The Gazette 1918-19

JANUARY, 1919]

The Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Irelaad.

43

of £500 to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She died a few days after making the Will. Her property consisted of real estate valued at about £5,800, and personal estate valued at £417. The Law of Mortmain in Ireland, which is essentially different from the Statutes on the same subject in England, is substantially contained in the 16th Section of the Charitable Donations and Bequests Act, 1844 (7 & 8 Vict., c. 97), which enacts that " No donation, devise or bequest for " pious or charitable uses in Ireland shall be " valid to create or convey any estate in " lands, tenements or hereditaments for such " uses, unless the deed, will, or other instru- " ment containing the same shall be duly " executed three calendar months at least " before the death of the person executing " the same, and unless every such deed or " instrument, not being a will, shall be duly " registered in the Office for registering deeds " in the City of Dublin within three calendar " months after the execution thereof." If, therefore, the gift to the College of Surgeons was to be regarded as a charity, the legacy was practically lost. There is no clear-cut definition in law of a charity, but a number of charitable uses are set out in an English Statute, 43 Eliz., c. 4, which has its counter part in the Irish Statute, 10 Chas. I., sen. 3, c. 1. In a judgment which may be regarded as a classic on the subject (Commissioners of Income Tax v. Pemsel, 1891, A.C. 531), Lord Macnaghten reduces legal charitable uses to four principal divisions :—(1) Relief of poverty ; (2) Advancement of education ; (3) Advancement of religion ; (4) Trusts for other purposes beneficial to the community, not falling under any of the preceding heads. On the evidence before it, the Court of Appeal found that the College of Surgeons under its Charter existed for a two-fold object :— (a) For the advancement of education in its specialised form of the science of surgery ; and (b) for the discipline and general interests of its members ; and accordingly that the bequest was not of a charitable nature within the meaning of the Statute, and that the bequest was, therefore, payable out of the general estate of the Testatrix. The Court indicated that the bequest might have been impressed as a charity if it had been given to the College for the exclusive purpose of advancement of education.

New Members. THE following have joined the Society since October, 1918 :— Terence Byrne, Maryborough. Patrick J. Kennedy, Carrickmacross. Philip H. I. O'Reilly, 3 Upper Sackville Street, Dublin. New Solicitors THE following were admitted during Novem ber and December, 1918 :— Name Served Apprenticeship to John W. Bell, Uownpatriek Bell, Harry Bruce B.A., T.C.D, Clerke, William J. ' ... Conroy, John Stephen Patrick O'Leary, Bantry George Nicolls and George Lynch, Galway James Rogers, Tullamore John W. Callan, Dundalk. Arthur S. Coulter, Dundalk.

FitzGerald, Edward, B.A., N.U.I. Morrin, John Joseph Wilfrid Mulligan, Patrick T. J. O'Connell, John Aloysius B.A., N.U.I. Porter, Robert Kerr Sullivan, Barry I. Wilson, John Bernard Maxwell ... O'Connor, James G.,

John J. McDonald, Dublin

Christopher Friery, Dublin H. McNeile McCormick, Sligo Henry F. Brenan, Tulla– more Robert J. Porter, Belfast James Nunan, Mallow Arthur E. Bradley, Dublin

Demobilization " ONE MAN BUSINESSES."

THOSE members of the profession at present engaged in either Naval or Military Service who, previous to joining such service, were carrying on their profession alone, and not in partnership with, or in the employment of, any other Solicitor, and who now desire immediate release in order to resume carrying on their business, should communi cate with the Secretary of the Society. Recent Legal Decisions Mortmain — Bequest to the College of Surgeons —Question of Charitable Gift. An interesting and instructive case on the Law of Mortmain and Charity came before the Court of Appeal recently in Miley v. Attorney-General (reported (1918) 1 I.R.,455). A Testatrix by her Will bequeathed a sum