were appointed.

The following are details of importance:--(1) _Definition._--The
definition of the act of 1601 (Charitable Uses, 43 Eliz. 4) still
holds good. It enumerates as charitable objects all that was once
called "alms": (a) "The relief of aged, impotent and poor people"--the
normal poor; "the maintenance of sick and maimed soldiers and
mariners"--the poor chiefly by reason of war, sometime a class of
privileged mendicants; (b) education, "schools of learning, free
schools and scholars in universities"; and then (c) a group of objects
which include general civic and religious purposes, and the charities
of gilds and corporations; "the repair of bridges, ports, havens,
causeways, churches, sea-banks and highways; the education and
preferment of orphans; the relief, stock, or maintenance for houses of
correction; marriages of poor maids, supportation, aid, and help of
young tradesmen, handicraftsmen, and persons decayed"; and there
follows (d) "the relief or redemption of prisoners or captives"; and,
lastly, (e) "the aid and ease of any poor inhabitants concerning
payment of fifteens" (the property-tax of Tudor times), setting out of
soldiers, and other taxes. The definition might be illustrated by the
charitable bequests of the next 60, or indeed 225, years. It is a fair
summary of them. (2) _Charitable Gifts._--A public trust and a
charitable trust are, as this definition shows, synonymous. It is a
trust which relates to public charities, and is not held for the
benefit of private persons, e.g. relations, but for the common good,
and, subject to the instructions of the founder, by trustees
responsible to the community. Gifts for charitable purposes, other
than those affected by the law of mortmain, have always been viewed
with favour. "Where a charitable bequest is capable of two
constructions, one of which would make it void and the other would
make it effectual, the latter will be adopted by the court" (Tudor's
_Charitable Trusts_, ed. 1906, by Bristowe, Hunt and Burdett, p. 167).
Gifts to the poor, or widows, or orphans, indefinitely, or in a
particular parish, were valid under the act, or for any purpose or
institution for the aid of the "poor." Thus practically the act
covered the same field as the poor-law, though afterwards it was
decided that, "as a rule, persons receiving parochial relief were not
entitled to the benefit of a chari