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Mr. HIBBERT, of Kentish Town, moved the second resolution, which he read as follows:"That petitions be presented to both Houses of Parliament expressive of our regret that repeated applications for redress of parochial grievances have hitherto obtained for us no relief, and calling upon the Legislature to pass into a law the Bill presented by Sir J. C. Hobhouse for the better regulation of Vestries: -That the following be adopted, as the petition of this Meeting, and be signed as such by the Chairman"

-responsible power. Of the 122, about 40 ming, the vestry-clerk, before a Committee of formed a Committee, to manage the affairs of the House of Commons, who, he said, had the parish; but it was rarely that more than proved too much. (Hear.) He had the as-10 acted; and this junta had all the power of surance and audacity to assert, that out of five filling up vacant offices and expending the hundred names of rate-payers affixed to a paparish money as they pleased. (Hear.) On per laid before a Committee of the House, not the day of nomination, a list of 40 was made fifty were respectable. (Who pays him?) The out, if 20 were to be elected. Dr. Moore was Committee laughed at the observation of this the Chairman of the Select Vestry, and with | over-paid public officer, who libelled the the vestry-clerk the junta managed matters parishioners (hear, and shame), but was conin the following way :-Who is first in the tent to draw from their pockets annually above list? says Dr. Moore. (Laughter.) Major 1,8001. (Cries of shame burst from the crowd.) Revell, says the vestry-clerk. Why, that is If the people were united like the bundle of the man who made a speech against our Select sticks in the fable, this infamous system of Vestry, exclaims Dr. Moore. Scratch him plunder could not continue. (It shall not.) out. (Laughter.) The next is Mr. Withers, The resolution was carried unanimously of Clarendon-square, who has for years op-amidst loud cheering. posed the Vestry, and called public attention to Sir J. C. Hobhouse's Bill-scratch him out. Next is Mr. Charles Forbes-that will dodon't scratch him. (Laughter.) Here is Mr. Wyse next. We don't know him-we must have a Select Committee of the vestrymen to ascertain his opinions. Next is Mr. Hemin aye, he never says nothing-he'll do. (Loud laughter.) This gentleman gave a history of the opposition the Committee had met with from the Vestry, and stated that they could only get to see the accounts by a motion in the House of Commons for their production (hear, hear), and the Committee made out the strongest possible case against the system before, a Committee of that House. The aunual sums raised in the parish, over which the rate-payers had no control, were under the heads of Poor, Police, County, and Roads, 70,0001. (hear), and Church 14,0007., making, in total, 81,0007. This was the "Select's" own account; but their balance-sheet was not true. (Hear.) The gentleman went into a long detail to show that the " Select " had placed under the head of " Poor," the Police, and the latter, instead of being 2d., as represented, was 114d. in the pound. (Shame.) This Select Vestry obtained existence under a Government the worst and most corrupt that ever existed in this country. (Yells.) It was under the administration of Lord Castlereagh that this bill was passed into a law, and the people had the power to resist it in that constitutional way that would render it a mere nullity. (Cheers.) He concluded by proposing the following resolution :

"That the Select Vestry Act for regulating this parish is opposed to all principles of justice, and subversive of the constitution of this country; that it has proved bad in practice, and excludes the rate-payers from all control over the receipts and expenditure of the parish funds; that a self-elected few appointed for life, with power to fill up vacancies, are auditors of their own accounts, and free from all responsibility, and exclude the many from the enjoyment of their inalienable right to manage their parochial affairs."

Mr. WALLIS Seconded the motion, and entered into a detail of facts regarding the Select Vestry, and also the conduct of Mr. Hem

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"To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled

"The petition of the rate-payers` of the parish of St. Pancras, in the county of Middlesex, in Public Meeting assembled

"Showeth-That your petitioners have, on repeated occasions, especially in a petition signed by 5,500 householders, approached your honourable House with complaints of the local grievances under which they have been oppressed; and deeply regret that your honourable House has not yet deemed it expedient to adopt any measure for their relief.

"That the system of self-elected vestries is contrary to the spirit of the constitution and subversive of the first principles of justice.

"That your petitioners have no means of controlling the expenditure of the parochial revenue.

"That an irresponsible body are the auditors of their own accounts, and your petitioners have been rated in an oppressive and unequal manner to such an expenditure, both wanton and vexatious.

