§ Mr. George Dawsonwished to ask the right hon. Secretary at War, what were his intentions with respect to the dilemma in which the various parishes of Westminster were placed by the interpretation put upon a clause in the Select Vestry Act which he introduced last year? If the intentions of the Select Vestries to oppose the adoption of the new Bill in the parishes inclined to adopt it were carried into effect, the greatest confusion, and, he would add, danger, would result in many parts of the metropolis. The case was this—the Act gave the ratepayers the power of signifying by writing to the Churchwardens their wish to adopt the Bill. The Churchwardens, under the opinion of Counsel, he believed, interpreted this form in writing to mean, that it must be delivered in at the Vestries personally by each individual claiming the right to vote. Now, he asked, what must be the consequence of collecting thousands of individuals together on such an occasion, at such times of excitement in the public mind? The very occasion of disputed parish affairs would make such assemblies inconvenient; and he would add also, that he did not think it very desirable, at a moment when a dangerous contagious malady was in the heart of the metropolis, needlessly to assemble large multitudes together. He asked, therefore, whether it was the intention of the right hon. Gentleman to introduce a short Bill to make the intentions of the Legislature clear upon this point? intentions which, he thought, could not admit of any rational doubt.
Sir John Hobhouseexpressed his surprise that any doubt should have existed to render it necessary to apply to Counsel as to the construction of the Act. The words upon which the opinion of Counsel had been taken, had been introduced into the Bill in the House of Lords for the very purpose of preventing the assembling of large bodies of persons. The words which originally stood in the Bill required the parishioners to meet, which the House of Lords struck out, and substituted for them the words to which the right hon. Gentleman alluded He agreed with the right hon. Gentleman, that it was inexpedient at the present moment to call large assemblages of persons together, and, he would add, that it was doubtful if their opinions could be taken within the time 898 appointed by the Act. Some of the parishes had several thousand rate-payers. He, however, had no objection to introduce a short Bill, to remove all doubt upon the subject, if it should be necessary.
§ Mr. Crokerunderstood the right hon. Baronet to say, that it would be impossible to collect the opinions of the ratepayers in some of the metropolitan parishes, relating to the Vestry Act, within the time limited by the Act; he, therefore, begged to be informed how their votes could be obtained for Members in the time specified in the Reform Bill.
Sir John Hobhousesaid, that, by the Vestries Bill, the poll was to be taken in one place, but by the Reform Bill they might have as many as were necessary.