SCHOOLS. 



SCHOOLS. 



342 



purposes of government, into schools incorporated and schools not 

 incorporated. Incorporated schools belong to the class of corporations 

 called eleemosynary, which comprehends colleges and halls, and char- 

 tered hospitals or alms-houses. [COLLEGE.] 



Endowed schools are comprehended under the general legal name of 

 Charities, as that word is used in the act of the 43rd of Elizabeth, 

 chap. 4, which is entitled " An Act to redress the Misemployment of 

 Lands, Goods, and Stocks of Money heretofore given to Charitable 

 Uses." Incorporated schools have generally been founded by the 

 authority of letters patent from the crown, but in some cases by act of 

 parliament. The usual course of proceeding has been for the person 

 who intended to give property for the foundation of a school, to apply 

 to the crown for a licence. The licence is given in the form of letters 

 patent, which empower the person to found such a school, and to make, 

 or to empower others to make, rules and regulations for its govern- 

 ment, provided they are not at variance with the terms of the patent. 

 The patent also incorporates certain persons and their successors, who 

 are named or referred to in it, as the governors of the school. This 

 was the form of foundation in the case of Harrow School, which was 

 founded by John Lyon, in the 1 4th year of Elizabeth, pursuant to letters 

 patent from the queen. Sometimes the master and usher are made 

 members of the corporation, or the master only ; and in the instance 

 of Berkhampstead School, which was founded by act of parliament (2 it, 

 8 Edw. VI., reciting certain letters patent of Henry VIII.), the corpo- 

 ration consists of the master and usher only, of whom the master is 

 appointed by the crown, and the usher is appointed by the master. 

 Lands and other property of such a school are vested in the corpora- 

 tion, whose duty it is to apply them, pursuant to the terms of the 

 donation, in supporting the school. Many school endowments are of 

 a mixed nature, the funds being appropriated both to the support of a 

 free-school and for other charitable purposes. These other purposes 

 are very various ; but among them the union or connection of a hospital 

 or almshouse with a free-school is one of the most common. 



Where there is no charter of incorporation, which is the case in a 

 gnat number of school endowments, the lands and other property of 

 the school are vested in trustees, whose duties, as to the application of 

 the funds, are the same as in the case of an incorporated school. It is 

 necessary from time to time for the actual trustees to add to tin ir 

 numbers by such legal modes of conveyance as shall vest the school 

 property in them and the new trustees jointly. These conveyances 

 sometimes cause a considerable expense ; and when they have been 

 neglected, and the estates have consequently become vested in the 

 heir-at-law of the surviving trustee, some difficulty is occasionally 

 experienced in finding out the person in whom the school estates have 

 thus become vested. When the school property consists of money, the 

 same kind of difficulty arises ; and money is also more liable to be lost 

 than land. 



y charity, and schools amongst the rest, seems to be subject to 

 visitation. We shall first speak of incorporated schools. 



The founder may make the persons to whom he gives the school 

 property on trust also the governors of his foundation for all purposes ; 

 and if he names no special visitor, it appears that such persons will be 

 visitors as well as trustees. If he names a person as visitor, such 

 person is called a special visitor ; and it is a general rule that if the 

 founder names no special visitor, and does not constitute the governors 

 of his foundation the visitors, the heir-at-law of the founder will be 

 visitor ; and if there is no heir-at-law, the crown will visit by the lord 

 keeper of the great seal. The king is visitor of all schools founded by 

 himself or his ancestors. The duties of trustees and visitors are quite 

 distinct, whether the same persona are trustees and visitors, or the 

 trustees and visitors are different. It is the duty of trustees to pre- 

 serve the school property, and to apply it to the purposes intended by 

 the founder. In respect of their trust, trustees are subject to the 

 jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery, like all other trustees ; and of 

 course they are answerable for all misapplication of the funds. It is 

 the visitor's duty to inquire into the behaviour of the master and 

 usher in their respective offices, and into the general conduct of the 

 school. He must judge according to the founder's rules, which he 

 cannot alter unless he is empowered by the terms of the donation to 

 do so. There seems to be no reason for supposing that the king, in 

 respect of royal foundations, has any further power than other per- 

 sons, and consequently he cannot after the terms of the donation, 

 unless this power was originally reserved to the founder and his suc- 

 cessors ; but on this matter there may be some difference of opinion. 

 The visitor, or those who have visitorial power, can alone remove a 

 master or usher of an endowed school. The Court of Chancery never 

 removes a master or usher, when they are part of the corporate body, 

 on the general principle that this court has no power to remove a 

 corporator of any kind ; and when there is a visitor, or persons with 

 vintorial power, the court never attempts directly to remove a master 

 or usher, even if they are not members of the corporation. (17 Ves., 

 Att.-Gen. r. the Earl of Clarendon.) 



