The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-06 00:00:00

ST. STEPHEN'S, WALBROOK.

In consequence of a notice affixed to the door of the church,
and extensively circulated in the parishes of St. Stephen's,
Walbrook, and St. Benet's Sherehog, a meeting of the more
influential inhabitants of the district was held in the vestry-
.

room, yesterday, at eleven o'clock, for the purpose of ° takiivr
into consideration the present dilapidated state of the church,

and for the transaction of other bu'siness.

Among the gentlemen present, were the Rev. Dr. Croly,
the rector; Messrs. Rock and Flight, the churchwardens;
Mr. Roger Cunliffe, banker; Mr. Whistler, ace.
The Rev. Dr. Croly took the chair.
The CHAIRMAN said that the meeting had been called for
the purpose of ascertaining, at the end of twelve months,
what had been done in the legal proceedings before the Court
of Chancery. He should, therefore, call on the vestry-clerk,
Mr. Crosby, to tell them in what position:they at present
stood.

Mr. CROSBY would rather that the Vestry should direct its
attention to particular points, on which he should give all the
information in his power.
Mr. ROCK thought it would be prudent to abstain from
entering fully into particulars, which might prejudice the
question before the Courts. He would have no objection to
advert to them by and by. but he decidedly thought that in
the present stage of affairs they ought to be very guarded
in their remarks. The two questions before the Courts were

certain to be brought on shortly, and therefore it would be
highly injudicious to make any observations which would, in
the remotest degree, interfere with them.
Mr. CROSBY might mention that the Master had prepared

