Joint-Stock Executor and Trustee Company. 193 PAYMENT OF COMMISSION TO THE COM PANY. shall be paid such salary by the company, not person interested in any such trust properties exceeding 2001. per annum, as the said Com- or otherwise. missioners shall determine; and the right of such inspector to inspect such accounts and perform such duties may be enforced, either by summary application to her Majesty's Court of Queen's Bench at Westminster, or to her Majesty's Hight Court of Chancery, which Courts are authorised to make such order in the premises as may be thought fit, and to direct the costs of every such application or order to be paid to the inspector so applying. 31. With respect to any trusts not transferred from other trustees of which the company shall accept the execution, the trust pro perty subject thereto shall be charged with and liable to pay to the company, in addition to such costs, charges, and expenses incurred by them in the administration of the trusts re28. Upon its being made to appear to the posed in them as trustees or executors are in said Commissioners, by the report of the said the like cases in ordinary entitled to be reimofficial inspector or otherwise, that the said bursed, a reasonable commission for the sestocks, funds, and securities so forming the curity afforded by the capital of the company Guarantee Fund are of less amount than is and the risk and trouble to which the company hereinbefore provided, it shall and may be may be put in the management of the trust lawful for the said Commissioners to give no- property and the execution of the trusts theretice to the company not to undertake, and the of; and such commission may be agreed upon company shall upon such notice cease to un-between the executive council and the settlor, dertake, any fresh trust until the said stocks, funds, and securities shall be made up to the full amount aforesaid. 29. If the said Commissioners shall, upon the report of the said official inspector, or otherwise, be of opinion that, having regard to the amount or value of the said Guarantee Fund, and to the nature and extent of the trusts then already undertaken by the company, no further trust ought to be undertaken by the company, unless and until such addition to the Guarantee Fund as the said Commissioners may require for the due performance thereof shall be provided by the company, it shall be lawful for the said Commissioners to direct that no further trust shall be undertaken until the said Guarantee Fund shall be increased as the said Commissioners shall direct. testator, or next of kin of any intestate; or in case no such agreement is made, then such commission shall be after such rate as shall at the time of the acceptance by the company of any trust be actually provided by any bye-law of the company or general resolution or regulation of the executive council sanctioned by the Board of Trade, and no cestui que trust or other party interested in the trust property shall be at liberty to object to the payment or deduction from the trust property or the income thereof of such commission. 32. With respect to any trusts transferred from other trustees to the company, the commission, in addition to such costs, charges, and expenses incurred by them in the administration of the trusts reposed in them as trustees or executors are in the like cases in ordinary entitled to be reimbursed, shall be of such amount as shall be agreed upon between the executive council and the persons beneficially interested if sui juris, or if incapacitated as shall be approved by the Court or Judge consenting to the transfer. PLACE OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT, 30. If the Guarantee Fund shall not for the space of six calendar months from the report of the aforesaid inspector, showing such diminution as aforesaid, be made up to the full amount aforesaid to the satisfaction of the said Commissioners, or if there shall be any decree of a Court of Equity against the company for fraud or malversation as regards any trusts un- 33. The principal place of business of the dertaken by the company, then it shall be company shall be in London or Westminster ; lawful for the Court of Chancery, on a sum- but branches may be established elsewere in mary application by the Attorney-General, or her Majesty's dominions at the discretion of in any suit then pending, to order the estate the executive council, and the executive council and effects of the company to be sold and its may, if they shall think fit, purchase or hire, affairs wound up, and the produce (after pay- or take on building lease or otherwise, any ment of all costs incidental to such sale and buildings or lands for the purpose of building winding-up) applied rateably in respect of any or making offices, and again sell the same claims against the company by reason of any buildings or lands, or any part thereof, and trusts undertaken by the company; and, sub-purchase, hire, or take on building lease or ject as aforesaid, the produce of the estate and otherwise any other buildings or lands, as effects of the company shall be divided rateably amongst the shareholders of the company according to their shares in the capital thereof; and in case the company shall be wound up as last aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the said Court to make such orders concerning the respective trust properties then held by the company as the said Court shall deem expedient, either upon the summary application of any often as they the executive council shall think fit; and for these purposes the executive council may enter into and execute all such agreements, deeds, covenants, and instruments as may be necessary, which shall be binding upon the company. 