ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA. Page. 30, line 14, add after the words "ut sup." "It has been held too that a conveyance in trust for the churchwardens, overseers, and inhabitants of a parish, to the intent that the rents and profits might be paid and applied for their use and benefit in aid of the poor rate, was a conveyance to charitable uses. Doe d. Preece v. Howells, 2 B. & Ad. 744, stated P: 108-9. 31, line 24, for "Cayley," read "Caley." last line but 3, for "or," read "are." 41, the note should have been inserted in the following page. 42, see above. line 29, for "3rd," read "2nd." 67, line 1, the figures "12" and "2" have been misplaced, they should be transposed. 135, dele last paragraph as directed, p. 279 n. 211, line 20, and margin, for "3 Geo. 1," read "3 Geo. 4." 216, last line but 2, for "being," read "been." 1, for "been," read "being." 220 n., add at end of note, "This power extended by 5 & 6 W. 4, c. 71, s. 20, to cases in which the annuities or rent-charges do not exceed £50 per annum." 223, line 24, for "country," read "county.” 224, last line but 4, after " Freeman," add "(vid. sup. p. 213.)" 238, 5, after the word "is," insert "in." 3, for "then," read "there." 239, line 24, for "Peacock," read “ Matthews." 241, line 2, after the word "quoted," add "(sup. p. 213.)" 264, line 11, dele the word "the." 289, line 1, for "latter," read "former." 318, last line but 2, for "devise," read "desire." 327, 2nd side note, insert the word "Nor," before "East India Stock," and dele the words "differently situated." 346, line 33, for "Makeam," read "Makeham." 374, last line but 3, for "addition," read "edition." 406, margin, for "Maugham v. Mason," read "Gibbs v. Rumsey." A TREATISE ON THE LAW OF CHARITIES. BOOK I. HISTORY AND CONSTITUTION OF ENGLISH CHARITIES, AND HEREIN OF THE STATUTE OF CHARITABLE USES, AND OTHER ENABLING STATUTES PRECEDING THE MORTMAIN ACT. CHAPTER I. RISE AND DIRECTION OF CHARITIES IN ENGLAND. It is obvious that the early history of a nation can furnish us with little on the subject of Charity. The wants of men are then few and those few are easily supplied. Moreover as a kingdom is rude so is it hospitable, and in such a state of society private liberality is more than sufficient to answer all the calls which can be made upon it. Subsequently however to the close of the third century from the Conquest there occurred, besides the ordinary progress of events, a variety of circumstances which were calculated to urge forward the period when some further and less precarious provision would be necessary. In the reign of Edward the 3rd a system sprung up which materially influenced the manners of the people. By a series of legislative measures which were had recourse to from the twenty-third year of that monarch's reign down almost B to its termination, (a) an attempt was made to regulate the price of labour by an arbitrary standard. The same course was pursued in the succeeding reign, (b) and again in that of Henry the 6th. (c) Thus fettered as were the lower classes in their endeavours after an honest independence, restricted from carrying their labour to the highest market, and reduced by the legislature to little better than a state of villenage, it is not to be wondered at that many should have preferred a life of wandering to one of constant and ill-recompensed toil. There were other causes also which led to the same result. The large armies collected on various occasions by the first and the third Edward, could hardly have failed to throw back upon society a considerable number of men with habits unfitted for regular industry. Another circumstance probably, and one which may have contributed to prolong this state of things, was the mode of distribution to which, by the Ecclesiastical law, the effects of persons dying intestate were subjected in the hands of the ordinary. But that which most of all tended to keep alive this spirit, was the facility with which the wants of such persons could be supplied at the numerous monasteries and religious houses scattered over the kingdom. The evils thus produced were not long in being felt. In the last of the above statutes passed in the reign of Edward the 3rd, mention is made of staff-strikers and sturdy rogues, as of persons infesting the country. Nay, so much was this felt to be the tendency of these enactments at the time they were made, that in the second law on this subject, that of the 25 Edward 3rd, (c. 7,) as well as in a subsequent one, that of the 34 Edward 3rd, (c. 10 & 11,) there are to be found inserted express provisions against fugitive labourers and their