JB/004/068/002

Click Here To Edit 6 EVIDENCE RELATING TO CHARITIES INQUIRY,
John W. Warren,
Esq.
18 March,
1828.

we could, as far as it went; those that we could not ourselves deal with we have
reported to the attorney-general. We consider and hope that the publication of
our Reports, in the detail in which they are given, will be the means of preventing
future abuse, by making it knownPublication of past
a preventive of
future abuses.to the persons interested what the real state of the
charity is, and enabling them to see whether it is properly administered or not; and
with reference to the preservation of documents, we have set forth the deeds
respecting the charities perhaps more at length than we should otherwise have done,
for the purpose of meeting, in some degree, a contingent evil—of deed of
endowment being lost;should that in future be the case, we conceive our Reports
will be a sort of succedaneum, not a legal substitution of evidence, but still would
afford such a complete and accurate knowledge of the nature of the charity as in
a great measure to supply the want of the original documents.
Remedial Act
left inoperative.

Would it not be better , to insure their being more permanently of record, to
direct their being enrolled or deposited in some public places?—I think it would,
but that was tried; some years ago there was an Act requiring the enrolmentof all
charities, which was very inoperative; it was carried into effectin a few counties
only; it would be a very good thing, but at the same time we find an immense
number of charities, particularly in some counties, where the documents are lost
and cannot be enrolled, and we are obliged to resort to tables of benefactions in
churches, entries in parish books, inscriptions on tomb-stones, or such inferior
kinds of evidence.

Did the commissioners ever make an estimate of the aggregate value of the
abuses, that they have brought to light?—No, those lie dispersed in all their
Reports, and they have never made any collection of them: in the year 1824
when the Act appointing the commission was renewed, a return was made to the
Secretary of State's Office,of the number of charities which had been then
investigated, and the amount in value that they came to. I think that the number
of charities was above 10,000at that time, and the annual amount , as far as my
recollection goes, 320,000l. a year; those are contained in the 12 first volumes of
the Reports.

Does the amount of 138,850l. include in it the expense of printing your Reports
connected with your commission?—No, it does not.

[The Statement referred to by the Witness was delivered in, and read, as
follows.—Vide Paper (A.)]

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Identifier: | JB/004/068/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 4.
Date_1	1829-06-24	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	004	Main Headings	lord brougham displayed
Folio number	068	Info in main headings field
Image	002	Titles	charities inquiry / evidence / taken before the finance committee, and the return laid before the committee in 1828, which were presented to the house upon the 24th day of june 1829
Category	printed material	Number of Pages	8
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	(2-6)
Penner		Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections	jeremy bentham	Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	1989
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