118 Select Vestries. [Aveusr, 
cause or other the figure did not suit the fancies of the vestrymen. 
Both were accordingly removed, and the committee reported that at the 
moment they were sitting, the latter had been sent to some parish stone 
yard, and from all outward appearance, there it seemed likely to find 
“its long home.” Other internal decorations were upon a scale of 
equal magnificence. There were actually expended for 
PPG MPMre SIT (16 ies bes -segsebee datedesoeec cts Tees £321 0 0 
Breaaiae desk. 5. 2.5.0. .s0esers eave Reco te sia AN) ee Be 139 0 O 
lerk soci tion sie ee Oe Socks aeeee a eal ea tek eek oes 9817 6 
Altar, including two chairs, 2131! ! ........ce eee. 628 5 0 
Curtains for organ gallery. . 2.00...) ..idie.ccste vee 92 14 0 
Ditto for churchwardens and overseers pews ...... 166 0 O 
and, in 1826, 1650/. were spent in further alterations at this church! ! 
In the parish of St. George, Dublin, an estimate of 16,000/. for 
building a church was, under much the same system, swelled into 57,0001. 
«* In another place,’’ we quote from Sir John Newport, “ the privileged 
and select made a tax to repair the bishop’s throne, to provide a clothes- 
horse for his closet, and brushes, ewers, basons, &c. ; and, indeed, every 
species of article for the toilette of a finished gentleman.” In another 
parish, a sum of one hundred guineas was voted out of the rates, to 
purchase a piece of plate for the curate ; fifty pounds were also voted to 
the parish clerk, and the same to a vestry clerk, which was double the 
amount authorized by law. In another parish, where there was scarcely a 
congregation of a dozen persons, the organist received in ten years 850/.: _ 
and the bellows blower was also a pensioner, he had 15/. a year; and 
there was a vestrymaid at 20/. besides three servants to attend the 
church.” What particular function in the vestry the maid performed, 
the vestrymen can tell better than ourselves. In some instances expenses 
have been incurred, not only without a pretence for justification, but 
under circumstances, which had they previously existed, afforded the 
most substantial ground for their discontinuance. Thus, in the town of 
Wexford, a sexton and beadle having discontinued the practice of bell- 
ringing, for want of a bell to ring, their salaries were immediately raised 
from 10/. to 20/.; and “in another case,’ says Sir J. Newport, “ an 
increased salary was given to a parish clerk, and a compensation given 
to another clerk for having been removed.” 
But while the subjects of expense become thus almost unlimited 
under the costly administration of the select, instead of every article 
being obtained at the cheapest rate, they seem to think that in the 
abundance of their wealth they can never sufficiently pay for what they 
do procure. It is pretty manifest that whenever any member of their 
body is, either in his own person or that of his friends, a dealer in any of 
those subjects, his claim for supplying it, is sure to be listened to by a 
class of individuals who may all in their turn have similar claims to 
prefer ; and thus, instead of the supply being arranged on a competition 
price, monopoly is left to make its own charge for every thing. But the 
charge of monopoly has no other limit than the disposition of the pur- 
chasers ; and as the purchasers in this case are certain to be the easiest 
dealers in the world, the price at which the parish will purchase every — 
article of expense will be somewhere about the maximum of exorbitance. 
In Ireland we find accordingly parish carpenters allowed to charge Zz 
interest on the repairs of their own houses, occupied by them in the — 
character of clerks. In England we find the parish of St. Mary-le-bone 