abettors. In the succeeding reign also efforts for the suppression of vagrancy went hand (a) 23 Edw. 3, st. 1, c. 1, 4; 25 Edw. 3, c. 1, 7 ; 31 Edw. 3, st. 1, c. 7; 34 Edw. 3, c. 9, 10, 11; 36 ii. 340. (b) 2 Rich. 2, c. 8; 12 Rich. 2, c. 3, 4, 9; 13 Rich. 2, c. 8. (c) 2 Hen. 6, c. 14; 6 Hen. 6, c. 3; 8 Hen. 6, c. 8. in hand with the enactment of statutes of this description: (a) but the circumstance which gives to this reign the peculiar degree of interest and importance it possesses, is that out of the two acts passed for the above purpose are to be traced in the latter of them, the great outlines of that compulsory system which severed the relief of the poor from all other charitable purposes. (b) The former indeed may still be regarded as partaking in some degree of the nature of charity, though constantly treated as distinct from it by reason of the difference which exists in the mode of collecting and administering the funds. From this period, notwithstanding the three statutes of labourers passed in the reign of Henry the 6th, no act is to be found directed against those who led a vagabond life until after the lapse of nearly a century and a half: and from this absence of legislative provision on the subject, it may reasonably be inferred that the earlier of these impolitic statutes had fallen into disuse, and that scarcely any attempt could have been made to enforce the later of them during the feeble reign in which they were enacted. (c) It was not until the reign of Henry the 8th that vagrancy was again noticed by the legislaAt that time we find two statutes of this description, (d) both however (contrary perhaps to the reader's expectation) prior to the suppression of the monasteries and religious houses, though the latter of the two was enacted in the same parliament as that in which the lesser of those institutions were given to the king. The long interval which thus elapsed was distinguished by a law framed with reference to a class of charities which continue on much the same footing to the present day. This law is the only one of the kind which is to be found upon our statute book until after the establishments just mentioned (a) 7 Rich. 2, c. 5; 12 Rich. 2, c. 7. (b) The 15 Rich. 2, c. 6, does not appear to be connected with this system, but to be referrible to a different kind of policy. (c) The whole of these statutes were repealed by the 5 Eliz. c. 4, although upon this occasion the 8, c. 25. had been broken up. Then it was that acts of parliament began to multiply, with a view on the one hand of repressing the vagrant spirit of the people, coupled however as these acts generally were with provisions for the relief of the poor and impotent, (a) and on the other hand of encouraging those objects which were really charitable in their nature; for as institutions of a monastic description had tended so much to foster habits of idleness and dissipation among the people, the sudden contraction of the channel through which the wants engendered by those habits were supplied, could not but be proportionably felt. But it was not the monasteries alone which were pointed out for destruction by Henry the 8th and his courtiers. Other foundations there were with which indeed the ecclesiastics were principally connected, and in which practices, it might be, prevailed inconsistent with the views adopted by the majority of the nation on the subject of religion; but which yet had originally for their object purposes of a laudable nature. The historian of the Reformation after representing the final suppression of the monastic establishments says, "But monasteries were not sufficient to stop the appetite of some that were about the king; for hospitals were next looked after." vol. 1, p. 347. He then proceeds to give an account of the surrender of one, that of St. Thomas's Hospital in Southwark, which occurred so early as the year 1539. These surrenders however did not proceed so fast as the eagerness of those who expected to share in the plunder could desire. It was discovered that difficulties of a serious description existed in the way of such surrenders, and therefore a year or two afterwards recourse was had to a proceeding similar to that which had been found so efficacious when, dealing with the greater of those institutions which had been already suppressed. The assistance of the legislature was called in for the purpose of removing the (a) 2 & 3 Phil. & Mary, c. 5; 5 Eliz. c. 3; 14 Eliz. c. 5; 18 Eliz. c. 3; 39 Eliz. c. 4 and c. 18, s. 47. The 1 & 2 Phil. & Mary, c. 4, and the 5 Eliz. c. 20, being directed against foreigners (the Egyptians) have been omitted. |