The requirements for which it provided have often disappeared; for instance, after the destruction of the Barbary pirates, there were no more Christians to be ransomed; and only by transferring an endowment can it be perpetuated .-- But if, in the original institution, several accessory and special clauses have become antiquated, there remains the one important, general intention, which manifestly continues imperative and permanent, that of providing for a distinct service, either of charity, of worship, or of instruction.

Let the administrators be changed, if necessary, also the apportionment of the legacy bequeathed, but do not divert any of it to services of an alien character; it is inapplicable to any but that purpose or to others strictly analogous.

The four milliards of investment in real property, the two hundred millions of ecclesiastical income, form for it an express and special endowment.

This is not a pile of gold abandoned on the highway, which the exchequer can appropriate or assign to those who live by the roadside.

Authentic titles to it exist, which, declaring its origin, fix its destination, and your business is simply to see that it reaches its destination.