278 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818, 



being particeps criminis (though 

 not indicted) with the defendant: 

 n this resolution the highest com- 

 pliments, as might be expected, 

 were paid to Mr. Merceron, and 

 the most vehement abuse heaped 

 upon his prosecutors, and it con- 

 cluded by declaring that the 

 expenses he had incurred (no 

 sum being named) should be paid 

 out of the parish funds. This 

 was clearly illegal in itself; for 

 the whole vestry had no such 

 power, much less a select few 

 of the private partisans of the 

 defendant. This resolution hav- 

 ing been thus smuggled through, 

 it was copied by Mr. May's clerk 

 in the usual book, in the regular 

 course, without exciting parti- 

 cular attention ; but it soon got 

 abroad, and of course excited 

 considerable disapprobation ; and 

 it was determined by the great 

 majority of the parishioners to 

 resist the payment of the bill 

 when the matter should again 

 be brought forward, as in the 

 regular course it must be, at the 

 vestry for auditing the accounts 

 of the treasurer. It was, how- 

 ever, believed by many, that the 

 object of Mr. Merceron was not 

 .pecuniary, and that having carried 

 this resolution, he would not think 

 of enforcing it, as he was knoAvn 

 to be a man of fortune, and 

 anxious principally for a party 

 and a tersporary triumph. The 

 meeting of the vestry for the 

 audit of the treasurer's accounts 

 took place, pursuant to public 

 notice in the church, on the 6th 

 of April, 1814, and the meeting 

 was more numerous than it had 

 been for many years. The ordi- 

 nary course of business on an 

 occasion of the kind was this i-i- 



The treasurer's private book was 

 produced, wherein were entered, 

 on one side, sums paid by him by 

 order of the vestry, or in pursu- 

 ance of directions of five or more 

 governors of the parish appointed 

 under the act of parliament by 

 which the parish was regulated : 

 on the other side were entered 

 the sums received by the trea- 

 surer from the various collectors: 

 this book was lield by one of the 

 vestry, and the amounts being 

 called over, the various vouchers 

 were produced, and the sums 

 were regularly ticked off as they 

 proceeded. On this occasion Mr. 

 Merceron took care that his friend 

 Mr, Piatt should have possession 

 of his book, and that reverend 

 gentleman, instead of calling over 

 the amount of Dann and Cros- 

 land's bill, omitted it entirely, 

 but took good care to place op- 

 posite it the usual tick, to denote 

 that it had been regularly agreed 

 to, and the vouchers produced 

 and verified. This was the mode in 

 which the fraud was accomplished, 

 and the whole sum of 925/. 1*. Sd. 

 (including the 10 guineas added 

 by himself for coach-hire, and 

 entered on the back of the bill 

 of Dann and Crosland) was 

 repaid out of the parish money 

 to the defendant. It was true 

 that the book of the treasurer, 

 containing the entry, had been 

 copied by a clerk of Mr. May, 

 the vestry clerk ; but it was 

 merely a matter of form, and Mr. 

 May would swear that, when two 

 or three years afterwards the 

 matter was brought to light in 

 the House of Commons, he was 

 astonished, as well as many of 

 those who had attended the audit 

 vestry -on the 6th of April, for 



the 



