The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-08-24
London Letter

claims" arise from the postponement or
 the coronation on June T. The proprie-
 tors sold their seats with no intent to
 defraud the public. and the public pur-
 chased and paid for seats 1t confidently
 expected to occupy. Any sane person
 will realize that the thousands attracted
 to London by the coronation had ex-
 penses incidental to the sightseeing.
 Among these expenses were railway fares,
 hotel and lodging house bills. The small
 est of all expenses was that incurred in
 the purchase of a chair on the stand
 But while no effort is made to recover
 from the hotels and the railways many
 hundreds of seat holders cry out: eve
 want our money baok!' One or the fin- est of the stands erected for spectators wes that surrounding St. Clement Danes church In the Strand, Immediately to
 the west of the law courts. Command ing at short range a hundred yards or
 more of the route of the procession, with view down the Strand westward, and beyond Temple Bar eastward, the church yard offers one of the finest sites for a
 comprehensive view of the pageant along
 the whole of the course. The seats con- seauently let we'll and when the fatal
 news came of the postponement of the coronation. upwards of S30, 900 had been received, and the seats were selling as fast as the money could be taken. The firm who undertook the erection and let tirg of the stand were Messrs. Pattenden & Co., of Bermondsey street. It ap- pears that they rented the churchyard for the purpose from the rector of St Clement Danes at the price of S20,00O. Their contract with the builder for the erection of the stand itself, together
 with the architects fees, the cost of dec- oration and equipment, printing, adver- | Using, wages, insurance, licensing, and other incidental expenses, added to the ground rent, brought their total eXpendl- | ture to about ,500 Of this amount | S30, 900 was covered by insurance, and | they had taken in payments for seats when the coronation arrangements were | suspended $31, ,5Oo. They were thus, after | the payment of the insurance money,
 $e00O to the good, or 800 short of the | amount required for the return of all the l seat holders money in full. Under these | circumstances they, not unnaturally, ap- piled to the rector of St Clement Danes, | the Rev. J. J H. s. Pennington, to fore 1 go the whole, or a portion or his rent, in order to enable them to return the | money. The negotiations for this purpose
 nay os best given in the words of their | ci1 oular:
 When the announcement of the post pcnement of the coronation was first | made we were met in most sympathetic way by the rector of St. Clement Danes.
 end we thought from this that we might assume he would Gas he had been to no | expense, and consequently the price paid | to him for the use of the churchyard. 1 being his own personal right, was wholly profit to him) be willing, if called upon to | do so, to assist us in dealing with our stockholders. To our application to him, when ultimately made, and in reply to | our urgent telegram subsequently, sent l as follows: I've must send circular to our stockholders delayed for your de- cision,'' we have only been able to ob- tain reply, dated July 4tn, as follows:
 '.Will exercise patience, but cannot con cede your request"
 The explanation of MT. Pennington's kindly promise to "exercise patience" Is apparently to be found in the fact that
 there was balance of s3o0O out of his | $21, ,000 still due to him; so that it must be assumed in this gentleman's favor that he did not propose to levy immediate
 execution for the recovery of this bal ance. but having s18000 safely in his pocket, was ready to "exercise patience | in regard to the payment of the balance. | This noble display of a Christian virtue | on tho part O. a minister of the gospel | demands adequate recognition. On re- ceipt of the telegram Messrs. Pattenden
 wrote to the rector for further explana- | ton of lis telegram in relation to their request for his assistance in meeting the claims of their stockholders. fiis reply
 was: My telegram was intended to | cover the whole position of your liability | to me" As Messrs. Pattenden's opplca- ticn only had reference to their own lia- hility to the stockholders. this put the rector's meaning beyond all question. He | had nothing to say in regard to the claims of the stockholders. He was only
 concerned with Messrs. Pattendens lia- bility to him. The matter of the $3000 1 still due out of his s21,0O0 was the only point in regard to which he proposed to "exercise patience
 | Having, therefore as shown above
 sgugJ in hand to meet claims to the amount | of s31. .6D what Messrs. Pattenden de- | cided to do was to contribute $500 them | selves. making a total Of S10,500, and
 with this to return one-third of the
 money paid for seats. They made this l offer accordingly in their circular. When | every seat-hoider had been repaid 10 thls l extent. Messrs. Pattenden will still owe
 the rector s30O0, and the payment of this | amount will bring their total loss up to
 s4E0O. The stockholders will have lost | among them $210 GOO. and by a curious CO., l incidence this amount exactly corres- ponds with the rector's share of the pro- | ceeds of the speculation.
 | Practically the whole of the money | thus obtained for consideration which has absolutely failed goes into the private pocket of MT. Pennington The church. yard is in the eye of the law, the free
 hold of the incumbent. By the terms of the faculty which he had to obtain be- fore he could even erect a temporary building like a stand upon his freehold
 Mr. Pennington was required to make out of the proceeds contribution to the
 magnificent amount of three hundred pounds to some parochial church fund
 which is in debt, and also to set aside
 the sum of 5000 to meet any possible damage to the fabric of the church
 through the erection of the stand. The
 last item is purely a hypothetical lia- bility, every precaution against damage to the church having been taken. With the exception, therefore, of these
 amounts, all the rest of the money paid goes to the rector personally. who stands to make HS,5o0 by the coronation which never took place and declines to refund | one half-penny to the people who have | paid their money in expectation of that event. That he has the legal right to do | so, no one can question. He is not even
 in the unhappy position of the vendors