§ On the Order of the Day being moved for receiving the Report of the Select Vestries' Bill,
The Earl of Falmouthsaid, that he had already given notice of an Amendment he intended to propose, and to induce their Lordships to adopt his views; he begged to repeat the observations he had previously made. There was a palpable difference between large and populous places, and small rural parishes, and they required a different method of management. He therefore thought it was inexpedient to extend the provisions of the Act before them indiscriminately, and he meant to propose an amendment from which he considered some advantage would be derived. He proposed to insert the following words as part of the clause, "And be it further enacted, that nothing in tins Act contained, shall extend to parishes where there is not a greater number of persons than 600 paying rates to the poor."
§ Viscount Melbournerequested that the consideration of this Amendment might be postponed, because he apprehended it must be a rider to the Bill.
The Bishop of Londonproposed an Amendment, to the effect that, when the places where Vestries had been usually held were found inconvenient, they might be held in other places.
§ Agreed to.
The Lord Chancellorstill thought that the adoption of this kind of Select Vestries should be in the voters who chose to attend. It would be utterly impossible to get 7,001 of the rate payers of St. Pancras to attend, so as to form a majority of the 14,000 in the parish. He would, however, postpone his amendment on that head till next year.