Lambeth Parish.
The Times, 1824-10-16T00:00:00

A niumerous meeting of the inhabitants of this parish fook plaee yesterday, at the Hlorns Tavern, Kennington, in consequence of handbills, signed by three of the overeers, invitiiig the parishioners to assemrble, fbr the purpose of expressin- their assent or dissent to the settlement of a bill of'8001., claimed Sy Mlr. Thomas Evans, of Kennin,gton.cross, fair law expenses; thie monev for which, the handb Ils stated, Ite had obtainied upon an ante-dated dishonoured check. Soon after ten o'clock, Mlr. 'FALL, one of the overseers, was rce- qui.!este to take the Chair ; whichi he declinied, first, because the pa- grilhoners had not yet had sufficient time to assemble; and afterwards, because he should have to lay a statemnent before the mieetinqg, which he couldi not reguilarly do if he were chairman. Mlr. Powes, another overseer, was then appointed to take the chair, whIch hie did ; and after readling feom the handbill the pur- pose for wivihl they were assemibled, hie -requested that every genitle- rean shouild have a patient he-aring, and abstaiin from personalities. (Hear.) Alr. fllARTr're Jo-xEs took a p-reliminary objection. It was at thie annual vestryimeeting for auditing the accounts that this subject ought to be discussed ; and not by a pa~rish meeting like this, got together for party purposes,by mean's of an inflamnmatory, scandalous, and base handbill. There was a board of overseers, anid a select vestry, to canvass thieparish accounts. The parishi had nothing todo withi this subject. (Laughter, and a reply of " Nothing, only to pay the money.") Nothing at present, hie meant. rt was quite false that this bill had been paid illegally: it was paid accordfing to the laws of th~e parish. He- deprecated these party meetings, as tending only to interrupt the harm-ony of the parish. He was himiself attached to no party; hut for the reasons he had stated, he would move that this mneeting do now adj'ourn. Mr. BAILaY Seconded-this motion. M'r. M'Loc HLrT said that this meeting was convened becauise the officers hiad refused to call a vestry meceting upon tile subject. M1r.Roe'sey said that a mass of falsehood hiad been sanctioned by Mlr. Fall, who knew that they were not true. Mr. FALLc said 'ne knew that whlat was stated respecting this bill was peefactlycorrect. He opposed the adjournment. Captain ''LzrcagrR contended it had been regularly- decided that the bill shiould be paid. At all events, there would b3e an opportu- nity of objecting to the accounts in vestry. As to the select vestry, be thought it wasi a curse to the parish. (Hear.) The questioni of adjournmenit was then put, and negatived. A Gentleman p resent commencetl making some observations. Another Gentleman calledt out thatt he was thec parish coalmer. chant, and expressed his regret at not having tiled an information aainst him. (We did not exactly understaTnd amidsat the confusioni fotr w' at. ) Air. FALTL then enteredi upon a long statemneit of thne parish pro. ceedlings. T[here were eight overseers, ot whom three seldom acted. Out of these onlY two could be induced to Sign the check in qutes. tien, Until Mr. King returned from Ireland, and wvas persuaded to put his name to it. He hoped that the other party wouldi be fairl heard in reply to whatt be stated : indeedl, he hiad no enmity, towards Mr. Evans, althouizl he had endured a great deal of scurrilous abuse in consequence of having brought forward this business, Inquiries of this kind were generally met by a suggestion to postponie them to Easter Tuesday; and( then the reply wats, " Oh, Sir, you can do no- thinit to-day, the parishi officers are to be electedi." (flear, and laughiter.) The worthy gentlem-an was thecn proceeding to ex- plain the manner in which autlits were conducted, bitt he was interrupted by cries of "1 ordier," and "1 to the point." fie tllon referred to Mir. Evans's Will. It commenced in July, 1817. Now the overseers being made select vestrvmen, all those who had been in office since 1817 wvere personally responsible for paymenit of this bill, since they had neglected to settle it bef'ore they went out of office ; consequently they were anxious to hiave it paid. All hie (Air. Fall) askedl, was to have the conisent of ithe whole parish, in full vestry,to its being paid. At a select vestry at which lie attended, Mlr. Burgess, the chiurchiwarden, agreedI with himr that the subject shouldt be discussed at a public meeting of the parish, anti wished him to puit in a requisition, whiich he dit; buit Mir. Burgess, in the mean time, wrote to the othier churchwnrdens, anid the conseqttensle was, that on a meeting of the churceiwardens, the requisition wasnot comnpliedl withl. It was dlated 27thi Septembher, and the answer of the churchwardenis was tdateti 11th October. t Here there was, a call to reatl the names, accompanied wvith great confusL9n. I15Mr. Fall read thec namnes, antd also the answer to the requisition, which stated there was no inecessity for calling the mreeting, as the parishiioners might appeal against the accounts if tiseythouoght proper. H-e thcu proceede to state,that at a meeting ofthtle select vestry, the bill-thecelebrated bill ofi Mr. Evans-was determined to be paid; buitonly two of tIme overseers would sign thle ceck; the third wrote aprotest across it, in consequence of which