THE MACKINTOSH BEQUEST.

[From the Inverness Advertiser, Feb. 19. 1850.]

We can safely say, that we have not indulged a particle of partisanship in our strictures upon this subject, nor have we held the slightest communication regarding the proposed bill with any persons either promoting or opposing it. We took up the question exclusively upon public grounds; and as we are willing to believe that our local contemporary is as impartial as ourselves, we shall notice in a spirit of fairness and courtesy, some observations on our article, emanating, we presume, from the editor of the Courier. As people are always pleased with compliments, however their satisfaction may be cloaked by a little, decent disclaimer, we confess ourselves not insensible to the praise of being deemed " a generally able writer," though we suppose it to be implied that our customary faculty has failed in the matter of the Mackintosh bequest ! All we can allege is, that we did our best; and we shall endeavour to do the same now-albeit this theme so severely tries our humble powers. But we are so unfortunate as to discern no great difficulty in the subject. We think the question a very clear and simple one; and that all the embarrassments are created by parties who are bent upon overthrowing a will, in order to effect certain speculative changes, which they speciously attempt to intertwine with the interests of improved education in the " gude town" of Inverness. We give our contemporary, and all who side with him, the fullest credit for their zeal in the cause of education ; but we take the liberty of repeating, what we so earnestly insisted on in our article, viz., that a preliminary point must be settled before these fine educational schemes can properly come under consideration. Nothing is more easy than an ad captandum flourish at a town's meeting, about the efficacy of fresh funds in renovating the intellectual character of the Inverness Academy; but we beg to inquire whether any required reforms could not be wrought out at this moment by the respective trustees of the Academy and of the Mackintosh bequest?

We are not much moved by the Courier's objections to our "ponderous pleading" in behalf of the sanctity of wills. We are perfectly certain of the propriety and justness of our reference to the Scriptures as to the origin of the reverence attached, by common consent, to testamentary dispositions. Surely we must rise higher than the scrivener's subtlety, to account for so important a fact in the social history of mankind! A part, and a very humiliating part of the shallowness of lawyers, is connected with their total ignorance of the true foundations upon which legal obligations immutably rest. Therefore it is that their theories are mere wind; and their practice becomes debased into technical triviali

ties, which convert a profession into a trade. The Courier appears to have borrowed a bit of lawyer's law, in his assumption that "to alter the powers does not mean to alter the objects of the trustees." Who conferred the original powers, we should like to know? Did Captain Mackintosh consult a committee of the House of Commons, in order to adjust his bounty to his relations? Did the family of Farr secure the benefits of their residuary legateeship by virtue of an Act of Parliament? Oh no! All purely private interests are, it seems, to be sacredly sustained by simple reference to the intentions of the testator; but where a trust has been (with equal solemnity) constituted for public purposes, it may, forsooth, be altered, explained, and enlarged," under the pretext of bestowing great educational benefits on society at large! What misleading, unjust, unscrupulous sophistry inheres in all these vague generalities about benefiting the community! An "Investigator," whose very prolix, and (as we think) singularly feeble letter, we gave insertion to, is, it appears, desirous of dealing with the Mackintosh Fund according to the principles of the Utilitarian philosophers, who wish to promote "the greatest good of the greatest number"-by confiscating a fund applicable, at most, only to persons named Mackintosh! There is a dash of Communism in all these golden visions of anti-Christian perfectibility; and whenever lawyers and philosophers agree to hunt in couples, depend upon it that they will run down all truth and equity! Our critic of the Courier does not, however, avail himself of "the greatest happiness principle," but chiefly harps on the impossibility of administering the Mackintosh bequest without the aid of the Legislature; and still, adverse as he is to our views, it falls out oddly enough, that, like Mrs Malaprop, "every second word he says is on our side of the question ;" and, by way of requital, we shall now proceed to abet his side of the question.

We do not entertain any doubt whatever as to the gross mismanagement of the Mackintosh bequest, and we confidently assert, that if the Fund were wisely and uprightly administered, the Inverness Academy would occupy an excellent position as a well endowed Institution; for is not the monopoly given to the Academy, by virtue of Captain Mackintosh's will, equivalent to a formal endowment? We assume with the Courier that the bequest was meant to promote the education of certain boys bearing the name of Mackintosh; and this education is to be imparted at an institution which only professes to supply intellectual improvement. On inquiry, we find that funds which should have been mainly devoted to the education of as large a number of boys as possible, have been practically lavished upon the physical sustentation of families to whom certain boys belong. This palpable perversion of the testator's intentions has been accomplished

through the supineness, or something more censurable, of the trustees. If the managers of the fund think they are justified in giving a small sum on account of each boy to the Inverness Academy-and a large sum to the parents of such boy or boys, on the plea of education, but which in fact is a sort of peculium pocketed by the parents themselves-we must frankly declare, that the sages of the Inverness municipality labour under a very strange delusion. The results of such mal-administration would infallibly be, that the number of boys to be educated would be reduced to the smallest figure; that the families of the fortunate youths would be better fed; but that the Inverness Academy would necessarily be famished-inasmuch as the monies meant to be expended on the mental improvement of as many boys as the funds are "adequate to," would be actually employed in liberalizing the larders of some half-dozen domestic establishments! So here, thanks to the fresh scent which the Courier has kindly drawn us to, we arrive at the grand secret of the Inverness Academy's "want of repair," though it be, it should seem, "an excellent institution." The reason is plain enough. The Mackintosh pupils are few-in order that some Mackintosh families may be fattened; and the funds which, if allocated in the shape of fees would supply ample remuneration for first-rate instructors, go to provide beef and mutton for families—instead of languages and elementary science for a goodly number of boys. Have we not helped you now, gentleman legislators, who seem at a loss how to find pupils for the Academy, except you can wheedle Parliament into a revocation of Captain Mackintosh's will! Rest assured that if men will only condescend to allow conscience and common sense to have fair play, the honest and judicious carrying out of the Mackintosh Trust, as it now stands, is wholly void of difficulty. When candidates are selected, examine into the circumstances of each case; and while education is to be provided for all who are chosen, limit any extra succour, to such boys as really stand in need of it. For example, a proveably poor family, living at a distance from Inverness, might be, in practice, debarred of the benefit of the bequest, if their child were not lodged and boarded in Inverness, where alone the appointed education could be received. We are quite satisfied that the Trustees have power to classify the recipients so as to assist the poor nearest of kin; and yet by rigidly refusing to job away the funds to parties able to support their children, while obtaining elemosynary education, a much larger number of pupils would be constantly contributed towards the income of the Academy.

