Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-11-26 00:00:00

by name, but as the churchwardens, and rthus became
invested with a certain control over this fund in that
capacity. My right, however, to exercise any official
functions, ceased the moment I resigned office into the
hands of my successor, and, with this ant, my privilege of
interfering, directly or indirectly, in parish affairs, or in
any matter in which I had become vested with authority,
by virtue of being a parochial officer.
;Further, this fund belongs not to the parishioners of
Liverpool, as a body, but to those ratepayers only who'
have contributed to it. Whether the Voluntary Rate
Committee, as at present constituted, or the church-
wardens, or both jointly, are the parties entitled to claim
the fund on behalf of such ratepayers, is a point upon
which opinions differ. One thing is certain, that my late
colleague and myself hold this money in trust for others.
The right of ownership must exist somewhere ; and when
the rightful owners are for,hconaing, then we will hand
over the whale sum entire. But, as far as lam concerned,
I will hot consent to make any partial payments, after
the notice given by some pretended clainitants, that,
whenever such are made, they will at once commonce
actions at law against myself and Mr. Came.
There are yet other considerations affecting my position
on this question, not to be lost sight of—to understand
which, I must briefiy call your attention to the following
circumstances

At the close of the year 1854 the Select Vestry, upon
the recommendation of the medical relief committee,
voted certain gratuities, amounting to £469 lie. 61, to
the various officers who had so praiseworthily , and
laborionsly exerted .themselves during the time the
cholera was• prevalent here, and I was ordered, as
chairman of the finance committee, to sign cheques for
the amounts.
,In accordance with my instructions I did
so, and the money was paid.
The government auditor, at his audit in July last,
decided that these payments were illegal, " the said Select
Vestry not having first obtained the sanction and
authority of the Poor Law Board aforesaid," and sur-
charged me with the amount. I had the right of appeal
to the Poor Law Board, of which, of course, I availed
myself, and this stayed proceedings for the time.
neanwhile I commenced a long correspondence with the
board in London, and after being kept fire months in
suspence, lat last received a formal notice " that the said
disallowance and surcharge were lawfully made," but
that the "subject matter thereof was incurred under such
circumstances as make it fair and equitable that the same
should be remitted."

Surely, the experience before me of the danger I
incurred even when acting under the orders of the Select
Vestry, and, as .I and they conceived, in accordance
with the law, it is not unreasonable to ask for an
indemnity from the party to whom I ma) elect to pay
this money, when so many are squabbling about the
ownership.—l am, my dear sir, very faithfully yours,
Rev. Aug. Campbell. ROBT. HUTCHI3ON.
With regard to one part of that letter which referred to
a question of law, he should explain, that he had received
the previous week, as had Mr. Cares and Mr. Hart also,
a formal notice from Mr. Morecroft, that in case they
expended one penny of that money, there would instantly
come a law snit against them.

Mr. Jack Son : At whose suit ?
The Chairman : Mr. Kinder Liversidge's.
The folloWing is the letter I received :-
6, Clayton-square, Liverpool, March 24, 1856.
SIR,—We beg leave, on behalf of Mr. Kinder Liver-
sidge, to call your attention to the following resolution,
passed at the general Vesty held in M ty, 1854 :
" That the balance, .e 549, in the hands of the volnntary
rate committee, be paid, in fair proportions, to Messrs.
Collies, Atkins, Hobbs, and Livers idge."
We need not remind you that this resolution was passed
after the " rceipt in full" had been signed by our client.
The complexion of the affair was completely altered by
this resolution, and we cannot conceive upon what equita-
ble ground you refuse to carry out the resolution of the
ptrishioners, and to pay our client his proportion 3f the
sum of £549.

