"It often falls, in course of common life, That right long time is overborne of wrong; That weakens her, and makes her party strong. Yet at the last she will her own cause right."-Spenser. "Contemporaneous usage is a strong ground for the interpretation of doubtful words or expressions, but time affords no sanction to established breaches of trust."-Lord Chancellor COTTENHAM, 1849. "There is a manifest incongruity in having persons of one strong religious belief administering a trust created in favour of persons of another religious belief."-Vice-Chancellor Sir LANCELOT SHADWELL, 1835. CHANGE OF ADMINISTRATION. "When you have established the intention of the donor you have imposed on the property a particular character; and you are not at liberty to destroy it and substitute another for it."-SIR EDWARD SUGDEN (Irish Chancellor), 1842. WHATEVER may have been the precise nature of the administration of the Charity immediately before 1782, this year marks a change therein, which resulted in a serious diversion of it from the lines laid down by the Founder, and pursued by the earlier trustees. The steps by which the diversion took place are distinctly traceable. First, the ecclesiastical or denominational character of the trustees was altered; all the Nonconformist trustees having died out, all the new trustees appointed by the sole survivor on the Trust were professedly members of the Church of England, one of them being "in holy orders," the first instance of the kind that occurred in the history of the Charity. Then, instead of the Assembly's Catechism, the Catechism of the Church of England was adopted, and subsequently the Book of Common Prayer. In the next place, Nonconformists who had been accustomed to receive and distribute the Bibles and other books were gradually eliminated from the list of distributors, and clergymen of the Church of England put into their place. Further, none but clergymen were authorised to preach a sermon at the distribution, or entitled to receive an honorarium for their services. Also, the books which had been written by Nonconformist ministers in explanation of the Assembly's Catechism and for the promotion of personal religion, and directed by the Founder to be given as rewards, were replaced by books and tracts in explanation of the Church Catechism and in furtherance of the principles and practice of the Episcopal Church. Finally, after some minor alterations in the same direction, the Charity was claimed as a distinctly Church of England Charity, in the management and benefits of which Nonconformists had no just or proper part. CHURCHMEN ALONE TRUSTEES, 1782-1802. 21. Dean Harley (Bishop of 27. R. A. Hay Drummond, Hereford), 1782. 22. Rt. Hon. Thomas Harley. 23. Michael Newton. 24. John Robinson, M.P. 25. Sir Francis Charlton, Bart. 26. Charles Morgan. 1786. 28. Edward Harley (5th Earl of Oxford), 1791. 29. Hon. George Rodney. 3o. David Murray. 31. Sir John Boyd, Bart., 1802. 32. Hugh Powell. By Indentures of Lease and Release, dated June 5th and 6th, 1782, the Right Hon. Edward Harley, fourth Earl of Oxford and Mortimer (the Lord Harley mentioned in the Deed of 1747), being the only surviving trustee, conveyed the estate (through John Lloyd, of Lincoln's Inn, and Robert Burton, of the same place) to himself and the following new trustees-viz.: (21) the Hon. and Rev. John Walpole Harley, Dean of Windsor, who was brother of the earl, became Lord Bishop of Hereford, and died in 1788; (22) the Right Hon. Thomas Harley, 1730-1804, one of His Majesty's most Hon. Privy Council, who was another brother of the fourth Earl of Oxford, and father of the fifth earl, and had the principal direction of the Charity until his death; (23) Michael Newton, of Thorpe, co. Lincoln, Esq.; (25) John Robinson, Esq., one of the Secretaries of the Right Hon. the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, of whom more hereafter; (25) Sir Francis Charlton, of Ludford, co. Hereford, Bart.; and (26) Charles Morgan, of Tredegar, co. Monmouth, Esq., who was closely related to the Harley family. Thomas Harley (whose mother was Martha, daughter of John Morgan, of Tredegar) was a successful merchant in London, afterwards banker (Raymond, Harley, Webber & Co.), M.P. for the City of London, 1761, Lord Mayor (1767), notable for his public services at the time of the Wilkes riots, and M.P. for Herefordshire (1767) almost up to the time of his decease, which took place after a lingering illness at his mansion at Berrington, near Leominster, on December 1st, 1804. He was President of the Bartholomew Hospital, and of the Patrons of the Anniversary of the Charity Schools of St. Paul's Cathedral. One of his daughters married George, second Lord Rodney; another Robert Hay, ninth Earl of Kinnoul; and a third, Sir John Boyd, Bart. Four years later than the preceding appointment, viz. May 29th, 30th, 1786, on the death of Sir Francis Charlton, his place was filled by the appointment of (27) Robert Auriol Hay Drummond, of Broadsworth,* co. York, Esq., nephew of the eighth Earl of Kinnoul (President of the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge in Scotland, and related to the Harleys), and afterwards ninth Earl of Kinnoul. Other changes rapidly followed. On March 24th and 25th, 1791, there were appointed in the place of the fourth Earl of Oxford, the Bishop of Hereford, and Charles Morgan, deceased; (28) the Right Hon. Edward Harley (1773-1849), fifth Earl of Oxford (father of the sixth Earl, by whose death the title became extinct in 1853); (29) the Hon. George Rodney, of Alresford, co. Hants; and (30) David Murray, of South Warnborough, Esq. The two last-named trustees were the first who passed away, and their places were filled August 17th, 18th, 1802, by (31) Sir John Boyd, of Danson, co. Kent, Bart.; and (32) Hugh Powell, late of Charterhouse Square, St. Botolph's, Aldgate, Middlesex, and now of Llanvihangel Court, co. Monmouth, Esq., who had been strongly recommended for the position by Mr. Thomas Harley in a letter dated Berrington, May 27th, 1802, as likely to be found " very useful in the business." All these trustees were bound together by family, ecclesiastical, or political ties. Not one of them was a Brodsworth, four miles from Doncaster, was the seat of Dr. Drummond, Archbishop of York, and sold by his son, the Earl of Kinnoul, to Peter Thelusson, the Railway King. Nonconformist, and an unwritten rule secured the appointment of none but professed adherents of the Church of England. THE CHURCH CATECHISM AND BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER ADOPTED, 1786. “The Catechism prescribed by the above mentioned instructions was not the Church of England Catechism."-CHARITY COMMISSIONERS' REPORT, 1893. The first meeting of the trustees of which there is any record was held May 23rd, 1786, at the Chambers of Mr. Burton, Lincoln's Inn. This gentleman appears to have displayed much interest in the Charity, especially with reference to the management of the Bible Lands; and in a letter to the trustees of a later date (May 25th, 1791) he wrote from Grosvenor Place: "Having been the means of bringing the Wharton Charity to its present flourishing state, I cannot help contributing all in my power to its progressive improvement." Of the seven trustees, four were present-viz. Dean Harley, the Right Hon. Thomas Harley, Michael Newton, and John Robinson; and it was ordered "That 1,120 Bibles be provided and distributed according to the directions of the Deed and the like number of Church Catechisms. That £1,000 be laid out in the purchase of Old South Sea Annuities.” And at a meeting held a little later, May 31st "That a Schedule be made of all the Deeds relative to this Charity, that the same be fairly entered in a book with a copy of the Trust Deed and Instructions; and that the Deeds be afterwards deposited in the Banking House of Harley, Raymond & Cameron. That for the future all sums of money relative to this Charity be deposited in the Banking House of the said Messrs. Raymond & Co. in the joint names of Thomas Harley and Charles S. Lloyd." The Book of Common Prayer (containing the Church Catechism) was subsequently distributed with the Bibles. At a meeting held at Sir John Boyd's, Baker Street, Portland Square, May 29th, 1806, "it appeared |