Mr. Humesaid, he held in his hand a Petition from a Parish which now contained 130,000 inhabitants. He alluded to the parish of Mary-le-bone, and the petitioners prayed for a law to enable them to remove the Select Vestry, which now concealed from the parishioners the nature of their expenditure, and which had been made to amount to so large a sum as greatly to distress the parish. When the parishioners had come before the Magistrates to appeal against the conduct of the Vestry, they found many of the Officers of the Vestry sitting on the bench 627 with the Magistrates, and they complained against the proceeding as altogether unfair. The petitioners prayed that the Select Vestry should be abolished, and that every individual paying a direct tax should have a vote in the election of Vestrymen. For his part he hoped that the time had now come for doing away the Select Vestry system altogether.
Mr. Wilksthought, that the parishioners had an advantage in preliminary appeals, and might afterwards appeal to the Sessions, while other parishes could only appeal to the general Sessions.
§ The Petition ordered to be printed.