§ (1.) If it appears to the Court that a trustee, whether appointed under this Act or not, is or may be personally liable for any breach of trust, but has acted honestly and reasonably, and ought fairly to be excused for the broach of trust and for omitting to obtain the directions of the Court in the manner in which he committed such breach, then the Court may relieve the trustee either wholly or partly from personal liability for the same.
§ (2) The court may authorise a departure from the terms of a trust, where satisfied that since the creation thereof there has been a change of circumstances, and that such departure will not prejudice any of the persons beneficially 589 interested in the trust, and is for the benefit of those persons or some of them, and generally that it in expedient to authorise the same.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (LORD HALSBURY)said he did not see Lord Derby, who had an Amendment on the Paper, present, and he supposed the noble Lord intended to postpone moving his Amendment until the Bill was considered by the Standing Committee. He, however, wished to say a word upon a matter on which he could not move an Amendment. He was not responsible nor were their Lordships responsible for a margined note on this clause. Perhaps he was in the habit, as a lawyer, of not looking at the marginal notes, and therefore he did not see the note to this clause when he presented the Bill. It appeared to him that somebody had been playfully engaged in trying to throw some ridicule on the Bill, for the marginal note was "excusing and authorising the act of trust." [Laughter.] Of course a marginal note was not a part of a Bill, and he had only mentioned the circumstance to show he did not at all acquiesce in that description of legislation.["Hear, hear!" and laughter.]
§ LORD ASHBOURNEsaid that Clause 3 was of the highest value to all trustees who acted honestly and fairly, but who inadvertently committed some breach of trust, and brought themselves within the complications of the law. Lord Herschell had, on a previous occasion, stated that this clause, of all others in the Bill, was the one which most commended itself to his appreciation.
§ Clause ordered to stand part of the Bill.
§ Clause 4,—