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SIR CHARLES DILKE
AND
THE CLERKENWELL VESTRY.
Speech of Mr. W. ROBSON, Chairman of the Vestry,
in reply to Sir CHARLES DILKE, and resolution
thereon.
At the ordinary Meeting of the Clerkenwell Vestry on
Thursday, July 10th, Mr. Churchwarden Gibson presiding,
Mr. W. Robson, in accordance with notice of
motion of the 5th inst., called attention to recent statements
in the House of Commons and elsewhere concerning
the Vestry of Clerkenwell, and moved the following
resolution thereon:—
"That the attention of this Board having been called to the
"statement made by Sir Charles Dilke in the Kensington
"Town Hall and the House of Commons, which are abso"lutely
without foundation, this Board expresses its deep
"regret that a Cabinet Minister should deem it consistent
"with his high and responsible position to make such state"ments
without ascertaining whether they were true; and
"hereby enters its emphatic protest against the unfair
" and cowardly means which are being employed to circu"late
such false reports."
Mr. Robson said:—It has been suggested to me, occupying
as I happen to do at the present time, the position of
Chairman of this Board, that it was incumbent upon me,
some week or two since, to have drawn the attention of
this Board to certain statements which had been made
in other places reflecting very considerably upon the
action of chis Vestry. Although I had some sympathy
with that suggestion, yet for another reason I thought
it was advisable that nothing hurriedly should be done
in dealing with the question. My reason for this was
that I believed that certain people, encouraged by the fact