according to the intention of the testators, they have had the great satisfaction to state, that very shortly after their inquiries took place, Vestries were called for the express purpose of taking their suggestions into consideration, when the Parishioners unanimously entered into several Resolutions, by which, they hope, a correct distribution of those Charities will be secured for the future.2

* Rep. iv. p. 112.-Rep. v. p. 154.—Rep. viii. p. 84. —Rep. xi. p. 483.—Rep. xiv. p. 476.

COURT OF EQUITY.

In the year 1819, when it was thought expedient that the provisions of the Act, under which The Commissioners were first appointed, should be extended to other Charities and Trusts created for Charitable uses or purposes,—it was at the same time deemed expedient by the Legislature, that additional facilities should be afforded for applications to the Courts of Equity regarding the management of Estates or Funds appropriated to Charitable purposes. And an Act of the 59° Geo. III. c. 91., received the Royal Assent on the 12th of July, 1819,-by which it is ordained, that if any Case shall arise in which it shall appear to The Commissioners, that the directions of a Court of Equity are requisite, they may certify the particulars thereof to His Majesty's Attorney General, who, if he shall so think fit, may apply to or commence a Suit in

The High Court of Chancery, or The Court of Exchequer, praying such relief as the nature of the Case may require.

In pursuance of this authority ONE HUNDRED CASES have been submitted to the consideration of His Majesty's Attorney General.

It is, however, proper to remark, that all these Cases do not absolutely certify abuse or misconduct, but occasionally require only the directions of The Court, in what manner The Trustees shall in future deal with the Charitable Funds under their care.

SUBSIDIES, AND FIFTEENTHS.

1

THE Taxes, which are raised upon the Subject, according to Judge BLACKSTONE, are either annual or perpetual. The usual annual Taxes are those upon Land and Malt.

The Land Tax, in it's modern shape, has superseded all the former methods of rating either property or persons in respect of their property, whether by Tenths or Fifteenths, Subsidies on Land, Hydages, Scutages, or Talliages,—a short explication of which will, however, greatly assist us in understanding our antient Laws and History.

Tenths, and Fifteenths, were temporary aids issuing out of personal property, and granted to the King by Parliament. They were formerly the real Tenth or Fifteenth part of all the moveables belonging to the Subject; when such moveables, or per

' Commentaries, edited by Archbold, vol. i. p. 308.

sonal estates, were a very different and a much less considerable thing than what they usually are at this day. Tenths are said to have been first granted under HENRY the Second, who took advantage of the fashionable zeal for Croisades to introduce this new taxation, in order to defray the expense of a pious expedition to Palestine, which he really or seemingly had projected against SALADINE, Emperor of the Saracens. But, afterwards, Fifteenths were more usually granted than Tenths. Originally the amount of these Taxes was uncertain, being levied by Assessments new made at every fresh grant of the Commons, a Commission for which is preserved by MATTHEW PARIS: but it was at length reduced to a certainty in the eighth year of EDWARD the Third, when, by virtue of the King's Commission, new Taxations were made of every Township, Borough, and City in the Kingdom, and recorded in the Exchequer; which Rate was, at the time, the Fifteenth part of the value of every Township, the