{147} Finding the Commissioners did not come down so handsomely as on the previous occasion, only £1000 this time, it was necessary to appeal to the Metropolitan Committee. This Committee gave £3,000; and the bishop afterwards increased his donation to £500. Mr. Thistlethwayte gave £200. Upwards of a thousand pounds were subscribed by the builders. The Rev. Minister gave £200; (a whole year’s stipend; if the bishop and his lessees had but done this!) and the greater portion of the remainder was raised by voluntary subscription from those who did not know the history of the Paddington Estate. {151a} Vide cash accounts. {151b} While we admire the wonders being worked out by the electric telegraph, the simple rod of steel must not be discarded, or despised; for the want of this simple lightning conductor, the clumsy steeple of St. James’s Church was struck by what would a short time ago have been considered the vengeance of heaven. {152a} For some most excellent remarks on the London Churches in general, see “London exhibited in 1851,” by John Weale. {152b} For a full description of the splitting of the walls of this church, and the cause which produced it, see _The Builder_, for 1846, pages 589–615. There is an error in a previous notice of this church in the Builder, Vol. IV., page 395, which may have led to the belief, that it did not much concern the rate-payers of Paddington, how it was built; the printer of this notice having made the church commissioners give ten thousand pounds, instead of one thousand—the actual amount given. {153} _Household Words_, November 6, 1852. {155} Mr. Cundy’s generous gift did not save the parish the payment of “£38 for a carved oak altar table and two chairs, supplied at Trinity;” the question of stone or wood having become of great importance; the wood having carried it in this instance. {156} It must not be imagined that this vestry represented the majority of rate-payers; for it did no such thing. At the annual public meeting of rate-payers, which was held after these great outlays for the church had been incurred, the names of the parish officers who sanctioned these proceedings were received with the most unmistakeable marks of disapprobation; and at an election, which virtually tried the management of the whole body, a great majority of the rate-payers voted against the vestry. Moreover, I am of opinion, after the most careful and impartial investigation of this subject, that the _bona fide_ government of this parish is, and has been for years, in the hands of the bishop and his lessees, (through their agents in the parish,) and a few builders. {157} Vide Cash Account, 1847—p. 49. {159} Vide _Morning Post_, _October_, 5th, 1850. {160} Report of the Lock Hospital Asylum, and Chapel, 1852. {161} Macaulay’s History of England, Vol. I. page 88. {169} For an excellent description of the method of teaching adopted at this school, see Household Words.—December 25, 1852.