120 Select Vestries. [Aveusr, 
purpose. We quote the illustration simply to show that general care- 
lessness with which vestry affairs are managed, when to say nothing of 
the smaller deficiencies, a deficiency of upwards of 15,000/. actually 
escapes even the notice of its existence. With the best intentions in the 
world, it is impossible but that such slovenliness in the conduct of their 
affairs, should expose them to every species of imposition.. In the 
accounts of the parish of St. Martin, for the year 1822, there occurs a 
charge of eighty pounds for carving the legs of a table ; which are after- 
wards covered up in crimson velvet. Now, so wanton a piece of folly 
seems hardly capable of being accounted for on any other supposition 
than that of the vestrymen becoming the dupes of others.—Certain it is 
that the mode of management, inseparable, as we contend, from the 
system itself, is a premium upon every species of imposition and reguery 
whether from within or without. 
As is usual in all rotten systems, the principles by which this select 
vestry system is supported, are, if possible, still more hollow than the 
system itself. : 
The whole proceed upon the general assumption that parishes are 
incapable of the management of their own affairs. To this general 
assumption we have only to oppose the demonstration oe and again 
made manifest, that none other than lunatics and imbeciles are so inca- 
pable ; and as parishes en masse (except in so far as after the publication 
of this our article they continue unresisting to this iniquitous system) 
are neither one or the other, so neither will they be found incompetent 
to the conduct of their own business. The best management is that of. 
all interested in obtaining it—the worst, that in which those most liable 
to be affected by its results, are excluded from its participation. 
But it by no means follows that because parishes get rid of their 
present vestry system, that they should not delegate the particular 
management of their concerns to individuals chosen by themselves, and 
officially accountable to them. Of course the most obvious method of 
securing the perfect dependence on themselves of their representatives, 
would be by the frequency of their election, and proper mode for accoms 
plishing its perfect freedom. The paltry objection urged against annual 
elections, about its tendency to disturb the peace of parishes, is abun- 
dantly answered by fact.- At oné of the meetings at St. Mary-le-bone _ 
parish, at which. this ‘was started, Sir Francis Burdett stated it to be 
wholly refuted by the practical operation of a system of ballot election in 
the opulent and extensive parish adjoining; and we never yet heard’ 
that any of the elections in parishes which had placed themselves under 
the operation of Mr. Sturges Bourne’s Act, had been characterized as 
engendering disorder. It must be remembered, however, that tran- 
quillity may be purchased at too high a price; and we -know few 
individuals who would not prefer a little struggling to a good deal of 
robbery. Undoubtedly with the requisite securities, parochial affairs 
may be better managed by individuals, than by the parishioners en masse; _ 
but the constitution of these securities is of all political problems the 
most difficult. The provisions of Mr. Sturges Bourne’s Act undoubtedly 
go far to afford them ; and, perhaps, vestries established in conformity 
with these, may be improvements even upon thé open parish vestries we 
have described. Bat, at all events, it is sufficiently manifest, that of all 
systems hitherto devised, that of close vestries is the most cunningly 
framed to’ défeat the object for which it was established—the good admi- 
nistration of the affairs of a parish. 
