ren and
their subordinates were exempted from land service of every kind. They
have been frequently called upon to render service afloat, "and notably
upon two occasions--during the mutiny at the Nore in 1797, when the
Elder Brethren, almost in view of the mutinous fleet, removed or
destroyed every beacon and buoy that could guide its passage out to sea;
and again in 1803, when a French invasion was imminent, they undertook
and carried out the defences of the entrance to the Thames by manning
and personally officering a cordon of fully-armed ships, moored across
the river below Gravesend, with an adequate force of trustworthy seamen,
for destruction, if necessary, of all channel marks that might guide an
approaching enemy."

We cannot afford space to enter fully into the history of the Trinity
Corporation. Suffice it to say that it has naturally been the object of
a good deal of jealousy, and has undergone many searching
investigations, from all of which it has emerged triumphantly. Its
usefulness having steadily advanced with all its opportunities for
extension, it received in 1836 "the culminating recognition of an Act of
Parliament, empowering its executive to purchase of the Crown, and to
redeem from private proprietors, their interests in all the coast-lights
of England, thus bringing all within its own control. By Crown patents,
granted from time to time, the Corporation was enabled to raise, through
levy of tolls, the funds necessary for erection and maintenance of these
national blessings; ... and all surplus of revenue over expenditure was
applied to the relief of indigent and aged mariners, their wives,
widows, and orphans." About 1853, the allowance to out-pensioners alone
amounted to upwards of 30,000 pounds per annum, and nearly half as much
more of income, derived from property held in trust for charitable
purposes, was applied to the maintenance of the almshouses at Deptford
and Mile-end, and to other charitable uses for the benefit of the
maritime community.

The court or governing body of the Corporation is now composed of
thirty-one members, namely, the Master, four Wardens, eight Assistants,
and eighteen Elder Brethren. The latter are elected out of those of the
class of younger Brethren who volunteer, and are approved as candidates
for the office. Eleven members of this court of thirty-one are men of
distinction--members of the Royal Family, Ministers of State, naval
officers of high rank, a