The Rights of Testators The strictures passed by Lord Sands,
in a judgement in the Land Valuation Court on Saturday, on the Scottish Educational Endowments Commission call attention afresh to the extraordinarily wide power this body possesses to overrule the dispositions of philanthropic testators. It is one thing to overhaul old endowments and adapt them to some extent to current needs, but the well known Troon case, which was the subject of the judgement, raises no question of old endowments at all. Mr. C. K. Marr, who died no longer ago than 1919, left a large sum of money for educational purposes in Troon, but the buildings erected under his request have never been opened, because the Educational Endowment Commissioners have not decided whether to allow them to be used in accordance with the testator's desires. On the face of it there is abundant ground for Lord Sands' dictum that under such conditions wealthy men will not feel much encouraged to leave money for educational purposes in Scotland in future.. But there is another -side to that, and both sides will be more fully discussed in coming issues of The Spectator.
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