TRUSTEESHIP OF CORPORATE CHARITIES.
CONSIDERABLE ingenuity has been exercised by Ministers to give the Tory minority in our towns an undue weight. It is proposed that the number of Charitable Trustees, under the bill brought in by Mr. VERNON SMITH, Shall be six, twelve, or eighteen, as the Town-Councils shall appoint; but that no burgess shall vote for more than half the number. By this arrangement, unless the Liberal force is double that of their antagonists, the Tory minority will elect an equal number of Trustees with the Liberal majority. Six hundred electors on one side will have no greater weight than three hundred and one on the other,—supposing that each party acts together, and that there is no cross voting. The plan assumes party union : if there is no combination, and every burgess votes according to his personal predilection, there is no security that the minority, or the majority either, shall be represented— all the elected may be on one side. Practically, however, it will be found, that unless the majority counts more than to two one, the minority will always elect half the Trustees.
It is well enough that there should be opposing parties in all public institutions, especially in those to whom the distribution of public money is intrusted ; but we question whether that ad- vantage is not too dearly gained by recognizing as a principle of popular election, that 301 persons shall have as much influence as 600. Under a free system of government, the majority should have sway ; nay, they must and will have it. And it is a defect in the present bill, that it violates an important principle without reaching the object aimed at. The promoters of the measure would have gained their end of securing representation to the minority, by allowing each burgess to vote for two-thirds or three- fourths of the number of Trustees to be elected ; but they have endeavoured to conciliate opposition by giving the minority in the first instance equal weight with the majority—by allowing them to return the same number of Trustees. The plan, however, when pushed a little further, is found to be impracticable. One side, after all, must have the preponderance, or the machine will stop. It is found necessary to provide a President with a casting- vote ; and that President is to be the Mayor of the borough, the choice of the majority. So that, on the supposition that both parties are equal, the majority of the burgesses will after all be enabled to control the minority, as effectually as if the usual mode of voting were adopted. The Tories see that the equality is a mock one ; and as they cannot pretend to have the Chairman on their side, they oppose the whole measure. It was as useless as unwise, therefore, in the Government to give their sanction to the principle that in popular elections the few should weigh even with the many. They may expect that this, as well as every other concession, will be turned against them hereafter.
The contrivance is also inconsistent with another part of the bill, which provides that one-third of the Trustees, being those chosen by the smallest number of votes, shall go out of office annually, and a fresh election for a third take place. Thus the majority of the burgesses might secure a preponderance among the Trustees with certainty at the end of the first year. Lord JOHN RUSSELL pro- fessed his willingness to alter this provision so as to preserve the same equality of votes among the Trustees; but cal bono, if the Mayor is to come in with his decisive " aye" or " no?" The insertion of the rotation clause seems to prove that the framers of the bill were not prepared to carry out their own plan. As it is next to certain that no bill for the election of Charitable Trustees will become law this session, the Lord Chancellor for the time being will have the appointment of the new Trustees. Ac- cording to the Solicitor-General—who wished to press upon the House of Commons the necessity of passing the Government Bill quickly—great confusion will arise from the impossibility of the Chancellor's performing this duty for several months to come. . The proceeding, he said, would be long and "operose." That was no argument in favour of the measure with the Tories ; who would gladly see Lord LYNDHURST on the Woolsack again, armed with the extensive patronage which the Chancellor is likely to have, in default of Parliamentary legislation on the question. But, upon re- ference to the bill, we see cause to doubt the necessity of such delay as the Solicitor-General threatens. The Lord Chancellor is directed to "make such orders " as he shall see fit for the adminis- tration of the trust estates. Of course he may be a long while about this duty ; but he may also be brisk for once, and then we have the Tories in a cleft stick. Perhaps, however, it is expected that Whig candour and conciliation will be called into play, and a large proportion of Tory Trustees be appointed?
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