the draft of his report, and therefore they might expect the
matter to be finally settled in the coming term. The result
he could not of course foresee, but he might venture to state
that very considerable deductions would be made from the
claim advanced by Mr. Alderman Gibbs against the parish,
and a very large amount of the law charges
would be disallowed.—(Hear, hear.) He certainly
expected very great reductions, if not an entire overturning
of the whole claim. With regard to the action at common
law, he had last night attended, with Mr. Flight, a conference
of counsel, and the special cause, as far as they (the
parishioners) were concerned, was settled. He might say
also that the opening view of the case, as stated by thet
counsel, was exceedingly favourable for the parish, and the
great probability was that they would have their just right
in all their integrity restored to them.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. CUNLIFFE—Then the question will be settled this
month ?
Mr. CROSBY—It would be argued this term, but he could
not say when the Court would pronounce judgment.
Mr. FLIGHT had attended the conference in the
chambers of Mr. Sergeant Talfourd, and he had
taken occasion to point out to the Learned Sergeant
the enormous waste of parish property arising from
the delay in settling this question. He had pointed out
also that many leases were about to terminate which could
not be dealt with until these matters were arranged; he had
shown that these leases had been under the former manage-
ment let for about half their value. He had further ex-
plained that the moneys received by Mr. Alderman Gibbs,
and which, according to the order of the Lord Chancellor
ought to have been placed in the hands of Messrs. Willis,
Percival and Co., the bankers, in the name
of the churchwardens for the time being, had not
been so paid, and that therefore in the event of
the parish obtaining a verdict, they would have no
security for these sums but the personal responsibility of Mr.
Gibbs.—(oh, oh!) Now, however wealthy that gentleman
might be, it would be much more satisfactory if these moneys
were invested in the names of trustees at the bankers. Ile
said this simply because, looking to the former state of
things, he found that large sums were lost to the parish,
through default of the churchwardens.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. CROSBY—Large sums have been lost by the tenants
also.
Mr. FLIGHT thanked the vestry clerk for having recalled
thatfact to his recollection. It was indeed the case, that not
satisfied with having let the houses at half their value, they
had allowed debts of the worst kind to arise. Now, if these
moneys, which ought to have been lodged in the bankers',
hands, had been employed in law purposes, it was doubly
pernicious, for it was furnishing Mr. Alderman Gibbs with
a weapon to be directed against themselves.—(Hear.) He did
not see on what principle it was that the order of the Lord
Chancellor had been treated with contempt. He had looked
again over the papers with regard to the minutes of former
expenses to the poor; and though many of his friends had
expressed themselves afraid that he had made a blunder in
his former calculations, he could assure them that on the
recent investigation he found them perfectly correct
He found that Mr. Gibbs had, on the first year
of his entering office, increased the rate four-fold.
and in the second year fivefold more than his pre-
decessors. Here was an enormous increase, for which
no reason had been given—for which no account had been
seen.--(Hear, hear. He would but advert to another point,
and that was, heath e state of the church. Was it to
be endured that the worshippers should shiver and
starve during the whole- winter, or, at all events,
until this question were decided? It was notorious that
many, more especially the old and very young, were obliged
to stay away from the ministration of their respected rector,
in consequence of the disgraceful condition of their church.
Were they, he asked, to endure this state of things, or to take
immediate measures for the warming of their church ? In
conclusion, he would say, for his brother-churchwarden and
himself, that their energies had not, and would not, relax,
until justice had been fully done to the parishioners of Wal-
brook.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. ROCK said that it would be remembered that in the
beginning of this unhappy question, when Mr. Gibbs' ac
counts were for the first time brought forward, that he ex-
hibited the parish indebted to him in the sum of 1,8001. for
the last five years.—(Cries of "Oh," and "Shame.") With-
out entering into any detailed statement of the present state
of their law-suit, he was fully authorised to say that this
large claim would be greatly reduced, if not altogether extin-
guished, or, what was equally likely, turned into a debit of
Alderman Gibbs. He was sure that one item of 70/. paid by
the parish of St. Benet's, and which was not acknowledged
-until the receipt was produced, would be deducted. Again,
he was sure that the sum of 2,000/. for law charges brought
against the parish during his administration would he ma-
terially reduced. Mr. Rock then proceeded to dilate upon
the payments to the poor, referred to by the previous
speaker. As an instance of the manner in which accounts
were passed in Chancery, he would state what
he had observed in the course of these inquiries. Among the
payments to the poor was a sum of 70/., which was submitted
for investigation. The proof of the payments was called for
and produced. It appeared to satisfy the master, and he
(Mr. Rock) observing that it was written on a very small
scrap of paper, requested to look at it. lie found that the
document was a quarter sheet of post paper, being, in
fact, the back of an old letter, and on this Mr.
Alderman Gibbs had himself written various payments
to the poor of 405., and such like sums, making in the aggre-
gate a sum of more than 70/. He (Mr. Rock) looked
to the date, but whether it was 1824, or 1844, he could not
make out. lie was informed that it was a rule in the Court
of Chancery to take the persen's word, on oath, producing
the accounts, for sums of not more than 40s. It would,
therefore, follow that a large proportion of that account must
rest entirely on the ipse dint of Mr. Alderman! Gibbs.
Whatever the' result might be, they had the satisfaction of
knowing that these accounts would yet have to be Sub-
mitted to business men—tradesmen—who would not he
so easily satisfied as the Master in Chancery.—(Hear.) It
was a remarkable fact, that Ald. Gibbs had the management
of trust money to the amount of 100,0004 among which
Walbrook figured to the tune 0f20,0001., and yet he declared
that for twenty years he had kept no books.—(Hear„) For
twenty years he had exhibited no book of accounts for the
parish of St. Stephen's, the accounts, in fact, being contained
on scraps of papers, backs of old letters, and the like.
Mr. CROSBY said that Mr. Alderman Gibbs had produced
what he called a parish ledger, in which the accounts from the
year 1825 to 1848 were inserted. They were all, however,
entered at the same time.—(Laughter.) There was also a
book of weekly payments entered from time to time.
Mr. Rocx would give the worthy Alderman all the advan-
tages of that fact.—(Laughter.) At first he (Mr. Rock) had
expressed his conviction that Ald. Gibbs had not misapplied
these funds to his own purposes, but he was not now of the
same opinion.—(Hear, hear.) Mr. Rock then referred to the
Chancellor's order, that the rents might be lodged in the
banker's hands. He regretted that that order had not been
complied with. The speaker concluded by trusting that soon
these unhappy differences would be terminated in favour of
the parish.
To a question from Mr. Cunliffe, Mr. FLIGHT stated that
the only moneys they had received was some 20/., the sur-
plus of sacramental money, which was out at five per cent.
interest on behalf of the poor. -
Dr. CROLY then, in a long speech, adverted to all the
topics which have been already so often before the public.
He described the condition of the church as disgraceful in
the extreme. In reply to the question of Mr. Cunliffe, he
had only to repeat that his stipend for the afternoon lecture
had not been paid fur the la,st three Yea";the sexton's salary had
been unsettled for a year and a half; and the organist's salary
was in arrear for about the same period.—(" Sbame.") This
was a state of things which entailed gi eat inconvenience
on these persons. He bad no wish to heap opprobrium
on the late churchwarden's head, nor would he cone
descend to characterise his conduct as it deserved, but
he could not see on what principle that individual
could attempt to justify his conduct. The first duty
of a churchwarden, According to the 89th Canon, was to
render a just state of his accounts within three months after
every year of his office. He thought they might lay it
down as a certainty, that where a men refused to deliver his
accounts he had none to give, and so he suspected it was in
this case.—(Hear, hear.) The Rev. Gentleman then read
a letter written by Mr. Harrison, of Walbrook, and dated
21st September, 1823, calling upon Mr. Gibbs for his ac-
counts. The demand was not then complied with, and Mr.
Harrison, ceasing to possess proßerty in the parish, the matter
dropped. These accounts were still denied to all but a
-select 'vestry.- He (Dr. Croly) contended that Ana. parishioner
had a right to examine in what way each shilling had been
disposed of. He was astonished at one of the answers
given by Mr. Alderman Gibbs. 'the deponent ad-