Substance of a Speech Delivered in the House of Lords, on Behalf of the Deans and Chapters Petitioning Against the Bill 24 July 1840Rivingtons, 1840 - 76 pages |
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Substance of a Speech Delivered in the House of Lords, on Behalf of the ... James R. Hope No preview available - 2020 |
Common terms and phrases
66 My Lords absolutely according acknow Act of Parliament advowsons alien alleged ancient apply apprehend appropriations argument asserted authority benefices bestowed Bill bishop bodies corporate canon cathedral and collegiate charities charter Church of England Church of Ireland church property ciples clergy colleges common law considered constitution Court Court of Chancery deal deny diocese of Ely dissolution distinct doctrine donors duty ecclesiastical bodies ecclesiastical commissioners ecclesiastical objects Eliz existed foundations founders Government Henry the Eighth instance institutions interest interfere jurisdiction justice Knights Templars lands lative learned legislative Legislature Lord Coke Lordships maintain mean measure noble opinion original parish parochial particular parties perpetual persons perty Pope poration prebends precedent principle of endowments professions promote provision purposes question reason Reformation regard religious respect right reverend prelates rights of property spiritual spiritualties statutes surrender thing tion tithes trustees tution Valor Ecclesiasticus vested vicarages yourselves
Popular passages
Page 30 - ... a perpetual succession of many persons are considered as the same, and may act as a single individual. They enable a corporation to manage its own affairs, and to hold property without the perplexing intricacies, the hazardous and endless necessity of perpetual conveyances, for the purpose of transmitting it from hand to hand. It is chiefly for the purpose of clothing bodies of men, in succession, with these qualities and capacities, that corporations were invented, and are in use. By these means...
Page 53 - The donors of land are equally without interest, so long as the corporation shall exist. Could they be found, they are unaffected by any alteration in its constitution, and probably regardless of its form or even of its existence. The students are fluctuating, and no individual among our youth has a vested interest in the institution which can be asserted in a court of justice. Neither the founders of the college, nor the youth for whose benefit it was founded, complain of the alteration made in...
Page 54 - According to the theory of the British constitution, their parliament is omnipotent. To annul corporate rights might give a shock to public opinion, which that government has chosen to avoid ; but its power is not questioned. Had parliament, immediately after the emanation of this charter, and the execution of those conveyances which followed it, annulled the instrument, so that the living donors would have witnessed the disappointment of their hopes, the perfidy of the transaction would have been...
Page 52 - Yet a question remains to be considered, of more real difficulty, on which more doubt has been entertained than on all that have been discussed. The founders of the college, at least those whose contributions were in money, have parted with the property bestowed upon it, and their representatives have no interest in that property. The donors of land are equally without interest, so long as the corporation shall exist. Could they be found, they are unaffected by any alteration in its constitution,...
Page 31 - Charitable or public-spirited individuals, desirous of making permanent appropriations for charitable or other useful purposes, find it impossible to effect their design securely and certainly without an incorporating act. They apply to the government, state their beneficent object, and offer to advance the money necessary for its accomplishment, provided the government will confer on the instrument which is to execute their designs the capacity to execute them. The proposition is considered and...
Page 54 - ... interest in the property confided to their protection. Yet the contract would at that time have been deemed sacred by all. What has since occurred to strip it of its inviolability? Circumstances have not changed it. In reason, in justice, and in law, it is now what it was in 1769.
Page 31 - The benefit to the public is considered as an ample compensation for the faculty it confers, and the corporation is created. If the advantages to the public constitute a full compensation for the faculty it gives, there can be no reason for exacting a further compensation, by claiming a right to exercise over this artificial being a power which changes its nature, and touches the fund for the security and application of which it was created.
Page 53 - ... purchased. The consideration for which they stipulated is the perpetual application of the fund to its object, in the mode prescribed by themselves. Their descendants may take no interest in the preservation of this consideration. But in this respect their descendants are not their representatives. They are represented by the corporation. The corporation is the assignee of their rights, stands in their place, and distributes their bounty, as they would themselves have distributed it, had they...
Page 30 - Is it because its existence, its capacities, its powers, are given by law? Because the government has given it the power to take and to hold property in a particular form and for particular purposes, has the government a consequent right substantially to change that form, or to vary the purposes to which the property is to be applied? This principle has never been asserted or recognized, and is supported by no authority. Can it derive aid from reason?
Page 53 - These gifts were made, not indeed to make a profit for the donors or their posterity, but for something, in their opinion, of inestimable value; for something which they deemed a full equivalent for the money with which it was purchased. The consideration for which they stipulated, is the perpetual application of the fund to its object, in the mode prescribed by themselves.