not, 'collectively or individually,' any beneficial interest in the
estates. In a sense they are trustees. They have important duties
to perform; but their powers and duties have all reference to the
_Plantation_, whose object was purely public and political.

Adverting to this judgment, it is not Derry alone that is interested
in the abolition of the Irish Society. Its objects 'affected the
general welfare of Ireland and the whole realm.' The city of London,
in its corporate capacity, had no beneficial interest in the estates.
'The money which it had advanced was early repaid, and the power which
remained, or which was considered to remain, was, like that of the
society, an entrusted power for the benefit of the plantation and
those interested in it. The Irish Society seems to have been little,
if anything, more than the representative or instrument of the city
for the purposes of the Plantation.'

I subjoin the text of the concluding part of the judgment in the
_Skinners' Case_, the report of which fills a very bulky volume:--

Lord Langdale said: 'The mistaken views which the society may have
subsequently taken of its own situation and duties (and I think that
such mistaken views have several times been taken) do not vary the
conclusion to be deduced from the charter and the circumstances
contemporary with the grant of the first charter. I am of opinion that
the powers granted to the society and the trusts reposed in them were
in part of a general and public nature, independent of the private
benefit of the companies of London, and were intended by the crown
to benefit Ireland and the city of London, by connecting the city
of Londonderry and the town of Coleraine and a considerable Irish
district with the city of London, and to promote the general purposes