the bankers refused to pay it. The names of thiree overseers were necessary to sanction the check; and because they couldi not obtain three overseers, they endeavoured to make up thae weighit by getting a church warden to sign it. (Laughter.) The churchwarrlen s natne was inserted at full length , anti the chieck sent in great haste to M1r. Evans, telling him to hurry- to the banker's, or he would lose the mioney, as a protest might be sent to stop pay. ment. Mr. Evanis -was mit dinner when it arrived; and as Lottis XVI. lost his headh, so Mr. Evans lost lils bill, by stopping to finish his dinner (great lauglhter) ; for he (Mr. Fall) wrote to Mr. Sikes, the banker, to say that thiree overseers were necessary to sign the bill. Accorditngly, it was refused payment. Hlowever, upoi Alr King's return fromi Ireltand, he wag induced to sign the old check somei clays afterwards, and it wras then paid. Its ainount was 7271., for whichl Mlr. Evans, in his receipt, promlised thiem an indeminity again-t tite consequences. Since thiei Mvr. Evans had surprised thorn witlianother billof20Ol.,wbi2h they cuit down to 1501. Mr. Fall then referred to Sir Samtoel Sheph)lerd's opinion in 1813, stating that thie officers for thle timte being could niot, without the consent of the wvhole paris4h, pay a bill co'ntracted in the time of their predecessors, who wvere not allowed to go out of office with accounts unsettled. The present overseers were, therefore, juistified in appealing to the parisli before they paid this. Mir. Evans hiimself wits a member of the select vcstry, anti yet his bill contaiited reguilar chiarges for at. tendance or, the gentlemien ini commrittee as he called them. One gentleman told him tuat lie hiad shown the bill to Mr. Schultz, who pronounced the charges to be extremely reasonable, but M'Vr. Schultz denied havng- ever seen it. Another gentleman, Mr. Rophy, told himn that Mr. Evans's name smielt so o6ffensively in the select VestrY, that whoever mentioned it was fined a bottle of wine. Mvr. RopHy, who had repeatedly interrupted AMr. Fall with the expressions, "1 'Tis f-alse," " All lies," &c., here said, " i n other lie." . , '[ian Mr. FALL oantinued. The gentleman (Mr. Rlophv) opposite re- mmiddcii im of the poor African whio wtat ,efore the Lord Mlayor somhe time ago,and replied "You lie" to every thiing that was said; the rea- son wiss,lsc was matter ofanmore English. (Great latigbiterand cheers.) Notwithstanding what Air. Rophy ?hen tolti Iiim, he afterwards ptit his name so the chieck. Only one gentleman at the table knew at the timie thlat it was for more titan 4001. Hle concludedl by moving that the accounits of the overseers he app ealed from with respect to Mlr. Evans's bill.I Whlen Alr. Fall had sat down, some discussion took, place as to whether Mir. Evans liad regularl1y taken out his certificate dluring piart of the period referred to in tie bill. 'This point, however, was not insisted tipon. Mlr. SC IturLTZ com1plimlentedlMr. Fall on the manner in whichi lie had discharged his duty to the parish on this andI every othier occa- sioni. i-I then atnalyzed t1he bill, antIc statedI thiat in many of the in. atances whiere 6s. fid. was cbarged for an attendance, one of the parish beadiles wouild have answered the purpoSe as wVell. In shiort, as he uinderstood that M r. Evans was about to resign, ho would hiimself ofl'er to undertake the parish businiess at a salary of 1001. per annum. Mlr. EvAvs, jun., said hiis father had already resignedt. Mr. Al. JoN;F.5s said, he wished thi s bill to be disctissed upon the principlts, of honesty. (Hear, aind a laugh.) Thegreat charge broughit against Mr. Evans was, that he had not delivered it in at an earlier period., Now the charges in it having beenp renounced by profes. slon1al men to be moderate, andI the overseers havin r receivedI fonds to meet it f'romn their predecessors, was it just to declmnepaying it,any miore than a bu tcher's bill whichl was a year or two withiout byi ng deiee,athough the meat hiad been fuamished at a motlerate price? =3ome years lago the overseers refuased to pay another bill, whiclh n,~eY were obliged to pay ultimately, after setting tie parish- in a flame. He moved, 'as an amendiment, that thlis mneeting do now adjourn. id Mr Rpsy Said that all the charges in the bill, except 1701., accrued since Lady-day, 1820. They wept most moderate ; and Mr. Evanls Was now willing, although he hail the money in hiis pocket, to submit the bill to taxation. He denied thiat he fintd ever chIarged for his attendance on the select vestry - andl lie was ready, ifdetected in doing so in a eingle insattnce, to focfeit the whole 8001. Thze parlish Ought rot to refuse to p.ay theirejust debts. Es plain TurcxEitt said thatit'the parishioners would attend thieir vestry-meetings, they would not have these unpleasant circutnsrances Occutrrinig. Ale. lArtiewoors defended the select vestry from the charge of feasiitga the expense of the parish;, and said he was authorized by Mle. Evans to sender his bill, even niow, for taxation. When he did so before, the taxation was declined for fear tIme officer would allow higher charges. He supported the am-endmuent. After somie furtrhur confusion and discussion, the amendmient was negativetl, andIthe motion for an appeal against the accounts carried almost unanimously. LA;.MBETH PARIS1!.