In 1650 Oliver Cromwell made a new grant of the estates to the City. In 1662 a great charter was granted by Charles II. This charter restored the Irish Society, with the same powers of management as had been granted in 1613 with all the former conditions and reservations. The management of these lands by a Committee in London, quite ignorant of the place and the people, and wholly dependent upon reports of their servants, presented difficulties and dangers which, to us, are obvious. But it was an age for creating companies and enterprises all governed by Committees from London, and some of them so well governed, that the plan seemed feasible and convenient for all companies. Ireland, however, was a more difficult country than Hudson’s Bay or East India. [Illustration] {Transcription: VIEW _OF THE FRONT OF_ SIR PAUL PINDAR’S’ HOUSE _ON THE WEST SIDE OF_ BISHOPSGATE STREET WITHOUT _This was formerly the Residence of_ Sir Paul Pindar, _an eminent London Merchant; Consul to Aleppo; Ambassador to Constantinople and a public Benefactor during the reign of King James the first._ _The Vignette exhibits part of the First Floor Cieling._} The election of members of the Irish Society after this new charter became practically the appointment on the Board of representatives of the Companies concerned. There were two permanent and official members, the Governor of the Society and the Recorder of London; the other twenty-four were appointed by the Corporation. The Society became, therefore, quite naturally, the servant of the Companies, the responsibilities of the trust were forgotten or neglected, and the custom arose of dividing among the Companies whatever surplus remained after the management expenses had been paid. The management of the estates by the Irish Society is a chapter which belongs rather to the history of Ulster than to that of London. The case against the Society is simply that, instead of exercising a trust for the benefit of the estates, they acted as landlords for the benefit of the Companies. In the year 1830 the Corporation began to elect members of the Irish Society from the whole body of freemen. The first result was that the Companies lost the division of the surplus from the undivided estate. The Skinners’ Company brought an action in the Court of Chancery intended to force the Irish Society to become Trustees for the Companies of all the rents and profits of the undivided estate. The case was decided against the Skinners; they appealed; again judgment went against them; they took the case up to the Lords. It was a third time given against them. The judgment of Lord Langdale, Master of the Rolls, when the case came before him, contained the following strong opinions:—