THE 



MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 



VOL. IV.] JULY, 1827. [No. 19. 



PUBLIC CHARITIES. 



IN pursuance of the epitome commenced in our Number for May, we 

 invite our readers to contemplate now the Charities under the control of 

 the 



Haberdashers' Company. 



MONMOUTH CHARITIES, 1614. These consist of a free-school, alms- 

 house, and a lecture in the town of Monmouth. William Jones, the 

 liberal founder of them, gave in trust to the company 9,000/., with which 

 sum, augmented by others to 10,580/., was purchased an estate called 

 Hatcham-JBarnes, in the adjoining parishes of New Cross, Surry, and St. 

 Paul, Deptford, now producing a rent of 77 \L A surplus vested in the 

 funds has accumulated, amounting now to 5,970/. 16*. 4d. ; which sum, 

 as well as the dividends, are destined for repairing and rebuilding. To 

 what extent now are the good people of Monmouth the better for all this? 

 Twenty poor persons receive \ll. each, and twenty- one boys are taught 

 Latin, Greek, and English : to read English this can only mean, because 

 we observe, for writing, arithmetic, geography, and merchants' accompts, 

 the parents pay 31. a year. Then how are these ample funds consumed ? 

 140?. go to the lecturer, ISO/, to the schoolmasters, and 314/. to the alms- 

 people, making together 634/. Of the remaining 1371., about 94 /. also 

 are said to be expended on the charities ; but of the surplus 43/. no 

 account is given. The Monmouth people are dissatisfied at these impo- 

 tent effects and naturally enough. Here are funds destined by Mr. 

 Jones to promote the education of the town. He contemplated a hun- 

 dred in Greek and Latin meaning by Greek and Latin, surely, the 

 general instruction of schools. In the days in which free grammar- 

 schools were first instituted, Latin and Greek were the medium through 

 which all was taught ; and the learning of Latin and Greek meant then 

 something more than the construing of half-a-dozen writers of antiquity, 

 to the exclusion of every earthly subject besides. The phrase, thus com- 



M. M. New Series. VOL. IV. No. 19. B 



