THE BISHOP OF LONDON, in moving
That the Digest of the Parochial Charities of the Cities of London and Westminster, referred to in the Eleventh and Twelfth Reports of the Charity Commissioners, be laid before the House,said, that the income of these charities throughout the kingdom was stated in these Reports to be somewhat more than £150,000 a year, their productiveness 706 having been considerably augmented of late years. The Reports also stated that the matter was one which would deserve at no distant period the interposition of the Legislature, that the application of these funds might be regulated. The document to which the Commissioners referred entered very minutely into all the charities of the City of London; and a short analysis of it was given in the Appendix to the Report, It appeared that the parochial charities of the City of London amounted altogether to £66,000 a year, of which £26,000 was available for the repair and general purposes of the churches in the City of London. These churches now occupied a very different position from that in which they wore a short time ago. The population of the City of Loudon had greatly decreased; at the same time, the funds available for parochial purposes had very greatly increased. This was so strongly felt by the gentlemen who were interested in various parishes as to the distribution of these funds, that in one instance they had even gone the length of preparing a scheme with the intention of submitting it to the Charity Commissioners, whereby large parochial funds which they believed to be at present wasted, should be applied to middle class education. The powers of the Charity Commissioners, however, even under the Act of 1860, were extremely limited. No movement, as he understood, could be made with reference to any charity which was above £50 per annum, unless a majority of the local trustees themselves applied to the Charity Commissioners for an alteration of their trust. Even in the case of charities of small amount there was a great practical difficulty arising from the power of appeal vested in any person who might consider himself interested in the matter; and as the expenses of these appeals were generally paid out of the charity funds, it was obvious that appeals were likely to be very numerous, even when there was no very great cause for them. What, therefore, had been suggested was that, at some future time, the area throughout which these charities are dispersed, might be extended so as to include not only the City, but the actual London of the present day. Certainly the present state of things was anomalous, and the impression that there were these large funds which were not made useful, was extremely detrimental in all efforts to improve the diocese with reference to the 707 parochial system; because it naturally occurred to every one that, before going to other public funds, or appealing very earnestly to private benevolence, they ought to see that the funds actually possessed were thoroughly well used.
§ Motion agreed to.
§ [Parl. Paper, No. 3461.]