LIMITATION OF STATE FUNCTIONS 161 



benefited by being debarred from the freest action. Once 

 this notion is abolished, our truest philanthropists would 

 be more willing than heretofore to devote their wealth 

 to public purposes, because they would feel confident of 

 its being permanently useful. They would know that 

 each succeeding generation would watch its application 

 critically, and insist that no obsolete customs or erroneous 

 teachings should be perpetuated by means of it, — that it 

 should never become a drag on the wheels of progress, as 

 has been the case with many such institutions, but rather 

 resemble a powerful engine capable of helping on the 

 necessarily slow march of society towards a higher 

 civilization. 



If the main principle here advocated — namely, that it 

 is intrinsically absurd and morally wrong that a dead 

 man's will or intention should have power to determine 

 the mode of application of property no longer his — be a 

 sound one, it will have a most important bearing on a 

 question that is now much discussed, as to how far 

 endowments of the National Church by private in- 

 dividuals may be j^roperly claimed by the State. Even 

 writers of very liberal views see in this a stumbling-block 

 to the complete disendowment of the Church of England, 

 because they cannot get rid of the notion that it is 

 something like a robbery to take property given for one 

 purpose and apply it to any other purpose. It is, there- 

 fore, a maxim with them, that when any change in the 

 application of such a fund is demanded by public policy, 

 it should still be kept as near as possible to the intentions 

 of the original donor. It is, however, to be remarked, 

 that when the property in question has already been 

 forcibly applied to other uses than those originally 

 intended, the most scrupulous do not propose that it 

 should be brought back to its ancient use ; and this seems 

 to imply a doubt of the soundness of their principle. A 

 large part of the existing endowments of the Church of 

 England, for example, were certainly intended to maintain 

 the teaching and services of the Roman Catholic religion. 

 If the donor's intentions are "sacred," these should be 

 given back to the Roman Catholic Church. If it be said 



VOL. II. M 



