To the Rate-payers of the Parish of Dudley.
A Handbill having been circulated through the Parish, evidently the production of one of the “ACTIVE AND INTELLIGENT” Members of the present Board, calling upon you to elect them again as Guardians for the Parish; permit another Quiet Observer to submit a few FACTS for your consideration. You are told something about Owners’ Proxies having been obtained by unscrupulous means. Does the Gentleman allude to the hundreds of those statements, which he and his Friends by MISREPRESENTATION AND CAJOLERY obtained six months previously to the Election of the Board of Health, for the purpose of securing THEIR OWN ELECTION, or to those hundreds of similar statements which were given to the Overseers a few weeks ago by the same party! Perhaps he and some other of these active and intelligent Guardians will admit that they gave unquestionable proof of their activity, if they would kindly state the number of miles they travelled last year, in running about from street to street, and house to house to fill up the Voting Papers, which by so doing, and imposing on the Rate-payers, they Elected themselves. Having carefully watched the conduct of these parties during the last year, I find amongst the most conspicuous of their performances, the decision of the question of a Huge Union Bastile, to separate Man and Wife, Children and Parents; to a Man they have ever Voted in favour of this, and the Dudley Union will now have to pay, at the very least, £20,000 for it.
And look at what these same ACTIVE INTELLIGENCES have done for you by the Board of Health! That Board has already made and signed a Rate of ONE SHILLING AND TENPENCE in the Pound, which in a very short time you will be forced to pay; and an additional Rate is also in contemplation, which, together with two twenty-penny Poor Rates, will make 5s. 8d. in the Pound for Levies alone to pay. Among other items of reckless extravagance, the following Salaries:—Clerk to the Board, £165 per annum; Surveyor, £150 per annum; Doctor, £75 per annum; Collector, £75 per annum; Inspector of Nuisances, £120 per annum, lately increased from £40 to £120; making a total of £585; with additional extra allowance which has been paid to others to assist; and further, I am informed that to carry out the projects for Drainage, Plans, Surveys, &c., £50,000 will be required and borrowed, and the interest must be paid by draining your pockets. Next, is it fair that these SEVEN ACTIVE INTELLIGENCES shall take to themselves the credit of what the labours of the whole Board have effected in the diminution of the Expenditure, and I would ask HOW IS IT that in a time of good trade, nearly £7,000 has been spent during the past year; and WHY IS IT that under the operation of the Tenement Rating Act, from which so great things were promised us, that the Dudley Overseers have been compelled to borrow £500, and to pay the interest out of their pockets? As to Model Lodging-houses, Public Hall, School of Design, Mechanics’ Institute, &c., of which they make such boast; all very well, I reply, provided they are paid for by private enterprize, and not by PUBLIC RATES.
FELLOW RATEPAYERS.—Have your payments been less during the last year?
OWNERS OF SMALL PROPERTIES.—Have you not been compelled to pay the Rates for your tenants, in addition to your own usual Rates? and to whom are you indebted for this increase of your burdens? It is a fact, that every one of the SEVEN ACTIVE INTELLIGENCES did vote for the imposition of this additional Tax on you to relieve themselves, for I believe not one of them pay a Shilling on small Property in this Parish. Improvements we want, but do not be deceived; be careful to whom you trust the Power of Local Taxation. Vote for Guardians who have a stake in the Parish, who will spend your money as carefully as they would their own. Vote NOT for those who merely seek the office to gratify their own private vanity, and serve party purposes at the Cost of the Poor hard-working Ratepayers.
Vote like I intend to do, for the TEN LAST NAMES on the List, for the men nominated by your most respected Fellow Townsman, Thomas Badger, Esq.; he has long been a tried and true friend to the Town of Dudley, and would not deceive you by nominating improper ones.
Fellow Ratepayers, Your Faithful Servant,
ANOTHER QUIET OBSERVER.
Dudley, March 30th, 1854.