estates and funds,-and the said Commissioners or any three of them should, once in each half year during the continuance of the Commission, report and certify, in writing under their hands and seals, to The King's Most Excellent Majesty, and to both Houses of Parliament, their proceedings, touching the amount, nature, management, application, and appropriation of such of the aforesaid estates and funds as they should have inquired and examined into, and also what was the nature of such estates and funds respectively, and the actual annual produce thereof, and what was the actual annual value thereof, and in whose possession as Tenants thereof any part thereof consisting of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, should be,adding, at the same time, such observations as should occur to them respecting such mode as they should deem most effectual for the recovering of such part or parts of such estates or funds as should appear to them to have been applied in breach of the several trusts created in

respect of the same, or should appear to have been omitted to be applied in pursuance of such trusts, and subjoining such suggestions as might seem to them expedient respecting the most effectual mode of securing such estates and funds, and their respective produce, against any future misapplication thereof.

It was further enacted, that if, upon such Inquiry, it should appear to The Commissioners that from any cause whatsoever it had become impossible to apply the estates or funds, or any part thereof, to the purposes to which the same were destined or directed to be applied, they should report the special circumstances of each Case.

And The Commissioners, previously to entering upon the execution of the Act, were to take an Oath before The Chancellor of the Exchequer or The Master of the Rolls, that they "will faithfully, impartially, and truly execute the several powers and trusts vested in them," according to the best of their skill and knowledge.

In conformity with this Act, a CoмMISSION under the Great Seal was issued by HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE REGENT, in the name and on the behalf of HIS MAJESTY, dated the 20th of August, 1818, by which the following Gentlemen and Prelates were named and appointed THE COMMISSIONERS to execute the same,-viz.,

The

Right Hon. CHARLES MANNERS SUTTON, Speaker of The House of Com

mons.

The Right Rev. JOHN Lord Bishop of St. ASAPH.

The Right Rev. JOHN Lord Bishop of PETERBOROUGH, dead.

The Right Hon. Sir WILLIAM SCOTT, Knt. The Right Hon. CHARLES YORKE.

The Right Hon. Sir WILLIAM GRANT,
Knt.

JOHN WILLING WARREN, Esq.
HENRY HUGH HOLBECH, Esq.

WILLIAM GRANT, Esq.

WILLIAM ROBERTS, Esq.

WILKINSON MATHEWS, ESQ.

ROBERT MARSHAM, Esq.

JAMES MCMAHON, Esq.

The Hon. DANIEL FINCH.

Under this Commission two Reports were made, which comprise the investigation of all the Charities for Education in the Counties of Berks, Kent, and Sussex,—with the exception only of two parishes in Berkshire, and of five in Sussex, the Reports of which were deferred, as The Commissioners were in want of some further information concerning them. They had also examined into several Charitable Institutions in the Cities of London and Westminster, and the neighbourhood, to which places they had latterly chiefly confined their Inquiries, deeming it adviseable not to commence any investigation in a distant District during the pendency of a proposition to extend the objects of The Commission, and which, if carried into effect, might make it necessary to visit the same places a second time.

On the 29th of May, 1819, the measure which was thus contemplated, was introduced into Parliament by a Bill, intituled, "A Bill to amend an Act of the last Session of Parliament, for appointing Commissioners to inquire concerning Charities in ENGLAND for the Education of the Poor; and to extend the Powers thereof to other Charities in ENGLAND and WALES." 10

By this Act, which received the Royal assent on the 6th of July, 1819, 59° Geo. III. cap. 81., the powers of The Commissioners were extended, and their numbers were increased from FOURTEEN to TWENTY.

And, on the 16th of July, 1819, HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE REGENT directed a new COMMISSION, under the

10 It was to continue in force until the 1st. of August, 1823, and from thence until the end of the then next Session of Parliament. And, on the 9th of June,

1824, the Royal Assent was given to "An Act to continue for four years, and from thence until the end of the then next Session of Parliament, the powers of The Commissioners,"-5° Geo. IV. cap. 58.