the costs of the writ (if the same shall be issued and obeyed), shall be in the discretion of the court; which is thereby empowered to direct by whom and to whom the same shall be paid. By 1 & 2 Will. IV. c. 58, s. 8, the operation of that act (the Interpleader Act) is to extend to applications for writs of mandamus.

SECTION V.

Of Proceedings by Information.

1. Of the Attorney General acting on behalf of the

Crown in Charities.

2. When the Court of Chancery has no Jurisdiction, p.

408.

3. When the Attorney General is a necessary Party, p.

411.

4. Protestant Dissenters may proceed by Information— when, and when not, p. 415.

5. Of Informations respecting Funds applicable to Public Purposes, p. 420.

6. Of the Relator, p. 424.

7. The Attorney General may proceed without a Relator, p. 428.

8. Of Parties to Informations, p. 430.

9. Directions for establishing Charities will be given, notwithstanding Informality in Information, p. 443.

10. Plea, Demurrer, Multifariousness, p. 445.

11. Of the Accounts which will be directed of Charity Estates, p. 454.

12. Of Costs relative to Charities, p. 467.

1. Of the Attorney General acting on behalf of the crown in charities.] It appears, by a preceding part of this

work (r), that the king has, by his prerogative, the general superintendence of charities.

The right of the attorney general to file an information is founded on the prerogative of the crown, as parens patriæ, through the medium of its proper officer, to call upon the several courts of justice, according to the nature of their several jurisdictions, to see that justice is administered to such subjects as are incompetent to act for themselves, as in the instance of charities and other cases. The king is entrusted by the constitution, and entrusts the attorney general, who is only attorney to the king, and stands in the same relation to him as every other attorney does to his employer, although by degrees he has attained high rank in the law (s). Lord Eldon said, the attorney general is an officer of the crown, and in that sense only the officer of the public (t).

Where the attorney general is personally a defendant, or out of the realm, or under a disability from sickness, or where the office of attorney general is vacant, the authority of the attorney general devolves upon the solicitor general; and several precedents have been found of informations filed by the solicitor general during vacancies in the office of attorney general (u).

When the attorney general sues for a general public purpose, the crown is no further concerned; but if any private right of the king (as to dispose of a surplus by sign manual) comes in question in such a suit, then the king, as an individual, must be represented by the solicitor general, who may be made a defendant, for the purpose of supporting the right of the crown (v).

So where a bill and information were filed for directions as to the application and future letting of lands given for charitable uses, but a small portion of the rents was directed to

(r) Ante, p. 269.

(s) Wilmot's Notes, 328.

(t) 1 Swanst. 294.

(u) Rex v. Wilkes, 4 Burr. 2554-5; S. C. Wilmot's Notes, 329; 4 Br. P. C. 360, 2nd ed.; 2 Coll. Jur. 134.

(v) Attorney General v. Mayor, &c. of Galway, 1 Molloy, 106; Attorney General v. Mayor of Bristol, 2 Jac. & Walk. 309, 310; S. C. 3 Madd. 319.

be applied for a superstitious purpose, the information was ordered to stand over, in order that the solicitor general might be brought before the court to sustain the rights of the crown (w).

In a bill to establish a modus where the rectory was an eleemosynary foundation, of which the king was visitor, it was held that the attorney general was not a necessary party (x).

If a question as to the right of the crown to appoint by sign manual a fund given to superstitious uses, arises in a suit between individuals, the attorney general must be heard ; and the cause will be ordered to stand over for the purpose of amending the pleadings, by making him a party (y).

Whenever the proceeding is by information in the common and ordinary way, the consent and authority of the attorney general is required throughout the proceedings, though he does not always act personally (z). If he happens to act in the Court of Chancery before the lord chancellor, of course the attorney general appears as counsel in the information. It is in the course of business to send a brief to him upon the subject: but if the proceeding is heard at the Rolls, where the attorney general does not always attend, he never interferes there; for the course then is to apply to the attorney general to know to whom he chose the brief should be delivered for the purpose of conducting a charity case, and even in a case where the attorney general is made defendant, which he may be in order to protect the charity, the attorney general always prepares an answer for that purpose by the hands of a person who acts as his assistant. Every attorney general names the person who is to be his assistant in the Court of Chancery, and in the Court of Exchequer also, for revenue purposes (a).

