LONDON OOKRi^POJNDENc fc *|1877-06-01|The Western Mail

SWANSEA GUARDIANS AND THE I POOE-BATE COLLECTION. Concurrently with the refusal of the Swansea Board ot Guardians, at their meeting yester- day, to accept the resignation sent in by Mr. Llewellyn Davies, collector of poor-rates for the hamlets of Claee, a curions suggestion was made that a compromise should be effected with the sureties of Mr. Mitchell, the late collector of poor-rates for the' hamlet of St. Thomas, who became a defaulter to a considerable amount some fow months ago and absconded. The board, it appears, decided that no compromise should be made, and the ratepayers, when they come to know of this determination, will applaud the decision arrived at. No one, of course, will deny the truth of Mr. Bath's ASSERTION at a later stage of the proceedings, on suggesting the very desirable cliango from private personal gecu- rity to that of a guarantee society, that when- ever a serious defalcation arose the board felt some compunction in asking private gentlemen to refund money for which they had received no ru. compense. The com punction of a body of men under these oircumBtances is perfectly natural; but at thet same time, so long as private guaran- tees are taken, it should be clearly and distinctly understood, as a simple matter of justice to the ratepayers, who are pitilessly at the mercy of their publiq servants, that any proved pecuniary shortcomings will be rigidly insisted upon, either at the hands of the defaulter himself, or at those of his guarantees, on the strength of whose trustworthiness he came to be installed in office. Matters in this respect in Swansea are beginning. it seems, to wear a very serious aspect, and ro. oent experience only tends to intensify public distrust. It transpired yesterday that at the last Easter vestry a committee of inquiry was appointed to investigate the books of the rate. collector for Clase, bnt that the oommittee had been usable since that time to get at the books, having been refnsed access to them every time application was made. It MNJ be remembered that this was the case with Mr. Mitchell, the defaulting rate-collector for St. Thomas. Frequent application was made to him for the books, both by the corporation and theguardians, and the application wa. as frequently evaded. The rate-books of the cor potation were at last found by accident, lying at a potato-store within a stone's throw, almost, of the town-clerk's office, where they had been left by the defanlter some weeks previously, lie himself, at the time the books were so left, and knowing well that he was a defaulter to a con- I siderable amount, actually being N candidate for the offioe of poor-rate collector for LlanBamlet. In a week or twa after. wards the bubble had burst, and the bird had flown. What might have been the result had he succeeded in obtaining the UN- samlet collection it is by no means difficult to tell, viewed by the light of recent experience, It is not too much to say that, if the corporation had pressed for the books when suspioion was first aronsed, those who became Mitohell's guar- antees would not now have to be ask- ing the guardians to oompromise with them in their misfortune. The liability might nodoubt have been less, if not evaded altogether. It was, indeed, the intention, some time ago, of one of those who became security for Mitchell to quoa tion b" liability, on the ground that if tho cor poration had done its duty the loss by defalca- tion need not have oocurrod. This, wo need scarcely say, was only a forlorn hope, and by this time the responsible party has no doubt found it out. As we have already remarked, financial matters in connection with the two municipal and parochial bodies of the town would seem to be getting serious, and, as was stated at the meeting of the board of guar- dians yesterday, necessitate a most searching inquiry. It is, it appears, the settled oonviotion in the public mind, seeing that, within the last IS years, no fewer than four rate-collectora have gone to the bad at Swansea, that there must be something radically wrong somewhere, aud that the sooner the defect in the system is discovered and cured the better.

