who used them) an annual subscription of £5 to the Mendicity Society (which we admit to be a useful society, but charity should not be bestowed from the public rates), and an annual subscription of £20 to the lifeboat committee; all of which payments we submit are illegal, and may ultimately lead to a refusal to pay them if such appropriation of funds raised by taxation be continued.”
“James Breeds
Anthony Harvey Auditors”
The reading of this report was followed by ironical laughter and cries of “Oh oh!” Ald. Ross denied the spending of money on processions, although the Council had publicly attended the funerals of the late Earl Waldegrave and of their fellow Councillor Mr. Austin. Mr. Ross justified these attendances on public grounds, and spoke highly of the merits of his late lordship in connection with religious and philanthropic objects. He also vindicated the donation to the Mendicity Society and expressed his belief, as Chairman of the Board of Guardians, that the ratepayers saved £40 or £50 a year by the operations of the society. – Coun. Bromley agreed with part of the report which referred to the stipend of the Treasurer, which was not at all commensurate with the extreme care and accuracy with which the accounts were kept; but to show his contempt for the rest of the report, he would move that it be placed under the table. – Ald. Rock thought the report showed their officers did their duty in examining and scrutinizing the accounts placed before them. He had strong doubts of the “illegality” of the payments, as the whole of the Council income was not raised by taxation. To show that the Council approved of the vigilance and attention of the auditors, he would move that they be thanked for the consideration they displayed in carrying out their duties. This motion was not seconded. – Coun. Poole said the auditors were paid for their services [which were to see that the accounts were correct]. Mr. Ginner remarked that the auditors had taken their conclusions, but the Council was not obliged to agree with those conclusions. He moved that the report be entered on the minutes in the usual way, his motion obtaining only three votes. – Coun. Howell characterized the auditors remarks as “cool impudence”. Coun. Winter moved an amendment that they pass to the next question, which was carried. [Of the moral bearings of the disputed payments there should be but little doubt; but if the subscription to the Mendicity Society was legal, then the decisions of the Council and the Board of Guardians in 1857 were wrong; for, then, both bodies declared by resolution that although the Society had been the means of diminishing vagrancy and rendered assistance to the police, yet to aid the Society from the funds would not be legal, See Vol 6, page 161. Then as to Ald. Ginner’s assumed justification of the £20 given to the Lifeboat fund on the ground of the purpose of that institution being to save life, the same argument -