34. The executive council shall from time to time appoint fit and qualified persons to be respectively the secretary, assistant, or legal se 194 Joint-Stock Executor and Trustee Company.-Law of Attorneys and Solicitors. cretary, treasurer, bankers, solicitors, and ferred to Mr. Hayward, a solicitor, as trusother officers of the company, or acting for tee for her, and the draft was accordingly the company, and employ or hire as many prepared, and was perused and approved agents, clerks, and servants as the business of by Messrs. Finch and Shepheard, the mortthe company shall from time to time require, and subject to the provisions of this Act, im- gagees' solicitors. After the deed had been pose on them respectively such duties, and executed, Messrs. Finch sent their bill of give them respectively such powers and authorities legally tenable by them respectively, as the executive council shall think fit and circumstances shall require, and allow and pay to them respectively, and also to all agents to be appointed as hereinbefore provided, out of the company's funds, such respective salaries, wages, and remuneration as the executive council shall think fit, and dismiss or remove at pleasure as well all such persons presently appointed, employed, or hired, as those hereafter to be appointed, employed, or hired, and appoint, employ, or hire others in their stead; and all such persons on dismissal shall forth. with and without the necessity for any legal application deliver up to the executive council, or to the appointed agent of such council, all and documents then in their hands repapers lating to the business in which they have been employed, and shall in like manner, within a reasonable time to be fixed by the council, deliver up all property held by them in virtue of their employment; and for neglect thereof the company may proceed against such person before any Court or Judge in term or vacation by summary process in the nature of an attachment. 35. The executive council may appoint any number of persons in any city or town in the United Kingdom, or elsewhere in her Majesty's dominions, to be a local committee or board of management, with such powers (being powers legally conferable) as the executive council may from time to time confer on them, and the executive council may remunerate or remove at pleasure all or any of the members of such local committee or board. SERVICE OF PROCESS. costs, amounting to 187. 14s. 2d., to Mr. Lord Justice Turner said : "It is to be observed in the first place, that no case is made by this petition for the purpose of showing that the mortgagees were not entitled to the six months' interest in lieu of notice, which was claimed by Mr. Shepheard, or that they were bound to transfer to Mr. Hayward upon any other terms; and the petitioner, by the payment of the small amount of costs which is in question, has had at least the benefit of this right on the part of the mortgagees not being insisted upon. If she had not paid the 87. 14s., this right might have been insisted upon, and for all that appears on this petition have been maintained by the mortgagees. The case, therefore, in this respect is by no means favourable to the petition. By 37. The costs of obtaining this Act and pre-payment of the bill, she has secured to herself paratory and incidental thereto shall be paid by the company. 36. Any summons or notice, or any writ or other proceeding at Law or in Equity, relating to any matter or property arising or situate in any part of her Majesty's dominions abroad, for which an official executor shall have been appointed by the company, may be served by the same being given personally to such official executor. LAW OF ATTORNEYS AND TAXATION OF BILL OF COSTS OF MORT- IN December, 1852, Mrs. Barton, who was entitled to a leasehold estate subject to a mortgage, was desirous of having it trans a benefit at the expense of the mortgagees, and she is now endeavouring to undo the payment by means of which she acquired the benefit. "It is further to be observed, that this petition and the affidavits by which it is supported, are most guardedly prepared. It does not appear either from the petition or from the affidavits what was the objection taken by Mr. Hayward's clerk to the bill of costs, upon the 20th of December. From what does appear, I strongly suspect that his objection was, not that the costs in question were not due from the petitioner, or that the charges were unrea Law of Attorneys and Solicitors.