We shall now follow Mr Parry into the suggestions which he offers, of a Plan for more effectually preventing Charities from being abused. But, before entering upon this part of the subject, we may advert to a statement which he makes in defence of Lord Sidmouth, who had been blamed by Mr Brougham for neglecting the recommendation of the Education Committee in favour of Mr Parry as a Commissioner. He asserts that no such recommendation ever reached that Noble Lord. It is understood, however, that when an official communication is made to one minister, it is conveyed over, in all ordinary cases, to the person within whose department the affair happens to be; and therefore, though Lord Sidmouth is exonerated from all blame by this statement, the Committee and their Chairman cannot be very severely condemned for having supposed that Noble Lord to be upon the accustomed terms of official intercourse with those of his colleagues, to whom their recommendation was regularly given. Mr Parry, it may be observed, does not pretend that Lord Sidmouth made any inquiries after merit, in the quarter most likely to be acquainted with the kind of excellence of which he ought to have been in quest. He was forming a board of Lawyers, for the purposes of a legal investigation; and with a clumsiness (or perhaps a dexterity) not to be sufficiently admired, he somehow or other took care not to broach the subject to the noble and learned person at the head of the Law department of the State.

The objects which Mr Parry states to be in view with respect to Charities, are—' to abolish all abuses-to protect the Chari'ties-to preserve them-and to provide for the due adminis⚫tration of them according to the will of the respective donors; ' -to which,' says he, I will add another, and not the least important, to afford an equal share of protection and encour" agement to the trustees. This statement, it must be confessed, gives no very favourable idea of the learned author's capacity for dividing and arranging a complicated subject; and is far from pointing him out as peculiarly fitted to digest a great scheme of legislation. All the heads which he enumerates, instead of being (as the rules of sound logic require) separate from one another, and, taken together, sufficient to exhaust the whole subject, are repetitions of portions of each other, all of them being contained within the first, like a nest of boxes or crucibles; and yet, the whole taken together, leaving a considerable branch of the subject untouched. Furthermore, one of them exists only in this preliminary statement, and is left out in the scheme itself. Thus, the abolition of abuses comprehends the protection of Charities; their preservation is plainly includ

ed in their protection; while the due administering of them ac cording to the donor's intent, is a synonyme for preventing abuses in them. What should we say What should we say of a logician who divided a scheme of longevity, stating its objects to be- the abolition of diseases; the protection of life; the preservation of it; and the 'provision for a due performance of the animal functions according to their several purposes and uses?'-But let us hasten to the Plan itself, thus ushered in to our notice.

He proposes, that the Charities in each county be considered as a large estate, composed of many parcels, scattered about in different places, and of various kinds, tenures and quantities, and subjected to the same system of administration and superintendence. The principal effect of this will be, to have the whole title-deeds and other muniments collected in one central registry, where they may be safely kept, distinctly arranged, and easily consulted. He then proposes, that all persons having the distribution of charity funds should be compelled, every year, to make an accurate return of the manner and the times of distributing it, and the persons to whom the distribution was made, and to specify the nature, amount, rent, fine, interest, or other profits of the estate, lessees, repairs, and other deductions and expenses for the past year. He would have these annual returns made to the register-office for the county, and there arranged and kept with the original muniments and papers. He likewise recommends that all the receipts and vouchers be kept in the same repository, and that a certain short period (he proposes three months) be assigned for the limitation of all demands against the trustees, after their vouchers shall have been so deposited. The place of deposite, he thinks, should be selected by the Magistrates of the county, and the expenses of the establishment paid by a poundage upon income. Our author's argument in favour of a compulsory delivery of muniments, even where the founder pointed out the place and manner of their custody, appears quite satisfactory; and we therefore subjoin it. He has adopted the arrangement of Mr Brougham's Act, for cases where the titles to the charity are mixed up with other

matters.

It may here be said, that where donors have prescribed the mode in which their deeds should be kept, the Legislature ought not to interfere, by transferring them to any other place of safe custody. To this I answer, first, that since there has been a great neglect of the donors' wills in this particular, there can be no pretence for saying that such directions ought to be attended to by Parliament, when those whose duty it was to attend to them have neglected them. On the contrary, where Parliament sees that the intentions of a donor

have been neglected, if not frustrated, it will provide such means as will best accomplish his object, considering that his directions were intended solely to provide for the safe custody of his deeds, not for the specific mode of custody. Secondly, It may be observed, that those donors who have made such provision for the custody of their papers, have been driven to the necessity of it for want of some public registry where they might be deposited; and it is not to be doubted, that they would gladly have availed themselves of the security offered by such registry, if it had existed at the time they were meditating upon making their donation. Even in cases where the deeds may have been kept as the donor has directed, I should still agree that no exception should be made to the general collection of of them-taking those directions as evidence that such donors desired to see the establishment of some safe and effectual mode of preserving deeds of this description; only prescribing, ad interim, the best means they could devise to supply the want: And, being admonished by the losses which many charities have sustained by not attending to the precautions of the donors in this respect, I should fear, that deeds hitherto preserved, may yet, ere long, share the fate of others.' pp. 33-35.

