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THE EARL OF HARROWBY rose to call the attention of the House to a recent change made by the Charity Commissioners, which, in contradiction to the rules laid down by the Court of Chancery, made persons in the receipt of Poor Law relief eligible for participation in an endowment for the benefit of the poor, and to move a Resolution thereon. The case which was the immediate occasion of his Motion arose in a small parish in Suffolk, where, through the exertions of the rector, an endowment of £48 per annum had been recovered and appropriated to a distribution of fuel at Christmas to married labourers and widows who were householders resident in the parish, excluding such persons as were in the receipt of Poor Law relief. The Commissioners, at the instance of some of the trustees, had recently laid down a new scheme, which left to the discretion of the trustees the mode of expending the amount, and threw open the charity to all poor parishioners, provided that the trustees did not apply the funds di-
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rectly or indirectly with a view of relieving or diminishing the poor rates of the parish. This order was at issue with the decisions of the highest legal tribunals, and the result would be that endowments intended for the relief of the poor would be diverted to the relief of the ratepayers. Moreover, the recipients of the charity, who had hitherto regarded the dole as a right, would have to beg for it, and would regard it as a humiliation. This was not a single case, and unless Parliament intervened the door would be opened to great abuses.
Moved to resolve, That having regard to the change recently introduced by the Charity Commissioners into the administration of endowments for the benefit of the poor, the Court of Chancery having always hitherto held that such endowments are not applicable to persons in permanent receipt of parish relief, it is not expedient that the principle laid down by the Courts should be overruled, as inevitably tending to convert endowments intended for the relief of the poor to the relief of the ratepayer.—(The Earl of Harrowby.)
THE LORD CHANCELLORsaid, that, having communicated with the Commissioners on this subject, he had ascertained that the order in question was identical with orders which they had long been in the habit of issuing, without having encountered a single expression of dissent or dissatisfaction except in this one case. In some cases the Court of Chancery had laid down the rule that persons who had once received parochial relief should be disqualified from participation in charitable endowments; but, this provision having been felt to be too harsh, numerous trustees had taken orders in the present form. The Commissioners were most anxious to secure the same object as the Court of Chancery — namely, that endowments intended for charity should not be applied to the purposes of Poor Law relief. In the present case the rector had taken a view of the case quite at variance from that taken by his co-trustees, and had published a volume of 100 pages on the subject, which only shewed that he had entirely misunderstood the effect of the order; for to turn it to any diminution of the rates would be a positive infraction of it. The noble Lord, in bringing this matter before the House, had attempted to make them a Court of Appeal in a very extraordinary fashion. They were, no doubt, the highest Court of Appeal, but they were not accustomed to decide a question in that capacity— 1573 by a Resolution on a Motion. He must, therefore, be excused from expressing any opinion on the matter, further than to say that an order of the Charity Commissioners would not have the least effect in overruling a decree of the Court of Chancery.
§ THE EARL OF HARROWBY, while withdrawing his Motion, insisted that the order conflicted with the principle which the Court of Chancery had always jealously guarded.
§ Motion (by leave of the House) withdrawn.