-Kingston-upon-Hull Sessions. 195 sonable, but that they were not costs which acts. Does not the necessity continue urgent? the petitioner was bound to pay upon the I have here a heavy calendar again before me; transfer of the mortgage; and if this was the and a letter which I received from the governor objection, it was clearly wrong, as the mort- of the gaol, shortly before I left London, in gage was to be transferred in trust for the pe- answer to inquiries of mine, as to the state of titioner. What pretence was there for taking the the gaol, ends with this melancholy and afflictdeeds out of the hands of these solicitors, leav- ing sentence :ing any costs which were due to them by the petitioner unpaid? "It is a lamentable fact, that the juveniles under 17 years of age have increased to nearly double the average number during the last five months! Indeed, there are two only 11 years of age?' "If it had been necessary to decide this case upon either of these points, I should have hesitated long before making an order for taxation, but there is another point in the case, which ap- "If no steps have been taken in the borough pears to me to be decisive against the petitioner. towards meeting the advance of the Legislature Special circumstances are always necessary to in the last session, I can but express deep confound an order for the taxation of a bill after cern, and earnestly echo the recently uttered payment, and it has been held, and in my language of Lord Brougham-the most illus opinion most properly held, in all the cases, trious law reformer of his age, and ever foremost that whatever other special circumstances may in anything calculated to advance the higher be required to ground the order for taxation after payment, there must at least be proof that there are overcharges in the bill, whether amounting to fraud or not is not material to the present case. Now the allegation of this petition (and the affidavits in support of the petition follow the allegation) is simply this, that the items and charges which are complained of are not such as the petitioner was bound to pay upon the transfer of the mortgage, not that the business to which the items refer was not done, or that if done, the charges for it were unreasonable; and, so far from there being any proof of these essential circumstances, there is evidence, in opposition to the petition, that if a detailed bill had been made out, the charges would have exceeded the amount of the item particularly complained of. "In this state of circumstances, I think it was the clear duty of the Court to refuse the order for taxation, and that this petition of appeal must therefore be dismissed.' In re Finch and another, exparte Barton, 4 De Gex, M'N. & G. 108. KINGSTON-UPON-HULL SESSIONS. JUVENILE OFFENDERS. interests of society-I hope and trust,' he says, 'that the war will not, among its other evils, occasion obstruction in either countryFrance or England-to any of those great plans of benevolence-let me rather say, beneficence.' He was writing on the subject of reformatory schools. My excellent friend the Recorder of London, in his last charge to the grand jury, took occasion to express regrets similar to mine on this occasion, that the great county of Middlesex had not come forward, as I am now imploring you to come forward, to arrest the foul torrent of juvenile crime; and at the late Winter Assize for this county, I am assured by those who were present, Mr. Baron Alderson delivered an eloquent, a most impressive and awakening charge to the grand jury, on the all important topic which I am now urging again upon your attention. I believe that every gentleman whom I am now addressing, is listening, in an enlightened and considerate spirit, to what I am now too feebly saying, and also feels that public duty is knocking loudly at the door of his heart and conscience. Gentlemen, in the course of my legal readings, a few days ago, I suddenly stumbled on a very affecting and remarkable passage, which I had REFORMATORY never seen before, in one of the writings of him whom we lawyers call our great master, Lord Coke. Writing two centuries ago, he concluded his last great Institute,' with the words, 'Blessed be the amending hand!' which he addressed to the wise-hearted and expert builders of the laws, to amend both the method or ON Thursday the 28th December, the usual forms of the Christmas Quarter Sessions having been gone through, Mr. Warren, Q. C., the Recorder of the Borough, charged the Grand Jury as follows: uniformity of them, and the structure itself, wherein they shall find either want of windows, or sufficient lights, or other deficiencies in the architecture whatsoever.' But the passage to which I more particularly refer, occurs in the epilogue to his 'Third Institute;' and it does eternal honour to the memory of that mighty lawyer. "Gentlemen of the Grand Jury,-Ever since I last sat here, I have been longing to see in your weekly