"That your petitioners view with alarm the present excited state of the parish, and earnestly pray your honourable House to pass into a law a bill brought into your honourable House by Sir John C. Hobhouse, Bart., 'For the better regulation of Vestries, and for the appointment of auditors of accounts in certain parishes in England and Wales,' which bill will secure to your petitioners their just and inalienable right to elect vestrymen and other parochial officers to manage the expenditure of the parish funds, and to obtain a re-es

tablishment of peace and concord, so essential | should not halloo before they are out of the to the interests of the parish,

wood. The Select might make brokers-but could they get buyers to purchase the property? That was the question. He seconded the motion, which was carried unanimously and with cheers.

Mr. BLESLEY moved, "That Joseph Hume,

Parliament, be requested to present the foregoing Petition, and to support its prayer; and Lord King that to the House of Lords."

"And your petitioners will ever pray, &c." He (Mr. Hibbert) in continuation said, he fully concurred with the resolution; and he felt confident the petition would be adopted unanimously, as it was a declaration that their rights had been usurped by a self-elected ir-Esq, the independent member for this county in responsible power. A vestry, in his opinion, ought to be governed by a republic (cheers), and the expenditure should be entirely under their own control, by which they would pre- Mr. MURPHY, in seconding the motion, said vent such shamefully extravagant salaries they had intrusted their petition to the care of being paid and such imprudent outlay of the Gentlemen whom he approved of, but he was parish money. There would then be no de- not partial to petitioning (bear),—in fact he ception practised by placing "police" under objected to it, and preferred the practice of the head of "poor." He did not oppose the ancient times, when the constitutional mode poor-rate-he wished the poor to be main-of addressing the Legislature was, not by petained, and if the labourer was paid as libe- tition, but by firm remonstrance. (Cheers.) ally as he ought to be, there would be no oc- They did not simply ask for a redress of casion, when in old age and worn out, for grievances-they had arrived at that point him to beg at the workhouse for the paltry when they must act, and that determinedly, pittance that was weekly doled out to paupers. maufully, and fearlessly. (Cheers.) He trusted (Cheering.) There was one rate which he every parish would come forward with a noble most couscientiously opposed-the Church-independence, and loudly proclaim their derate. (Hear and cheers.) The Quakers had years ago refused to pay to the support of rich pluralists, and if the Dissenters generally followed the example, the Church must support itself. (Cheering.) The church affairs of that parish had been badly managed. They obtained a vote of 40,000l. (cries of 42,000.) for the building of a church and chapel, and before they were built the Select Vestry had expended 220,000l. (Cries of "abominable, shame.") He contended, that as the Vestry had done this without the consent of the parishioners, the Vestry ought to pay the money. He entirely agreed with that part of the bill giving annual elections, and he trusted they would become general all over the countrybelieving, as he did, that the republican parts of our institutions were the most valuable in the constitution. (Cheers.)

Mr. CHILDS seconded the resolution. He approved of the principle that the people whom they found petitioning in vaiu-should take the power into their own hands. (Hear.) This was the last time he would petition. (Cheers.) The Select Vestry are a corrupt body, and twenty years ago many of them were as poor as any there. How had they got their riches and their carriages? By a system which robbed the widow and orphan. (Hear, hear, and "shame.") The tradesman was plundered by the tyrants; and if sudden death were to be the consequence of his resisting such a system of plunder he would dare the consequences. (Bravo, and cheers.) If their goods were seized and taken to the salerooms, he advised the parishioners to fill the -room so full that the auctioneer could not turn them out (Hear, and laughter, and cries of "No bidders.") He had heard that the brokers in the parish had had a meeting, and had determined not to act under the authority of the Vestry, (cheers,) and that the Israelites had determined not to buy. (Bravo.) They

termination to repossess the rights which they had been deprived of by the infamous Vestry Bill, and aid the struggle in which they are engaged to effectually destroy the withering arm of oppression. The petition stated that they formerly possessed the power of electing responsible persons to fill the parish offices. Of this right they were deprived when corruption was at its height. At that period a corrupt oligarchy nominated a majority of the Members of the Commons, and that wretch who

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a name odious to the ears of every true Englishman-assisted in this infamous invasion of their constitutional rights. (Cheers.) It was a singular fact that the infamous Vestry Bill was passed at the very period when the people were petitioning from all parts of the country for a reform in Parliament. He had to complain of another atrocious violation of the liberties of Englishmen. Peel and others, with the aid of a corrupt House of Commons, had given existence to another system more unconstitutional in its character, and odious in its consequences, than any system which had been adopted for the last three hundred years. He alluded to the present system of military police. If, however, the parish authorities had done their duty by appointing efficient men to guard our lives and property, instead of putting on the watch the old infirm paupers who could not take care of themselves, there never would have been a New Police. (Hear, and "True, true.") All the evils of the old system of police now existed under the new. He called the attention of the meeting to the case of two policemen who were charged at Worship-street Office with obtaining 507. from the mother of a prisoner named Jones to forego a prosecution. (Cries of" Infamous villains.") It was a most diabolical case, and the system was beginning to show itself in all its hideous deformity.

