were to be such no more. The trouble and expense involved in obtaining surveys of the lands, letting them to proper tenants, receiving the rents, repairing and rebuilding, &c., naturally led the trustees to resolve (November 9th, 1869) to sell the lands if a suitable offer should be made for them. After lengthy negotiations, to which the late Mr. J. Shaw Stewart devoted praiseworthy attention, they were purchased by Mr. A. F. Wilson Montague, of Wighill Park, the price of the purchase being fixed by the Charity Commissioners; and at a meeting of the trustees, held March 13th, 1871, it was reported that the lands had been sold for £30,000, and the conveyance thereof was signed at the same meeting. THE LAST TRUSTEES UNDER THE FORMER ADMINISTRATION. 49. Col. Rowley Hay, 1872. 50. Col. Haygarth, 1878. 51. Baron Clinton, 1889. 52. Canon Duncan, 1891. As vacancies occurred among the trustees they were filled from time to time by others-viz. in place of the Marquis Camden, December 3rd, 1872, (49) the Hon. Charles Rowley Hay, Lieut.-Col. in the army; in place of Sir F. L. Arthur, October 29th, 1878, (50) Col. Francis Haygarth; and according to a scheme settled by the Charity Commissioners (February 1st, 1889), under which new trustees were appointed by existing trustees subject to their approval, in place of Lord Delamere, February 1st, 1889, (51) the Right Hon. Charles H. Rolle, Baron Clinton; in place of Earl Beauchamp, September 22nd, 1891, (52) the Reverend James Duncan, Canon of Canterbury; in in place of Lord Clinton, resigned, May 6th, 1892, (53) John Gilbert Talbot, Esq., M.P.; and in place of Canon Duncan, deceased, June 25th, 1895, (54) John Stewart Gathorne Hardy, Lord Medway. The Charity had now been for a long period transformed into a distinctly Church of England Charity; and probably many of the trustees appointed in recent years were under the impression that it had never been anything else. "No individuals having the management of any institution established for a particular form of worship or the teaching of particular doctrines can at any time alter the purpose for which it was founded."-LORD ELDON. "In every case of Charity, whether the object of the Charity be directed to religious purposes or to purposes purely civil, it is the duty of the Court to give effect to the intent of the founder, provided this can be done without infringing any known rule of law. "If the terms of the deed of foundation be clear and precise in the language, and clear and precise in the application, the course of the Court is free from difficulty. "If, on the other hand, the terms which are made use of are obscure, doubtful or equivocal, either in themselves or in the application of them, it then becomes the duty of the Court to ascertain by evidence as well as it is able what was the intent of the founder of the Charity, in what sense the particular expressions were used. It is a question of evidence, and that evidence will vary with the circumstances of each particular case, it is a question of fact to be determined, and the moment the fact is known and ascertained, then the application of the principle is clear and easy."-LORD CHANCELLOR Lyndhurst, 1836. |