organs of intelligence an announcement that a beginning had been made in good earnest-one worthy of this popular and important borough-to establish reforma"Justice,' he says, is justice severely tory schools for juvenile criminals. But I have looked in vain. Nevertheless, I believe that punishing, and justice truly preventing. True there is a noble Christian feeling here on the it is, that we have found by woful experience, subject-a true and high philanthropy, not that it is not frequent and often punishment evaporating in words, but manifesting it by that doth prevent like offence! Those offences 196 Kingston-upon-Hull Sessions-The Recorder's Charge. are often committed, that are often punished: for the frequency of the punishment makes it so familiar, as it is not feared. For example: what a lamentable case it is to see so many Christian men and women strangled on that cursed tree of the gallows; inasmuch as, if in a large field, a man might see together all the Christians that but in one year, throughout England, came to that untimely and ignominious death-if there were any sparks of grace, or charity in him, it would make his heart to bleed for pity and compassion! But here I leave to divines, to instruct the inward man: who, being well instructed, the outward man will be the easier reformed. “This preventing justice consisteth in three things-First, in the good education of youth, and that both by good instruction of them in the grounds of the true religion of Almighty God, and by learning them knowledge of trade, in their tender years, so as there should not be an idle person, or a beggar, but that every child, male or female, whose parents are poor, might, at the age of seven years, earn their own living: -and this, for the time to come, would undoubtedly, by preventing justice, avoid idleness in all (one of the foul and fatal channels that lead into the very Dead Sea) and by honest trades, cause them to become good members in the commonwealth. Secondly, preventing justice consisteth in the execution of good laws. True it is there be good laws already to punish idleness, but none of sufficient force or effect to set youth, or the idle, on work. Thirdly, that forasmuch as many do offend in the hope of pardon, that pardon be very rarely granted. "But the consideration of this preventing justice were worthy of the wisdom of a Parliament; and in the meantime, expert and wise men to make preparation for the same. Blessed shall he be that layeth the first stone of this building; more blessed that proceeds in it: most of all that finisheth it to the glory of God and the honour of our king and nation.' "Gentlemen, these are grains of gold-the pure ore of philanthropy-dug out of the old ragged black letter, and I commend them to your reflections. The first stone of the building has been laid in Parliament; let us now, in Lord Coke's language, uttered 200 years ago, proceed in it, and finish it, to the glory of God and the honour of our Queen and nation. Let it not be recorded that the Parliament relied on our voluntary co-operation in vain, and were at length obliged to have recourse to compulsory action. "And now let us hear a commentary on this touching passage of old Lord Coke, by a pious and humane chaplain of 1854-the chaplain of our gaol, in his report to the magistrates this day : 66 6 It is painful, again, to mention the great number of juveniles, that from month to month are committed to prison. Since the 1st January last, the number has been 133, of whom 37 have been committed since my last report. The greater part of these youths come to me on the Sunday morning for an hour before religious instruction. About a month ago I chapel time, to read the Scriptures and receive had 23 on Sunday morning for this purpose; and, from inquiry, I found that only eight of them had not been in gaol before; seven had been in once, one three times, one four times, and one 16 times. Seven of them were not able to read, and knew little more than the Lord's Prayer, and some of them could not repeat even that correctly. Many of those who have been to schools do not keep up the ability to read and write, and their attendance at a place of worship on a Sunday is a thing of rare occurrence. They thus lose their knowledge of religious phraseology, as well as of religion itself, and are easily led to think that the knowledge of the commands of God, as contained in the Bible, is not necessary to their present or future welfare; and to this is, I think, to be traced, in a great measure, their present reckless conduct.' mournful but awakening commentary on Lord This, I repeat, is your worthy chaplain's Coke. Gentlemen, I venture to throw out for the consideration of the authorities of this borough, and of all interested in its welfare, whether they have not admirable facilities and opportunities for establishing a maritime school, for the hitherto neglected classes, such as I believe exists in Germany, if not also elsewhere on the tion is attended with the very best effects. At continent. There, I believe, such