Of course we labour under a disadvantage in our non-acquaintance with the accounts of the Trustees of the Mackintosh Fund. We should be particularly gratified by being allowed to know how

much is paid for each privileged Mackintosh now imbibing gratuitous instruction at the Academy? When we visited that institution, we were informed (if we mistake not) that the number of the little Mackintosh worthies now flourishing there amounts to ten; whereas the presumedly correct Mr Douglas, in his "Supplement,' swells them up to twenty-two. We should like to learn whether any such classification as we have just adverted to, is laid down and enforced by the Trustees; for if not, the sooner it is resorted to the better. The administration of the Fund must be a fraudulent farce, if it be assumed, that a boy placed on the list of pupils at the Academy, thereby entitles his family to get a good annuity, payable out of the Mackintosh bequest-irrespective of the proved poverty of that family.

We trust that the Courier will now acknowledge that we have rendered the cause he espouses some good service; and that, on the score of this, he will deal gently with our "idiosyncracy" in reverencing the sacred Scriptures. If those Scriptures were more diligently searched for instruction in the every-day concerns of life, men would not be so prone to mistake expediency for justice; and to deal with a generous testator's clearly-expressed will, as if it were a piece of waste paper!

**On referring to the Queries submitted to Messrs Macneill and Rutherfurd, by certain Trustees of the Mackintosh Fund, in April 1842, it appears that the joint opinion of these eminent Counsel was decidedly against "increasing the amount of allowance in individual cases, as now proposed by Farr and Holm.” However, in direct contravention of this opinion, it may be stated, on the authority of Mr R. Smith, Secretary and Treasurer, that the Trustees acceded to the application for increased allowances on the part of Farr and Holm, and that there are now three children of Col. Mackintosh of Farr, who are sustained at a much higher rate than the children of poorer parents-thus inverting the intentions of the Testator.

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO REMEDY THE DISASTROUS DEPRECIATION OF RAILWAY PROPERTY?

Such a vast variety of national interests are now embraced by the operation of the railway system, that, essentially evil as we believe that system to be, we cannot divest ourselves of sympathy for the innumerable parties who have been seriously injured by the ruinous depreciation of railway securities. We have recently given free expression to our opinion as to the total want of wisdom and probity which marked all the railway schemes, under the failure of which the public now groans; but thousands hav

honestly invested their money in railways, who are victims to the villany of others, and for whom we should gladly see a way of escape. And without arrogating for ourselves any extraordinary stretch of sagacity, we think we are able to afford some instructive information and consolatory counsel in the present emergency. What is pre-eminently wanted is a true knowledge of the case, which it would be a futile attempt to gather from the grand nonsense and vituperative declamation of the Times; which, having made a fortune by advertising swindling railway schemes in that journal, whose circulation was availed of to abet fraudulent projects-now turns round, and with virtuous indignation assails the very parties who filled their printing-house pockets! We are quite as indignant at railway rascalities as the Times can possibly be; but at the very time when roguery was rampant, we pointed out the monstrous trickeries which were in course of perpetration; and we may add, that the Times was closed against the admission of all cautionary communications on railway subjects. But let that be-our object is to deal with the present difficulty.

That the almost destructive depreciation of railway shares took its open rise in the discovery of Mr Hudson's gigantic malversations, is an undoubted fact; but it is equally true that the disclosures made concerning this railway pagod, arose out of the inevitable embarrassments engendered by the rotten railway system. To bolster up fraudulent schemes, shares were profusely allocated to multitudes who applied for them on gambling grounds, hoping to get gain in that mart of iniquity, the Stock Exchange, by a speedy transfer from hand to hand. As matters maddened, thousands of tradesmen embarked in railway speculations-first to the neglect, and in the sequel to the great detriment of their regular business. But in process of time the Legislature sanctioned an enormous number of railway schemes, and the projectors were armed by law, with powers to carry out their undertakings by means of peremptory calls. And here began the discovery of the true state of things. Calls must be enforced, or how could lawyers and engineers extort thirty thousands pounds per mile for getting up and laying down a railway, whose very curvatures were to be turned into cash! Now we maintain that the penal enforcement of calls led to the revelations respecting Hudson. Men of straw, mechanics, servants in and out of place, were shewn to have been holders of railway stock, and could not of course pay for the furtherance of Mr Hudson's projects, he poor man being only a millionaire! The shop-keepers, too who had preferred railway shares to grocery or drapery dealings, now found that calls were eating up their little capital, and they must take choice of shop or rail! Reader, dost thou not see the matter clearly enough now! The adored shares, the fondly cherished,