FORMS OF BEQUESTS TO DIFFERENT CHARITIES. I give to the incorporated "National Society for promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church throughout England and Wales," the sum of 1. to be paid exclusively out of such parts of my personal estate as I can lawfully charge with payment of legacies to charitable uses (s). Bequest to the Literary Fund Society. 1. to the trustees and I give and bequeath the sum of treasurers for the time being of the Incorporated Society for the management and distribution of the Literary Fund, established in London in 1790(t), to be applied under the direction of the society, or by its officers and committees to promote the benevolent purposes of the institution; and I direct the said sum of 1. to be paid exclusively out of such parts of my personal estate as I can lawfully charge with payment of legacies to charitable uses. of Bequest to the Church Building Society (u). And I, A. B. do hereby also give and bequeath unto C. D. and E. F. of (8) See ante, pp. 229 n, 238. It may often be advisable, at least if such be the testator's intention, to direct the charitable legacies to be paid in preference and priority to the other pecuniary legacies given by the will. Be cause in case of a deficiency of pure personal estate legacies to charities must abate in proportion with others, (ante, p. 238,) and because the assets will not be marshalled in favour of the former class of legacies. Ante, pp. 228, 234. (t) The office of this society is in Lincoln's Inn Fields. This society attempts the most useful, the noblest, and the most delicate office that can be performed by public humanity that of affording pecuniary assistance to those on whom, of all mankind, poverty presses with the heaviest hand, who, of all suf the sum of ferers, are the least able to assist themselves-and in whom, shrinking with instinctive dread from the disclosure of wants, it is the most difficult task to lighten the weight of pecuniary obligation. Living in a world and breathing an atmosphere almost of his own, the man of genius cannot but feel occasionally mortified to see ignorance attain the riches, and arrogance rewarded with the honours of the world. To such he cannot appeal; it is then that, trusting to the delicacy of the above society, he seeks, or, as is frequently the case, is sought out by the commfittee; and if his claim be just, and his character honourable, he finds not only bounty, but sympathy and encouragement. See address of the committee of the society, 1832. (u) This society was incorporated by 9 Geo. IV. c. 42. to be raised and paid by and out of all my ready money, plate, goods, and other personal chattels and effects, which by law I may or can charge with the payment of the same, upon trust and to the intent that they, or either of them, do pay the same to the treasurer or treasurers for the time being of the Incorporated Society for promoting the Enlargement, Building, and Repairing of Churches and Chapels: which said sum of I desire may be applied towards carrying on the charitable designs of the said society, or such of them as are not contrary to the true intent and meaning of the statute made and passed in the 9th year of the reign of his late majesty King George the Second, intituled, "An act to restrain the disposition of lands, whereby the same become unalienable;” and I direct that the receipt of the said C. D. and E. F. or the survivor of them, shall be a good discharge to my executors for the same. Bequest to Incorporated Clergy Orphan Society. I give to the governors of the Corporation for the Relief of poor Widows and Children of Clergymen, the sum of to be paid to one of the treasurers out of such part of my personal estate as I can by law charge with the payment thereof (v). I give to the Corporation of the Governors of the Society for clothing, maintaining, and educating poor Orphans of Clergymen of the Established Church in that part of the United Kingdom called England, until of age to be put apprentice, the sum of to be paid out of such part of my personal estate as I can by law charge with the payment thereof, and to be applied towards carrying on the charitable purposes for which the said society was incorporated (w). (v) This society was incorporated by stat. 49 Geo. III. c. 18, by the title of "The Governors of the Society for clothing, maintaining, and educating poor Orphans of Clergymen of the Established Church, in that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, called England, until of age to be put apprentice." (w) A special fund was established in the year 1826, called the Clergy Orphan Apprenticing Fund, for the purpose of assisting the children, when they leave the schools, in obtaining suitable apprenticeships. It is placed under the management of the general committee; the treasurers of the society are also the treasurers of this special fund. ADDENDA. P. 32, at end of second paragraph, add-Evidence of payment of rent to the churchwardens in respect of premises in the parish, and that leases have been made by the churchwardens, in one of which the property is described as parcel of the lands of the parish church, is primâ facie evidence that the premises were parish property (a). P. 51, at end of second line, add―The stat. 