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INTELLIGENCE.
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DOMESTIC . LfiGA £ . BEDFORD CHARITY . Right of Jews to share in Christian Charities .
This case was , as our readers will recollect , reported at length ( we believe ) exclusively in the Repository [ XIII . 586—594 ] . After a lapse of sufficient time for mature
consideration a judgment has been pronounced , of which we subjoin a Report . Lincoln ' s-Inn Hall > Aug . 23 , 1819-The Lord Chancellor began by observing , that this case came originally before him in consequence of a
petition presented to him by Levi Lyon and Sheba Lyon , daughter of the said . Levi , praying that the said Sheba might be admitted to a participation of the benefits of the Charity , established in the town of Bedford by Edward VI . This petition was
afterwards followed by one signed by five persons , describing themselves as Elders of the Congregation of German and Dutch Jews assembling in the Synagogue in Duke ' s-place , and by several other persons , who also stated themselves to be Elders of the New
Synagogue ! n Leadenhall-street , which petition prayed that this Court would declare that all the poor inhabitants of the borough of Bedford were equally entitled to the Charity , whether they were Jews or Christians ,
provided they had such qualifications as the deed of grant by the letters patent of his late Majesty Edward VI . prescribed , and that this Court would be pleased to order the governors , visitors and trustees to admit such
children , and particularly Sheba Lyon , to enjoy the privilege of drawing her lot for the apprentice fee , as prescribed by the Act of Parliament , and that such fee might be paid to her
father , the petitioner . Such was the prayer of these gentlemen , and when it was first heard before him , he ( Lord Chancellor ) had felt some considerable difficulty in the case , seeing
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that it was represented that it might be either brought forward on the Act , which was commonly called Sir Samuel Romilly ' s Act , or otherwise under the Act of Parliament which had passed for regulating Ibis particular Charity . —The difficulty on that point had been argued most ably by
Sir Samuel Romilly , a lawyer whose name could not be too highly venerated , and a man whose great talents , integrity and independence were beyond all praise . Under the original Act , as he would have occasion to state by and bye , much difficulty occurred as to the Chancellor having
any power to act in a summary way when a petition was presented to him , unless , indeed , the trustees were the subject of complaint , they having conducted themselves not in a manner consonant to the spirit of the deed by which they were constituted trustees . Another difficulty had also presented
itself , which was this , that if a Jew inhabitant of Bedford , properly qualified every way to be a partaker of this Charity was refused , then he of course had a right to apply to the Great Seal ; but why should the elders of the Jewish Synagogues in London be ' allowed to come here ?
That interested persons had a right to apply , he would not doubt , but then the elders of the Synagogue could not , because this would be giving a kind of corporate character to the applicants , which he would not , and could not , as a judge , in any degree
sustain . By the Act of Parliament , the Court had the power of interfering in case of any misconduct ; but this power did not surely mean tliat persons who had no interest in the Charity ,- who were living far from it , who in truth had nothing to do in it ,
were to have liberty whenever they chose to apply to the Great Seal , He must be allowed to say , that such never was the intention of the Legislature in the Acts passed on account of this Charity . Accordingly , he had suggested that the most expedient measure to be adopted would be , for the trustees to present a petition » n-
Intelligence.
INTELLIGENCE .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1819, page 578, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1776/page/54/
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