation, and relief of such numbers of POOR PEOPLE, men and children," as the founder, and after his death the governors, should appoint. The charter of Christ's Hospital begins, "Whereas, we pitying the miserable state of the POOR, FATHERLESS, decrepit, aged, sick, infirm, and impotent persons ;" and then the charter goes on to enumerate the lands and tenements allotted for their maintenance, and also for the education of indigent children. Report, 1816, p. 61.

The foundation of St. Paul's School appears different from any we have mentioned; here certainly the higher orders are entitled to admission; but by no means to the exclusion of the poor, as has been erroneously asserted. How otherwise can we account for the following passage in the statutes, relative to the children, where it is said, " To theyr urine they shall go thereby to a place appointed, and a POOR CHILDE of the schole shal se it conveyed awaye fro tyme to tyme, and have the avayle of the urine; for other causes if nede be, they shall go to the watersyde.'* From this it is evident, that poor children were originally admitted into the school; and from the nature of the emolument described, even the Quarterly Reviewers would hardly contend it belonged to the higher orders.

We shall now conclude this part of our subject. The right of the poor to the whole charitable funds in the kingdom, with only one or two exceptions, has been admitted and defended both by the Edinburgh Reviewers and Mr. Brougham; and it is to them we may safely leave the defence of this part of the subject. It only now remains to offer a remark on the measures which have been adopted for rooting out the numerous cases of abuse we have mentioned; and for restoring to the poor the property of which they have been basely plundered.

Report, 1816, p. 194.

Robbery of Charitable Foundations.

The reader will remember the mockery of inquiry instituted last year into the robbery of the poor, and to which we have already alluded. The clamour justly and loudly excited against that fraudulent measure, principally from the admirable letter of Mr. Brougham to sir Samuel Romilly, seems to have had some effect even on the present ministers. Two acts have passed this session, in order to give greater efficiency to the bill of last year. The number of boards of inquiry have been increased to five, and the number of stipendiary and honorary commissioners to ten each. Instead of their inquiries being confined to charities connected with education, they are now to extend, with only one exception, to all charities whatever. They have, likewise, authority to examine accounts and convict; but the power of imposing fines on refusal is vested in the Court of Chancery or Exchequer.

These alterations, it must be admitted, are important improvements; but still, in our opinion, the present measure is vastly inadequate to cleanse the Augean abuse of public charities. The exception of visited charities from inquiry, unless the visitors are also trustees, seems a capital objection. Why should these charities be exempt, when it has been proved they are the most abused of any in the kingdom? According to this clause it is calcu lated that no fewer than 2000 charities will be protected from all investigation whatever and among the number such places as Pocklington-school, the Mere and Spital charities, and the Colleges of Eton and Winchester.

But when are the labours of these twenty commissioners to terminate > How many years are likely to elapse before all the charities in the kingdom will be examined? And how much will the commission cost the public in salaries and expenses before their labours are concluded? These are questions it is desirable to have answered. Lord Castlereagh calculates that the commissioners will be occupied at least nine years: but according to a calculation of our own they will be occupied a much longer time. It is supposed there are about 40,000 charities in England and Wales. From the Report of the eight Commissioners appointed last year, it appears they have been able to examine exactly 252 charities. Their number being increased to ten, they will be able to go through a proportionably greater number of cases. The Edinburgh Reviewers, who seem mightily pleased with the adoption of the clauses of Mr. Brougham's bill, say they will be able to examine two thousand charities the first year; but how many will they inspect the second, third, and fourth years? How many will they inspect when the vigilance and suspicion of the public have subsided? Will they examine

Robbery of Charitable Foundations.

1500, 1000, or 500 per annum? We believe not. We are afraid that the appointment of this commission will, in a great measure, lull to sleep public curiosity, and that, in a few years, both public charities and the commissioners will be forgotten. We are afraid, too, that the commissioners themselves will have forgotten every thing relative to their office, except the receipt of their salaries, and, in that time, they will be in possession of very snug sinecures, each worth £1000 per annum.

Let us suppose, however, what is very improbable, they examine two thousand charities every year. Why, then, it would take twenty years to survey England and Wales. Only think of that. Think, too, of the cost of these gentlemen; their salaries £10,000 a year, besides £8000 a year for expenses. This is £18,000 per annum, which in twenty years, without reckoning compound interest, would amount to exactly £360,000. Then again, think of the bill of Andrew Strahan, M.P. for printing Reports. This would come to a pretty round sum. The examination of the two hundred and fifty two cases already mentioned has produced a prodigious folio of two hundred and forty-one pages, besides an appendix of four hundred and one pages more; so that working by the rule of three, the whole of the forty thousand charities will produce one hundred and fiftyeight thick folio volumes of more than six hundred pages each. What a prodigious job for Mr. Strahan! What a prodigious bill too for the public!. And, altogether, what a glorious job the investigation of charitable abuses will be for the ten paid commissioners and the king's printer for twenty years to come!

Thus it is every attempt at reform ends in a tremendous job. This is the Charlatanerie of the system. Our state doctors, instead of diminishing, generally add to the mass of corruption. Instead of cutting away the wounded parts, they are only punctured and inflamed, and fresh eruptions created on the body politic. Altogether, the plan of examining such a widely diffused subdivided abuse as that of public charities, extending to almost every village and hamlet in the kingdom, by ten itinerant commissioners, appears quite chimerical. The experiment has been tried, and what has been done compared with what remains to be done? Nothing. Their labours would never terminate. The proceedings they would institute in Chancery, their examinations of evidence, and titles, and deeds, why, there would be no end of such things. And then again these tremendous reports the public would never read, nor think of them. It would be as easy to obtain a knowledge of the law as public charities from these sources, and would require a whole lifedevoted to the undertaking. They would only be so