The Press. — London, England, 1853-05-07 00:00:00

p MAY 7, 1853. into the morning dawn they were thinking and talking, not of Mr. Nltteattlay's rounded period. or Sir Robert's anti-Coalition rhetoric. or Sir James Graham's bitterness to Lord imt of the declaration of Lord Howick. On turn ing to Hansard (third series, vol. xxxviii., p. 500) we find the very words used by the ex- Colonial Secretary : "He thought the ilovern anent were yiring the best cleaner qf resisting it "by making Ballot an open question." We shall see next year, when a plan will be pro posed for materially and completely changing that measure of 1t43:2 from which the name of Grey derives a great part of its historical cele brity, whether the noble lord will lend the sanc tion of his name to sehemes that by antieipa tion are announced by Mr. Hume as likely to satisfy the Radicals. If, as it appears, the Reform 11111" is to be destroyed, the men of Carlisle may say that they know of an old " Cumberland yeoman" whose long practice in lighting the flames of faction will give him what Sir William Moles worth, in the words of Bentham, would call " the appropriate official aptitude of—fin ineen diary! But we may doubt whether all of his former colleagues, or any of the opponents who aid him with an occasional vote, will connive at the least experiment in the way of confla gration. CHURCH-RATES—CONSERVATIVE REFORM. IF there be one assignable cause which more than another tends to foster wild and danger ous projects of innovation, and to lessence. spelt for established institutions, it is the obstinacy which refuses to see a limit in any law which the "wisdom ot• our ancestors" has framed, and which clings to customs, once ex cellent, but now from lapse of time obsolete. This reactionary spirit has of late years well nigh ceased to exist, and Conservatives for the most part now ditter from Reformers, not so much in the direction of the course as in the rate at which each is inclined to travel. Ad ministt•sttive reform, moreover, is felt to be the best safeguard against Parliamentary reform in the democratic sense ; for the goodness of the laws reflects honour on the lawmakers or law menders, and few persons care for the theo retical constitution of the House of Commons, provided the work of legislation be well and promptly done. Hence, when any legal nui sance is to be abated, the Conservative Oppo sition is generally found, if not foremost, in the work, yet ready to lend effective aid ; and with good reason, for, while it is the business of the Radical in search of a grievance to demonstrate the inefficiency of the present Legislature to supply popular wants, the Conservative, zealous tin• its honour, takes a pride in showing with what vigour it can operate for the removal of recognised abuses. These remarks lead natundly to the subject of our article—the law of church-rates, and the imperative necessity for its reform. The gene ral nature of that law is probably known to every one. Before the Reformation, the eccle siastical polity of England was framed on a simple and consistent principle—that of the absolute union of Church and State, insonmeh that a number of the one was ex verexxitate member of the other also. A Dissenter was a rebel, and liable to punishment us such ; which is still the Catholic theory, not much modified by the lapse of three centuries. In this state of things, it was natural that every man should be called upon to pay according to his hbility for the mainteimuce of the sole estab lished or tolerated Church. The obligation, originally conscientious only, then enforced by the spiritual authorities, finally settled into it part of the common law of England. Strictly maintained by Laud, abandoned during the Commonwealth, revived at the Restond ion, this now compulsory impost was levied on all persons alike. When the Stuarts fell, dissent beginning to be tolerated, and Dissenters natu rally objecting to a personal rating for the benefit of a communion which they abhorred, litigation, endless and profitless, commenced on the subject of church-rates. This strife has grown with the growth and increased with the strength of free opinion in England. At the end of a century and a half it remains still un appeased—unreasonable concession being de- THE PRESS. mantled on the one hand, reasonable coneession denied on the other ; the ('Lurch clinging to a barren privilege, and Dissent using that privi lege as a weapon whereby to subvert the Es tablishment. Statesmen have tried to make peace. lint tried in vain. Sir R. Peel suggested one plan ; Lord Althorp another; the public rejected both; hundreds of thousands have been expended int vestries have be come foci of lova' agitation and discontent. ('an these things be set straight 1) We believe they ; and that only by the exercise of a lade of the common sense which Hume and others have declared mankind incapable of exercising on a religious question. One or two fails must be made plain in - the first instance, that we nnty more clearly see our way. We assert, then, without fear of contra diction, tll that no cause, soeial or politieal, has tended ntore to the disorganisation of so ciety than this petty question of church-rate; ('') that. the law as it stands is a dead letter. it being notorious that in no parish where the Dissenting element is large can these rates be collected (3) that the existing law originated in a state of society and under eiremnstanees wholly different from those of the present day. Of the last of these propositions no farther evidence is required than that. which we have already given. Of the first. no man who has resided in a huge tuanufaeturing town, or who knows anything of the state of such towns, can possibly entertain a doubt. Manchester, Southwark, I weds. lainiester. Tavistock, nearly all the Lancashire and shire boroughs..Brightoin, some of the London parishes, and illlllllllollllll , petty agricultural villages, have been, within the last twenty years, the svelte of religious war on a small wall.. In some pimps riots have broken out, to the great danger of life and property ; in others, the animosity, hiss openly VelltVii, has smouldered on for years, breaking out at inter vals into petty personal feuds, embittering poli tical diflertince, and desecrating the name of religion itself. Hundreds of thousands have been wasted in litigation, amounting alto wither to at sum which collectively far exceeds