The Constitution

The

for returns with reference to the management with certain recognized territorial divisions, such perties, on behalf of the parishioners, even to the of the late election of guardians for this as Parishes, cities, and boroughs. extent, as a case remains recorded of a decision in union." Management of the election! What! That, from the characteristic distinctions thus the year 1410, of bringing their action against the is it necessary, then, that the elections should named, follows this other, and, in reference to the incumbent of the parish. The reason itself assigned be managed, in order for things to be made Bill now before your Right Honourable House, most for the rule above alluded to, is a trivial and inimportant one-that the administration of the consistent one; which, if sound as to any kind of thus pleasant between Boards of Guardians former class is, of necessity, in the hands of Trus- property, must be sound as to all; and which is in and Poor-law Inspectors? It cannot be that tees or Governors practically independent and irre- reality particularly applicable, if at all, to the freManchester, the home of Free Trade,-which sponsible; while the administration of the latter quent case of failure of trustees; namely, that, if sends two Radicals to Parliament, should class is, or always ought to be, responsible to, and the estate in lands were vested in the churchwarever be the scene of "managed" elections. subject to the control and direction of, constitution- dens, ex officio, the use would be in abeyance at the The production of the Returns for which Mr. ally recognized public bodies. time of the election of new churchwardens. Abel Heywood moved, will of course be That the sound mode of dealing with these two triviality and unsoundness of this reason, and of eagerly granted. These will, self-evidently, be classes would seem therefore to be, to constitute a the whole origin and application of the technical the test of whether the late election of Guar-body which shall be recognized as one to which the rule above alluded to, have been, in fact, admitted dians witnessed any management. The readi- former class shall, on behalf of the public, be con- both by the courts and by Parliament; inasmuch ness to vote these returns will be the best tinually responsible; but, as to the latter class, to as the courts of law recognize a custom in the proof that the Board of Guardians, as a body secure that the responsibility which does or ought parishes within the city of London, and some elseto exist to already constitutionally recognized bo- where, for such ex officio vesting, and the statute of and as individuals, is conscious that the im- dies, shall be invariable and unquestionable and the 59th year of King George the Third, cap. 12, putation is unfounded. The motion was of thoroughly carried out. expressly enacts that the buildings, lands, tenecourse, in fact, immediately assented to by That, while the Bill now before your Right ments, and hereditaments therein mentioned, "and acclamation. It is clear that it must be a Honourable House appears well and wisely adapted, also all others," may and shall be held by the mistake, a singular, we fear indeed a ma- in many respects, for the attainment of the former churchwardens and overseers (which latter, like licious, blunder,-when we find it stated, in object (though this must, from the nature of the churchwardens, are the subject of annual appointthe Manchester paper that records the proment) "in the nature of a body corporate, and on ceedings, that Mr. Heywood's motion could behalf of the parish.' The mischiefs arising from not even find a seconder! the operation of the artificial and technical rule above mentioned have been, indeed, so strongly felt, that Lord Tenterden, in a judgment on the point as to what foundations or charitable endowments the last-named Act extends to, after alluding to some of the difficulties that exist alike in every case, expressly adds that he "can see no reason to doubt that the operation of the Act was intended to be co-extensive with the mischief." More recent decisions of the courts of law have, however, unfortunately narrowed this interpretation of that Act: consequently the mischief remains, up to this time, in full operation.

The Parish.

CHARITABLE TRUSTS BILL. ABROGATION OF THE RESPONSIBILITY OF TRUSTEES,

AND OF THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF VESTRIES.

THE following Petition, which was presented to the House of Lords, by the Lord Chancellor, on the 17th June, is commended to careful perusal. It shows what the necessary operation of the proposed Charitable Trusts Bill will be, and how deeply interested every parish in England is in the questions involved. The matter is one in which every inan, who either respects the action of institutions of local self-government, or holds responsible government as more safe and wholesome than irresponsibility, is bound to bestir himself. The Bill passed the third reading, in the House of Lords, on the 27th June :

case, be always less completely attainable than the
latter), it seems calculated to weaken and unsettle,
instead of to make more certain, the attainment of
the latter.

That the proof of this last allegation will be
found in the very circumstances themselves which
have led to the fact of the abuse of many parish
charitable foundations.

That in every parish in England there exist Churchwardens, annually elected by the parishioners; acknowledged by the law as the legal representatives of the parish; who are responsible to the periodical public meetings in vestry of the parish for their proceedings and accounts; and who can do no act, in relation to any property of the parish, without the previous cognizance, deliberation, and assent of the vestry of the parish. Owing, however, to a purely artificial and technical rule, laid down by some old decisions of the courts of law, it is held charitable foundations of the second class above that the legal estate in the greater part of the named, and the power of suing and being sued in respect thereof, are not vested in the churchwardens ex oficio; and the habit has, therefore, grown up To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and estate; who, however, when once appointed and of appointing trustees for maintaining the legal Temporal, in Parliament assembled. having the legal estate vested in them, cannot be The Petition of TOULMIN SMITH, of High-removed except by what is (and, whether this Bill gate, in the parish of Hornsey, in the county pass or not, must remain) an invidious and riskful of Middlesex, esquire. process. Though the real position of such trustees of course is, and ought always to be felt and insisted upon as, that of bare trustees for maintaining the legal estate in the foundation for the benefit of the parish, (precisely as in the case of the use fully proposed trustee in section xlviii. of this Bill) they become thus enabled to obstruct and thwart the action of those public bodies to whom the property, and the direction of the administration of its proceeds, actually and of right belong; and it sometimes happens that, wrongfully availing them selves of this opportunity, they take upon themselves, in violation of every duty and principle, to assume an independent and practically irresponsible position. Hence have arisen almost all, if not all, the instances of perversion, waste, or non-improvement of parish charities.