(w) Attorney General v. Vivian, 1 Russ. 226.

(x) 3 Anstr. 768. See Attorney General v. Moses, 2 Madd. 294.

(y) De Themmines v. De Bonneval, 5 Russ. 293.

(z) Attorney General v. Hewitt, 9 Ves. 232.

(a) Corporation of Ludlow v. Greenhouse and others, 1 Bligh, N. S. 65, 66. Where the attorney general practises in the common law

1

If there be an information on the part of the attorney general, he ought to be employed in it; and it has happened that an information has been stopped, because the attorney or solicitor general was not in it (z). The attorney general may appear against a petition under stat. 52 Geo. III. c. 101, although he has signed and allowed it (a).

In a reference to the master to approve of a scheme for the administration of a charitable fund, the registrar had drawn up the minutes of the decree in conformity with a regulation introduced by Sir John Leach, requiring the attorney general to attend before the master in every case of reference for the settlement of a scheme for the administration of a charity. The attorney general attends such a reference by counsel, which consequently considerably increases the expense of the inquiry. It appeared that the practice of the vice chancellor was, not to require the attendance of the attorney general, except when it was absolutely necessary. As the charity fund in this case did not much exceed £1100., Sir C. Pepys, M. R. on application, ordered the direction to be struck out of the minutes of the decree (b).

A suit in the equity side of the Court of Chancery on the behalf of a subject merely, is commenced by preferring a bill in the nature of a petition to the lord chancellor, lord keeper, or lords commissioners for the custody of the great seal; or to the king himself, in his Court of Chancery, in case the person holding the seal is a party, or the seal is in the king's hands. The plaintiff sets forth the circumstances of his case, praying such relief as he conceives himself to be entitled to, or requires; and also, process of subpæna against the defendant, to compel him to answer the charges in the

bill (c). If the attorney general is made a defendant as an officer of the crown, the bill must pray, instead of the writ of subpoena, that he, being attended with a copy of the bill, may appear, and put in an answer (d).

The difference in form between an information and a bill, consists merely in offering the subject matter as the information of the officer in whose name it is exhibited, at the relation of the person who suggests the suit in those cases where a relator is named; and in stating the acts of the defendant to be injurious to the crown, or to those whose rights the crown thus endeavours to protect. When the pleading is at the same time an information and a bill, it is a compound of the forms used for each when separately exhibited (e).

The objects generally sought to be attained by proceedings in courts of equity respecting charities, are the appointment of new trustees-the discovery of the legal representatives of the original founder or of deceased trustees-the recovery of money and estates from wrongful possessorsthe settlement of a scheme for the due application of the funds belonging to the charity-the setting aside fraudulent or improvident leases or contracts-the taking the accounts. of trustees, and charging them with interest upon balances improperly held-the recovery of rent charges — and for establishing the rights of charities to the whole income of estates, instead of fixed payments out of them.

Informations respecting charities cannot be filed without the consent of the attorney general (ƒ); and therefore, his fiat must be obtained both to an original and an amended

(d) Redesdale's Pl. 38; 4th ed. See Barclay v. Russell, Dick. 729; S. C. 3 Ves. 424.

(c) 1 Newl. Ch. Pr. 51; Harr. against his granting his fiat to an Ch. 41. information against particular parties, in which case, before the fiat is granted, the parties will be allowed to attend by counsel before the attorney general, in order to discuss the propriety of granting or witholding the fiat.

(e, Redesdale's Pl. 100, 4 ed. (f) The fee for the fiat is £1 12s. 6d. A caveat may be entered

at the attorney general's office