View report page

34
that the fact of these gentlemen being returned to the
Vestry convinced him that the parishioners were of the
same opinion as himself. He thought the more property
a man had in the parish, the more fitted he was to take
part in local affairs. He told the Commission that they
had not such men as the Marquis of Northampton, or
Colonel Penton, on the Vestry, therefore they tried to get
the best men that they could find. He was also asked,
was there not a number of publicans on the Committees,
and he replied that there was, but the numbers which had
been quoted in the House of Commons were not correct. In
reply to questions, he gave it as his decided opinion that
they were qualified to be on the Committees, and quite as
eligible, if not more so than others, because they were the
highest rated people in the parish, and therefore had the
most at stake. He remarked that it would be an extraordinary
thing to find a Vestry in the Metropolis on which
there were not publicans, and instanced that in the parish
of Islington a gentleman who was Churchwarden for many
years, and also, he believed, representative of the parish at
the Metropolitan Board of Works, was a publican. He
denied that the evidence which he had given substantiated
the allegations which had been made against the Vestry,
and about the constitution of the Committees.
Memo.—The Report of the Royal Commission issued subsequent
to the date embraced in this Report, bears out the
foregoing statement of the Clerk.
By Order,
ROBERT PAGET,
Vestry Hall, Vestry Clerk.
Clerkenwell, 1885.