8 Public Chanties. [JULY, 



concerns wo have met with inexplicable in its management we mean 

 and the most ineffective, compared with the views of the institutor, and 

 the very ample funds he left for the fulfilment of those views. 



ROBERT ASKE'S intentions were to found alms-houses for twenty poor 

 single men, free of the Haberdashers, with a pension of 20/. each; and to 

 clothe, feed, and educate as many boys as the surplus of the funds wonld 

 permit, at 20/. each. The sum originally left by him was 20,00(V; but 

 this sum was by others, for the purpose of promoting his wishes, augmented 

 to 31,905/. Twenty-one acres were purchased at Hoxton, on a part of 

 which the alms-houses were built ; and nearly 2,000 acres in Kent. The 

 income of the charity is now 3,469/. 7*. 2c?., and yearly augmenting, from 

 the Hoxton land being let on building leases. Now, how is this magnifi- 

 cent income spent ? That is very far from being manifest. {Seventeen 

 persons are, however, lodged and fed, receive each 8/. a year, and a gown 

 every second year ; and besides, twenty boys are kept, taught reading and 

 writing, and catechized four times a year. And this is all that is known 

 of the disposition of an income of 3,4691. 7s. 2d. With this sum, seven- 

 teen old men are supported in the lowest style of pauperism, and twenty 

 boys in the same miserable state ; that is, our readers will observe, at the 

 rate of nearly a hundred pounds a head. It is enough to make the good 

 Robert Aske turn in his grave. But the company have a surplus of seven 

 thousand pounds is this a misprint in the reports for seventy thousand ? 

 and this 7,000/. or 70.000/. the company are actually laying out in brick 

 and mortar building a palace for seventeen miserable paupers to prove, 

 to ocular demonstration, how munificent are the charitable institutions of 

 England. If we are so splendid without, what may be it supposed we 

 are within ? The seventeen must surely tread on Turkey carpets, and be 

 served on plate. 



TROTMAN'S CHARITIES, 1663. Throckmortin Trotman left to the com- 

 pany 2,000/,, to purchase land of 100Z. a year, and appropriated the said 

 100*/. a year, I5/. to the maintenance of a lecture at Dursley, in Glouces- 

 tershire ; SOI. to the maintenance of a school in Cripplegate ; and the re- 

 maining 51. to the poor of the company. The same gentleman left a 

 second 2,000/., to be invested in the same way, in land of 100/. a year 

 value, arid appropriated 201. to a lecture on Sundays, in the church of 

 St. Giles, Cripplegate; 20/. for another on Thursdays, with 40*. each for 

 clerk and sexton ; 6/. for those who took care of the premises ; 4/. for 

 candles during the preaching in winter; 16/. to the poor of the parish ; 

 and 30/. for the poor of Cam, in Gloucestershire, towards building and 

 maintaining an* alms-house, or towards setting poor people to work, as the 

 company should determine. This 4,000/., however, the company did not, 

 as the donor enjoined, invest in land, but themselves borrowed it, and 

 mortgaged their own hall, &c., assessed at 300/., and other premises in 

 Maiden-lane, Flying-horse-court, Staiuing-lane, and Bunhill-row, the 

 rents of which amount to 36 1/., thus giving a security of 66 \l., if security 

 it can be called, where some part of the mortgage, at least, we may pre- 

 sume, is trust property. Of the presumed income of Trotman's 4000/. we 

 see 1 201. were assigned to certain specific uses, and $0/. for the mainte- 

 nance of a school. The 1201. are still distributed according to his original 

 directions. But the school what was done about that ? One was built 

 in Bunhill-row, capable of accommodating two hundred boys, and no less 

 than TWELVE, sometimes, of late, have been taught reading, writing, and 