the hotel of the rates actually in dispute. Ex clusive dealing, discontinuance of employment. dispossession of tenants from their oceuptiney —all the worst features of the worst election eontests—have marked the feud between or thodoxy and dissent, between parish-hole pendenee and dilliThWall3lolll4,llll'ol. And of all persons who have suffered by this state of things, the clergyman has suffered most. A mediator in all other quarrels, in this quarrel he becomes, not voluntarily, but as it were tw o/Pio, a kind of party leader. Tile result is, at considerable diminution of his influence wher ever the chureh-rate battle has been sharply fought, and a proportionate inerease of dis sent. It would not be amiss it' the opinion of the working clergy could be taken as to the expediency of continuing church-rates on their present footing. Making all allowance for the love of tradition which their habits and pro fession inspire. we believe that a clear makjmity of three or four to one would be returned in favour of a change. And not without cause ; for, independent of the feuds and heart-burn ings to which we have alluded, the law is abso lutely inoperative wherever a strong party has an interest in resisting it. Judges, lawyers, clergy, churchwardens, vestry agitators, are all equally aware of the fact. Since the litigation of the Braintree case especially, it is an aseer tained fact that it mAjority of any vestry cannot practically be coerced into imposing at rate. The rate may therefore be defeated wherever one-half the ratepayers are found to oprotat it ; and the small nucleus of dissent is. In most boroughs, certain to be swelled by at large ad dition of Ow ecom(ontiettl, the dimeolitented, and the lovers of peace—the latter anxious to bring about the only possible settlement of a controversy which (otherwise threatens to be endless. We do not write theoretically. It is certain, as any recorded fact can be, that in almost every large town where ehurch-rate dis putes have run high they have ended in the total discontinuance of the rade, and the edop tioon of the voluntary prineiple. Innumerable instances are to be found in the Report of the Parliamenhoy Committee of Ims 1. Now, the solution of such at result is not to he found merely in the greater activity of one party, and the sloth or indifferente of the other. A wide spread phenomenon indicates a motes deep. seated cause. !inimically. the veriliet of the nitepayers of England has been pronounced against the rntOreeutt•ut of rates. in all pliers where they tall heavily on Dissenters as well as on Churchmen. The reason is ►ivi fitrie—we say nal ease Of injupttieo appears to he made out. The popula►• sympa thy is apilltst 1110 opposed to Ispit. lar sympathy. no law can. in this or any coun try. be etieetnatly carried into execution. The question, then, stands thus: Church-rates must be maintained, lest IMr din reheti tall into aunt decay ; church-rate law must be reformed. lest a SVIVit . ot • Iltdoit'aess impede its working altogether. its it has already done to some extent. Can such a solution of the problem befelr us be ftatud*."flte debate of Nlonday next will answer our query : and not improbably illlmWeV it in the affirmative. TILE IHKIKYARD INQUIRY. Wr hail intended to disensa the provetslings before the committee now sitting for the in. vestigatiu t of charges preferred against t Ito late Board of Admiralty ; but, though very de sirous of addressing our readers Oil the fillb ject, we feel, upon reflection. that no other opt: is alt present lett us than to follow the graced example of journalists who have de dined to eminent upon a ease aillute sub podeir. It itt better, 11114140111)tellly, that While 111'01•1.14111114S. whether of 11 judieial or an inqui sitorial ellararter,llll. pending, the piddle press should pause in ventilating its conclusions, thmungli, as in the matter now referred to, the practice be attended %%lilt temporary injustice to wrougfully-accused parties. ll' any piddle journals during this inquiry should have indulged itt elimination rather than in discussion, the eXalllple. ant' the honour of journalism. is one In be avoided. Nor. in deed, would we at. all allude to the subject till it emulates fairly before us, were it not that we wish to explain to our readers the reason why we pass over the confusion between private" and official eommunieations in which it is the tendency of this itimittiry to involve Its. Vast surprise has been tilt generally by people of all parties at " private and confidential" corre spondence having been so (remittently read berm ire the elommittee. Conversations made in the careless unreserve of private and unottieial ilitercoltrae have also been detailed with great Illinntelless, all, if we are to trust to the im prts, even pantomimic gesture has been em ployed to ',minty the mode in which trivial words and phrases have been used. All this seellis very strange to many persons who not unreasonably suppose that Monte novel social cede has been recently introduced, which patty maliec :dime eat a welemone and appro priate. THE PONV PEEL. Mr. Disraeli once said of Sir Robert Peel. that he never used a iluotation except such as had not remotely reeeived 11143 incest of Par liallielltary approbation. Mr. Gladstone is more original. Who, except an Ameriestit stump-orator, would actu u ally lace pointed out. and laid stress upon. the five hours which he had drearily 1•1111511111141 in a financial statement ‘4l4iell Mr. 'Pitt. would have exhquated in five and-forty minutes, and Nit% Canning in hall an lilpur? so mENsi . M mpATils CON FEcIMIII N.Qt!olt." i 1141 4 ,4.41! It would be diffieult to match this rlu turieal absurdity even in Kentneky or Tenessee. Dui Mr. tiladstono is CI litSiStl'ilt in his over-educated mediocrity. lie you thanes his original quotation. fa jinn t. ml repiNtit ITV The ttl t !• 0 4 of this 111118. wo uld have been !Wit to t h e World if We had not been helped by our pro-Onolition eindempontry, the Whig E.rantimer. With an exquisite appreci ation 04 Mr. Gladstone's real abilities, it was the first to nickname him " 'fur. PoNv PEEL." This equine metaphor must, therefore, in dicate . a flunk eonfession that the Posy hum wits greatly fatigued by his unequal efforts in trying to gallop in the stride of his polities' sire. Now grateful Mr. filadstone's colleagues must be that we have assisted them in under standing anything which he has ever said.