of such young gentlemen as the sons of the grand
masters (past and present), sons or relations of
the past and present registrars and others,
with names as significant as (George James
Blomfield, Alfred Plantagenet Frederick
Charles Somerset, the Hon. V. Byron, Dawson
Damer—certainly not legitimate objects
of any other charity than that which may be
required to forgive their presence there.
Upon exhibitions at the universities of one
hundred pounds a-year for four or five years,
and donations towards the placing out of
scholars, about two thousand pounds a-year
are spent. The school, in short, has become
the Charterhouse; to support the school as
one of the great church seminaries for the
feeding of the clerical profession, is the leading
purpose of its clerical conductors, and the
attendant necessity of providing harbour for
the eighty poor gentlemen is an incumbrance
to them; the Poor Brothers are, in short, a
bore. Not long ago they were brought into
harmony with the new form of the institution
by the declaration that none should be
admitted who did not bring proof that they
were members of the Church of England; and
a nominee of the Queen's was rejected because
he was a poor scholar—pious certainly, but
tainted with dissent.

Perhaps there is something not very
unnatural in this course of affairs. Riches are
akin to change, and the diversion of the
Charterhouse funds into the lap of the
church was to be expected, when the
distribution of them was left merely to the control
of churchmen. Nor do we care to quarrel
actively with that result. Such money as
this may very possibly be better spent in giving
a sound education to the sons of gentlemen,
and in making them worthy clergymen
and scholars, than in the mere diffusion of
a knowledge of the A. B. C., the catechism,
and the pence table among the poor. This,
only, we would hint to pious fathers of the
church. That as Sutton left his money in
charity, and not having been very pious in
obtaining it during his life-time, was particularly
anxious that it should be put to pious
use when he was dead, the church might be
equally well served if the blessings of a
gratuitous education, and support at the university,
were offered to the sons of a class of
gentlemen which surely does exist within the
bosom of the church itself. We have reason
to suspect that there exist a dozen or two in
the country of hard-working clergymen, who
give the food out of their mouths, and the
clothes from their backs, to find for their sons
that education which the Charterhouse
politely offers as a dole of mercy to Plantagenets
and moneyed men, to noble youths and
holy offspring of some race that claims alliance
with a bishop. The governors of Charterhouse
must know that there are gentlemen in
ample need of every indirect support that
can be obtained for them, by the care of the
church they serve with toil incessant. For,
to be sure, the Charterhouse has in its gift
eleven livings, and the fattest of these is a
rectory which yields one thousand one
hundred and four pounds per annum, for the cure
of souls somewhat exceeding one thousand in
number; while another yields six hundred for
the cure of four hundred one pound ten per
soul; another, two hundred and forty-four
pounds for the cure of fifty—nearly a five
pound note per soul; while it has also the
bestowal upon some industrious gentleman, of
ninety-seven pounds a-year for the spiritual
cure of two thousand one hundred and eighty-
three parishioners—for each soul ten pence
half-penny. We trust that we do not
outstrip the proper bounds of charity in saying,
that the benefit of Founder Sutton's money
would be felt as a more real blessing by the Parson
Adamses of England, than it can ever be by
any members of the hierarchy or aristocracy
of Britain; and that if Master Adams and
his cousins had what is enjoyed by Master
Somerset and Master Blomfield, Master Hale,
and the Honourable Master Byron, there
would be no desire whatever on the part of
the public to complain of churchmen on
account of their wish to appropriate the Charterhouse
school to the use and comfort of their
order. The school itself is well conducted—
Master of Charterhouse does not mean Master
of the school—we utter no complaint against
the management of that. We only point out
how in its development it has cast out, as
uncongenial, the element of charity, and how it
might be what it is, even in the hands of
ecclesiastics, and still be of a kind to make
the memory of Sutton dear to many: a
benefaction that might be enjoyed by the poor
gentleman with no more of a blush than is
now brought by it to the face of wealthier
recipients.

From the school we turn to the department
of the Poor Brothers, whereof nothing can be
made. A presentation to a place on the
foundation in the school, which to a boy entering
at ten, and able to go with an exhibition to
one of the universities, may be valued, under
the present system, at something not far from
a thousand pounds, is worth giving to one's
nephew, or bestowing as a mark of kindness
on the nominee of any noble friend. But a
presentation to a Poor Brother's cell and
badge of poverty. . . . Faugh! What sort
of patronage is that! The dignitaries of the
church are sorry, of course, for poor people;
but, then, these brothers claim to be
considered poor gentlemen; and who can grasp
the idea of a poor old man standing upon
points of gentility. Preposterous! The Master
of Charterhouse in his pamphlet is sarcastic
upon this; mentions gentility in italics;
and endeavours to show that the Poor
Brothers have no rightful claim to such a
thing. (We particularly entreat Mr. Thackeray's
attention to this.) In fact, the whole
Poor Brother business is a bore. It is
now and then, openly so declared, and the