Humbly sheweth:

That a Bill has lately been introduced into your Right Honourable House, intituled "An Act for

the better administration of Charitable Trusts." That the intention with which that Bill has been introduced is, as your petitioner believes, a most wholesome, politic, and wise one; but it appears to your petitioner that the accomplishment of that intention cannot be attained, but will on the contrary be frustrated, by the said Bill, as to a very large part of the charitable foundations brought within its purview.

That the said Bill embraces all foundations that are included within the words or interpretation of the Act of the 43rd year of Queen Elizabeth, cap. 4. But the provisions of the last-named Act are such that all charitable foundations, of whatever kind, might be properly included within it; while the provisions of the present Bill are entirely different from those in character, and, in many respects, antagonistic to them in principle; and are applicable, therefore, to a much less wide range of

cases.

That the charitable foundations in England and Wales may be divided into two classes,-marked by broad characteristic distinctions:-the one class embracing foundations which, though endowed for special purposes, are more or less general in their objects, and are not identified with any of those territorial divisions which are recognized by law; the other being foundations which, while often special but sometimes general in their purposes, are always special in their objects, being identified

That the source of this cumulative and justly complained of evil as to parish charities, thus clearly lies in the legal rule which your petitioner has ventured to call " purely artificial and technical." The fact that this rule is purely artificial and technical, founded upon no real principle, but in reality opposed alike to principle and common reason, appears to be an inevitable deduction from the following among other unquestionable facts :It is expressly admitted in the judgment in that which forms the leading case on this subject, and which was adjudged upon in the 12th year of King Henry the Seventh, that "by common reason" the parishioners are a corporation to certain intents; and it has been admitted, ever since, as well as long before, that the churchwardens may, ex officio, sue and be sued in respect of certain parish pro

That the said Act of 59 Geo. III. cap. 12, expressly and reiteratedly recognizes and enforces the responsibility of the churchwardens and overseers to the vestry of the parish, in respect to all the vesting of which in them "in the nature of a their dealings and transactions as to the property corporation" is, by the same Act, particularly enacted; while the same responsibility is expressly recognized in the cases in which, though the techtions to that rule, as regards certain parish propernical rule above alluded to is laid down, the excepties, are admitted and supported; and a precisely similar responsibility must, as a matter of course, necessarily attach to trustees who are only called into existence in consequence of the operation of that rule.

That it appears, by the facts thus stated, that the recognition of the churchwardens, as those in whom the legal estate in charitable foundations and other parish property shall be, ex officio, vested, and the responsibility of these, for all their dealings and transactions in regard to the same, to the vestry of the parish of which they are the legal representatives, are no new principles; while it appears obvious that the due administration of all parish charitable foundations can only be effectually secured, by the entire abrogation of the above-named technical rule (which has been already shown to be, even now, inconsistent and partial only in its application), and it being enacted that the legal estate in

all such foundations shall be vested in the church

wardens, ex officio, and in them only, subject to such responsibility as before mentioned to those who alone can, from the very nature of the case, ever have the real opportunity of knowing whether charities, endowed for such purposes as are most parish charities, are faithfully and judiciously admi

nistered.

That it is of the highest importance, as to these charities, that the sense of responsibility in the administrators, and the habit and practice of watchful scrutiny in the vestries, should be carefully cherished; the former of which objects can only be secured by requiring the administration of them to take place always under the sanction and direction of the vestries of the parishes to which they relate; while the latter will be greatly promoted by requiring periodical returns, on such points

shall necessitate an habitual faithful attention to
their duties by all parties, to be made from each
parish to some representative of the Crown, or to
such a body as is proposed to be constituted by this
Bill.
That, by the present Bill, however, no respon-
sibility to the vestry for the administration of any
parish properties is enforced; the trustees for
vesting the legal estate are retained, and have ad-
ditional and great facilities, and indeed induce-
ments, given them for the perpetration of wrongful
acts; no available periodical returns are required;
while powers of interference of an uncertain and
arbitrary nature are given to an external body, the
operation of which must necessarily be to lessen
and gradually destroy all independence and faith-
fulness of action in the vestries, and consequently
all real responsibility in their representatives and
officers at the same time fresh uncertainty is in-
troduced on many points, which will necessarily
lead to litigation, destructive to the charities them-
selves that it is intended to protect.

Right Honourable House with embarrassment on it, yet has it already created some evils, and may
the subject of this Bill, on account of its great im- in time occasion much greater mischief. Of which
portance, and the variety of the interests embraced consequences the exemplary Bishop Fell was so
and questions involved in it, but few of which it sensible, that, upon the last vacancy of that chappel,
is possible to notice, and not even those as they de- his Lordship was not easily prevailed on to accept
serve, within the limits of this petition. Your of the popular election, [!] and seemed to assert
petitioner relies, however, with confidence, on the his power and resolution to reform that practice."
wisdom of your Right Honourable House to devise It is highly satisfactory to know that Right and the
such alterations in the said Bill as may help more spirit of the inhabitants were too strong for that
certainly to secure the due administration of cha-" exemplary bishop," and have remained so even
ritable trusts and the more beneficial application of to the present time, the inhabitants having re-
charitable funds in certain cases.
tained and exercised their prerogatives and inde-
pendence undiminished. The wrath of poor Dr.
Kennett was so great against Piddington on this ac-
count, that he grumbles sorely that, when the Church-
wardens of Piddington brought the annual quit-rent
to the Vicar of Ambrosden (of which parish Pid-
dington formed originally a part, and of which
Kennett was vicar) they expected, by old custom,
hospitable entertainment. It is certain," says the
Doctor, with deep pathos, and rising to eloquence
with the occasion, that there was no such con-
dition inserted in the original agreement; and
therefore [it] can be only an abuse crept in by the
confidence of such guests, and by the mistaken
hospitality of some cheerful vicars." Whether
Ambrosden is blest now with a "cheerful vicar,”
or with one of Dr. Kennett's mood, we do not
know. But we rejoice to know, from the present elec-
tion of Incumbent there, that neither bilious Vicars
of Ambrosden nor "exemplary bishops" have, up
to this time, succeeded, by any devices, in depriving
the inhabitants of Piddington of their ancient and
undoubted right and practice of choosing their own
pastor.

