APPOINTMENT OF ORGANIST.
To the Subscribers to the St. Thomas’s Congregational Fund.
Gentlemen,
The Vicar, having refused the use of the Vestry Room for the Meeting appointed to take place this morning, and published the communication referring thereto, we beg to lay before you the whole correspondence that has passed between us, and part of which Dr. Browne chooses to say was so unsatisfactory as to induce him, and the Churchwardens, somewhat hastily to appoint an Organist; after the Meeting of the 14th we called upon the Vicar to consult him on this business, and it was arranged and distinctly understood that we should immediately advertise the vacancy, and appoint by umpire or otherwise, to be subsequently decided on, Mr. Woodall continuing until the end of this month, and, if unsuccessful as a Candidate, to be paid for his services. We leave it for your consideration whether we have merited the extraordinary treatment we have received from Dr. Browne.
The Office you kindly appointed us to being now at an end, we have to thank you very sincerely for your confidence in us,
And remain, Gentlemen,
Yours faithfully,
DANIEL JORDAN,
SAMUEL PRICE.
Dudley, August 24th, 1857.
The Vicarage, Dudley, 14th August, 1857.
Messrs. JORDAN & PRICE,
Dear Sirs,
“The unanimous and satisfactory decision of the Meeting having this day committed the same routine of duty to your especial care and attention, I have to request that you will make the formation of a Male Choir and the distinct prohibition of Female Singers one main feature in your negociations with any party or parties respecting the appointment of Organist, and I am inclined to the idea that you should revert, as suggested, to another advertisement; some two or more individuals should be selected from whom the Vicar and Warden or Wardens should be empowered to appoint one, by this means I trust all unnecessary clashing of Local and Official authority will be effectually avoided.”
“I shall feel obliged by sufficient parchments being forwarded for the copying some 1,800 Baptisms and about two-thirds that number of Burials, for the years 1855 and 1856; each sheet contains 32 copies, the numbers would be 56 of the former and 40 of the latter; this, you will observe, does not include the present year 1857, which will require a moiety of the above,
viz.
in toto
} 84 Baptism Sheets, and
} 60 Burial ditto
I am, dear Sirs,
Yours very faithfully,
JAMES C. BROWNE.
P.S.—There is half-a-year due for Surplice washing to Mrs. Clayton.
Dudley, August 15th, 1857.
To the Rev. Dr. BROWNE,
Dear Sir,
“In reply to yours of yesterday, we shall be happy to comply with your requests so far as agreeable to the wishes of the congregation, we hope to succeed in forming a Male Choir when an Organist is appointed, giving him the power of making choice of Singers; we shall proceed at once to advertise for an Organist, and deem it desirable to call a General Meeting of the Congregation for the purpose of selecting a fit and proper person to that office. We do not agree to provide you with parchment sheets for the purpose of copying Registers for several years, the Meeting yesterday agreed to an item of Register Book if required.”
“We paid Surplice Washing for the year ending 25th March last, and shall be happy to pay the same this year. We have no desire to clash with Official Authorities, we can have but one object in view, and that is for the comfort and happiness of the Church, Pastors, and People.”
We are, yours truly,
DANIEL JORDAN,
SAMUEL PRICE.
Saturday, August 22nd, 1857.
To the Rev. Dr. Browne.
Dear Sir,
“It is reported in this day’s Birmingham Journal that you have made the Organist, will you please inform us if the statement is correct.”
We are, yours truly,
SAMUEL PRICE,
DANIEL JORDAN.
Dr. BROWNE to Messrs. PRICE & JORDAN.
The Vicarage, August 22nd. 1857.
“The Vicar in reply to a note this day received, signed by Messrs. Price and Jordan, herewith transmits a Copy of the Circular[34] issued two days since, of which he fully understood they had each previously received a copy in common with all the other Subscribers.”
To The Rev. Dr. BROWNE.
Dear Sir,
“We beg to hand you a Copy of Notice for a Meeting of St. Thomas’s Congregation, to be holden (by your permission), at the Vestry room, on Monday Morning next.”
Yours truly,
JORDAN & PRICE.
Dudley, August 22nd, 1857.
The Vicarage, Dudley, 22nd August, 1857.
[35]“The Vicar has to acknowledge the receipt of a note signed by Messrs. Jordan & Price wherein he is requested to sanction a Meeting “Relating to the Appointment of Organist,” in his Church Vestry-room, on Monday, at 10 o’clock a.m.”
“The above question having been definitely settled by the Churchwardens and himself, he, the Vicar declines the use of his Vestry room for such an already decided purpose.”
September 3rd, 1857. Married, at St. Edmund’s Church, by her father, Miss Emily Mason Davies, eldest daughter of the Rev. John Davies, M.A., the Vicar, to Mr. Charles Cochrane, Ironmaster, of Middlesboro’, Yorkshire.