We cannot equally concur in the other argument maintained by him, in favour of trustees having a very short period or limitation allowed for their protection. The absurdity is, indeed, not small, of supposing that the paupers of a large county, the persons interested in sifting those accounts, and alone capable of detecting errors in them, should always be able in three months to examine them, and have proceedings instituted against the trustees in case any malversation were detected. Such a provision would operate more powerfully to encourage frauds and malversation, than the publicity of the Record could in checking it. Besides, Mr Parry forgets how easily the responsibility can be divided, and the name of the real defaulter concealed by a combination of skilful accountants, acting, as in such cases they always do, through very ordinary agents.

To the plan thus unfolded by our author, we confess that we see many weighty objections; of which the chief one is, that almost all the good attainable by it is much more effectually secured by Mr Brougham's Act, the object. of so many complaints from Mr Parry for its inefficacy. The Registration of all endowments and gifts, is one branch of the proposed measure; the yearly Regulation of their Receipt, Expenditure, and general Management, is the other. Of these we are now to speak in their order.

That a check to abuses is provided, and a means of detecting them afforded, by depositing the whole title-deeds of each charity in a public and accessible place, cannot be denied. This

publicity is the very principle upon which Mr Brougham's measure is constructed. But can any one doubt, that it is attained by his measure in a far more eminent degree than by Mr Parry's? Thousands of copies of each foundation are circulated through the country; and, wherever the property of any charity is situated, or the objects of it are to be found, we may rest assured the interest felt in the subject being the strongest, the information contained in the Parliamentary Papers will find its way thither in some shape or other. A pamphlet, a notice in a periodical work, a paragraph in a county paper, a private letter, a remark in conversation, will carry the fact to the place of its natural destination; and in a little time the matter will be discussed, and the original and authentic document will either be found on the spot, or consulted by some one employed for the purpose by those on the spot. It is a vulgar and a just remark, that what is said of a man behind his back, somehow or other gets round, if not to his face, at least half way as it were, or into his ear. So, we may be assured, will trustees, or other persons who have the management of funds inquired into by the Commissioners, sooner or later, hear of whatever has been reported of their rights, their duties, or their conduct. Mr Brougham stated, that the precaution had been taken in printing the Education Digest, of throwing off separate copies of each county, for local distribution; as a small book, containing all that has local interest, is of more sure and easy circulation, than a large one, the bulk of which concerns other parts of the country. The Reports of the Commissioners, being made half yearly, are, in the same manner, confined each to a few districts, and are thus of easy access to those districts. This plan of Registration, then, secures publicity in a degree infinitely greater than Mr Parry's costly Register-Office. Who would not be deterred from entering a great massive building, and running the gauntlet of officers and clerks, in order to satisfy his curiosity, coming, too, perhaps, from the border of Lançashire to York for the purpose? The other plan carries the publication home to the spot, and distributes it exactly where it may be of the greatest use. If any thing is wanting to prove its superior efficacy, ask a person who feels conscious there is a flaw in his title, or a blot in his conduct, whether he had rather have those tender matters registered in a record however accessible, in manuscript however legible, and under a set of clerks however civil and diligent-or published in a printed book, and distributed all over the country;-We believe he will at once exclaim- Any thing but hateful printing.' In word

if once printed, it becomes the property of all the newspapers; and is read, or may be read, by all mankind.

The same measure secures all existing donations and endowments from perishing through time and accident, almost as effectually as their Registration. The press is, indeed, by multiplying copies indefinitely, by far the best preserver, for a great length of years. For a century or two, Registration may keep the original deeds, and they may be lost if left in private hands; but if copies are multiplied, the knowledge of their contents is preserved for ever; while no actual record can preserve with certainty for a succession of ages.

In like manner, Mr Brougham's plan affords all that protection to honest and diligent trustees which they so well deserve; and furnishes the means of securing them from the groundless clamours of ignorant and malicious persons. It effects this object indeed more fully than the proposed measure; for while nothing can be better than a published authoritative document, to which a man may appeal if traduced, it is far more satisfactory to have the security that the publication originated in a thorough and accurate investigation before a respectable tribunal, than to show a record, furnished possibly by the party himself, with studied concealments, of which he may have taken the risk, braving the penalties of the law, in consideration of the advantage he derived from breaking or evading it. Perhaps he has made a full registration; he is an honest and conscientious trustee; and meant the title to be placed beyond all suspicion. But his slanderers will not fail to say, that he furnished the evidence himself, and that no examination sifted the endowment in its foundation.

This leads us to mention one very manifest superiority of the measure adopted by Parliament; which Mr Parry wholly overlooks, and which also suffices to give it the preference to his own. Compare the powers of the two systems in rescuing lost donations; or saving such as are on the point of being lost. Mr Parry's here scarcely works at all, and must often be wholly inoperative. There may be often no persons to whom the penalties would now attach; consequently no registration can be expected: and frequently the person, unwittingly possessed of a deed which he ought to have deposited, on finding his liability to the penalty, will escape from it by destroying the instrument. In short, to render the Registry effectual, Boards of Commissioners would be as necessary as Registrars and Clerks. The scheme does not execute itself.

The same objections apply, with some others, to the second branch of Mr Parry's plan, the Annual Returns. It is a mighty