Your petitioner therefore prays that such
alterations may be made in the said Bill as
shall vest the full legal title to the property
of all parish charities in the churchwardens
of the respective parishes, er officio; and as
shall secure the full responsibility of such
churchwardens, or of any others in whom
may at any time be vested the legal estate
in any property as trustees for any charity
identified with any parish, to the public
vestry of each respective parish; and as
shall secure to such vestry the full oppor-
tunity of deliberation, and shall require its
special summons for that purpose, and its
assent, as necessary preliminaries to any
proposition or alteration as to the mode of
application, disposition, or appropriation of
the estate, funds, or proceeds of any charity
or foundation which shall have been given
or shall exist for the benefit of the inha-
bitants, or of any persons or class of per-
sons, in any parish in England or Wales;
and as shall maintain and promote the full
and efficient action of all vestries in this be-
half.

And your petitioner will ever pray, etc.
15th June, 1853.

ELECTION OF INCUMBENT BY
PARISHIONERS.

LOCAL ACTS OF PARLIAMENT, AND THE
ACTION OF LOCAL VESTRIES.

As if to show to the world how necessary it is that
such a Journal as the present should exist, in order
to keep men in mind, amid the hurrying and reck-
less novelties of the day, wherein the true essence
of free Institutions lies, there have happened,

That, in proof of these allegations, your petitioner would refer to sections xv., xxiv., xxv., xxvii., etc., which authorize ex parte secret applications by trustees, or even by any individual trustee, to the board constituted by the Bill; and empower the taking action on such ex parte secret applications; and give indemnification to such trustees or trustee at the expense of the charities, even though a judicial decision be afterwards given against the course pursued; and all this without any reference whatever to the parish vestry:- thus altogether overriding that responsibility and authority which have been so long recognized, and which, in the -case of parish charities, it ought, upon every admitted and just principle, to be the first consideration to maintain and render certain; and thus directly opening the door to every abuse and perver. sion. Sections xvi., xviii., xxv., xxxviii., etc., give wide arbitrary powers to the external body constituted by the Bill; thus necessarily depriving all vestries, in the same and even a greater proportion, of the power of independent action and delibera-A CORRESPONDENT, whose communication we are since our last publication, two adjudications, touchtion; and therefore discouraging the disposition to compelled to defer, expresses the wish that "Paing matters of local regulation, made respectively give attention to matters so important to the com- rishioners not only elected the Churchwardens, but mon welfare of the neighbourhood; and thus again, also, as in old times, the Church-minister." We by the highest tribunals in the land;-these two in another but no less sure mode, opening the door are inclined to think that the "old times" thus al- being in diametrical opposition to one another. to abuses and perversions which no central board luded to are a myth. The mode in which English The one decision took place in the House of Lords, can ever control or prevent, though it will thus ne- churches were built and endowed, seems to have cessarily generate them. Section xxv. enumerates led naturally, in the first instance, to a different certain cases wherein the powers of the Bill as to mode of appointment of the minister. And as, in altering the disposition of charities shall be en- old times, the minister never ventured to assume forced; but these are so uncertainly stated that it the pretensions at interfering in parish secular affairs will be impossible to say, in many cases, as your which are now put forth, the mode of appointment petitioner is able to affirm from cases within his own was not of so much importance. But this is clear;knowledge, whether they come within the terms of that, where the circumstances were such as to render the Act or not; and thus litigation will be encou- the choice by the parishioners the obvious matter raged. In other cases the terms of the Bill make of propriety and right, that choice rested with the the maintenance or alteration of the original pur- parishioners. pose of the foundation dependent solely (and quite | Cases of such election of the Incumbent are proirrespective of the opinions or wishes of the vestry bably familiar to every reader. It is worth while of the parish concerned) upon the arbitrary and to mention one instance, that has occurred within variable opinions of the members of the Board con- the last ten days;--which is the more interesting, stituted by the Act. Section liv. requires an annual inasmuch as the long existence of a true ecclesias account of every charity to be delivered to the tical jealousy of the rights of the parishioners as to As has often proved the case on many other clerk of the county court; but, however desirable to this particular incumbency, happens to remain questions, the decision of the House of Lords in such a provision may be (for want of a better place) on record. in cases belonging to the former of the two classes The case we allude to is that of PIDDINGTON in this instance is the one which most regards constitutional Principle, and alone serves to protect free of charities above named, it is obviously delusive Oxfordshire. The last incumbent having lately Institutions against wanton aggression and encroachonly in cases of parish charities; the accounts of died, no less than 155 candidates offered themselves ment. At the same time, we are bound to say which, in order to be delivered in the mode that for the suffrages of the parishioners; a clear proof that the actual course pursued by the Lords in this can alone make the delivery of them a reality and that there is felt to be nothing inconsistent with the case, only shows the great importance of a more not a mere form, should be required (as in many gravity and dignity of the clerical profession in pass- thorough understanding by all the public (their parishes they now are) to be delivered in full public ing through the ordeal of a popular election. vestry, and entered on the vestry minute-book. The origin of the right thus exercised by the Lordships included) of the principle and practice inhabitants of parishes to know what is proposed It is found in a deed, dated the 15th Oct. 1428; sisters, or adjudicators,-what actually took place, Sections xxvi. and xli. recognize the right of the parishioners of Piddington remains fully on record. of English Local Institutions. Had this existed in the case of Broughton,-whether in promoters, reto be done in reference to the property which be- which expressly reserves the right of nomination with all its inconsistency, attendant cost, mutual longs to them as parishioners (thus affirming the and election of the incumbent to the "inhabitants responsibility of trustees and others to them); but and their successors*." Dr. Kennett, author of disappointment, and lasting ill-will, never could this is done in so imperfect a manner that the pro-Parochial Antiquities,' who wrote in 1695, looked have happened. On the other hand, had the real visions will only be applicable in certain cases, and with no friendly eye upon this exercise of the de- point of the case been well understood by those most deeply interested in the Sheffield case; and had they do not enact the requirement (without which liberative voice by the inhabitants in this matter. their counsel either themselves understood, or been the mere previous notice will be a useless form) of "Though," he says, "they still retain and practise made to comprehend, that point, and so to put it the vestry being assembled to deliberate and express an opinion upon the matter n question. That your petitioner cannot but approach your

