1827.] Public Charities. 503 



guinea fee for attendance on committees ? The statutes, in short, wherever 

 any particular interest is in view, readily give way ; but where the general 

 interests of the school, and the general views of the founder are concerned, 

 the promotion of education obviously, and nothing else there they are 

 as unalterable as the laws of the Medes and Persians. 



WIIITTINGTON'S ALMSHOUSE. Considerable property was left by Sir 

 Richard Whittington, in 1521, for worksof charity ; and an almshouse for 

 thirteen poor persons was erected by his executors. Additions to the 

 endowment were made by Win. Elkeyn in 1597, Edward Barkley in 

 1601, Samuel Goldsmith in 1 617, and several others. The whole is under 

 the management of the Mercers' Company; but, unluckily, the Lord 

 Mayor is named special visitor ; and though the Lord Mayor appears never 

 to have exercised his privilege, the provision precluded the commissioners 

 from all inquiry. The company are thus legally screened, and all malver- 

 sations consecrated. The property is notoriously greatly beyond the paltry 

 sums dribbled out to the occupants of the almshouse. What becomes of 

 the surplus? and how can men, pretending to character and respectability, 

 appropriate that, of which they know themselves to be but trustees, to 

 purposes which the donors never contemplated? 



DAUNTSEY CHARITIES. I. Coals. Alderman Wm. Dauntsey, in 1542. 

 left 200/. to be lent to young men free of the company, 50/. each, for 

 seven years, on the condition of a load of coals being given to the poor of 

 certain parishes in the city. No member of the company requiring these 

 loans by the way, they are all merchants of the first class, bankers, &c. 

 537. in acquittance are now paid to the officers of those parishes. This, 

 as to the amount, may not be much amiss. 2. School and almshouse at 

 Went Lavington, Wiltshire. The school was destined for the children of 

 the parish generally, and the almshouse for five men and two women. 

 When the property, consisting of houses in the city, came into the hands of 

 the company, the changes upon it were 10 for the schoolmaster, and 

 10*. 1 \d. a quarter for each of the alms-people, called the beadsmen and 

 women of West Lavington that is, about 25/. ; and the rents amounted to 

 411. Additions to the allowances of the master and the alms-folk have 

 been made from time to time ; the actual payments now made to them 

 amount to 2'21/. ; and the average expenses for rebuilding, repairing, &c. 

 for the last eighteen years have been 90/. ; but the rents have swollen to 

 1 ,060/. What becomes of this 700/. or 800/. ? Is it distributed in acts 

 of charity, or discussed in feats of guttling ? Is it pocketed by the com- 

 pany for the good of their families, or exchequered for some future scene 

 of jubilee magnificence? Why is not a school established to take in the 

 neighbouring parishes ? arid why are not the beads-people more liberally 

 relieved, and their members increased ? The intention of the benevolent 

 founder is manifest to educate the children and assist the poor of W r est 

 Lavington. If all be, indeed, educated and relieved that want educating 

 and relieving there, we may be sure there are others in the neighbourhood 

 who are not. Let the company promptly come forward, and act with 

 something like honour and humanity, and not wait for the forcing of the 

 legislature, to their own eternal disgrace. 



LADY JOAN BRADBURY'S CHARITY. The company, in the reign of 

 Henry VIII., were empowered by patent to receive lands, to the value of 

 20/. a year, from Dame Joan Bradbury ; and, in pursuance of this autho- 

 rity, the Bishop of Norwich granted them twenty-nine acres in Mary-le- 

 bone, and 120 in St. Giles's and St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, of the annual 



