When property is given to a super stitious use, or for a charitable purpose which cannot legally be executed, the court of chancery will apply it to some other charity. " Whenever a testator is disposed to be charitable in his own way and upon his own principles, we are not content with disappointing his intention, if disapproved by us : but we make him charitable in our way and on our prin. ciples. If once we discover in him any charitable intention, that is supposed to be so liberal as to take in objects not only not within his intention, but wholly adverse to it." (Sir William Grant, 7 Ves., 495.) If the superstitious use be one which the court considers charitable, the fund goes to the king to be disposed of to such charitable uses as he shall di rect by sign-manual : if the use be not charitable, the gift is merely void, and the property will go to the donor's repre sentative. (2 M. and B., 684.) The regular mode of proceeding in cases of abuse of charitable funds is by way of information in the name of the attorney-general on behalf of the crown. In informations with respect to charities the Court of Chancery always requires a person to be joined with the attorney general, who is styled the relator, and is answerable for the conduct and costs of the suit. The crown never pays 'costs, and therefore, in order to protect the de fendants, there must be a relator who will have to pay the costs, if the suit should appear to have been improperly insti tuted.
The above-mentioned Act of the 43rd of Eliz. empowered the Court of Chan cery to issue commissions to inquire into the abuse or misapplication of property given for charitable purposes ; but the proceedings under this act were found so unsatisfactory that they gradually fell into disuse, and recourse was again bad to the original method of procedure by information.
By the 52 Geo. III. c. 101, commonly called Sir Samuel Romilly's Act, the legislature provided a summary remedy in cases of abuses of charitable trusts, or where the aid of the Court of Chancery was required for the administration of them. The act empowered any two or more persons to present a petition to a court of equity praying the requisite relief, which the court might thereupon grant in a summary manner.
By the 59 Geo. III. c. 91, continued by the 2 Wm. IV. c. 57, the attorney general was empowered to institute a Bait by information without a relator, apoa five or more of the commissioners of charities thereby appointed that the case was one which required the interference of the court. LSCHOOLS, ENDOWED.] The jurisdiction of the Court of Chan cery over property given to charity must be distinguished from the authority fre quently exercised by the lord chancellor or lord keeper as visitor of charities. Charities are either under the manage ment of individual trustees, or are esta blished by charter as eleemosynary cor porations. On the institution of a corpo rate charity, a visitorial jurisdiction arises to the founder and his heirs, whether he be the king or a private per son, or to those whom the founder has appointed for that purpose; and the office of visitor is to determine the differences of the members of the society, and to superintend generally the government of the body, in accordance with the statutes originally propounded by the founder. With this visitorial power the Court of Chancery has nothing to do it only takes cognizance of the administration of the property. When the charity is of royal foundation, the visitorial power of the king is exercised by the lord chan cellor as his representative; and even where the founder of the charity was a private person, if he has made no ap pointment of a visitor, and if his heir can not be discovered, or has become lunatic, the visitorial power results to the crown, and, as in the case of royal foundations, is exercised by the lord chancellor. The mode of application to the visitorial in these cases is by petition addressed to the Great Seal.
Certain restrictions have been put upon the power of making gifts of property to charitable uses by the 9th of Geo. II. c. 36. The 9 & 10 Viet. c. 59, passed Aug. 18, 1846, places Jews as to cha ritable purposes on the same footing as Protestant dissenters. [Comecie ; MOST MAIN ; SCHOOLS, ENDOWED.]