chemical energies of the body, which incessantly
force upon it forms proper for its use in the
animal structures. For a time, the powers of
gravitation, cohesion, and crystallisation are
kept down and defied by the organising
forces; but we forecast the end, we know
that earth will triumph over the frame, the
house built of dust will crumble, and the
glories of the sacred temple of the soul fade into
the palpable ruins of a mud-built tenement.

It is an impressive task to follow the
steps of the chemist, and with fire, and capsule,
and balance in hand, as he tracks the march
of the conqueror, Death, through the domain
of vital structure.

The moralist warns us that life is but the
antechamber of death; that as, on the first
day of life, the foot is planted on the
lowest of a range of steps, which man scales
painfully, only to arrive at the altar of corporeal
death. The chemist comes to proclaim,
that, from infancy to old age, the quantity of
earthy matter continually increases. Earth
asserts her supremacy more and more, and
calls us more loudly to the dust. In the end
a Higher Will interposes, the bond of union
is unloosed, the immortal soul wings its flight
upward to the Giver of all Being. Earth
claims its own, and a little heap of ashes
returns to the dust. It was a man. It is now dust;
our ashes are scattered abroad to the winds
over the surface of the earth. But this dust is
not inactive. It rises to walk the earth again;
perhaps to aid in peopling the globe with
fresh forms of beauty, to assist in the
performance of the vital processes of the
universe, to take a part in the world's life. In
this sense the words of Goëthe are strictly
applicable.* " Death is the parent of life."
* See Household Words, vol viii. p. 483.

        Nothing of us that doth fade
        But doth suffer a slow change
        Into something rich and strange.

FLOWERS OF BRITISH LEGISLATION.

IT has sometimes happened that trust-money
bequeathed for charitable purposes
has come, in course of time, to be a little
misapplied. Rectification having in such
cases been occasionally needed, there have
been instances of application for that purpose
to the Court of Chancery; which, at the
beginning of this century, was the only tribunal
having cognisance of breaches of trust and
other matters connected with charities.
Some of the charities in question are but
small; providing, for good works, say twenty,
thirty, fifty pounds a-year. Therefore,
whenever it came to pass that the money of
any one of these small charities was misapplied,
they who objected to the misapplication
had to spend the entire funds, and
something more from their own pockets,
for a correction of abuses. Or, if it
happened that a little business arrangement
had to be made for the benefit of the finances
of the charity, consent of Chancery had to be
asked for and had, at a price which did not
leave much chance of profit on the whole
transaction. Thus, there was a charity at
Battle worth forty-eight pounds a-year;—the
rent of a house conveyed to trustees. The
trustees thought they would do wisely to sell
the house, and invest the proceeds in the
public funds. It was impossible to do this
without application to the Court of Chancery.
A bill was filed. It was referred to the
master to say whether the sale would be
beneficial to the charity. He said it would.
The sale, therefore, took place, and the money
was invested; whereupon there was a bill
sent in for taxed costs to be paid out of the
charity, equal to seven years income; being
upwards of three hundred pounds!

Again, there was an estate at Lawford, in
Essex, given for charitable purposes, and
leased at sixty pounds a-year. Some persons
thought the rent too little, and applied to the
Court of Chancery to set the lease aside. No
result was obtained except a subtraction
from the funds of the charity for Chancery
costs, to the amount of six hundred and fifty
pounds.

The consequence of such a state of things
was that, over and over again, charities
were altogether lost. Surviving trustees
frequently let them go to their heirs with
other property; and there was, practically,
no help or redress. Thus, for example, more
than two centuries ago, there were six
alms-houses given at Ashby in Lincolnshire, to be
supported by a rent-charge of thirty pounds
a-year. Trustees were appointed, and once
afterwards renewed, but not renewed again.
The trustees all died, and the trust was at an
end. Nevertheless, the land-owner's family,
upon which the charge was laid, continued to
pay for more than a century the thirty
pounds a-year to the vicar, in order that he
might distribute the funds according to the
will of the founder of the charity. At last,
however, in the year eighteen hundred and
seventeen, the representative of the family
then living was advised that, as there was no
person authorised to give him a legal receipt,
he could not, with what a lawyer might call
safety, go on with the payments. They
were discontinued. After several years,
information was filed against him to obtain
the payment of arrears, and also the
re-appointment of trustees. The arrears, three
hundred and seventy pounds, he was accordingly
required by the Court of Chancery to
pay up; out of them, however, costs to the
amount of four hundred pounds were ordered
to be paid; so that, to the charity, there
became due fifteen pounds less than nothing.

This case, it will be seen, illustrates the
action of the law subsequent to the year
eighteen hundred and twelve. In that year
Sir Samuel Romilly had introduced a bill
designed to lessen the expense of Chancery to