"Ad ipsorum Inhabitantium proprium arbitrium elieorum successoribus qui erunt perpetuis temporibus." gendum et nominandum atque præficiendum;

on a Bill for the incorporation with the borough of Salford of some neighbouring townships, including that of Broughton. The other decision took place in the Court of Queen's Bench, as to a certain Gas Company that has lately been established in Sheffield, and which carries on its works without going through the cost and routine of getting a private Act of Parliament. The substance (in result) of these decisions may be shortly stated thus:-the House of Lords declares that a Local Act of Parliament may be all very well, but it ought not to be attempted to be got or enforced, unless the consent of those affected can be first shown:-the Court of Queen's Bench declares that the voice of those affected is neither here nor there; it won't help the matter nor hinder it; get your private local Act, notwithstanding it, or in spite of it.

in all its force before the Court; the latter must, of necessity, have either given a judgement the reverse of what, on the facts before them, they did (and

were perhaps bound to do), or have put themselves before the world in the position of attempting to set up, by their own authority, a rule of judgemade law at the same time adverse to the dearest liberties of Englishmen, and in direct antagonism with what Lord Coke and all the highest constitutional authorities have laid down, and which common reason endorses.

within the last few years in different collections The story we allude to is found under the title,
abroad. We consider this as one of the most charm in Mr. Thorpe's volume, of 'Such Women are' (p.
ing volumes that Mr. Bohn has yet put forth in his 328); and its object is to show, humorously, the
valuable series; and we trust it will become the simplicity which sometimes marks the female part
companion of every fireside in England.
of mankind. In the Norwegian, four instances of
The character of the popular tale and legend such simplicity are given in the one story. Our
differs much in different countries. While, in some version is confined to one of these. It is the one
countries, they partake largely of the sensual, and however which is the best in itself, and the fullest
in others of the purely marvellous, the main cha told in the Norwegian; and it seems to us to tell
racteristic of the popular tales of the Northern race, much best thus standing by itself. Our version is
of which our own is one of the branches, is the more full than the Norwegian, and has more
uniform good moral which they point,-whatever thorough humour in it. It bears the marks too of
be the nature or subject of the story. Occasionally, a higher antiquity. It is more poetic in style, and
the story is chiefly one of quiet humour, pointing has that sure mark of antiquity-of parts of the
to simplicity outwitted (as is the case with the story dialogue being in rime. The musical tones in
we shall presently allude to); but even then the which these rimes were repeated (for, like all such,
vein is one of kindliness instead of sharp ridicule, they require a peculiar cadence to give them full
and the listener is made to love the goodness even effect), and the kindly humour with which the
of the one the exhibition of whose simplicity forms whole story was told, were such that, though it is
the humour of the story.
more than a quarter of a century since we last
heard it, we can guarantee the accuracy of all the
incidents of our version, and of the very words of
the greater part at least of the dialogue. There
are one or two lines of the rimes in which we
cannot feel perfect confidence; but of the spirit of
the whole, and of the very words of the greater
part, of these also, we have the most vivid recollec-
tion. With these remarks, and again heartily
commending Mr. Thorpe's volume, we invite the
reader to listen to—

