§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading, read.
THE LORD CHANCELLOR, in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, that its object was to remove some difficulties which had occurred in the administration of charitable trusts, in consequence of certain formalities which were required to be observed, and which, while not serving any useful purpose, gave rise from time to time to serious inconvenience, the omission of them having thrown a doubt on the validity of orders which the Commissioners had made. The Bill in all the earlier parts of it dealt with the removal of difficulties of that description, and gave the Commissioners powers to discharge their own orders on the discovery of any irregularity in them. The 9th clause empowered the Commissioners to 1749 authorize those administering any charity to employ competent persons to frame a scheme or make inquiries under the Charitable Trusts Act, 1853 to 1869, and to pay those so employed. The 10th clause provided that a petition to the Court of Chancery under the 8th section of the Charitable Trusts Act—1860—must be presented in all cases by the same persons only as the existing law provided in the case of charities of which the annual income did not exceed £50—namely, the Attorney General and the trustees managing a trust. It might be a question for discussion in Committee whether a simple majority instead of two-thirds of the trustees administering a charity should be able to decide on the sale or exchange of any property held by them in trust. Other clauses facilitated the placing of charities under the Commissioners, for the jealousy with which these functionaries were originally regarded had recently disappeared, and all classes, including the representatives of Dissenting bodies, were anxious to avail themselves of the services of the Commissioners.
§ THE EARL OF ROMNEYwas understood to recommend some slight Amendment of Clause 9.
§ Motion agreed to; Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on Tuesday next.