The Sun.
London, England, 1833-01-23 00:00:00

PARISH OF ST. PANCRAS.

MEETING OF THE RATE-PAYERS,
(THIS DAY.)

•
A public meeting of the Rate-Payers of the Parish of
S Paperer; was held this day, at the Institution, Gray's
Inn-road, N. A. VIGORS, Esq., M.P., in the Chair, for
the purpose of consulting upon the necessary measures to
be adopted with a view to lessen the present enormous
amount of the poorot ites.
The CHAIRMAN commenced the business of the meet-
ing, and said they had been called together to deliberate
on the affairs of their parish, to pass judgment upon
the mode by which they had hitherte been conducted,
to hear the statement of those to whom they had hitherto
delegated their interest, as to the manner in which they
had executed the trust reposed in them, and to give those
persons such further advice and instructions, as should
strengthen them in th-ir exertions.—( Hear.) One of the
subjects was the lamented and extraordinary increase in
the poor rites. That impost was grievous enough some
time ago, but it was now still more grievous, by the
exaction of four pence in the pound additional. The
second subject related to the salaries enjoyed by the
parish officers ; the delegates had instituted an in-
vestigation into those salaries, and had recommended
a considerable reduction in their report to the great body
of vestrymen, anti the meeting would hear that that report
had been treated with disdain and insult, anti that it had
been rejected.—(Shame.) The third subject related to
the accounts of the Church Trustees, who had refused to
submit the detiels of the accounts to the parish auditors,
and insisted in only giving the sum total. In conclusion,
the Chairman requested a fair and impartial hearing for
whoever might address them.—( Hear.)
Mr. BLAKEMAN said it was his duty to submit to the
meeting the first resolution. The parochial committee
had felt it their duty to invite the attention of the parish-
ioners under circumstances of no ordinary character, and
he hoped they would not separate without doing some-
thing which would tend to their own benefit and that of
the parishioners at large. The poor rates had been in-
creased 4d in the pound—increased at a time when they
bad a right to expect there would have been a diminu-
tion—(Hear, hear)—at a time when the state of the
times rendered such an increase the more alarming.—
(Hear.) If the delegates of the parishioners had acted
upon their own judgment of the conduct of the parties to
whom blame attached they would have impugned the
conduct of the majority of the Vestrymen, of the Direc-
tors of the Poor and of the Church Trustees ; but acting
on the principle of fair play, they had invited those
parties to attend this meeting.—(Hear, bear.) On
looking around him, however, he could not perceive one
of them, and what, he would ask, was the cause of their
absence ? Was it that they felt a degradation in meeting
their fellow-men ? He (Mr. Blakeman) would sooner
have to deal with aristocrats themselves than with such
asses.—(Laughter.) Probably they felt that it was not
convenient to attend and attempt to exculpate themselves.
Instead, however, of their coming, they had a represen-
tative in the person of a reporter, who had been sent by
the Vestry-clerk (Mr. Scadding) to take notes of the
proceedings.—( Cries of "Ah !" " Turn him out !"
"No ! no ! fair play !") The meeting would, however,
do nothing but what they could justify; and the reporter
might go back to his master, and say with what indigna-
tion the meeting viewed such proceedings. Mr. B then
went on to detail the proceedings at the vestry meetings.
In June last the parish sent the delegates to the select
vestry, for the purpose of correcting abuses and checkine
extravagance, and they found, that although they could
detect abuses, they were not strong enough to cor-
rect theta—that forty against eighty were too long odds--
anti that, therefore, their little party were for a time
defeated. He used the word " patty," because they were
elected and sent there as a party ; and if it should appear
that any of them have seceded, and broken faith with the
people, anti have joined the party who had so long been
offensive to them, the meeting would know how to express
its opinion of such conduct. He would now state the cir-
cumstances under which the rate of 4,1. in the pound was
imposed. When the delegates first went into the vestry, a cu-
rious proposiiien was made by the vestry clerk, viz., that as
there was a doubt whether the proceedings in the memo-
rable wealth of May were in accordance with the Vestry