We heartily agree with an opinion expressed by
The Times newspaper of the 17th June, that
Charters and private acts of Parliament are
heavy taxes to pay for that security of associa
tion which is the very life-blood of enterprise and
progress." We regret that the very able writers
in that journal appear (thanks to the progress of
Centralization in England) to have no more prac
tical knowledge of the nature and working of the
fundamental local institutions of this country than,
unhappily, exists elsewhere. Else, such a remark
could not have been made without an immediate
pointing out, or suggestion at least, of the princi- There is another point that must forcibly strike
ple involved, and of the obvious remedy for what is every one familiar with this sort of literature. It
but an existing abuse; an abuse carefully che-is a point of the very highest interest and impor-
rished, like many others, from interested motives.
tance to the philosophical investigation of the dif-
We should not fulfil our duty did we not take ferences of national character. It is a point which
the earliest opportunity of noticing the fact of the helps greatly, when rightly and carefully studied,
above-named cases. It was our intention to have to show the affinities of races, and to trace the
entered, in this number of the "Constitutional," times and manner of connection or influence. We
into a consideration of the principles involved in allude to the circumstance of the numerous in-
the Local Act system, and of the simple remedy, in stances in which the groundwork of a story has a
the authority of the Vestry to act without any such wide-spread existence, as the basis of legends found
extrinsic machinery. The crowded state of our in different countries. The fact is not one of mere
columns prevents this however it must be re- curiosity. It is of far higher interest and impor-
served for our next. We shall then take hold of tance. It will be observed that, though the same
the very grounds of necessity for a Local Act put outline of story exists widely spread, among no
forth by Lord Campbell, in the judgement of the two races are the details the same. Even the very
Count of Queen's Bench on the Sheffield Case; moral of the story may become altered. It be-
and shall show that these very grounds themselves comes, then, of the greatest value to observe the
furnish, really, but arguments against the present differences which stories, having such a common
Local Act of Parliament system, and overwhelm-basis, have taken up in passing through the crucible
ing reasons why every one who desires good go- of the popular mind of different countries. No- to get food or shelter,-for the love of God?" The shep-
vernment, and that scope should be given for thing can afford a greater help to the understand-herd eyed him narrowly, and answered, "There's good-
enterprise and improvement, should earnestly joining of the genius and tone of the several peoples.
in resisting that system, and in practically helping
to assert and carry out the good old constitutional
principle of self-government, by those who alone
can have the full opportunity of knowing the facts
and relations of the case, and who are most inter-
ested in bringing about a good result.

Reviews.

Yule-tide Stories: a collection of Scandinavian and North German Popular Tales and Traditions, from the Swedish, Danish, and German. Edited by BENJAMIN THORPE, H. G. Bohn. (Antiquarian Library.) 1853.

In these utilitarian days of ours, there is a disposition in many to think it beneath their dignity and gravity to honour the Popular Tale with their notice; and the fairy ring and the simple legend are both put aside with a sneer of contemptuous pity. We are of a very different mood. We think that he had the truest knowledge of human nature who said:"Give me the keeping of the popular songs and traditions, and let who will make the laws." It is the popular legend, tale, and tradition, that both best mark the moral tone of the people they are found among, and give the truest picture of their turn of mind, habits, and likings. Those tales and legends sprang from these originally they live because of their natural sympathy with, and constant appeal to, these ; and, in return, they react to the maintenance of these.

To the philosophical inquirer, such tales and traditions are full of interest and instruction; and we have greatly rejoiced that, of late years, some of the most accomplished scholars of Europe have felt it a task worthy of them, to collect and record the old legends and popular tales that yet linger among the people; and which have hitherto been handed down, by tradition only, from generation to generation, even to our time.

The work before us consists of a translation of different sets of such legends and traditions, that have lingered among different branches of the Northern race, and which have been published

We need hardly remind our readers that several works have been published in which this last inquiry has been made a considerable point. Mr. Keightley published, some years ago, a charming volume on the "resemblance and transmission from country to country" of a few such legends. We are very glad to see that, in the volume before us, especially in that part of it to which Mr. Thorpe states that he has given chief attention, this point has been put before the reader with much care.

The stories comprised within this volume are very numerous; indeed, we know no one book of such stories that contains so many. And they are all, with very few exceptions, worth telling in them selves, and well told in English. A little more simplicity of language we could sometimes indeed have desired; for the simplicity with which such stories are told is one great charm necessary to their full effect.

THE STORY OF THE WOMAN WHO HAD TWO
HUSBANDS.

The sun was already going down in the west, when a halfnaked sailor, who had but that morning hardly escaped with his life from a wreck off Whitehaven, and had wandered all day in search of food and shelter, passed slowly and wearily over Crack-skull Common. As he passed on, sad and silent and forlorn, he spied a shepherd tending his flock, and stretched on the slope of a neighbouring hillock, humming to himself a song. Hieing towards him,tell me any farm-house hereabouts, where one might hope "Prithee, good shepherd," said the stranger,

"can you

wife Dobson; she's a heart as soft as buttermilk; but he's
a curmudgeon, I can tell you. She'll do a good turn for
you if she can; but don't let him catch you."
"I'll try my
luck," said the poor fellow; "I haven't tasted a morsel
since day-break, nor rested these three nights past; for we
were tost in the storm three days and nights, till the good
ship went down. But how shall I find the house?"
straight across the common, as far as you can see; then go
down Hangman's Lane, right on your left. When you come
to the gibbet, where the two men hang in chains, turn off to
the right; and a little way on you will see the farm-house,
down in the hollow."

"Go

Hangman's Lane; and, without stopping long to look at the

The sailor went on with a quickened step. He reached two men that hung there, clanking drearily in their chains, he took the turn down to the hollow, and, in an hour's time, he reached the house.

Now it was harvest-time; and the good man was out after his men, eager to make the best use of the bright sunshine that had followed the late fearful storm. But the goodwife stood at the door, watching the golden sun as he was going low down. The stranger reached her before she saw him coming. Addressing her without preface, he began,laying, as a man weary and distressed does, the chief stress upon the last part of his words:-"My good woman, I am come all the way from White Havenven?" cried the woman, interrupting his words,-startled at the sudden apparition, and having caught only the last part of the name;-"From Heaven, did you say?" The poor fellow's wits were sharpened by nakedness and hunger; quickly answered, in a more solemn tone, "Yes, my good so, thinking Heaven had indeed helped him in his need, he woman, from Heaven."

"From Hea

"Oh yes, indeed; I knew him well," was the ready reply. "And how does he fare in heaven? I hope he fares well. He was always used to have things easy and comfortable, while he was here," said the good-wife.

