SIR TREVOR LAWRENCEasked Mr. Attorney General, Whether the Charity Commissioners declined to allow certain payments of considerable amount, partly made and partly contemplated to be made, by the Vestry of Saint Mary-at-Hill, in the City of London, out of the Parochial Charity Funds of that parish (having a population of less than 300), and at the instance of a majority of the parishioners, including several of the Trustees of the Charity, certified a case to the Attorney General pursuant to the 20th section of "The Charitable Trusts Act, 1853;" whether he thereupon instituted an action in the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice with the object of making the defendants liable for the payments made, and of restraining them from making others not already made, such sums amounting in the aggregate to about £2,000; whether the report is correct that he has, upon the defendants undertaking not to make any similar payments in the future, now decided to withdraw the questions at issue from the consideration of the Court, and intends to allow the major part of the payments made and to sanction those not yet made, and to direct the payment of all the costs of the action out of the Charity Funds; in exercise of what statutory or other powers he is enabled to allow the payments in question, or to direct the payment of the costs of the action out of the Charity Funds; and, upon what grounds he is prepared to sanction payments which the Charity 63 Commissioners have concurred with him in thinking ought not to be borne by the Charities, and with regard to which he considered it was his duty to obtain the judgment of the Court?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir HENRY JAMES),in reply, said, the main circumstances were pretty much as stated. He found that the Trustees had been actuated by a perfectly bonâ fide motive, and they were willing to undertake never to make such a payment again without the consent of the Charity Commissioners. He had then to consider whether he should take any steps. He heard fully the statement of the gentleman who had suggested the Question on the Paper, and he had come to the decision stated in the Question.