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 69, contains provisions for facilitating the conveyance of workhouses and other property of parishes and of incorporations or unions of parishes in England and Wales. This act contains the forms of conveyances to be used under it. P. 55, at end of second paragraph, add—A bill has passed the House of Lords, and is now (April, 1836) in progress through the House of Commons, for enabling the lord or lady of any manor to convey to the incumbent and churchwardens of any parish in which a school for the education of poor children is intended to be erected, or to the trustees of any such school, in any parish or extra-parochial place, so much of the common or waste ground in any such parish or extraparochial place as may be required for the site of such school, and of a house or houses for the master or mistress of such school, not exceeding in the whole one half of a statute acre, without the concurrence of the parties having a right of common in such waste lands. Ecclesiastical bodies corporate, or a spiritual corporation (a) Doe d. Higgs and others v. Terry and others, 5 Nev. & Man. 556. sole, with the consent of the bishop of the diocese, may convey any portion of their lands not exceeding one half of a statute acre, to the Incorporated National Society for promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church, or to any trustees to be named by the bishop of the diocese for erecting thereon school-rooms for the education of poor children according to the doctrines of the established church, and for erecting houses for the masters or mistresses. It is also provided, that the powers of the act shall extend to school-rooms built on ecclesiastical lands before the passing of the act. P. 225, at end of third paragraph, add-If a testator devise land for purposes altogether illegal, or which altogether fail, the heir takes it as undisposed of: so if he bequeath personalty under the same circumstances, the next of kin are entitled. If a testator devise land for purposes which are in part illegal, or which partially fail, or which require part only of the land devised, the heir takes the part which fails, or is not required for the purposes of the will; and so conversely, in the case of personal estate the next of kin is entitled. A testator directed his executors immediately to lay out 30,000l. in the purchase of an estate in his name, the income of which he settled on one for life with remainder to others in tail, and on failure of the previous estates, the income was to be applied in the establishment of a charity school for boys in Exeter. The money had not been actually laid out in the purchase of lands, but was invested in the public funds, where it remained until the determination of all the previous estates for life and in tail. The gift in favour of the charity being void by the stat. 9 Geo. II. c. 36, on a question between the personal representative and the heir at law of the testator, it was held that the next of kin were entitled to the fund as personalty (b). (b) Cogan v. Stephens, Rolls, Feb. and Nov. 24, 1835; 5 Law Journ. N. S. Chanc. 17. See also Williams P. 234, at end of second paragraph, add-Prior valid charitable legacies have not a right to resort to the part of the pure personal estate of a residue the gift of which is void. Testator created a general fund of his real and personal estate, out of which he gave several legacies to charities, and the residue to charitable purposes; the former failed as to the realty, and the latter failed altogether for uncertainty. It was held that the former were not entitled to resort to the personalty released in consequence of the invalidity of the latter gift, but that such personalty belonged to the next of kin. It was said by the court, that making the valid legacies to charity good out of so much of the residue as was pure personal estate, would be marshalling the assets, at least as against the next of kin, in favour of the charity legacy, and contrary to the rule as laid down in these cases, which is to appropriate the fund as if no legal objection existed to applying it to the charity legacy, and then holding, as undisposed of, so much of the charity legacy as would in that way be payable out of the prohibited fund (c). P. 266, at bottom, add-Sir C. Pepys, M. R., in giving judgment, after noticing that many cases had been decided to be within the mortmain act, on the ground that the security was on realty, or created an interest in realty, and that it did not appear upon what ground the decision in Howse v. Chapman (d) was made, nor on what estates the bonds were secured, said, that the case of Attorney General v. Giles must be decided with reference to the stat. 9 Geo. II. c. 36, s. 3. It had been decided that lands in the colonies are not subject to that act (ƒ). There is no doubt that the East India Company have land to a considerable extent; that the corporation, as such, are holders of land; and if it can be made out, that the interest which parliament gives to the holders of the stock, is such as affects the land, that stock must be considered as within the operation of the (c) Williams v. Williams, 5 Law Journ. N. S. Chancery, 84. (d) Ante, p. 160. |