As we have read them over, we have carefully sought for any that have their parallel among the popular tales familiar with ourselves. While we have met with some of these, we have been more struck than with anything else at meeting with a legend of Norway,-first published it would seem "And did you ever see there my poor dear late husband, in Norwegian in 1850,-which has a parallel, re-good-wife, as she wiped a tear from her eye with the corner John Cook ?-I'm sure he must be in heaven;" added the markably close, in an old story that we remember of her apron; "for he was as good and kind a creature as to have heard, in the days of our childhood, ever lived.". from the lips of one very dear to us, and now departed; but which story we never heard, or heard of, elsewhere; and to which no allusion is made in this volume as existing elsewhere in legend or tradition. This seems to be a fact worth recording; and we shall accordingly take leave to offer to our readers the English version of the story, as it is im- "You don't say so!" cried the poor woman, in a tone of printed upon our memory. It is the case with Cook. But can't I help him? Can't I do anything for deep distress. "Oh! my poor dear late husband, John this, as with so many, and necessarily the most cha-him?--Could you take anything to him, to make him more racteristic, of these parallel stories, that, wherever comfortable?" she added, after a slight pause, looking imthey are found, they are found localized. Now it ploringly at the sailor. may be Norway, now England. In each, the story" but I cannot stop here long. I must away." "Well, perhaps I could," said the sailor, hesitatingly; will have its local habitation, and bear all the "Only step in," answered the good-wife, with alacrity. marks of genuine nativity. So strongly indeed do "While I am getting some things ready to send him, sit these characteristics mark the story before us, that down and eat some supper;-for you look, yourself, as if you had gone far and hungry to-day; and I'll have the black we were quite startled when we first met with it mare saddled, so that you shall lose no time." among Norwegian legends..

"I'm sorry to tell you," answered the sailor, with a very long face, "that he fares but badly. Indeed, he is obliged to drive a water-cart about the streets of Heaven, to get his living."

So she called her maid, and bade her set the best of

Half an hour had not passed; but it was already growing dusk, and the shepherd was just whistling to his dog, and about to drive his flock home, when Goodman Dobson came hurrying along, with all the speed he could, angry, hot, and blowing. Spying the shepherd, he hastily stopped, and thus addressed him :-

everything there was in the house before the stranger, and "Can't do better," replied the stranger; and, waving his
draw him the best draught of ale; and she called the stable-hand, he was out of sight in a moment.
boy, and bade him saddle the black mare; and she herself
went upstairs, and, with many a tear dropping the while,
she looked over the wardrobe of her poor dear late husband
John Cook. She took the best coat and breeches, and the
top-coat that he used to wear, and her present husband's
Best pair of boots. And she opened the strong box, and
filled a leathern purse full of golden guineas. When this
was done, she hurried down to her guest, who had just
finished his repast. She gave him the coat and the breeches
and the top-coat, and the pair of boots, and the purse; and
bade him not delay, but carry these to her dear late husband
John Cook, and tell him how she yet loved him and thought
of him; and how she grieved to hear to what a state he
was reduced; and how she had sent him these things to
make him easy and comfortable, so that he might not any

"Prithee, good shepherd, hast thou seen
A lonely traveller this way winding,
With twisted hair, on a long-tailed mare?
I think I can't lag far behind him."
"Oh yes,-'twas now he passed before me,-
And the vision I can ne'er forget,-
For the man and the mare, rose up into the air.
I see them yet: I see them yet."

Correspondence.

THE ABASEMENT OF POOR LAW GUAR
DIANS BY THE FUNCTIONARY SYSTEM.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL.
SIR, Some months ago I endeavoured to show
the evils which would follow an attempt to force
on the Guardians the carrying out of the Poor Law
Board's prohibitory order in the rural manufactur
ing unions. The Board have persisted in such
attempts; and what is the actual consequence
That the office of Guardian has lost the last rem-

longer have to drive a water-cart about the streets of Hea- And the shepherd fell back again on the hillock-side; and.nant of respectability, and men fit for such an office

Von to get his living. And the black mare was brought out, and the stranger was bidden to mount and ride with all speed, so that he might lose no time.

The stranger mounted, bade her farewell, and rode off, refreshed by his repast, and rejoicing in the unlooked-for good fortune that had befallen him. He had hardly turned the corner into Hangman's Lane, by the gibbet, when Goodman Dobson came home from the other side, tired and hungry. "Here, wife," cried he, in a gruff tone, the moment he went inside the door, "let us have supper; I am tired and hungry:" and he threw himself down in the old arm-chair

in the corner.

Now it so

happened that the very same cold fowl and knuckle of ham that he had desired should be kept for his supper, had been set before the hungry sailor, and had been all devoured. So the maid was in sore dismay. But the good-wife was not thinking of this, but was thinking of quite other things. Instead of noticing his demand for supper, she came up to him, and said eagerly :"Who do you think has been here?"

"What do I care who's been here ?" was the answer, "let me have supper."

"No, but who do you think has been here?" said the

wife, in a more coaxing tone.

"The woman's mad: I want my supper, and not to be bothered with what folks have been prowling about the place," exclaimed the man in angry tones.

"But there's been a man here from Heaven,' "said the

him by this information. Instead of that, however, it only wife, laying her hand on his arm, and thinking to pacify

made him more outrageous than before. He cast her hand off his arm, exclaiming: "Fool: what do you mean? just see to my supper, and don't tell me about anybody coming here from Heaven."

"But it's true," she replied earnestly: "he came from

John Cook" and she dropped a tear.

gazing intently, pointed upwards, with a gentle wave of the
hand, to a fleecy cloud that was passing overhead, and
which, in the dimming twilight, took something of the
misty outline of a horse with a sweeping tail.

