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the lightning of truth , are suddenly transformed into pillars of salt , transmitting in solid , crystal brightness , the memory of their folly and temerity to distant generations . J . JONES .
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^^ m ^^ pa ^ nv Homer ton y Sir , April 11 , 1825 . YOUR correspondent " A Presbyterian , " ( pp . 157 , 158 , ) has favoured me with some animadversions on a note in a former communication , in which I had turned out of my way to put the designation of thieves upon two classes of men whose
existence in real life is , unhappily , not very uncommon - But I made no applications . None can be hurt but those whom consciousness or public opinion charges with being literary plagiarists or perverters of trusts . I do not wish , however , to shelter myself thus from the observations which
your correspondent has honourably and candidly made : nor , on the other hand , shall I make myself a party in the Manchester controversy . That may be very well left with those gentlemen who roused it , or who have
since engaged in it . But , as I am sure you will allow me that freedom , I trust that your correspondent will not be displeased at my laying down a few positions which appear to me to be the dictates of reason in this
matter . If I am mistaken , I shall : be thankful to be corrected-I . As all sound writers on morals maintain that oaths are to be understood according to the mind of the imposer , so all other promissory engagements are to be understood , undertaken , and fulfilled according to the mind of the requirer .
II . Trusteeships , whether created by deeds of gift or by wills , are a species of promissory engagements . III . Trustees are bound to fulfil the known intentions of founders or
testators , faithfully and strictly , unless they be immoral , in which case the engagement is void from the beginning ; or have become , from change of circumstances , physically impossible . IV . If , in any case , such an inmpossibility have accrued , it is the duty of trustees to approximate as closely as possible to the known intention of the trust .
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Your correspondent truly states that fC the intentions of the pious and benevolent founders of institutions — cannot—be always exactly fulfilled : ' and he therefore conceives , ** that trustees who hold property of this kind have a right , when the exact fulfilment of the intentions of the
founders is impracticable or ineajpedient ^ to consider what might probably have been the views of the founders under the new circumstances which may have arisen , and what upon the whole is best to be done . " Readily granted , when the exact compliance can be
truly and honestly said to be impracticable : yet surely , in such case , reason and justice say , Approach to it as nearly as you cun . But I cannot concede that trustees have a right to set up what they may deem expedient , and substitute that for tlie intention of
their trust . Is it not most evident that this is a principle subversive of all truth and fidelity ? Was ^ here ever an act of injustice , fraud , or plunder perpetrated , which did not appear to the doer of it highly expedient ?
With respect to calculations upon " what might probably have been the views of the founders , under new circumstances / ' I can scarcely conceive of any principle of conduct more precarious , more hazardous , or more flexible to inclination and interest r
but , on its application to the ease before us , I request attention to the next position . V . The differences between the Presbyterians and the Congregationalists or Independents , at the time when the trusts referred to were
created , ( a period which may be taketi as from about 1670 to 1720 , ) were not " considered matters of consequence by our ancestors , ' * in comparison tcith the differences of religious sentiment between both those
denominations on the one side , and , on the other , the persons in their day who held opinions resembling or approaching to those of the Unitarians of the present time .
The proof of tins assertion is obvious to all who are acquainted with the histoiy and the writings af the English Presbyterian Divines in the period referred to . It cannot be ptfetfeftfted that the Dissenting ministers and churches of that
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208 Dr . P . Smith on Dissenting Trusts .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1825, page 208, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2535/page/16/
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