to realise a greatly increased income." The house at Stepney left by Colet to the headmaster was sublet by that official into two tenements, the joint rent of the said tenements, £100 a year, being his special perquisite.

Funded property held at that date by the Company in trust for the school comprised £2,244 3s. 4d. 3 per cent. consols derived from compensation (£1,728) from the Regent's Canal Company, for land at Limehouse; £23,467 19s. 10d. 3 per cent. reduced annuities, the produce of a Parliamentary grant of £3,000 per annum out of the coal duties—a grant made during temporary financial embarrassment in 1745. "They give the following figures," says the Commissioners' report: "£5,252 2s. 11 d. as the whole income of the school, including " £1,858 16s. 101d., rents from the Bucks property; "and periodical fines of £300 and £315 paid every 21 years by the Marquis of Buckingham, under the Act for exchanging the lands in Wotton and Ham, produced £29 5s. 8d. yearly. “The addition of improved rents on the Stepney property would shortly raise this income to £5,670 15s. 6d.

Inter alia, regarding the general administration of eleemosynary funds and property entrusted to this livery company's officials and governing body, we may observe that one Peter Symonds, in 1586, had bequeathed, in trust to the Mercers' Company, £400 (£6,000 modern value)" to pay to Winchester poor an annuity of £4 10s. (at least £70 to-day), and for bread to be distributed at Mercers' Hall and several prisons, £2 10s. (£38 to-day), and to the clerk of the Company £3 4s. od. annuity (£50 to-day)." But as we might expect: "No bread has been distributed in Mercers' Chapel for many years," the Commissioners remark, "and the accumulation from 1763-1818, having been invested in stock, now produces a yearly dividend of £3 10s." Its readoption the Commissioners recommend. As for the annuity of £4 10s. to Winchester poor, that had been long discontinued, "but the Company are ready to pay it on proper authority."

But what if the pestiferous poor of Winchester and the prisons starved in the meanwhile? The Mercers' long line of clerks saw to it that they duly had without fail their annuity! So all was well with the Mercers' Company!

Of exhibitions or "temporary pensions" for originally poor scholars at St. Paul's, in the gift of the Mercers' Company, to enable the former to proceed to Oxford and Cambridge, there are "Lord Camden's five of £100, and five of £70 each per annum to Trinity College, Cambridge; Mercers, about 20 of £50 yearly each; Perry and Sykes, an indefinite number to Paulines, at two Cambridge colleges; Mercers, 20 of £50 each at any college or University; Robinson's (Mrs.) 4 of £20 each to Paulines already entered at Cambridge; and Lady North's 4 of £20 per annum, tenable for 7 years at either University."

It may justly and without exaggeration be said that, wherever a benevolent and well-intentioned donor has entrusted the administration of an eleemosynary educational foundation, or free grammar school, to this Company, the poor boys of the locality, as, e.g., at Collyer's Grammar School, Horsham, Sussex, have had abundant cause to curse the fact. Indeed, in such cases we are entirely dependent for information on what the Mercers' Company chose to state to the Livery Companies Commission, as they declined to allow access to their books.

In the annual accounts of the Company, Brougham's Charity Commissioners (1818-35) noted an annuity of £1,000 given by the Mercers' Company to "Dr. Roberts, late high-master of St. Paul's "-a greater stipend than was paid him whilst employed as teacher, which the Company accounted for, in part, as their gratitude for his services of nearly half a century. Another item of singular charm which the Commissioners remarked on, was "Courts and Committees, £287 14s.," explained by a customary gratuity of one guinea each as a compliment to every member summoned to a meeting of the Company's courts of assistants or committees, "which custom also

prevails on courts or committees " held for the Company's "ordinary business." This wage, the Commission remarked, certainly militated against the rule that a trustee is not entitled to charge for his time and labour, and "it is obvious, if it amounts to more than a mere indemnity, it must have a tendency" unnecessarily to multiply such meetings of courts and committees.

A similar notice was taken by them of the sum of £229 9s., expended at "what is called the 'Apposition dinner,' which is contrasted with the economical provision made for that occasion by the founder, viz., an assembly and a litell dinner, ordayned by the surveyor, not exceedynge the pryce of fower nobles."

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But as though this were not sufficient, there was disclosed a "charge of £222 8s." for gold medals (each £20 in value), annually expended in gifts for the accountantsurveyor, on his quitting office! This, which would leave us unregenerate others not exactly unmoved, the Commissioners said, with a meekness and mildness suitable to a young-eyed cherubim, was a payment "difficult to justify on the ground of expediency."

In conclusion, it should be said that a committee of the Mercers' Company, appointed July, 1859, to consider, amongst other things, the question of the removal of the school from its ancient and very noisy site, "satisfied themselves that there is at present available a surplus of at least £2,500 per annum arising from the 'Coletine' estates, and that there is an additional prospect of at least £2,000 more in the year 1888." The site of the school, it was estimated at this date, would fetch, if sold, £60,000.

Colet endowed St. Paul's School with lands whose yearly value, formerly £122 4s. 71d., now stands at £10,000 per annum. Originally, he dedicated the school to the Child Jesus, but, as Strype, the antiquary, says: "The saint has robbed the Master of his title." The original school in St. Paul's Churchyard was burnt in the great Fire

of London (1666); the second, by Wren (1674), gave place in 1824 to a third, which, in turn, was succeeded by a fourth (in 1883)—the present edifice-on a site of 16 acres at Hammersmith, West Kensington, this being opened in 1884 by Lord Selborne. Under the scheme of the Charity Commissioners (1879), by which the renewal was effected, was provided a classical school for 500 scholars, including 153 foundationers, and as many capitation scholars as the governors of St. Paul's may decide; and a modern school for a like number of pupils, together with a school for 400 girls. The boys are either day or boarding-house scholars (there are eight boarding "hotels" attached to the school).

According to the official report published by the St. Paul's governing body, St. Paul's Public School is now governed under the provisions of a scheme of the Charity Commissioners dated June 16th, 1900.

FOUNDATION SCHOLARS are exempt from the entrance and tuition fees. Scholarships are open to all boys, whether now in the school or not, and are divided into two classes-junior and senior. Junior scholarships are tenable under the ordinary conditions of good conduct and industry until the age of seventeen, senior scholarships until the age of nineteen.

The trustees of St. Paul's School are the Mercers' Company, and they appoint ten members of the governing body, another three each being nominated by the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London. The headmaster's salary, in 1878, was fixed at £2,000 a year, without a residence.

One must bluntly reiterate that a consideration of the reports of previous Charity Commissioners and their disclosures of the stewardship of the Mercers' Company in regard to charitable trusts in London and the country has given poor people abundant cause to curse the shameful manner in which this Livery Company has performed its duties.