§ MR. H. C. RICHARDS (Finsbury, E.)I beg to ask the Parliamentary Charity Commissioner if the attention of the Charity Commissioners has been directed to the new rules of the Home Office with regard to the tolling of the bell of the parish church for fifteen minutes after each execution; and if the Commissioners will restore to the parish of St. Sepulchre, Holborn, the income of the benefaction bequeathed for such purpose, and which has been withheld or diverted from the I parish by the Commissioners for some years past.
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY CHARITY COMMISSIONER (Mr. GRIFFITH BOSCAWEN,) Kent, TunbridgeWith reference to the question in the first paragraph, the Commissioners have no knowledge of the new regulation mentioned in the question beyond what has appeared in the newspapers. The benefaction in question was a gift by Robert Dowe, in the year 1705, to the end that the vicar and churchwardens of St. Sepulchre, London, should for ever, previous to every execution at Newgate, cause a bell to be tolled, and certain words to be delivered to the prisoners ordered for execution. Under the provisions of the 60 City of London Parochial Charities Act, 1883, the sum representing Dowe's gift, which amounts to £1 6s. 8d. a year, was scheduled as an ecclesiastical charity, and freed from all previously existing trusts, and by a scheme established under this Act it became part of the City Church Fund, the balance of which, after providing for various City church purposes, is paid to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. An amendment to that scheme could only be made on the initiation of the trustees of the London Parochial Charities.