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suitable Ministers to promulgate the blessings of the Protestant Faith.

The many and wise acts of Liberality as extended to Schools, must claim the most unqualified approbation,—and those Benefactors must be considered to have been persons of no common minds, who showed the first example of devoting the profits of Trade to the advancement of Learning,for it is a mistaken notion to suppose, that Schools were established solely out of the spoils of Monastic possessions.

Among those honourable Merchants who seem to have considered wealth, only as the means of testifying their affection for the good of the Publick, may be mentioned JOHN NORBURY, JOHN HENDE, and RICHARD WHITTINGTON, for the great works which they erected for the use and ornament of the City of London. But WILLIAM CANNYNGE, who was five times Mayor of Bristol, and a liberal Benefactor to that City, seems to have been the greatest English merchant of that period. EDWARD the Fourth took from him at

once (for some misdemeanour in trade) 2470 tons of shipping,-amongst which there was one ship of 900 tons, one of 500, and one of 400, the rest being of smaller burden. We are not informed of what the misdemeanour of Mr. CANNYNGE consisted, but it is most probable, that there was nothing dishonourable in it, as this anecdote is inscribed upon his Tomb. Mr. CANNYNGE is the Gentleman in

whose " cofre" those manuscripts were asserted by CHATTERTON to have been discovered, from which he constructed that system of Imposture which has rendered his name celebrated, and his history interesting.

The manner in which these venerable abodes of Learning are upholden, will always be interesting to the Scholar,and, according as they are well or ill conducted, will excite either censure or applause.

VOLUNTARY AND CASUAL CONTRIBU

TIONS.

As The Commissioners conceived the objects of Investigation prescribed to them by His Majesty's Commission, to be only such Charities as are possessed of Funds of a permanent nature, they did not think it within their province to extend their Inquiries to Schools supported entirely by Voluntary and Casual Contributions. Where they have met with Schools maintained partly by such Contributions, and partly by Funds of a permanent nature, they have always pursued their examination, so far as was necessary to ascertain the description, management, and application of the latter.1

SUSPENDED.

A remarkable instance occurs in the Suspension of PALMER'S School, in Tot

1 Introduc. Rep. vol. i. p. 4.

hill Fields. From an examination made into the Minutes of The Governors, from the first foundation of the Charity, by their Clerk, and embodied by him in a Report made to them on the 5th of September 1816, it appears that 20 children, as prescribed by Mr. PALMER, had been educated previous to the year 1728, but none from that period until 1817.

In explanation of this Suspension for so long a period as Eighty-nine years, it appears from the Minutes of The Governors, as given in the Report of their Clerk, that the property was not sufficient even for the support of the 12 poor almspeople, for whose maintenance the rents were in the first instance to be applied,and the buildings having fallen into decay, it was absolutely necessary to rebuild them, and savings were accordingly suffered to accumulate for that purpose.2

The Commissioners have looked with some degree of jealousy into the manage* Rep. 1. p. 181.

2

ment of SHELTON's Charity School, in St. Giles's in the Fields, which appears to have been also suspended for a period of Fifty-three years. But they find, that during that time the accounts were regularly audited every year, and the accruing income added to the accumulated capital, -nor does it seem that the period of Suspension could have been materially abridged, without running the risk of the Charity being put into activity with funds inadequate to the full accomplishment of it's objects.3

REVIVED.

The Free School at North Allerton formerly enjoyed reputation as a Grammar School, and was well attended by children from that Town and the neighbourhood, —but, during the late Master's time, in consequence of the decline in the demand for Classical education, the teaching of Latin was discontinued, and the School * Rep. 11. p. 92.

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