The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-07-29 00:00:00

SPECIAL VESTRY MEETING

fo„,. (7,

A special general vestry meeting was held in St. Nicholas'
Church yesterday, in pursuance of the act passed in the pre-
sent session for the administration of the laws relating to
the poor in the parish of Liverpool, " for the purpose of elect-
ing twenty-one persons, being owners or occupiers of lands
or hereditaments in the said parish rated to the relief of the
poor of the same parish in the annual sum of fifty pounds or
upwards, to be the first select vestrymen for the purposes of
the said act in addition to the rectors, the churchwardens
and. the overseers of the poor for the time being of the said
parish." The Rev. AUGUSTUS CAMPBELL, junior rector
took the chair.
Mr. LOWNDES, vestry-clerk, having read the notice con-
vening the meeting, the Chairman called on any parishioner
to propose a list.
Mr. RAYMOND HOUGHTON, one of the churchwardens,
then proposed a list of twenty-one persons, fourteen of whom
he stated were members of the Board of Guardians.
Mr. PATON seconded the motion.
Mr. BIGHAM complained that the name of Mr. John
Marsden Cowgill had been omitted from the list, a circum-
stance which he attributed to his opposition to illegal expen-
diture of the parish funds. Mr. Cowgill had served the
parish faithfully for some time; and he (Mr. Bigham) had
been told by a respectable gentleman who knew him well
that if he were put in nomination he would serve again. He
therefore begged to propose as an amendment that the name
of Mr. John Marsden Cowgill be substituted on the list for
the name of Mr. John Hand.
Mr. THOS. BERTRAM seconded the amendment.

Mr. RAYMOND HOUGHTON thought it right to say that
Mr. Cargill declined to serve on the board of guardians last
Easter.
Mr. HENSHAW said he met Mr. Cowgill on Tuesday last,
and he did not then express any desire to serve.
The CHAIRMAN then put the motion and the amendment.
Four hands only were held up for the amendment, and the
original motion was declared to be carried.
Mr. BIGHAM then demanded a poll, and after some de-
sultory debate it was appointed to commence on Monday
next, at ten o'clock.
Mr. WM. BIRKETT, one of the churchwardens, said that
at the last annual vestry it was resolved, on the motion of
Mr. Henshaw, that the attention of the churchwardens
should be drawn to the state of the cemetery. Since then a
public committee of the House of Commons had been ap-
pointed, and that committee had made a report, in which
they recommended that the practice of interments within the
precincts of large towns'abould be discontinued. The chair-
man of that committee had given notice that he would brin..
in a bill for that purpose on the 4th of the ensuing month'.
He (Mr. Birkett) did not suppose that it would be perse-
vered in this session; but if it were carried out in the way
i.
the report of the committee stated, it would
rinvolvecea very
er
large expense upon this parish. The churchwardens,
to wait tord evvn.hsi
h they
were
but
fore, under the circumstances in which they were placed did
not think it advisable to enter on the subject,
were recommended by the last vestry to do ;
s would take up
seemwrh. atitugneHrnAmwenhtowpeodultdhdeo wchuitrheitihwearbdileln.
the subject of St. Mary's cemetery for the poor, and if they
would not, that the council would.
The conversation then terminated, and
the meeting sepa-
rated.