an institua place 20 or 30 miles from the sea, they have an establishment for teaching poor boys, chiefly by means of a great model of a ship (as in the Royal Naval School at Greenwich), the elementary and practical duties of seamenship, as well as a little other useful knowledge; so that when old enough to go to sea, they are sufficiently trained and competent to undertake regular ship duty, and escape being cabin-boys. Now, if this humane and wise system can be so successfully used so far inland, what are not your facilities? How easy it would be to make a beginning here, and gradually excite an esprit de corps and emulation among the boys, which would soon reach their parents and friends; and how delightful to the feelings of the gentry of Hull to find the maritime school increasing in numbers as the cells of the prison become proportionately untenanted! What facilities exist for training hardy young sailors, in your very presence, to handle ropes and climb the rigging, instead of picking oakum and treading the dreary and degrading treadmill! Why not Kingston-upon-Hull Sessions-The Recorder's Charge. 66 197 make a reformatory beginning here? It would be done must, however, be left to the discre- "Gentlemen, there is another subject to which I must briefly refer, in connexion with something which has occurred here since the last session, and relating to the administration of justice here. I was deeply concerned to be informed that one or two gentlemen have expressed anxiety that criminal cases here should be disposed of a great deal more rapidly than I think is consistent with the due administration of justice. If I am correctly informed, some one spoke with admiration of having seen a man tried, convicted, and sentenced to transportation, all in 10 minutes!' and another said the Recorder could prevent the sessions being lengthened, by keeping counsel to the point and getting through a case in three minutes.' 6 "Gentlemen, when I took my seat first in this chair, I stated, quoting language with which I would hope we are all familiar, that I would uniformly strive truly and indifferently to minister justice, to the punishment of wickedness and vice, and to the maintenance of true religion and virtue.' This cannot be done but with gravity, circumspection, and deliberation; and all I shall think fit to say here on this subject is, that if you will go to your prison, when these sessions are over, I do not think you will find a prisoner there who will not freely own that he or she has been fairly and patiently tried. Some of those with whom I have been forced to deal most severely have said as much to myself often, when afterwards visiting them in gaol, and to others, who can testify it; and I can conscientiously say that no man, woman, or child-alas that I should have to say child-ever stands at that Bar whom it is not my humble endeavour to try as fairly, and look into his case as thoroughly, as I would desire to be done in my own case as if, unfortunately, our positions were reversed. What irreparable injustice may be done in the three minutes in which it is imagined a person may be tried, convicted, and consigned to infamy and agony in a foreign land during a long period of his life! No, gentlemen, as long as I sit here, with God's blessing, I will hold the scales of justice calmly and steadily, and watch the inclination of them towards guilt, or innocence, with unfaltering steadfastness and deliberation. For rough and ready justice, as it is called, I always entertained, and do entertain, a horror. And as for my interfering with a prisoner's counsel, I cannot do so. from interrupting a gentleman to whom an My heart recoils unhappy prisoner has intrusted his character and liberty, and who has a most anxious duty to perform. The length at which this shall business of this borough is much increasing, and I am, and always have been, delighted to Gentlemen, both the criminal and civil do everything in my power to despatch both as quickly, but also as satisfactorily, as possible. My distinguised predecessor here, Mr. 1831. The population was then 53,744. In the year 1833, the average number of criminal Justice Cresswell, was appointed recorder in cases at each sessions was 29, with three appeals. In the year 1832, the civil business consisted of four cases for trial, and two writs of inquiry, in the whole year. the population was increased by upwards of 30,000-that is, it was, 84,690. The average "Now, I was appointed in 1851; and then number of criminal cases for last year, each sessions, was 47, with one appeal; and in the same year there were 13 civil causes tried, and one writ of inquiry. Thus you see, gentlemen, that as the population has greatly increased, so has the criminal and civil business of the sessions; and, moreover, many of each class many witnesses, and require that attention which I am resolved they shall alwasy have, as of cases are of difficulty and importance, with far as I am concerned. mention to you that in order to obviate as recently read before the town council, that. I |