Enquire of your elder brethren how fared the dissenters in the notorious Wood Case, and the echo will be defeat and payment. Let us not again enact a folly that inevitably shall constrain us to appeal to strangers in the flesh, but brothers in the faith, for pecuniary assistance in the midst of our never-to-be-forgotten consternation and alarm. Nay! let us rather weigh the matter honestly over in our own breasts, and consider whether it is not better to pay honestly (and leave the ignominy to those who receive it) the demands that we now believe to be illegally demanded at our hands, and save our money, not to feed the jaws of D.C.L.’s, but to legally contest and maintain our rights for the time to come.
Petition the Imperial Parliament for the repeal of the vexatious Tax. It is known that many honourable sons of the Church will join us, for they bleed and feel acutely for us, who are men of like attributes to themselves—Reject the election of any man who refuses to assist us in his place in St. Stephen’s to get rid of our burden; and, above all, whilst the Church Rate Enactment lasts, be careful to elect such Churchwardens as shall faithfully perform their unpleasant duties, observe scrupulous economy in the expenditure of our money, be open and candid in their transactions with the public; neither given to bolster up obsolete customs and practices of the Church, used only in the middle ages, nor yet inclined to accede to the rapacity of a once popularity-seeking Vicar, at once a misfortune, by example and precept, to the Church, and no great love of those who dissent from his unproductive teaching.
Henceforth, let peace and vigilance be our watchword, and the Poll Book our bulwark against oppression and injustice.
AN OLD DISSENTER!
And one who had to pay the piper to a heavy tune in the celebrated Wood case.
Dudley, May 20th, 1852.
The result of this severe Parochial Contest was that the 1d. Church Rate was carried by a majority of 98 votes. This contest was the death warrant for Church Rates in Dudley.
April 21st, 1852. A cab stand was established in the Market place (by Mr. William Beddard, of the Castle Hotel), a long wanted convenience.
The two parsonage houses of St. John’s and St. James’ Churches were built this year by subscriptions; Lord Ward giving the ground and £100 donation to each house.
May 28th, 1852. The Churchwardens of St. Edmund’s Church (Messrs. C. F. G. Clark and Thomas Danks) called a Vestry Meeting of the inhabitants, for the purpose of adopting the most efficient means for erecting a Parsonage House for St. Edmund’s parish. A very handsome subscription list was commenced at this meeting, which ultimately ended in the erection of the present St. Edmund’s Parsonage House, at a cost of upwards of £1,600. Mr. C. F. G. Clark exerted himself very zealously in this necessary business.