September 11th, 1857. Miss Emma Saunders, a very popular Dudley Vocalist, this day sailed for Adelaide, South Australia, to be married on her arrival.
A “Practical Joke,” was at the time played upon our worthy Mayor, Mr. John Beddard, which caused the following rejoinder from his Worship.
COMPLIMENTARY DINNER
TO
H. B. SHERIDAN, ESQ., M.P.
The Mayor having had his attention called to an Advertisement in the Birmingham Journal of to-day, announcing that he will take the Chair at the intended “Complimentary Dinner” to H. B. Sheridan, Esq., on Thursday next, begs to state that such an announcement is entirely without his knowledge or sanction, he having, at once, when applied to, explained the improbability of his being able to attend.
JOHN BEDDARD, Mayor.
Dudley, September 12th, 1857.
September 15th, 1857. H. B. Sheridan, Esq., M.P. came amongst us to attend a “Complimentary Dinner,” but a good deal of the fire of the late election had gone out, and he was received rather coolly by some of his recent ardent supporters.
MR. SHERIDAN’S RECEPTION IN DUDLEY.
To the Editor of the Dudley Weekly Times.
Sir,—During this week the Free and Independent Electors of Dudley have had the opportunity afforded them of receiving at the hands of their representative an account of the trust placed in his hands in March last; and the meagre and insignificant attendance at the Lancasterian School room in the afternoon, and the more important (especially to Dudley men) dinner attendance at the Hotel, too plainly tells the tale of the altered opinions and dubious proceedings of those very vociferous supporters who figured so prominently at the last election. Now, Mr. Editor, most men of anything like probity of character and honesty of purpose, more especially those who have a little fame to sustain, usually manifest some decent regard for their public actions and motives; but in this case, a more political case of apostasy (and upon a large scale too), has not disgraced the annals of our local political traditions. We well know that six months ago influential electors of all shades of opinion were lustily crying out for freedom, denouncing in unmeasured terms the lordly interference with their political rights, proclaiming the day of Dudley’s political emancipation at hand; and using the most strenuous exertions to support their new born ideas by placing Mr. Sheridan in the proud position of representing their views and sentiments in parliament. Such, Sir, were the doings of the past; but alas! to what more genial atmosphere has that rampant spirit of personal antagonism and offended dignity taken its aerial flight? Is the once powerful coffee room still the abode of its blinded ambition and political inconsistency? Has not the recent disseverment plainly told us that party purposes, not political liberty, were the sole objects of that unnatural alliance. Was it to be expected that ultra Toryism on the one hand, and exploded Chartism on the other, were elements likely either to sustain a six months’ political union, or awaken anything but a spirit of derision and contempt? Such, however, were the incongruous elements with which Mr. Sheridan obtained his seat in parliament, and as the M.P. for Dudley he is entitled to that respect and courtesy which belong to his office, and the position of a gentleman. Why then this shameful lukewarmness and public apathy on behalf of his recent supporters? Has the honorable gentleman altered his political sentiments, thereby bringing down the offended ire and silent estrangement of his once eager listeners? Well, truly may he apologise for their non-attendance, at the proper place, to hear the exposition of his political stewardship, for truly a more insignificant demonstration never graced the public reception of a public man. If, Sir, the present elective franchise can thus, by interested partisans on the one hand, and political demagogues on the other, be made the sportive instrument of demoralising all consistency of conduct in the virtuous, and can thus be dragged forth to inflame the unholy passions of the blind and vicious, what must be its operations when the long anticipated Reform Bill extends its privileges to a more extensive, uneducated, but not less dangerous class of such like free and independent electors? If the past should unhappily contain the germ of the future waywardness of spirit, and vindictiveness of action, displayed by the head and front of the promoters of the last Dudley election, we may indeed expect marvellous acts of pitiable abandonment of reason and reflection, and the future M.P. for Dudley may pray to be delivered from his friends.
Your obedient servant,
AN ELECTOR.
Dudley, September 18th, 1857.
Died, September 29th, 1857, Mr. Edward Terry, Grocer, Market Place, a very upright and honourable gentleman, who twice served the office of Mayor, and had a handsome service of Silver Plate presented to him. Aged 70 years.
An important and influential Public Meeting was held at the Old Town Hall, under the presidency of John Renaud, Esq., the Mayor, to remonstrate with the Local Railway Companies, at the very unsatisfactory accommodation afforded to the public at our Dudley Railway Station.
INCOME-TAX COLLECTORS.
To the Editor of the Dudley and Midland Express.
