§ SIR JOHN HAYsaid, he rose to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he proposes to take any steps to ascertain the wishes of the Subscribers to the Funds which have lately been raised to relieve the sufferers in India, in the Crimea (the Nightingale Fund), 572 the Hartley Colliery Fund, and others, with a view to bestowing the surplus on other sufferers by calamities which were similar in their nature?
§ SIR GEORGE GREY, in reply, said, that as these funds had been raised by voluntary contributions for specific purposes, and placed by the subscribers in the hands of Committees or Trustees, it would be obviously improper for the Government even to appear to assume a right to deal with them. If there was any surplus after meeting the objects for which any of them were raised, its disposition, of course, would rest with the Committee or Trustees.