fund, and every rate-payer whose name was
affixed to the declaration would meet with
protection in case he was distrained upon be-
fore the Commissioners. He would not con-
clude without stating one fact, viz., that two
of the Aldermen of London were members of
the Select Vestry of St. Pancras, viz., Alder-
man Birch, a cook; and Alderman Cowan, a
tallow chandler. (Hear.)
There was soup
and lights (Laughter.) They belonged to a
self-elected body out of the City, and had
either lent themselves to corruption, or had
failed to discharge those duties for which they
were elected. It was said that Alderman
Cowan, as juuior Alderman of the City, was to
be returned in opposition to the public-spirited
Lord Mayor; but he (Mr. Murphy) thought
the Alderman would find himself mistaken,
for he (Mr. Murphy) had made such a com-
motion in the Ward against the Alderman,
that his chance of success was out of the
question.

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Mr. WITHERS seconded the motion, which was put, and carried unanimously.

(Cheers.) In truth, it consisted of a body un- per centage to themselves, to build the constitutional in its character, and their prac-churches, he concluded by moving the adoptices were most oppressive and tyrannical. It tion of the declaration which had been read was threatened that those attending the meet- by the chairman. He called upon every paing would be indicted for a conspiracy; but rishioner to sign the declaration, and to assist they would take care to violate no law. The the Committee by subscribing towards the law did not oblige them to pay money; the law allowed their goods to be distrained, and to be taken for sale; but the law did not provide any one to buy them. (Cheers.) He was told the brokers would not buy (cheers); and he was proud in belonging to a parish where not one broker could be found who would buy his fellow-parishioners' goods if they were seized for rates. That meritorious class, the Jews, who like to buy a "pargain" (laughter), had also resolved not to buy the goods. At the intended sale of Messrs. Potter and Savage's goods, he observed a hand-writing on the wall, in Hebrew, and on being transJated by a Jew, it was stated to be a denuncia- | tion of the curse of God on all who bought. (Cheering) If any parishioner was seized upon for rates, he ought instantly to apply to the Committee, and they would resist in a constitutional manner. According to the constitution of England, resistance to oppression was legal. The first lawyers this country ever produced admitted, that the Revolution of 1688 was legal and constitutional; and, as regarded the serious question under deliberation, they had arrived at a crisis when forbearance was no longer a virtue, and resistance no longer a crime. (Cheering.) They would not tamely submit to be robbed of the money they earned by hard labour. Their Vestry-Clerk had 4007. a year for filling that situation. (Hear.) He had also 6201. per annum, as Clerk to the Directors. (Hear, and "Shame.") | He had 3001. more as Clerk to the Church Trustees, ("Abominable, Shame, Infamous, &c.") and 100l. per annum more as Clerk to the Local Magistrates ("Shame, shame"), making in the whole, 1,4207. per annum wrung from the rate-payers, who possessed no power of appointing the officers, or of re- "That a subscription be now commenced, moval in the case of misconduct. (Shame.) to protect every individual who may think proBesides this there was a charge of ds. for every per to sign the foregoing declaration from all summons issued to rate-payers, and in one persecution emanating frem the Vestry, or year there were from twelve to sixteen hun-other irresponsible authority, in attempting to dred summonses issued. If this was pocketed by the Vestry-Clerk, his annual receipts must be between two and three thousand pounds. (Infamous.) There was an item in the vestry account of 247. for marking weights and measures, whereas it was a fact that every tradesman paid at the Court-house for every measure or weight that was marked. (Hear.) There was another subject of importance. The churches which were to have cost 40,000l., and on which 200,0007. had been expended, were not the people's churches when completed. The parishioners would then have to pay a high rent for pews (hisses, aud shame!), or would not be admitted. This was injurious to the cause of religion, and was not so in foreign countries. After some observations respecting the select lending money at a high

Mr. SAVAGE stated to the meeting what the parishioners of Marybonne had done, in supporting him and his friend Potter against the seizure of their goods by the Select Vestry. He said that all the parishes which had united with each other to resist the Select Vestries, were to a man determined not to pay rates unless they had the election of their own officers, and possessed a control over the parish funds. The Government had płedged itself to take the subject into consideration; and he felt confident that Sir J. C. Hobhouse's bill would be passed into a law. (Cheers.)

The following resolutions were afterwards carried unanimously :

enforce the payment of rates assessed by them.

