§ MR. BUCHANANasked the Vice President of the Council, Whether his attention has been called to the following passage at page 15 of the Charity Commissioners Report:—
The Endowments with which we have been called upon to deal in establishing schools of the type referred to, may he taken mostly to have been given for the benefit of the poor, and we have not unfrequently been met in these cases with a strenuous opposition on the ground that our proposals tend to alienate from the poor funds that were originally expressly intended for their advantage. But under the provisions of the Endowed Schools Acts we are bound in any scheme by which modifications of the original trusts such as those there indicated are introduced, to pay due regard to the educational interests of the poor for whoso benefit the Endowments were given, and in conformity with the tenor of judicial decisions, the establishment of scholarships tenable by scholars from Elementary Schools is held to be a sufficient compliance with this obligation;whether he will cause a Return to be presented containing a list of the schemes which have been opposed on the above ground, the amount of the Endowments in each case devoted to the "benefit of the poor" before the schemes of the Commissioners came into operation, and the amount set apart under such schemes for "scholarships tenable by scholars from Elementary Schools;" and, whether he will state what are the judicial decisions referred to according to the tenor of which such disposition of the funds is held to be a sufficient compliance with the provisions of the Endowed Schools Acts?
§ MR. MUNDELLAIn reference to the Question of my hon. Friend, I am requested by the Church Commissioners to say that the meaning of the words "strenuous opposition" in the passage quoted from their recent Report, appears to be misapprehended. It is intended to imply such opposition as may be offered in the course of official negotiation and correspondence, not such as takes the form of an appeal to Her Majesty in Council or in Parliament. In this latter sense, opposition to schemes on any ground is exceedingly rare. In 606 the sense intended by the Commissioners it would be impossible to state in a Return such facts as are asked for in the second paragraph of the Question. In reply to the third and last paragraph of the Question, I am requested to say that the judicial decision, on which the Commissioners principally rely, was given in the case of the appeal of the Corporation of the City of London against the scheme of the Endowed Schools Commissioners for Emanuel Hospital. I may add that in my own experience during the past three years, out of about 150 schemes that have passed through my hands, not more than two or three have been objected to on the grounds referred to by my hon. Friend, and in every case it would have been injurious to the best interests of the poor to have set aside the recommendations of the Commissioners.