porated, and have perpetual continuance; but there are others which are of as general a nature as those, and may therefore be called public. The legislature has also, in most if not all of its revenue acts, recognised charitable institutions in general terms, whether corporate or not, by exempting the scite, buildings, and funded property from the duties otherwise chargeable; whereby their lands have been left out of the valuations, and the value of the officers' apartments only have been rated, and the duty retained out of the dividends on their funded property has been returned. The poor-rates, highway-duties, church-rates, 2 Burn. Eccl. and other assessments are made upon the same principle, and the officers' apartments only are charged as single tenements. Whatsoever hospital or charitable institution is founded by subjects, under the benevolent privileges granted originally by the act of Eliz. is thus comprehended and recognised as a public charity, by being made subject to parliamentary regulation, not only in cases of revenue, but in the statutes that relate to visitation. The great encouragement and support thus given to charitable institutions, by legislative and general protection, have formed the basis of their establishment, and the promotion of their extensive and general progress. It cannot surely admit of a doubt, that wherever there is a public building, designated by an engraved title on its front or outside, divided into a chapel, halls, or rooms for general and open meetings of subscribers, wards occupied by patients, and apartments for the subsistence and rest of the servants employed therein; and moreover, where any of those patients resort to offer thanks in their places of public worship, for their recovery in such house, hospital, or dispensary, or by means of its administration; 2 N 4 286. Clark v. Foundling Hospital. 1809. administration; and where public advertisements in daily newspapers announce public meetings of the subscribers or inhabitants of a town or district,. for the support, or upon the affairs of a charity; and where public sermons are preached in, and collections made at the door of any parish church or chapel, for its benefit; in all these cases the notoriety of the institution in question is so declared, that there can remain little doubt of its being properly deemed a public charity. It should seem from what has been offered, that the question, What is a public charity? has been fully answered: but as in all cases which are brought forward either simply to take the directions of the court, or with a hope of success if something unexpected should present itself, or where the parties interested are fearful of consenting to any act of themselves, so this question was lately revived, upon an apparent distinction made by the donor, very similar to the case before-mentioned of Atty-gen. v. Peirce. Mrs. Elinor Evanson, of Bath, widow, by will dated 21 Feb. 1800, bequeathed legacies to several charities, some of which were public establishments, and others to the poor of several parishes there, and to distressed housekeepers not receiving alms. And after bequeathing several other legacies, she ordered her executors to dispose of the residue of her personal estate to and amongst the public charities which she had therein before particularly named, equally to be divided between them. She died in the August following without revoking this will. One of the public charities was not then in existence, and the executors having paid the pecuniary legacies, a question arose as to the division of the residue. It was held that the legacy to that hospital, which had not existence at the time of her death, lapsed on that account account into the residue, and that the said hospital (the Magdalen, at Bristol) was not entitled to any share thereof. That her intention must be taken to divide her residue among such of the other named public charitable institutions which had been established, and were already open to receive the contributions of the public, previously to the making her will; and that, therefore, such only out of all the charity legatees which she had named could participate in this residue; for, like the will of Mrs. Northcote, she did not mean to augment the private Barnardist. 208. legacies, which had been given by way of charity. This Atty. v. Peirce. went to the exclusion of poor housekeepers, at the discretion of her executors; to debtors in prison; to overseers of three parishes; all of whom had been named in her list of legacies; for these did not come within the meaning of her expression in the bequest of her residue among public charities. The court therefore directed the master to ascertain the clear residue, and to inquire whether any of the charities to which legacies were given by the will were public charities, and the nature of them. Upon this inquiry the several charities interested and claiming a share of this residue, stated their original establishments, the nature and objects of their institutions, and their notoriety as it arose from local situation, public acknowledgment, the unlimited or limited extent of their benevolence, and the publicity of their proceedings with that, as well of their patients as of their benefactors. That publicity was two-fold: 1. Their general and acknowledged notoriety; and, 2. Their being recognised by the state, either by statute or by charter. That their publicity did not depend upon any act of incorporation, or even on their being named in any statute; for though that would render it a creature of the state, yet it would not alone render it public, but only more public; public; for this consists merely in notoriety and general acknowledgment or acceptance by the community in and about their vicinity, by the name and by the execution of the benevolent plan under which they have been established. That indeed where charities are particularly named, or any provision made for them in any legislative act, there cannot arise any doubt of their publicity; but where, without being particularly named, they are provided for as in respect of their being directed to be licensed by the quarter sessions, and to have an inscription at their public entrance, as in the case of all lying-in hospitals, by the 13 Geo. III. c. 82; as also in the case of friendly societies, and of all hospitals, colleges, and trusts established by deed for charitable purposes, by the act for levying a duty on property, 46 Geo. III. c. 65.; as also in the statutes and uniform decisions relative to visitation of hospitals and charities (from 2 Hen. V. st. 1. 14 Eliz. c. 5. 39 Eliz. c. 5. to the present times), whereby the crown is the general visitor, where none has been nominated by the founders, and which right is exercised 2Vez. 328. 552. by his majesty's attorney-general, who is a public officer. And also in the universal acquiescence with the decision relative to taxation, either of land-tax, house or windowtax, highway-duty, or consolidated rates, in which their scite and buildings are left out of the valuation, and the assessments are made on the officers' apartments only as single tenements. In all these cases, and in others which might be suggested, they must be deemed public charities. 2 Burn Eccl. 286. I conceive that the establishment of any charity by act of parliament, is sufficient to give it that character which is necessary to constitute it a public charity, several of which are enumerated in a preceding part of this work (Part II. ch. II.), and to which may be added friendly societies already mentioned. CHAP. CHAPTER X. OF CHARITABLE DONATIONS IN GENERAL, AND THE universality of charitable gifts in this country is of an amount almost incalculable, even of those which are known and may be found upon record; there is not a county, nor a parish, nor a ward, nor a corporation of city, or town, or borough, nor a company chartered in ancient times for the preservation and encouragement of trade and manufacture, and numberless other institutions, which have not either from their own funds, or by the will or deed of investment of some of their members, become trustees for the distribution of alms, or for the establishment of relief in various modes of charity. The legislature, so lately as in 1786, thought it expe- 26 G. 3. c. 58. dient to have a general inspection of these funds; and therefore as they had directed enquiries to be made into the state and condition of the poor, passed an act to enable them to procure information, upon oath, of the several charitable donations for the use and benefit of poor persons. The ministers and churchwardens. of parishes were directed to deliver returns, on oath, to the justices at a meeting to be appointed by them, on receipt of copies of the act from the high constables, under a penalty for their neglect. These returns were ordered to be transmitted by the clerks of the peace to the clerk of |