The good-man started and trembled. His heart quailed
within him,--helped by the hour, and perhaps by the weak-
ness of hunger,at this unlooked-for confirmation of his
wife's story.
"Can it be true then, after all?" he muttered to himself.
And he begged the shepherd to show him exactly where it
was he saw the vision. The shepherd bade him lie on the
sward by his side, and gaze straight above his head. The
good man gazed at the lessening, and each moment fainter.
growing, cloud. His imagination filled the outline. Pre-
sently he exclaimed:-

"At first my eyes they were rather dim,
And my senses were bewildered quite;
But now methinks I see them clearly,

And I thank thee, shepherd, for the sight.
See, the man and the mare, how they mount up in the air;
Yes, I see the wagging tail of the long-tailed inare.'
And, as he looked, his own hand began waving, in time
with the waving of the mare's long tail.

him heartily. He said he should now go home satisfied,
He rose, gave the shepherd half a crown, and thanked
and crave his wife's pardon for having disbelieved her, and
done, which he hoped would help himself on the road to
bless her as long as she lived for the good deed she had

Heaven.

Beauties of Parliamentary Literature:-Parish Ves.
tries Bill (3 June, 1853) and Parish Vestries Bill
[2] (13 June, 1853).
WE cannot but think that it would be a great be

In our

can, in many unions, not be got to act.
union, for instance, there would have been no
Guardians elected in five-sixths of the townships,
but for the meddling and officiousness of one man,
who, when it became evident that no Board would
be elected, himself nominated Guardians for half
the townships in the union! who, the exact num
ber required being nominated, were unable to re
sign; but, though elected, they decline to act
Such is the natural effect of the interference of the
Poor Law Commissioners.

Now, I understand, a fresh order has been issued, by which the Commissioners require the Guardians to forward to them copies of all notices of motion, resolutions, etc., passed at the Board meetings! It is known that, in many unions, they have for a long time kept themselves quite au fait as to the proceedings of the Guardians, by a judicious application of the accomplish the same object boldly and openly: 80 spy system. At length, it appears they are able to entirely have the Guardians become accustomed to have copied the temper and bearing of their supe the yoke. Nor is it wonderful if the "inspectors" riors the Commissioners. From their once respectful manner towards the Guardians, they have L come to address them as inferiors, with a bland condescension indeed, and a profusion of gentlemanly suavity, so long as they have it all their own way,-but with angry sarcasm-by which a fluent keep the above as a standing heading. We know talker can in public generally cow men unaccusof nothing in the way of literature that shows tomed to speaking-if any difference of opinion is such a sublime contempt for grammar and logic, expressed. Thus the inspector sharply took up an to say nothing of common sense, as Acts of Par observation of one of the Guardians at Manchester, liament; unless, indeed, it be Bills in Parliament. a short time ago, who ventured to remark, that 18. 6d. per head, per annum, was about a farthing A fine illustration of this has been lately given. Within ten days of each other, two Bills have per week. Nor is such conduct rare. I remember been brought in. They consist of but thirty-six such a case at a Board meeting at which I was lines each;-no very great stretch for the wits of present, when the inspector endeavoured to put honourable members to be expected to keep awake down a gentleman who had stated a fact which over. These Bills affect every householder in Eng-told strongly against an argument he had used, by "No!" cried the good-man. "Yes, but I did though," she answered: "and I gave them land. The first of them says that, to vote at Ves- telling him, in a sneering tone, "he seemed to have learned his lesson well!" This time, however, the to the man to take to my poor dear late husband; and I tries, no person need "pay any rate. except such filled the leathern purse full of gold for him too." as shall have been made or become due within" the insolence was not submitted to, and the inspector "You don't mean to say," exclaimed the husband, start-six preceding months. The second of them says had to apologize. ing up from his chair, "that you've been such a fool!" She said nothing: but he saw by the air of timid triumph that, for the same purpose, no person need "have through the tears in his wife's eye, that it was true. With-paid any rate which shall have been made out an instant's delay, forgetting hunger and fatigue, he

Heaven; and he knew there my poor dear late husband
The good-man felt uncomfortable. The subject was de-nefit to the State, if our critical journals would
licate: and he knew that he was jealous. So he said no-
thing, but shifted in his chair, and bit his lips impatiently.
"And he told me," she went on, hardly stifling her tears,
"how my poor dear late husband has to drive a water-cart

about the streets of Heaven to get his living."

"Pshaw!" uttered the good-man, in spite of himself; while the good-wife began to whimper in earnest. "I thought it would be only charity," she went on again presently, "to send him a few things to make him more

comfortable." The good-man began to feel very uneasy, coat and breeches, and the top-coat that he used to wear; and that new pair of boots that came home for you last

and again shifted in his chair. "So I looked out his best

week."

roared out lustily, "Saddle the black mare this minute."
"But I had the black mare saddled for the stranger,'

said the wife: "and he rode off on it, that he might not be

delayed by having stopped here."

The husband stood aghast. But there was no help for it. So, with a half-muttered oath, he desired her to tell him what the man was like, and which way he had gone. She described the man, and said he had gone up the narrow

lane as far as the gibbet post, where the two men were hanged in chains, and along Hangman's Lane as far as she could see; and she supposed he would pass over Crack-skull

Common.

...

or become due within" exactly the same time.
That is to say, the two bills propose to enact exactly
reverse things! And they are brought in by the
same members! Here is a pretty affair. What
are we to say? Must we take the honourable
members to be jauntily singing, with Macheath,
"How happy could I be with either;"- -or to be
proving their liberality by protesting, with the
penny showman, when asked whether it was Al-
giers or Copenhagen that was being looked at,—

As you please, my little dears; you pays your
money, and you takes your choice?"