"That a Committee, consisting of the following gentlemen, with power to add to their number, be appointed to receive and appropriate the aforesaid subscription; to act in cooperation with the Committees of any parishes subject to any irresponsible Vestries, or to other parochial grievances, and determined to act in concert with ourselves in withholding the payment of parochial rates, until justice shall have been secured to all.

"That the thanks of this meeting are eminently due, and are hereby given, to our spirited fellow-parishioner, Henry Revell, Esq., our Chairman this day."

Major REVELL. returned thanks, and the meeting separated, after entering into a sub scription.

POOR MAN STARVED TO

DEATH.

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So

of a coroner's inquest, held last Monday evening, on the body of an unfortunate young man, named John Somers, who died on the preced. THE people of St. Pancras, as well as ing Saturday, in the infirmary of the House those of Marybonne, make no complaint conformable to law-they found that "Deof Correction. The verdict of the Jury was on the score of the poor-rates, that is to ceased died a natural death, by the visitation say, of the sums which are necessary to of God, brought on by extreme want, in conthe relief of the poor. We see that, in sequence of his having been refused relief by that parish, fourteen thousand pounds in the parish officers of St. George-in-the-East, in the county of Middlesex." No inquest one year have been collected for church-jury could do more-they have no right to go rates, and that, even after that, the peo-beyond an inquiry into the proximate cause ple have to pay for the pews. We see of dissolution. They found that the man died that one of the clerks employed by their rish officers will be of no avail in the preven from starvation, but their censure on the paSelect Vestry pockets more than two tion of similar catastrophes, unless the subject thousand pounds a year. It is in this be taken up in some higher quarter, wherein way that the far greater part of the the power of redress is vested. The death of money is expended. But, while such a human being-a death so horrible too, brought about by slow consuming hunger-is extravagance reigns in this respect, let no small matter for reflection. Justice and us now see what is done, in some humanity demand that the causes from which parishes particularly, with regard to the such effects spring, be thoroughly and poor. A poor man has lately been promptly investigated. Let us see what are the facts of this distressing occurrence. starved to death, in consequence of re-mers, who was only twenty-eight,years old, fusal of parish relief by the parish offi- was a ship-painter by trade. Being unable cers of St. George-in-the-East; which to procure employment, and driven to the parish officers, as we shall see, acted very last extremity, he applied to the parish officers of St. George-in-the-East, upon the recommendation of one and those persons, acting in accordance WALKER, a hired police magistrate in with Mr. Walker's suggestion, refused the Lambeth division. This is a great relief! The wretched man had neither case: this is of far more importance to money nor food-he was without a home, us than it is whether DoN MIGUEL Oor or means of procuring one. At night he went to the station-house, and craved shelter, but DONNA MARIA sit on the throne of Por-there also he was repulsed-these receptacles tugal. Here is a man who dies for want of food in a country where theft is punished with death, but where the law says that there is relief ready in every perish to relieve a man from the necessity of thieving. I shall first insert from the Sunday Times of the 11th of September an account of this matter, and then another account from the Morning Herald of the 13th of September. When I have inserted them, I shall, after a few remarks from myself, insert the address of the aforesaid WALKER; and after that, an answer which was given to him, and an excellent answer, by Mr. THOMAS SINGLE, churchwarden, of Mile-end.

(Sunday Times.)

Notwithstanding the large sum annually levied in this country, by means of the poors' rate, it is a melancholy fact-one, indeed, to which we cannot close our eyes-that many human beings literally die through want of food! We have before us a most appalling instance of this terrible result, in the report

are not appropriated to the destitute, they receive none but the criminal and the disorderly tion, and could not be admitted. The alternative flashed across his anxious mind; any act of crime or violence would entitle him to a shelter for the night at least. In a state of desperation he rushed to the nearest shop, dashed his hand through the window, but without any felonious intent, and thus accom plished his object. He was made prisoner. That night he rested in the station-house; the next day he was brought before Mr. Walker, at breaking the window; he did not deny it, but Lambeth-street police office, charged with pleaded the facts already described in extenuation of the offence. The magistrates treated it as a case of "wilful damage," and gave him the option either of paying three shillings

-he did not come within either denomina

(payment of three shillings from a man who

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had not three-pence to give for a meal or a bed!) or to be committed as a rogue and vagabond." The sufferer had no alternative, no choice-he was committed, and in what state? We will take the description of those who had no interest in aggravating the facts of this already painfully touching case, namely the Governor of the House of Correction, the Surgeon, and an Assistant in the prison infirmary. There can be no misrepresenta

tion here, their evidence being given on oath. | the same privations? That there are too The Governor (Colonel Chesterton) says

"The deceased was brought to this prison on the 5th. He was so weak that it was with difficulty he could be got within the gate-he could not walk up the steps of the prison. I ordered his filthy rags to be taken off with as much caution as possible, and had him placed in the convalescent ward of the infirmary."

many who so end their wretched existence,
unnoted and unpitied, we have reason to be-
lieve. "The steeled jailer," we are told, “is'
seldom the friend of man ;" but here we find a
poor honest creature seeking aid in vain from :
his natural protectors, and only finding bu-
manity, when committed to prison, and falsely
described to be 66
a rogue!"