Act, both sides should agree to have a friendly suit insti-
tuted in the King's Bench to decide the point.—
(Laughter.) The answer was, that they. the delegates,
had acted properly ; and, therefore, let the other party go
to law if they pleased. The result was, that no proceed-
ings were taken. On the 18th of July, a proposition was
made for an eighteenpenny rate, and for the purpose
of endeavouring to justify such a measure, the vestry
clerk was reluctantly ob'iged to lay before the delegates
the predicament in which the parish affairs had been
placed by the old governors ; the v stry clerk s tid they
had overdrawn the parish bankers 110/., that they owed
the parish servants, the collectors of the rate, 5001. ter col-
lecting the ratelevied on the 4th January preceding, and this
too in a parish the exchequer of which was annually nearly
7,000/.—(Sliame.) They were then told that th y
owed to the county-rate 1,823/, a sum which ought long
before to have been paid ; and to crown all, tt appeared
they were indebted to the new police 4,2921.—(L0ud
cries of " Shame, shame.") Those arrears amounted to
6.7251., and on that account that c Bled for an income 01
2d. in the pound. The delegates were informed
that there were outstanding rates amounting to 6,8361.,
which it was presumed by the vestry clerk would cover the
arrears ; but lie 'nide no allowance for the weekly expen-
diture which, at 1,400/. wont I amount to 8,4001. before
the new rare could be collected. Finding the recommen-
dation for the rate of 204. in the pound to come keno the ,
Directors of the poor—finding that, at the meeting of
the Directors recommending it, there were only eight in-
dividuals present, and the Vicar in the chair,—(Loud
laughter, and cries of edisapprobation,)—who, in his (Mr
B.'s) judgment, had much better devote himself to
his spiritual duties, and leave the parish matters
to be guided by those more competent' (for he had a
strong dislike to political Parsons) ; the delegates proproed
and carried a resolution to appoint a committee to ascer-
tain whether a 20d. rate was necessary—(Cheers)—and
to inquire into the salaries of the officers, and the
duties they had to perform. That committee s-it for
months, and gave their fullest time ,rl.l attention to the
subject, and at last tn+cle a repo.t which was rejected.
Although reductions to the amount of 1,8001. a year were
recommended, the report was scouted, aud they wet e
unable to do anything.—(Shame, shame.) On the 8 h
August, the Committee that had been appointed respect-
ing the amount of rate that was necessary, recom-
mended that 18(1. in the pound only would be requited.
That arneunt was 2,1. less than the Directors asked.
They were given, upon the recommendation of the Com-
mittee, Is tid. in the pound, by which they would have
an exchequer of upwards of 30,0001., which, together
with what they had admitted to be good arrears, would
amount to about 36,8001 , for the support of the parish
front the month of August to the present time;
such being the case, he would ask time meeting what they
thought was the situation in which the parish now stood ?
How the directors had expended the money which had
been raised he could not tell, the vestry not having the
management of the parish affairs or funds. It
was true the parish had one hundred and twenty vestrymen,
and he (Mr. B.) hoped that in a short time it would
have 120 vestrymen of its own choosing. The public
purse of the parish was under the control of 40 Directors
of the Poor, a term he (Mr. B.) hated, thinking it would
appear much better as applied to a slave-driver than to
one of the officers of a great parish like St. Pancras.
However strong the previous part of his statement had
been, those he had to make were much stronger, and he
felt convinced that the meeting would hardly believe
the statement when he made it.---(Hear, hear.) With
an exchequer of upwards of 36,000/ for a halt-
year's expenditure the parish was greatly in debt with
their bankers. He found, that at the close of yesterday the
parish could not have 6001. in their bankers' hands, if all
the cheques which had been drawn by the Directors had
been paid. He found that on the 11th of Sept. the Direc-
tore had borrowed 3,000/. from the bankers ; on the 31st
of the same month 6 5001. had been borrowed.—(Shaine.)
And on the Ist of January in the present year 1,0001. had
been borrowed, and at the present moment, however start-
ling might be the fact, the parish was in debt to the
, and the rate was pledged for that
"What has it been spent in ?
_p
ofwe suppose.") The meeting might
at bankers
h.
feasting, we