VESTRY CLERKS ACT, 1850. 209 Poor Law Board had or will have an existence. Yet, by this Act, wherever it is adopted,* the choice itself of a vestry clerk can only take place by order of the Poor Law Board; the Poor Law Board is to have the control over, and direction of, what duties he shall perform; by the consent of the Poor Law Board only can he be removed; and his salary is to be fixed and altered at pleasure by the Poor Law Board (though paid, of course, by the parish)! It is certainly hardly credible that, in an age that calls itself progressive and enlightened, and with Governments and a Parliament of which the members are continually professing a nervous regard for the rights and moral and intellectual elevation of the people, an Act should have been able to be got passed, so contrary to every principle of common sense and common right and constitutional practice. It is still more incredible that such an Act should have been deliberately adopted by any parish in England. It is certain that it can have been nowhere adopted, in any fair open meeting of Englishmen, except on careful misrepresentation or unwitting misapprehension. Unfortunately, either of these is easily possible in bodies not trained to the practice of habitual discussion and deliberation;—a training which the English constitutional system carefully provides for; but which has been reduced almost to a nullity by the elaborate checks imposed, of late years, upon the true and healthy action of our Institutions of Local Self-Government. Wherever the matter is rightly understood, self-respect, and regard for our free Institutions, cannot but lead to the assurance that the response of every parish in England, to the proposal for the adoption of this Act, will echo that given by a Committee of the Parish of Hornsey (Middlesex); which, in a report to the Vestry, presented, received, and acted upon, on Easter Tuesday, 1853, speaks thus manfully and with becoming spirit" With reference to a suggestion which has been made, that the Vestry Clerks Act (13 & 14 Vict. c. 57) shall be introduced into this parish, your Committee would fail in the discharge of their duty if they did not express an emphatic opinion. The object and effect of that Act are, in contravention of the uniform usage hitherto, to take the entire control of the duties, salary, and tenure of office, of Vestry Clerks, out of the hands * See before, p. 54, note +. + See before, p. 202, note +. of Vestries, in the parishes where the Act is adopted, and to put all these into the hands of an irresponsible centralized Board. Your Committee trust that the Vestry of this parish will never so far depart from that independence and public spirit which have characterized the course of their predecessors, nor so far forget all that is due in self-respect to themselves, and in regard to the welfare of those who shall follow them, as to do other than resist to the uttermost, should its introduction ever be attempted in Hornsey, the application of such an Act. The office and functions of Vestry Clerk can be useful and honourable only so long as that officer is, and feels himself to be, responsible in all respects to the Vestry who appoint him, and to no other body or authority whatever." SECTION XV. THE DUTY AND RESPONSIBILITY OF EVERY MAN IN REGARD TO HIS PARISH. MEN oftentimes seem to think that all the relation they have to the Parish where they dwell, consists in paying certain rates when called for; and even this is done grudgingly. There can be no greater nor more deplorable mistake. The prevalence of such a notion is the result, and one of the most alarming symptoms, of the successful attempts that have, of late years, been made,-under cover, at the best, of a pedantic doctrinairism,to overlay the free Institutions of England, their working and their spirit alike, by the system of Bureaucracy and Functionarism. It was many years ago remarked, even by the Duke of Wellington, that, "While every one is accustomed to rely upon the Government, upon a sort of commutation for what they pay to it, personal energy goes to sleep, and the end is lost. This supineness and apathy as to public exertion will, in the end, ruin us.' The payment of rates, this commutation, is the least part of the duty that every man owes to the State, and to his own neighbourhood as an integral part of the State. Again and again, in these pages, has it been shown that the mutual responsibility of the men of every neighbourhood, forms the basis of the free Institutions of England. And if free Institutions are, anywhere and ever, to be a reality, and not a mere name, the sense of that mutual responsibility must be continually and habitually present, as a practical part of every man's life. Every man ought to feel that, while he enjoys the benefit of the free institutions of the country, there is a duty continually owing from himself to those Institutions, which is to be discharged by his doing his own part towards their maintenance and right action. The fulfilment of this duty ought to be felt by every man to be as much and as imperative an obligation as any claim * Phipps' Life of Plumer Ward. See before, pp. 5-8, and note. that life can have. It should, indeed, have the claim of precedence over any call of individual business or occupation :-for the very opportunity of individual occupation, unfettered, depends on the right fulfilment of all public duties. This right sense of duty has it as its necessary consequence, that an active interest is always felt and taken by every man in the welfare of his neighbourhood; and that the intelligence of all is thus directed to the matters that affect the common welfare of all. Hence these matters become systematically well cared for. It is the art and trick of those who would extend and make permanent the system of Functionarism, to appeal to the selfishness of men. It is craftily insinuated how much time is absorbed by paying attention to Parish affairs.