Sir,—Your lengthened remarks in your last publication of the “Express” on the anomalous position existing betwixt the local commissioners of income and property-tax, the tax-payers, and the unhappy delinquent in Worcester Gaol, must necessarily have awakened much reflection upon this important subject; and if I should not be considered trespassing too much upon your valuable space, I would offer a few observations with a view to elicit some well-digested opinions upon the most salient parts of your important address. Ere your strictures appeared in public, the local commissioners had, it was found, exercised that power in appointing a successor to Mr. John Leadbetter which the Act of Parliament gives them, and it would appear somewhat irregular in a local press, cognisant of that fact, to recommend a vestry meeting to consider a question that ought to have been urged upon the rate-payers at an earlier date, backed by such legal information as is well known to exist in the editorial staff of your acceptable journal. You are, doubtless, aware, Mr. Editor, that income-tax collectors can be appointed either by the rate-payers in public vestry, or the local commissioners in private; but an appointment made by the rate-payers must have the confirmation of the local commissioners before it can be received at the Treasury; hence the very little importance, in my opinion, of agitating a parish on the merits of a question which, after all, must be the result either of favouritism, or true appreciation of the local commissioners. In the event of a local board of commissioners making a selection decidedly obnoxious to a parish, then it is competent for any five rate-payers to object to the appointment, by showing to the Treasury why such nomination should not take place; but in the event of no such objection being made by the rate-payers, as illustrated in both Mr. Worley’s and Mr. John Leadbetter’s appointment, the nomination stands good in law, and the collectors (by the tacit consent of the parish) are the bonâ fide collectors of the rate-payers, as well as the commissioners. In this view of the case it becomes apparent that the parish of Dudley cannot legally object to pay the defalcation rate that most assuredly will be exacted from us; nay, the local commissioners can legally claim it at our hands, on the acknowledged principle that Mr. Worley was as much the appointment of the parish as by them, inasmuch as that parish very graciously acquiesced in their selection!
Such being the fact, the general question is often asked, “What is to be done with that miserable man now incarcerated in Worcester Gaol?” As he has been placed there under a warrant issued by the local Commissioners, he most assuredly is their prisoner; and the ratepayers of Dudley can have no legal process against a defaulter abstracting money which is the property of the Crown. If the Commissioners are at all doubtful about their right or power to prosecute the delinquent, why place him in durance vile, and institute most vigilant legal proceedings against his supposed sureties, bringing the terrible powers of the law to annihilate the innocent and unoffending; whilst the main delinquent is kept as a sort of savage appendage to every man’s vision, who occasionally refers to his cash book to ascertain the status of its taxable page?
If, again, the object of incarcerating the collector was intended to secure his detention until the embezzled money was re-levied, pray Mr. Editor, by what reasoning powers have those highly-respectable gentlemen come to the determination to delay that unpleasant duty to the latest possible period of propriety, or, perhaps, public safety? Now it must be apparent to all that changes are daily being made in trade incomes and value of property in such an important town as Dudley; and it would be manifestly unjust to charge the moiety upon an income of £400 a year now, when at the time the robbery was committed such income was assessed at only £300 a year. Such cases as these, Mr. Editor, would awaken no small degree of alarm and anxiety as to the course the commissioners and collectors intend to pursue; for I would opine that your editorial skill and staff of management would feel themselves somewhat startled to find that 2-1/4d. in the pound had been levied upon them, for the recovery of a moiety of income-tax abstracted by a previous defaulting collector at a lapsed time, when your editorial vision had not looked into the fame of your future greatness, or dreamt of the honours that awaited your advent into this region of physical smoke and mental darkness.
Such, however inadvertently, may be the case, and against such errors and mal-practice it behoves both the rate-payers and the press to exercise a vigilant eye; for it is well known that our gracious Queen cannot afford at this particular juncture to lose any portion of her allotted supplies, and the living most assuredly will have to pay for the dead in this vexatious case. It is much to be regretted that the minor officers of the public service do not appear to receive that reward for their services commensurate with the labour and responsibility entailed upon them; nevertheless, we must not lose sight of the fact, that the present order of the day is retrenchment in all branches of the paid civil service; and that the salary accorded in these cases is fixed in London, not by the local commissioners. In the particular case referring to Dudley, whilst the stipend is only about 100l. a year for the collection of the property and income-tax, the collector is also the recipient of the poundage derived from the collection of the assessed taxes and house duty; making his income amount to about 150l. a year; and really, Mr. Editor, we are not to have so little faith in the integrity of poor human nature, as to believe that no respectable townsman can be found to faithfully fulfil that office, without entrenching upon the region of venality on the one hand, or pandering to the inordinate vices of cupidity or meanness on the other.
If such an one cannot be found in Dudley, sufficiently sensible of his responsibility and power, we may indeed humble ourselves “in dust and ashes,” at the depravity of human nature in general, and the want of worth and honesty in Dudley in particular.
I am, your obedient servant,
INQUISITOR.
Dudley, October 14th, 1857.