the annual expenses of the institution. When a man devotes a portion of the earnings of his life to religious and benevolent purposes, he can hardly be supposed to intend that it shall be consumed at once in the annual expenditures of the institution. On the contrary, such donations and legacies, unless otherwise specially ordered by the donor or testator, should be considered as devoted specially to the purposes named, and devoted solely to such purposes. Such was the rule in regard to the other legacies now forming part of the Permanent Fund; and where the donors intend to apply their donations to the immediate use of the Societies, by an expenditure thereof, or to repairing buildings, as in the case of the Suydam legacy for improving buildings of the Seminary, such intention has been usually so expressed in the instrument making the gift. Without expressing any opinion that the Board of Direction have committed a legal error in this appropriation, your Committee wish to express their disapproval of any application of the principal sum of legacies left for the use of any of the benevolent operations of the Synod, which is not in accordance and agreement with the expressed intent of the testator, and more especially to condemn the withdrawal from the Permanent Fund, to be applied to temporary use, any portion thereof after it has become a part of such Fund, and has, as such, been invested. Such a practice, if continued, will tend to destroy the confidence of the friends of the Church in the permanency of funds intended to be made a part of such Permanent Fund. It has been seen from what has already been mentioned, that the Board have appropriated moneys from that Fund for the repair of the Professorial residences. It is true that they acted on the assumption that they did it by the direction of Synod, but such direction, even if given, does not relieve the difficulty or mitigate the evil and mischief of such a diversion. On the contrary its effect will go further to destroy the confidence of the friends of the institutions of our Church, if they find that such misappropriation of funds which were intended by the donors to be a part of the Perman ent Fund is ordered by the Synod itself. The evil practice appears to have been indirectly sanctioned for some time past. It is shown by the documents that were referred to us that there have been advances, from time to time, from the principal of that Fund for the payment of salaries, contingent expenses, and repairs on the Peter Hertzog Theological Hall, which amounted, after crediting what has been applied to the reduction thereof, on the first day of May, 1875, to $29,524 53, and it is apparent, as we think, from the printed proceedings of the Synod, that their attention was at their annual sessions directed by the Board or their Treasurer, to the deficiency in the Permanent Fund created by those advances. Your Committee are of opinion that Synod should express their disapproval of such action, and provide for making whole the Permanent Fund by restoring to it the sums that have been deducted therefrom It appears from the instrument of gift, dated the 13th day of January, 1873, executed by Mr. Nicholas F. Vedder, under and by virtue of which the "Vedder Lecture Fund" was created, (a copy of which is to be found at pages 738 and 739 of the printed proceedings of Synod in 1873), that ten bonds of the denomination of $1,000 each, known as the Equipment bonds of the Toledo and Wabash Railway Company, bearing seven per cent. interest, payable semi-annually, with coupons attached, and stated to be of the value of ten thousand dollars at par, were given to the General Synod for the purpose of founding and sustaining an annual course. of lectures, to be delivered before the students of the Theological Seminary of New Brunswick, and also to the students of Rutgers College New Brunswick, on "The present aspects of modern infidelity, including its cause and cure." The third article of that instrument provides that the lecturer appointed by Synod, after the delivery of a copy of the lectures delivered by him, to the Presi dent of General Synod as therein provided, "shall be entitled to receive and shall be paid the income of the said Fund for the then current year, but in no case shall he be entitled to receive more than the annual sum which shall be realized and actually obtained from said Fund." It will be seen from the above provision that the lecturer, on receiving his appointment, must be deemed as relying on the income of the Fund for his compensation, as is therein expressed and particularly stated; and consequently that no claim can now be made by Dr. Lewis on the Synod for any sum beyond the interest received and collected on the said bonds during the last financial year. No other matters referred to your Committee connected with the acts of the Board of Direction appear to require any special consideration. They, in view of the facts above stated, offer the following resolutions for the adoption of Synod; 1. Resolved, That when a sum is once added to and becomes a part of the Permanent Fund, and is so reported to the Synod and approved by it, the Board of Direction has no authority to withdraw and appropriate it to any temporary purpose. 2. Resolved, That the sum of five thousand dollars withdrawn from the Permanent Fund for the use of the Hertzog Hall, and not paid over to the Committee, be restored to that Fund, and invested as a part thereof. 