t nine
acres, to his wife Sarah, during life, and at her death, to his nephews
and executors William and John Riddall, their heirs and assigns for
ever, in trust, for educating and putting out poor boys of Birmingham;
or other discretional charities in the same parish.

But William and John wisely considered, that they could not put the
money into any pocket sooner than their own; that as the estate was in
the family it was needless to disturb it; that as the will was not known
to the world, there was no necessity to publish it; and, as it gave them
a discretional power of disposal, they might as well consider themselves
_the poor_, for they were both in the parish.

There is nothing easier than to coin excuses for a fault;--there is
nothing harder than to make them pass.

What must be his state of mind, who is in continual apprehensions of a
disgraceful discovery? No profits can compensate his feelings.

Had the deviser been less charitable, William and John had been less
guilty: the gift of one man becomes a temptation to another. These nine
acres, from which the donor was to spring upwards, lay like a mountain
on the breasts of William and John, tending to press them downwards.
Although poverty makes many a rogue, yet had William and John been more
poor, they would have been more innocent. The children themselves would
have been the least gainers by the bequest, for, without this legacy,
they could just as well have procured trades; the profit would have
centered in the inhabitants, by softening their levies.--Thus a donation
runs through many a private channel, unseen by the giver.

Matters continued in this torpid state till 1782, when a quarrel between
the brothers and a tenant, broke the enchantment, and shewed the actors
in real view.

The officers, in behalf of the town, filed a bill in Chancery, and
recovered the dormant property, which was committed in trust to

John Dymock Griffith,
John Harwood,
Thomas Archer, > Overseers, 1781.
William Hunt,
Joseph Robinson,
James Rollason,

John Holmes, > Constables, 1782.
Thomas Barrs,
Joseph Sheldon,
Charles Primer, > Church-wardens,
William Dickenson,
Edmund Tompkins,

Claud Johnson,
Nathaniel Lawrence,
Edward Homer, > Overseers, 1782.
Thomas Cock,
Samuel Stretch,
Joseph Townsend,
John Startin.

The presentation of St. M