We think it a fitting opportunity, on the eve of the
Easter Vestry, to bri ig the matter under your notice,
and, more particularly so, as we are instructed if Mr.
Liversidge's pro'portion of the above sum, amounting to
,e 1.42 8s 44, be nit paid in our hands within twenty-one
days from this date to institute oath legal proceedings as
the justice of the case may require.
Wo write this letter in duplicate, and send the other
copy to your co-treasurer, Mr. Carrie. We also write,
with a copy of this letter, to Mr. Hart, the Vestry-clerk.—
We are, sir, your obedient servants,
Rout. Hutchison, Esq., JNO. & Menacaoer.
That vestry, it would be recollected, was a very stormy
one. It continued until a very late hour in the day,
after four o'clock, and broke up in great confusion. Tne
subject of the voluntary rate never came forward at that
vestry. Nothing was doneduring the following few mpnths,
until the Annual Vestry Meeting of the 14th of April, 1857,
the present year. He attended that meeting in person, in-
tending to make a full explanation of the whole matter to
the parishioners at large. That meeting alsolasted until
after four o'clock in the afttrnoon. It was of course
quite fresh in the recollection of all present that that
meeting broke up, like the former, in ceefusion, and he had
no opportunity of bringing forward the subject. The
opportunity which he desired he had not had until the
present day, from various causes which it was not neces-
sary to explain. Therefore, it was that after consulting
with Mr. Carne he determined to summon together the
Voluntary Rate Committee appointed in 1353. to meet
there, and to take.the subject into consideration, in order
thet they mig'et; decide upon the best cOursap beadopted
f(>:' the settlement of that long-vexed question. Now, he
thought it would not be out of place to state, if Mr.
Carne was willing, the differences of opiuion which pre-
vailed between that gentleman and himself, in reference
to the settlement of the question, in • the conversations
they had had upon the subject. There were a few salient
points with regard to the settlement of the question,
which he thought it right to bring before the committee,
because they would enable the members tar better to
understand, what was
,his own as well as Mr. Carne's
position with respect to it, and the difficulties which
opposed their path at every stage. an 3, perhaps,
make them better able to devise 81r03 moans
whereby the question might filially be settled. Now,
the first proposition of Mr. Carne was, that they
should make certain payments out of the fund, and defy
Mr. Liversidge and his friends—torte them, in fact. into
an action, and let the question be tried in a court of law.
To that course he (elr. Hutchison) had always offered
the most uncompromising opposition, because when they
had placed themselves in the heeds of a lawyer in 1854,
and got the opinion which he hid jest read, it seemed to
him that they ought to abide by thet opinion—and espe-
cially so, because it happened to be exactly his own view
of the case. His opinion was, that Mr.. Carrie and he
ceased to have any right to exercise authority in the
management of the fund, or in parochial affairs, and it
therefore became the bounden duty of them to hand the
money over entirely to some persons, whosoever ;they
might be, whom they should find to be the owners of it.
From the proposal, therefore, of Mr Carne, he dissented,
and had ever held the same opinion regarding it. The
second proposal which they considered was, that they
should call a meeting of the voluntary rate subscribers,
whom he always held, and still did believe, to be the only
parties capable of dealing with the funds, or deciding as to
its application, and whatever the majority would decide on
let him and Mr. Carne be absolutely bound by. This was
his (Mr. Hutchison's) proposal, but to this Mr. Carrie
objected, and no doubt he had very good and substantial
reasons in his own mind, fur declining to agree to it.
Perhaps, it might not be inopportune there. to mention
that he perfectly agreed with Mr. Carrie in regard to the
settlement of the claims which had been set up by Mr.
Liversidge and his friends. Up to the time of the Easter
vestry 0te1855, he certainly would not have consented, any
more than Mr. Gime, to give those gentlemen one
sixpence more out of the fund, but when they ceased to
hold office as churchwardens, then he thought the question
was altered altogether, because, if they handed over the
fund to whomsoever had the right of ownership, then
they were not responsible for the acts of those who
received it, in dealing with the money afterwards. The
third proposal was, that altheiugh 'there had been
differences among themselves, and also among the
lawyers, as to the constitution of the Voluntary Rate
Committee, and whether the committee of 1853 expired at
the vestry meeting of 1854, by flexion of time, and by no:
having been then re-elected, yet, for the purpose of
settling the question, all difference of opinion
should be laid aside—and he was quite wenn,/
to forego his private opinion in regard to that
point—and that they should assume the committee
of 1853 to ha still in existence. Then, assuna'n', a meet-
ing of the Committee to be called, he proposed to Mr.
Carne that they should abide by the decision of the
majority, and hand over the money to whomsoever should
be there nominated.' (Hear, hear.) Mr. Carne objected
to that. Mr. Carne would give his reasons, no doubt,
presently, which might be fully as good as he (Mr.
Hutchison) Zcould advance for his decision. Another
course would be for Mr. Cane and himself to resign their
offices as chairman, vice-chairman, and treasurer into the
hands of the Committee, and then leave the Committee to
deal with the fund, or the Committee might rescind the
resolution appointing them chairman, vice-chairman, and
treasurers, and require them to deliver back the balance.
Another course occurred to him. If he was right in his
construction of the resolution of the General Vestry, and
Mr. Carne and himself were only elected to the Committee
as Churchwardens officially, let them hand over the
money to the Churchwardens who succeeded them. This
question would have blcome more complicated if the same
Churchwardens had not been re elected this present year,
but fortunately the same gentlemen were still in office
who succeeded Mr. Carne and himself immediately on
their resigning their office.
Mr. Hart : The resolution passed by the General
Vestry was, " that the following gentlemen be appointed
a Committee to be styled the Voluntary Rate Committee
—namely, the Churchwardens and Overseers." &.!.
That does not say the Churchwardens and Overseers for
the time being.
Mr. Carne: That raises a question of law.
The Chairman: The rresolution quite bears out what
I hold, for the names of Mr. Came and myself do not
appear in it at all.
Mr. Hart : 'You are described by your titles.
The Chairman said the question was at least a moot
point on which lawyers were divided, and that was
therefore one of the difficulties which stood in the way of
a settleMent of the question. Assuming then that the
Churchwardens on', took charge of the fund in their