3. Resolved, That the Synod make provision for the estimated deficiency which, as reported by the Board of Direction, will exist in the revenues applicable to the expenses of the Theological Seminary, amounting to the sum of one thousand eight hundred dollars, ($1,800). 4. Resolved, That the estimated deficiency of funds for the payment of the other expenses reported by the Board, amounting to the sum of one thousand three hundred and ninety-one dollars ($1,391), be apportioned among the several Classes. 5. Resolved, That the whole amount of interest on the Vedder Lecture Fund in the hands of the Treasurer of the Board of Direction be paid to Dr. Lewis on his producing the receipt for the delivery of the lectures delivered by him, as is required by the third article of the said instrument creating the Fund, and that the balance of interest accrued thereon during the last financial year be paid over to him when collected. Your Committee, having directed the attention of Synod to the deficiency in the Permanent Fund, arising from advances made for different purposes, amounting to twenty-nine thousand five hundred and twenty-four dollars and fifty-three cents, ($29,524 53,) as above stated; and to the further sum of one thousand and twenty-seven dollars and three cents, ($1,027 03,) for repairs to the Professorial residences; and to the additional sum of five thousand dollars, ($5,000,) paid to the Hertzog Hall Committee; deem that they have discharged their duty, and leave it to the Synod to provide such measures as they may deem advisable for the restoration of the said sums to the said Permanent Fund. Your Committee have considered the application of Professors Woodbridge and De Witt, for making provision of means to pay a balance due for carpets purchased by the Hertzog Hall Committee in 1866, of S. B. Stewart & Co., amounting to $294 34, besides interest. While they deny the authority of any committee to make purchases, without an appropriation of funds for the purpose, yet, inasmuch as the carpets have been used for the benefit of the students, the Committee recommend that provision be made for the payment of the sum remaining due, and offer the following resolution : Resolved, That the Treasurer of the Board of Direction be authorized to settle the said claim on equitable grounds, and pay the same when sufficient funds applicable to that purpose come into his hands. Your Committee have also considered the communication of Mr. Peter R. Warner, the President of the Board of Direction, in which he resigns his office as such President. As he states "that from and after the election of members of the different Boards "he "must decline participating in the affairs of the Board," there is no alternative left but to accept his resignation, although, by such acceptance, Synod will lose the services of an old and faithful servant; and they offer the following resolution: Resolved, That the resignation tendered by Mr. P. R. Warner of his office as President of the Board of Direction be, and the same is hereby accepted.* The Committee also recommend, that the Treasurer of the Board be elected by the Synod for the term of one year. Your Committee have also considered the report of the Committee appointed by the last Synod to secure such legislative action as might be necessary to restore the Treasurer of Synod to active membership in the Board of Direction. They find that, at the meeting of Synod in 1872 it was, on the recommendation of the Committee of Overtures, resolved, that the by-laws of the Board of Direction be amended by adding to paragraph 10 as follows: "No officer or person receiving a salary, or any emolument, directly or indirectly, from the Treasury, shall be a * See Supplementary Report. member of the Board.' That recommendation was made as stated in the report of the Committee, because they thought it their duty to look after all those instances in which the wording of the constitution or the rules of our several Boards might seem to conflict with a law of the Legislature of the State of New York herein referred to." (See page 487.) That law was passed on the 12th of March, 1872, (Chap. 104 of the Laws of that year.) It contains only one section, which is in the following terms, viz: "No trustee or director of any charitable or benevolent institution, organized either under the laws of this State, or by virtue of a special charter, shall receive, directly or indirectly, any salary or emolument from said institution, nor shall any salary or compensation whatever be voted or allowed by the trustees or directors of any institutions organized for charitable or benevolent purposes to any trustee or director of said institution, for services either as trustee or director, or in any other capacity." Your Committee have carefully examined the provisions of that law, and are clearly of the opinion that it has no application to the General Synod, which is a religious corporation, created by a special act of the State of New York, passed in 1819, and is in no sense a charitable or benevolent institution within the meaning of the law of 1872 above set forth. Your Committee, therefore, recommend a repeal of the said amendment of the by-laws, and offer the following resolution for adoption by the Synod: Resolved, That the amendment made in 1872 to the by-laws by General Synod, (added at the end of paragraph 10, as it then existed,) declaring that "no officer or person receiving a salary or any emolument, directly or indirectly, from the Treasury, shall be a member of the Board of Direction," be, and the same is hereby repealed. All of which is respectfully submitted. JOHN A. LOTT, Chairman. JACOB B. JEWETT, Dated June 8th, 1875. |