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Untitled Article
of opinion or form of worship was intended , the Court can find no other means of deciding- it than by inquiring what has been the usage ; and if any particular usage can be settled and supported , the Court must administer the trust in that manner ^ which may be supposed , from usage , to have been
established , and to exist , as it were , in contract between the parties . But , ( and I think the point has been settled in a case which came from Scotland in appeal to the House of Lords , ) if an institution is established to carry on worship or to teach doctrines thought by the founders to be most conformable to Christianity , I do not
apprehend that it is in the power of any members who may hereafter have the management of that institution , to alter the frame and object of it because their views vary . They cannot say to the Test we have changed , and therefore , as we are the majority , the constitution of the trust must change .
The case referred to settled , I think , that if they differed amongst themselves , you must look to the origin of the trust and settle it . upon that foundation . In tiiis view it is important to see what the record says on this subject . Without
entering' into the effect of the repeal of the laws on the subject , which it would be improper for me , sitting in a Court of equity , to decide , and which , if it should arise , would much better be decided by the judges of the courts of common law ; without deciding * this Question ( havinc * mvself out deciding this question ( having myself
an opinion on the subject , bnt not called upon here to pronounce it ) , do the deeds manifest , with regard to the allusions to the Toleration Act , that this is an institution requiring the inculcation of the doctrine of the Trinity ? Because , if that was
the doctrine intended by the founders , and if the trustees have changed that object , I apprehend that it is not in the power of part or the whole of the cong'regation or trustees to call upon another trustee to effectuate that purpose . Even if Unitariif
anism had then been legal , ye ^ Trmitarianism was appointed and intended by the deed founding the trust , Anti-trinitarianism cannot now be supported by it . Meaning to speak with all reverence on the subject , it would be merely a question whether a trust for the benefit of A . could be diverted
to the benefit of B . If this is the state of the question , it decides the case . I am fully aware of the importance , with a view to conciliation , and abatingthe heat with which I am sorry to see controversies of this sort generally carried on ,
that a final and speedy determination should be made ; yet if parties will frame such deeds with such obscure and undefined trusts , the Court must inquire , and time must be t a' ^ en U P 5 ^ * t * their own fault .
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With respect to the choice of the minister , I am not much acquainted with the practiee in institutions of this sort : it is perhaps ve ^ y uncertain , and probably in general
they do not choose their minister for life . This Court would not perhaps much like this mode of appointment ; but if the trust of the institution direct it , it must carry it into effect . The policy of the established church has been to make the minister
independent of the congregation 5 but I do not apprehend that this policy can govern the decision of the Court , if the trust directs any other form . So with respect to the persons who are to elect , I apprehend the Court must look to the usage . Some deeds of this kind confer the power upon some parties , some on others ; but where it is wholly
unascertained , the Court cannot administer the trust , till they know all these points by inquiring into the subject . On the face of the deeds nothing is said ; inquiry , therefore , must be made : I can only say , I will read the Bill and Answer , and ascertain the facts as well as I can \ and if I can get out of the affliction ^ I will decide the case on Thursday .
There certainly shall be no trial ; there never shall be any expense of that sort incurred . If I can find out the state of the questions in this cause , so as to make an order on the subject , it will save every thing of that sort . 17 th July . 1817 .
Lord Chancellor . —The motion before me on Monday arose upon a bill filed by the Attorney General , at the relation of Mr . Maunder and Mr . Steward , who > alleges himself to be minister of the cone * relation of Protestant Dissenters assembling * at Wolverhampton , ag * ainst Mr . Pearson , together with others who assert that they are , together with Mr . Maunder , the trustees of the property in question ,
which is expressed in the trust-deeds to be a charity for the maintenance of u the service and worship oJ'GocT'' at that place , and who contend that Mr . Maunder ought to be considered as being no longer a trustee , or that if he lias part of the legal estate of the trust property vested in him , that he ought to be considered as holdingit for the purpose of beings administered , as the other trustees or the majority shall
direct , and that be is himself incapable of acting . And this information , as I collect from reading it , is filed to prevent those from acting as trustees who it contends have no such character ; or if they are legally invested with such character , then the information is to be considered as filed
for the purpose of insisting that the defendants being" invested with the character of trustees for one purpose , mean to execute that trust for another purpose , contrary to the intention of the founders : and , upon
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Intelligence . —Proceedings in Cltancery regarding Unitarians . 437
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1817, page 437, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2466/page/61/
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