(From the Morning Herald.)

A man who "could not walk up the prisonsteps" committed to hard labour! But let us see what was the Surgeon's report. He says- DEATH FROM STARVATION, AND ALLEGED "I found the deceased in a state of the INHUMANITY OF PAROCHIAL OFFICERS.-On most deplorable exhaustion, produced by want Monday evening an inquest was holden at the of food. He was not put on the wheel-he House of Correction, Coldbath-fields, before was not able. I ordered him some beef- tea, Mr. Baker, and a most respectable Jury, on and other restoratives, but they were then of the remains of John Somers, who died in that no avail; he never rallied, his strength was prison on Saturday morning, from extreme wholly exhausted-he had no particular dis-debility, brought on by a want of the common ease. The man literally died from the want of timely sustenance."

Need we add one touch more to this picture of human suffering? If there be any so apathetic, so callous, so insensible to compassion, that this tale of misery cannot reach their cold and flinty hearts, let them but feel, even for one brief minute, the touch of hunger's biting tooth, and they will be able to form some conception of the thousand agonizing throes, which this poor forlorn being, in the very prime of manhood, must have endured, before the poor frame became reduced to the attenuated skeleton which his miserable remains exhibited when viewed by the Jury. "He never rallied," was the Surgeon's desscriptive phrase, and this was fully borne out by the evidence of the man who attended him in his last moments. In truth he was dying when ordered to hard labour. Every hour brought him nearer to release from sorrow, suffering and captivity. He expired on the fifth day of his confinement. The nurse put the cup to his lips, but there was no need of refreshment-the poor wretch was found to be quite dead and cold even as Charity!

necessaries of life. The Jury, on being empanelled and sworn, proceeded to the prison dead-house, to view the body of the deceased, and it would be impossible to conceive a more lamentable spectacle than it presented. It was reduced to a perfect skeleton, except that the bones were covered with skin, but, in many parts, the former were nearly protruding through the latter. On returning to the Inquest-room from this (in the present case) most disagreeable, though necessary, part of their duty, the following evidence was given before the Jury, as accounting for the death of the unfortunate deceased :-Mr. Henry Webster, clerk of the prison, produced the warrant of commitment of Mr. Walker, one of the magistrates at Lambeth-street, in which the deceased was committed to that jail on the 5th inst, for 14 days' imprisonment and hard labour, as a rogue and vagabond, having been found wandering abroad, and sleeping in the open air, and having no visible means of subsistance, or not giving a good account of himself.-Mr. Chesterton, the governor of the prison, said that he was in the yard on the evening of the 5th instant, when the deceased This simple narrative of facts requires but was brought there. He was in such a delittle comment. The dispensers of the public plorable state of wretchedness, that it was contributions are bound, inost unquestionably, with difficulty he could be got within the to exercise due vigilance in the selection of prison gate; and his weakness and debility were proper objects, so that the fund be not diverted such that he could not walk up the steps that from its legitimate purpose-but they should led to the prison door. He (Mr. Chesterton) avoid running into the opposite extreme. gave direction that the filthy rags in which he We have, on former occasions, expressed our was clad should be taken off him with as disapprobation of the decision of Mr. WALKER much care as possible, and that some nou to leave these helpless beings wholly at the rishing food might be immediately given to mercy of parish officers, and with sorrow we him, which was attended to.-Mr. H. Wakesee, in the present case, only one of the results field, the prison surgeon, stated that on the which we ventured to predict. That over- 5th the deceased was taken to the convastrained parsimony, which they and the magis-lescent infirmary of the prison. He was in a trates dignify with the name of economy, may thin the number of paupers in their district, but it will increase the number of thieves. It will make victims for the gallows and the grave, but pauperism will never be abolished by such means. Punish the indolent, but let not the industrious perish. The case of poor Somers is not an isolated one. How many others may at this moment be suffering under

most emaciated state, and very weak. He had no particular disease, but seemed in a state of starvation. He administered restoratives and nourishing food; but he was so far gone as to be unable to rally from the state he was in, and he died on Saturday morning, at about five o'clock. He (Mr. Wakefield) attributed his death to want and starvation.Thomas Willmore said that he was a prisoner,

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