(BKHTER'8 TELEGRAMS,) I j

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LONDON OOKRi^POJNDENc fc LONDON, THURSDAY Nr<w Very few bon. members se«rnwl ,ijv for work on tho rcassemblement of il,(. of irCommons to-night after the WliMS|,m At the commencement of bu-j; the Cabinet was represented only hy Stafford Northcote and Mr. Hanly k there were hardly a score of or i members spnnkled over tho Conservativ V Liberal benchcs. The House, moreover pervaded byth?tairoflan?r ? mdtftpof?om for basineM wweh 6 it.'J\" to be orved after a boli?y. N, member was lively enongh to que-fv, til. Government on any subject whatnot the only preliininary business notices of questions, one by Sir t Watkin, the other by Dr. PlaY4. Mr. Ssndford got almost immediately u J; weigh with his motion for papers relating t. conversations between Lord 'Slilbury, I'tin, Bismarck, and the Due Decazes. This "&I simply a peg for a speech on the Easien I Question, only Mr. &tadiord'd oh?ct w? make tho Govenment show their hM? but the general feeling seemed to r", that his speech was ill-timed, all l not a single cheer was given as he sat tli)wa. 1 Mr. Bourke might fairly bave declined tosw 1 rnoro than Lord Derby recently did on titat I name subject, viz., that tho c.)Bv9r8a<io? re- ferred to were private and couSdentia!; but hs volunteered a very remarkable Latement lD regard to the Russo-Turkish struggle. I: was to the effect that the terms of would not be settled by Russia and Turku but that the Powers generally would hav» t voice in them. In other words, her Majesty', Government, we may suppose, would n/ stand by and allow Rumis to eX&rt t'.? Turkey what conditions she pleased, Tn prospect of armed intervention here op'nl up induced Lord Elcho to make a V-T bellicose speech, in which he called \I)H the Government to put our forces at <wr* upon an effective war footing, Mr. Hardy, althnugh notoriously one of,h war party in the Cabinet, snubbed him • his precipitancy. He said all he felt justr- in doing at present was to use the establishment of the country as a nucleu.s iv whatever forces it might he necessary for to put into the field. With this IliA in/i. terminated, and the House, which for the time boing, had been aroused from its torpor, settled down to a quiet and uneventful nigh: of supply. Though it, is impossible to go inti hffxvy. I suppose there is no doubt that this yoirs Derby crowd was larger than any of it.* pt I deeessors. There was certainly no diminution in the number of vehicles on the road, an 11: would be an injustice to the British holiday maker to say that each conveyance was ik filled to its utmost capacity. 1, a tradition among women, according r. Dickens, that no horse is so boar.* burdened that he cannot drag one ptoses.-?* more, and this tradition seems to have b>i handed down. in the form of a creel, -4 modern Derby-goers. And besides the of conveyances drawn by quadr:i-l. being as great as ever, there wa, I new feature in the bicycles. Iri'r youths flew down to Epsom on "Ariels." were afterwards wn lounging ovor Downs dree" in blue serge suit* au;1 smoking immense pipes with an air o: no small consequetw. But if tho real was &8 crowded ever, the t,? on the railways certainly did no decline. The number of trains m by the Brighton and South Western 0ja. panies was "simply awful." Though t former deposits its passengers on th cour- J while its rival leaves its customers 'J toil through the "ile and along al dusty, uphill road, it did M have things all in its own hands. It w> • more extensively patronised, however, members of the" upper ten than the S" ¡I' jI Western. The Prince of Wales was a imui in himself, and there were, besides, the Chines1 Ambassador, Prince Christian, aud Lor: Derby to be scored in favour of the Bright n Company. The Earl of Cawdor, who nev misses a Derby if he can help it, tran-oll ?,,ietly down from Waterloo with an i\: r,,]I& and a eldgl8.88, I Captain Webb, the channel s.vnn: ■ I jomneyed on tho same coach with 31: O'Shea, the writer of the -al, dewriptive sketch in to-day's Star. Mr. O'Shea was one of the Stand war correspondents during the Servian < paign, but he is now engxged on the E Slœnlard, and in contributing parage■ to the Atlas" column of the World. I kaw Mr. Htnry Irving on the cou~* He wore a shiny black coat, had a his i beaver up, and his long dark hair, sprinU.-i with dust, floated in the breeze. Wits j dcuble glasses on his nose, he surv-v! tiiej SClne, and then strode off—like Af1' i "The Bells "-to have some refreshm- n. gave mo quite a turn. In his sad ),0",1,.1 .gait he looked more Mathilu-like thaJl • j and I expected each moment to see aek wildly for Christian," and then. « a horrible squint, die off to the decing of fiddles. But he did nothing cf kind. He saw the Derby run, and was b. '> in town in time to play in The L, Mail," which is now tho leading feature ui Lyceum entertainment. There is a very interesting arti.-ii in tV June number of Temple Bar, writuf i v u Entrlisli lady, entitled "Amongst tn, iV sacks of the Don," in wlin-ti cribes the monotonous appearance of y steppes of Little Rubsia, KIII t ll(.t marriage festivities of the plants ;•! region. Amidst so much that is 1'1' I Russian life, it is pleasant to rocotwitj.s- which show that there is some hspjiino?- that vast empire amongst those fr.m, w the plethoric armies of the CZllr au dl""

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