ECCENTRIC TESTAMENTARY TRUSTS. BY JOHN DE MORGAN. TESTAMENTARY arrangements of property have been made ever since the individual right to hold property was rec ognized, and through all the ages men have left on record proofs of their eccentricity in the shape of strange bequests. Property and money have been devised for the benefit of future generations and for ob jects which appear to us ridiculous. Lawyers have been kept busy, courts have been appealed to, and legislatures called upon to assist in interpreting such bequests and to find a way by which the desire of the testator could be best observed. Since the passing of the statute, 43 Elizabeth, the English courts, in their desire to carry out the wishes of the donor, have ap plied what is called the cy près doctrine; that is, when the donor's scheme could not be carried out they would construct another scheme as near the original one as possible. It is not with the ordinary charitable trusts that we have to do but only with some which excite the wonder of the present generation. When Edward VI. founded the hospital for foundlings and orphans, called Christ's Hospital, but commonly known as the " BlueCoat School," he ordered that " through all generations " the boys should wear a costume consisting of a blue woolen gown or coat with a narrow red leather girdle round the waist, yellow breeches and yellow stockings, a clergyman's bands at the neck, and a small blue worsted cap, but this last they seldom wear, and are generally seen going about bareheaded. This costume has been retained through all the generations since the founda tion of the hospital, and although only the children of the wealthy or influential can now be educated there, the ridiculous garb must be worn. Peter Symonds, in a will dated 1586, bequeathed a sum of money for the
purpose of giving sixty of the younger boys of Christ's Hospital, every Good Friday, "a new penny, a bun and a packet of raisins, providing that they attend service, on that day, at the Church of All-Hallows, Lombard street." Other bequests to this school pro vide that, on Easter Tuesday, the boys shall receive from the Lord Mayor of London, " a glass of wine and two currant buns," together with a sum of money varying from a shilling to a guinea, according to the class in which the boy may be. Thomas Walker, of the parish of St. James, Bristol, England, by his will dated April 25, 1666, ordered that the sum of .£200 be set apart to purchase " for ever the sum of £ i o Ss. od. a year, for eight poor house keepers that are known to live in the fear of God, and to come to the church every Lord's day, a six-penny loaf of bread every Sabbath day, after morning prayer, unto these eight poor house-keepers for ever; but for God's sake let them be no drunkards nor common swearers — nor that do beg in the streets from door to door, but let them be quiet peo ple that do desire to live in the fear of God. Pray let 'their bread be wheaten bread and proper weight as it ought to be." If the money originally bequeathed was properly invested it would by this time be enough to provide for a great many more than the church could accommodate. A testator, with the name of James Jocham, and dying in Bristol, bequeathed the interest of £,ooo to his son, on condition that he should pay out yearly to the minis ters, clerks and sextons of the parishes of St. Augustine in Bristol and St. Augustine in Newnham, the sum of " three guineas, that is to say, one guinea to the minister of each parish, and half a guinea to the clerks and sextons of each parish, to be divided amongst
