CHARITABLE THUST PROPERTY. (Hansard, 23 March 1841)

§ Mr. James Steuart

Sir, I rise to ask leave of the House to bring in a bill to facilitate the transfer of real and personal property held in trust for charitable purposes, and I will only beg a few moments of the time of the House while I explain its objects. The nature of charitable trust I have no doubt is familiar to most hon. Members. I find most of them shortly mentioned in the preamble to the statute of 43d Elizabeth on this subject. They are, first, the relief of aged, impotent, and poor people; the maintenance of sick and maimed soldiers and mariners; schools of learning, free schools, and scholars in universities; repair of bridges, ports, havens, causeways, churches, sea-banks, and highways; the education and preferment of orphans; the relief, stock or maintenance for houses of correction; the marriages of poor maids, the support, and help of young tradesmen, &c. Now Sir, I am sure there will be a desire on the part of the House to facilitate that object, and I will shortly explain to the House in what manner I purpose to do this by the bill which I am desirous to introduce. I do not purpose to remove any of the guards for securing the due appointment of trustees. I do not wish on the present occasion in any way to touch this part of the subject. I will assume that new trustees are duly appointed. This, Sir, is done in one of two ways. It is done either under an exercise of a power entrusted by the donor or person who established the charity, or it is done by means of a court of equity. But after the appointment is made, there is often very considerable difficulty. The person to whom the trust property is to be conveyed may be well settled, but by the present law, before the charity can be carried on, there must be a valid conveyance of the trust property from the old trustees or the heir at law of the last surviving trustee. Now Sir, here very frequently considerable difficulty and hardship is found to exist. The proper person to execute the conveyance may be abroad, there may be litigation as to who is the heir at law; considerable nicety may exist as to who has the the legal estate, and who is the proper party to execute the conveyance. And the House may see that these questions although often important to other persons or other interests, is of no 570 importance at all so far as the charity is concerned, and the charitable intentions of the donor. But in the mean time, the purposes of the charity may wholly fail; no lease can be granted, the title is in an unsettled state, and all from a circumstance which is of no consequence so far as the charity is concerned. Now, Sir, it appears to me, that there is a remedy which may be applied, which seems to be sufficient for the purpose. I propose, Sir, that this due appointment of the trustees shall vest the property in them by virtue of the appointment. There are several precedents for this course. First, Sir, in the case of a bankrupt's property, the appointment of the assignees vests the property in the assignees without any conveyance whatever. So, Sir, in the case of an insolvent debtor, no conveyance is necessary; the property of the insolvent rests in the provisional assignee without any conveyance from the insolvent. This is a recent improvement in the law, it was introduced by my hon. Friend the Attorney-general as late as the act for abolishing the imprisonment for debt the 1st and 2nd Victoria c. 110. Now, Sir, I do not see why the principle should not be extended to charitable trusts. I propose therefore in this bill to make the due appointment of trustees vest the trust estates in them, and I move therefore for leave to bring in a bill to facilitate the transfer of real and personal property held for charitable purposes.