The whole system wants overthrowing: it is worthy only of Austrian despotism; and yet so insidious has been its growth, that it is difficult to arouse a general and organized opposition. What then is to be done? are we indeed to go on quietly submitting till we see the change perfected? "sup pression of poverty" substituted for the relief of the poor?" with policemen for Guardians, and detectives for inspectors? Enclosing my card as war rant for my facts,

I am, Sir,

A RATEPAYER IN A COUNTRY UNION. [Communications such as those of our correUnder any possible explanation, the ignorance tercommunication of Facts, such as those given by spondent are particularly valuable. It is the inand carelessness are the same. If Bill number 2 him, that will help, probably more than the most is to supersede Bill number 1, why was Bill number 1 ever brought in at all? No man has a right the existing and growing evils, and so to procure eloquent argument, to rouse and fix attention on to bring in a Bill, unless he knows what he means, the return to a sounder and more constitutional and why he means it. There is nothing very re-system. Our columns will always be open to such condite in either distinguishing or expressing the communications.-ED. CONST.] difference, between that which limits to six months, and that which altogether excludes six months.

Off started the husband. Meantime, the sailor galloped hard till he came near the end of Hangman's Lane; stopped there under a tree, to put on the coat and breeches and topeoat and boots that the good-wife had given him; and then, mounting his black mare again, he trotted across Crack skull Common, but so changed by the good cheer he had tasted, and the good gear he had put on, that no one could tell he was the same. Presently he came up with the shepherd, who lay just where he had left him. "Ah! ah! my good shepherd," he cried, slackening his rein, and hailing the man, "do you think you could tell a good lie for half a crown ?" "Well," said the shepherd sheepishly, "I never did tell lie; and I don't much like beginning." "Pooh! pooh!" answered the stranger, "this is only a joke 'twixt me and another. All I want you to do is, if any body comes this way, and asks if you have seen anybody like me and my mare, that you won't tell him what way we are gone; but tell him down or up, or any way but the right [A Review of the Rev. W. W. Malet's valuable way. And with that he tipped him a crown-piece. Ay, ay, I think I can do that," said the shepherd, pick-pamphlet on A Plan of Self-Management' is in ing up the crown-piece; "I'll tell him your honour's gone type; but press of space compels us to defer that, to Heaven,--that I will."

lation is done nowadays.
This is a fair sample of the way in which Legis-

as well as several other matters, till our next.]

Printed by JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, of 10, Little Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the Parish of St. Giles-inthe-Fields, in the County of Middlesex, and of Weybridge, in the County of Surrey; and published by him at his Printing-office in Little Queen Street aforesaid. — Bold also by

CHAPMAN & HALL, 193, Piccadilly.

FRIDAY, JULY 1, 1953.

No. VIII.]

"I wish we could so perfectly distinguish the Legislative "from the Ministerial authority as once we did; when the "HOUSE OF COMMONS had not the power of a COURT LEET "to give an Oath: which distinction, doubtless, is the most "vital part of freedom; as, on the contrary, the confusion "of them is an accomplishment of servitude."-4 Plea for Limited Monarchy :—1660.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

CIRCULAR OF THE NATIONAL POOR-LAW ASSOCIATION:-
The Law of Settlement..

Self-supporting Schools for Poor Children.
Reproductive Employment of Paupers
Subscriptions Received.

Progress: Ireland

LONDON, AUGUST 1, 1853.

THE LAW OF SETTLEMENT.

PRICE THREEPENCE. STAMPED EDITION, 4D.

Solely and absolutely for the purpose of preserving THERE is no Legislative question of the present a most unjust and iniquitous advantage that the day, which, in its bearing on the condition and pro- landowners of certain parishes have obtained, spects of the labouring classes, at all approaches in chiefly through trick and discreditable contrivance, importance that of the abolition of the antiquated over their neighbours, by clearing the parishes of and odious Law of Parochial Settlement and Re- which they own the whole or the greater portion, moval. For many years past the attention of Parlia- of a resident population, and forcing even the la ment has been directed to this subject. Committees bourers that are necessary for the tillage of their have sat and Commissioners been appointed to ex- estates to reside in adjoining parishes or towns, to 81 amine and consider it. Both have reported on the the rates of which they consequently become vexatious and injurious consequences of the existing chargeable in illness or old age. In this manner 83 law, and have recommended its entire abolition, ac- the poor-rates of many close agricultural parishes, 84 companied with an extension of the area of rating belonging, that is, to one or two proprietors who to unions at the least. Successive Governments have pulled down or prevented the erection of cot. 84 have over and over again announced that the sub- tages within their limits, have been reduced to a 86 ject was "under consideration," that "a measure few pence in the pound, while those of the neigh87 was in preparation," and would be produced "with-bouring towns or open parishes, in the crowded out more delay than the calls of other pressing the lands of the former parishes are forced to relanes of which the labouring families employed on Parochial Self-management by Vestry Committees 89 public business rendered indispensable;" and yet side, at a distance perhaps of miles from their year after year has passed away, and no measure has yet seen the light, nothing has been done, and work, have been swelled to as many shillings! The The Rev. W. W. Malet's Plan of Self-management 91 the acknowledged evils of the existing system have saving effected by this fraudulent and cruel process been left unredressed-aggravated, indeed, by oc- going, of course, directly to swell the rents of the casional changes in the law, of a patching and lands in the "close" parishes. botching character, such as the Act for rendering paupers irremovable after five years' residence,and still more by the progress of events which have

THE CONSTITUTIONAL:

The last Attack on Church and State

Niebuhr on True Free Institutions

Recent Illustrations of the Clothes Philosophy. Health by Act of Parliament (The Croydon Case) THE PARISH :

Charitable Trusts Bill

Some of the Functions of the Parish Vestry.... REVIEW:

Libros

The Constitution, Temas1-13