The great Bunce was not to be wiled away, and was upheld in his orthodoxy by two adherents.

Abel Handy, who was the leader of the aspirants after wealth, had, alas, a stronger following.

No less than five of the twelve soon believed that his views were just, making with their leader a moiety of the hospital.

The other three, volatile unstable minds, vacillated between the two chieftains, now led away by the hope of gold, now anxious to propitiate the powers that still existed.
It had been proposed to address a petition to the bishop as visitor, praying his lordship to see justice done to the legal recipients of John Hiram's Charity, and to send copies of this petition and of the reply it would elicit to all the leading London papers, and thereby to obtain notoriety for the subject.

This it was thought would pave the way for ulterior legal proceedings.