former conditions and reservations. The management of these lands by a Committee in London, quite ignorant of the place and the people, and wholly dependent upon reports of their servants, presented difficulties and dangers which, to us, are obvious. But it was an age for creating companies and enterprises all governed by Committees from London, and some of them so well governed, that the plan seemed feasible and convenient for all companies. Ireland, however, was a more difficult country than Hudson's Bay or East India. The election of members of the Irish Society after this new charter became practically the appointment on the Board of representatives of the Companies concerned. There were two permanent and official members, the Governor of the Society and the Recorder of London; the other twenty-four were appointed by the Corporation. The Society became, therefore, quite naturally, the servant of the Companies, the responsibilities of the trust were forgotten or neglected, and the custom arose of dividing among the Companies whatever surplus remained after the management expenses had been paid. The management of the estates by the Irish Society is a chapter which belongs rather to the history of Ulster than to that of London. The case against the Society is simply that, instead of exercising a trust for the benefit of the estates, they acted as landlords for the benefit of the Companies. In the year 1830 the Corporation began to elect members of the Irish Society from the whole body of freemen. The first result was that the Companies lost the division of the surplus from the undivided estate. The Skinners' Company brought an action in the Court of Chancery intended to force the Irish Society to become Trustees for the Companies of all the rents and profits of the undivided estate. The case was decided against the Skinners; they appealed; again judgment went against them; they took the case up to the Lords. It was a third time given against them. The judgment of Lord Langdale, Master of the Rolls, when the case came before him, contained the following strong opinions: "It is, I think, impossible to read and consider the charter without coming to the conclusion that the powers granted to the society were more extensive than, and very different from, any which in the ordinary course of affairs are vested, or would upon this occasion have been vested, in mere private Trustees for the benefit of particular undertakers. The powers indeed are, many of them, of a public and political nature, and . . . were given for the public purposes of the Plantation. . . . The Companies of London were, with the burthen of undertaking the plantatation of such lands as might be allotted to them, to receive such benefits as were offered to . . . ordinary undertakers. . . . The Charter of Charles appears to me to be substantially, as it is avowedly, a restoration of the Charter of James. The property is part of that granted for the purposes of the Plantation, and the powers possessed by the Society, as well as the duties with which it is charged, have all of them reference to the Plantation. I AM OF OPINION THAT THE POWERS GRANTED TO THE SOCIETY, AND THE TRUSTS REPOSED IN THEM, WERE IN PART OF A GENERAL AND PUBLIC NATURE, INDEPENDENT OF THE PRIVATE BENEFIT OF THE COMPANIES OF LONDON, AND WERE INTENDED BY THE CROWN TO BENEFIT IRELAND, AND THE CITY OF LONDON, BY CONNECTING THE CITY OF LONDONDERRY AND THE TOWN OF COLERAINE AND A CONSIDERABLE IRISH DISTRICT WITH THE CITY OF LONDON, AND TO PROMOTE THE GENERAL PURPOSES OF THE PLANTATION, NOT ONLY BY SECURING THE PERFORMANCE OF THE CONDITIONS IMPOSED ON ORDINARY UNDERTAKERS, BUT ALSO BY THE EXERCISE OF POWERS AND THE PERFORMANCE OF TRUSTS NOT WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THOSE CONDITIONS'" (pp. 44, 45). Since this decision the Irish Society has remained untouched. After the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Livery Companies of London, a Bill was prepared on lines indicated by this Report, but the Bill did not pass into law. |