business does not include any matter which does not appear upon the
notice convening the meeting, signed by the Vicar and churchwardens.
This usually announces that churchwardens will be elected and the
accounts produced; the latter, since church rates were abolished, is
not obligatory, and only subscribers have a right to question them.
The proceedings are not legal unless three _full_ days have elapsed
since the publication of the notice on a Sunday before morning
service, the following Thursday being thus the earliest day on which
the meeting can take place. It is important to remember that no
churchwarden has a legal status before he has been formally admitted
by the Archdeacon.

In former times, before the creation of Parish, District and County
Councils, the curmudgeon, after the reaction of the winter months,
became very prominent towards the time of the Easter vestry, when he
would appear, having enlisted a small band of supporters, with a
number of grievances relating to rates, parish officials, rights of
way, footpaths, and such-like debatable subjects. Of course, he should
have been promptly squashed by the chairman, but too often an
indulgent Vicar would allow him to have his fling.

Now, however, the curmudgeon can easily get himself elected upon one
of the numerous councils; having mismanaged his own affairs until he
has none left to manage, he appears to regard himself as a fit and
proper person to mismanage the business of other people, and the brief
authority which his position confers gives him a welcome opportunity
of letting off superfluous steam.

Parishioners sometimes combined and elected an unpopular person to a
troublesome post which nobody wanted. Such was the office of