Trustees of endowed schools which are not incorporated are ac- 

 countable in a court of equity for the management of the school 

 proj^rty. But the internal management of the school still belongs 

 to the special visitor, if there is one ; and if there is no special visitor 

 it belongs to the founder's heir. Trustees of endowed schools, simply 

 as such, are merely the guardians of the property, as already observed ; 



and it is their duty to take care of it, and to apply the income according 

 to the founder's intention. It has, however, happened that in schools 

 not incorporated the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery and the 

 visitorial jurisdiction have not been kept quite distinct; and cases have 

 arisen in which it has been found difficult to determine what ought to 

 be the proper mode of proceeding. 



A free grammar-school was an endowment for teaching the learned 

 languages, or Greek and Latin, and for no other purpose, unless the 

 founder has prescribed other things to be taught besides grammar. 

 This legal meaning of the term grammar-school has been fixed by 

 various judicial decisions, and it appears to be established that, if the 

 founder merely expresses his intention to found a grammar-school,' the 

 school must be a school for teaching Latin and Greek oufy, at least, so 

 far as the teaching is gratuitous ; other branches of instruction may 

 be introduced, but the scholars must pay for this extra instruction. 



Grammar-schools have now for a long time been solely regulated 

 by the Court of Chancery, which, though affecting merely to deal 

 with them in respect of the trusts and the application of the 

 trust-monies, has in fact gone much farther. The court may be 

 applied to for the purpose of establishing a school where funds 

 have been given for the purpose, but the object cannot be effected 

 without the aid of the court. It may also be applied to for 

 the piirpose of correcting a misapplication of the funds. The court 

 may also be applied to in order to sanction the application of tin- 

 school funds when they have increased beyond the amount required 

 for the purposes indicated by the founder. Such surplus funds art: 

 often applied in establishing exhibitions or annual allowances to be 

 paid to meritorious boys who have been educated at the school, during 

 their residence at college. The master's scheme for the regulation of 

 Tunbridge school, in Kent, which was confirmed by the Court of 

 Chancery, established sixteen exhibitions of 10(M. each, which are 

 tenable at any college of Oxford or Cambridge, and payable out of the 

 founder's endowment. It also extended the benefits of the school 

 beyond the limits fixed by the founder, and made various other regu- 

 lations for the improvement of the school, having regard to the theu 

 annual rents of the school estates. 



The previous remarks on grammar-schools must be taken subject to 

 the provisions contained in a recent Act of Parliament, which is the 

 only attempt that has been made by the legislature to regulate schools 

 of this class. This act (3 & 4 Viet. c. 77) is entitled " An Act for 

 improving the Condition and extending the Benefits of Grammar- 

 Schools." The act recites, among other things, that the " patrons, 

 visitors, and governors of such grammar-schools are generally unable of 

 their own authority to establish any other system of education than 

 is expressly provided for by the foundation, and her majesty's courts 

 of law and equity are frequently unable to give adequate relief, and in 

 no case but at considerable expense." The act then declares that the 

 courts of equity shall have power, as in the act provided, " to make 

 such decrees or orders as to the said courts shall seem expedient, as 

 well for extending the system of education to other useful branches of 

 literature and science, in addition to or (subject to the provisions 

 thereinafter contained) in lieu of the Greek and Latin languages, or 

 such other instruction as may be required by the terms of the founda- 

 tion or the then existing statutes, as also for extending or restricting 

 the freedom or the right of admission to such school, by determining 

 the number or the qualifications of boys who may thereafter be 

 admissible thereto as free scholars or otherwise, and for settling the 

 terms of admission to and continuance in the same, and to establish 

 such schemes for the application of the revenues of any such schools 

 as may in the opinion of the court be conducive to the rendering or 

 maintaining such schools in the greatest degree efficient and useful, 

 with due regard to the intentions of the respective founders and 

 benefactors, and to declare at what period, and upon what event, such 

 decrees or orders, or any directions contained therein, shall be brought 

 into operation ; and that such decrees and orders shall have force 

 and efiect, notwithstanding any provisions contained in the instruments 

 of foundation, endowment, or benefaction, or in the then existing 

 statutes ; " but it is provided, that if there shall be any special visitor 

 appointed by the founder or other competent authority, he shall be 

 heard on the matters in question before the court makes any orders or 

 decrees. 



This enactment extends the power of the court over grammar- 

 schools very considerably, as will appear from what has been said ; not 

 so much however, if we view what the court has done, as if we take 

 the declarations of the most eminent equity judges as to what the 

 court can do. The power however of changing a grammar-school into 

 one not a grammar-school, which is given by this act, is a considerable 

 extension of authority; but the power is limited to cases ( 3) where 

 the necessity of such a change arises from insufficiency of the revenues 

 of a grammar-school for the purpose of such school. But this provision 

 as it has properly been remarked, will be of very difficult applica- 

 tion ; for in many successful grammar-schools the revenue is small, 

 and in some which are not successful it is large. Suiallness of revenue, 

 therefore, will not of itself prove " insufficiency of revenues " in the 

 sense intended by the act. The same section contains also a provision, 

 that except in this case of insufficient revenues, the court shall not by 

 this act be authorised to dispense with any statute or provision now 

 existing, so far as relates to the qualification of any schoolmaster or 