* It is insinuated that only the low and the interested mix in such affairs. This is simply done that the indolence of self-seeking functionarism may gain its ends, by adding to the bribe of selfishness the bait of vanity. By the use of such means, there is no doubt that the desired end has been accomplished, to a very great extent, in England, of withdrawing many from giving attention to such matters. Very different indeed was the spirit in England, when Sir Edward Dering, standing in his place in the House of Commons, protested against the New Canons, because, said he, "I may be a Churchwarden." If the object of life were so low and grovelling that the mere amassing of wealth, and mere material gratification, were admitted to be its great ends-which are, indeed, what is sought, by Bureaucrats, to be made the sole spirit and thought of our time, it is but a short-sighted policy that can yield to the serpent voice that would beguile from attention to common duties, and would engross all thought on immediate personal aims. Neither fortune, property, nor trade can ever be safe, nor the pursuits of commerce sure, except where law is certain, and free institutions secure the rights and liberties of all men from wanton aggression. Wanton aggression comes in many forms. When Parliament once abdicates its functions,§ and Government functionaries and irresponsible Boards get the * See 'Local Self-Government,' pp. 41, 42; and special attention is called to the whole of chap. xii, in the same work. + Before, pp. 5-8 note. See hereon, fully, in my Practical Proceedings for the Removal of Nuisances,' etc., 2 ed., pp. 15-19, and p. 118. § See before, pp. 148, 169. CONSEQUENCES OF REMISSNESS. 213 power, under any specious pretexts, of making arbitrary Rules and orders, it is found, when too late, that a specious cover of empirical legality has been allowed to be got to that which, without appeal or redress, has deprived a man or a neighbourhood of rights and opportunities which always involve, more or less, the enjoyment of property and the means of honest industry. Had that man and that neighbourhood, instead of being engrossed in selfishness, given time and thought to their real duties, no excuse could have been raised for the interference; no opportunity could have been got for smuggling through Parliament the measures which give powers so unconstitutional and so fearfully dangerous. Sooner or later, while the selfishness of individuals seeks to justify itself by sneering at Parish Vestries, and is blindly assiduous in its own aggrandisement, the pinch is suddenly felt, and deservedly felt, by those who have thus superciliously neglected their duties. Too late it is always found that even true self-interest will be best served by its being never forgotten, that every man has relations, and ought to have constant sympathies, with the neighbourhood in which he dwells.* * The following observations are most just, and merit the well-considered attention of every lover of free institutions. "It is very evident that esteem for constitutional learning, and respect for ancient forms and usages, is very much diminished. . . The consequence is very grievous. The forms of Parliament and of the Constitution oppose, in themselves, a great barrier to the strides of arbitrary power. The violation of those forms ought to serve as a signal that an enemy is in sight; and the people should be prepared at once to take part against a measure appearing under such inauspicious colours. This feeling, however, being now weakened, it is in the power of a Minister to dispense with precedent and usage, whenever they stand in the way of convenience and expediency; and thus all the guards and outworks of freedom, on which her security so much depends, are yielded without a blow.”— Lord J. Russell, ‘Essay on the English Constitution,' 284, 285. Unhappily, though Lord John Russell could write so well, when not in office, there is no Minister who, more than himself and those with whom he is connected, has pursued the course which he so much denounces. Another writer has well remarked, in immediate connection with Parish government :-"It is too much the fashion of the present day, for men to cry out for alteration and reform, as soon as ever they discover imperfection in the laws of their country, or, in their application. The right mode of proceeding is, first, to endeavour to understand the laws as they at present exist, in their bearings, extent, and tendency; and to study the best methods of executing them. By taking this course, men would act more like rational creatures than those now do who ignorantly raise clamours for alterations, of the tendency and probable effects of which, these rash reformers are, usually, altogether incompetent to |