The Press. — London, England, 1855-06-23 00:00:00

582 Sir EDWARD LrrroN to the Commons, and ac cepted by the Government to avoid a defeat. A Minister may properly consult the feeling of Parliament on questions which come before it. Constituted as the House of Commons now is, it would be impossible to conduct 1,13 01 Government on other terms. But the clues. tions he accepts from the Legislature he should accept honestly, with the full intentiog of giving them effect, got wide gig view cushioning them after saving himself from defeat by their acceptance. On principles of vital moment he should have some opinion of his own, and should disdain to have his policy ksbitimily diew.e4 to We* by his oppotteute. On these three great questions the Opposi tion have made a stand. The Committee has successfully prosecuted its inquiry. The Vienna Conference, after two years of vexatious • trifling, is at an end. The principle that merit should be passport to promotion in the ser vice of the State is conceded. These are the objeuts achieved by the Opposition this session. The Government may have been annoyed and damaged by the debates upon them, but it would be difficult to show that the objects themselves are not worthy the attention of statesmen, and are nut bene ficial to the public. CHURCH RATES. Is it impossible, even at this late period of the session, to settle the question of five and twenty years' standing ? We think not ; though certain recent abortions warn us that we are feeling our way across a quagmire. The truth is, men's minds are much more nearly brought to an accord on the matter than they were even three years ago. And though we may not be ready (with Sir W. CLAY) to surrender two-thirds of our available church-room to be let out in " sittings " for the maintenance of the fabrics and their services, nor (with the kind-hearted Archbishop) to give a premium upon violation of the law pro vided it be broken twice, and done deliberately, still mists enough have been cleared away and sense enough spoken on the question to enable us to see our way pretty clearly to a solution of the difficulty. The decision of the House of Lords in the Braintree case establishes (obiter) that the maintenance of the fabrics and services of the Church is a duty incumbent upon the parishioners at common law. Its only specific decision is, that the dutiful minority can not make a rate equally binding upon the undutiful majority. " Nullum jus sine remedio " is as true here as everywhere. The recusant majority, even if it is the whole parish, may be pronounced " contumacious," and writs de con tumaee capiendo will ruu right and left forth with. The worst of it is, that, while shutting up the church seems reasonable enough, if the parish refuses the means of keeping it open, the law " shuts up " the congregation—a very itl'fferent business. Per contra, the dissenting plea of " con ience " must, we fear, be numbered among e casualties of the present war. A Quaker bjects to the Church tax conscientiously— harassed, victimised, imprisoned, and rises martyr. He objects to a war tax as con. ientiouslyonly, where are the martyrs? e pays in the one case because the tax is pular—refuses in the other because it is not pular, and straightway grows into a hero ; ut what has become of " conscience " in the terval? It is "shot off" like many nobler sufferers. These are the mists that have been cleared away ; let us now look at the sense of the thing On the one hand, the CuIIRCH is . our national endowment—Mon's gift to us. The lAallowed fabrics of her worship are our iotional property—most especially and most oredly they are the inheritance and birth ght of our poor. On the other hand, there e many who dissent from her forms of rstap, maintain at their own cost their own, THE PRESS. and do not approve of being made to pay for both. Let us, as our French neighbours say, accept the situation. The principles of a settlement of the Churclprate question, it appears to us, should be sonsething of this sort. The maintenance a the fabrics should be borne by the Hello!), se the maintenance of all our other social apparatus is, in the shape of fi county rate. Lot awe be added to our pro. sent county rate, and eollected in the gime simple way, a Chureb county-rate. Let any one who dissents from this arrangement be excused from payment of this extra penny in the pound (it would be no more) on his certi fying his dissent before two Justices of the Peace. Let it be paid by the rest. As the natural result of this, let the persons dissent ing cease to have any voice in the manage ment of our churches; let there be (if needed) a church vestry to manage the church work, and a parish vestry (at which all alike would vote) to manage the parish work—parochial rates, way rates, and the rest Again, let all the costs of worship (as distinct from the maintenance of the fabrics) be provided for by the church vestry, or by the congregation; and then let them be left to manage their own affairs without the interference of dissenters, just as the private affairs of dissenting chapels are free from the interference of Church people. The details of the measure may be easily filled up. In truth, there hardly need be any; they would adjust themselves, and the bene fits to all parties would be immense. The objections to it, we venture to predict, will come wholly from the party for whose scruples we have been taking the most scrupulous care Any one who has had much experience in parish economics knows well that there are few things a dissenter loves so much as his power of dictating and overbearing in the vestry-room ; at least, if he be of the thorough bred, stiff-necked, conscience-mongering sort. The quiet, honest Christian dissenter, who loves to worship GOD in peace, after his cherished pattern of worship, will (we venture to believe) see in the scheme we have sketched out nothing but the expression of a fair desire to " live and let live," to do as we would be done by, and to cultivate " peace on earth, and " good-will among men." We need hardly add that we lay claim to no originality in our proposition The name of its excellent author, the Rev. W. J. CONYBEARE, will recommend it to " Liberals ;" its common sense (we hope) to Conservatives. We do not pledge ourselves to the details of the scheme as set forth by him in the Edinburgh a few months ago ; we do not think, for instance, that sufficient care is taken to provide for the church vestry being composed of persons who are really interested in the maintenance of the Church. But we are satisfied that of all the schemes hitherto proposed, this gives the fairest promise of adjusting the question; and that almost any of them are preferable to that of Lord PALMERSTON—which is to "wait until " Sir W. Guy's Bill is disposed of," and then to manage the business of the House so in geniously that the bill is to go into committee about the middle of July ! MR. DISRAELI AND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. A ?mit/ practical question of first.rate impor tanco has been introduced into the politics of the times, and Mr. Disaem has taken up his position on it in the most masterly manner. It is hardly possible to exaggerate the im portance of the speech made by the Right Honourable Gentleman on last Monday, when he proceeded to grapple with the rising subject of Administrative Reform. His views upon the question are evidently the conclusions of a mind that has long meditated upon the absolute necessity of an Official, as distin guished from a Parliamentary, Reform, and his matured opinions are well calculated to arrest the attention of the whole country. Three main objects in Official Reform, as cording to Mr. DISRAELI, are, firstly, to secure SATURDAY, more talent in the Civil Service ; secondly, to render the working of the public departments more efficient; and, thirdly, by a judicious classification of offices, to economise expense now Wasted on superfluous posts. The manner in which the Bight Honourable Gentleman proposes to deal with thi difficulties of the ()hellion to bold and comprehensive. Unlike other self-styled norunners, the Member for Bucks hiro seen that if we are to recruit for the service of the State, we must give other than pecuniary compensation. " Those more " spiritual rewards which animate the noble " part of man," "ought, according to Mr. DISRAELI, be placed before the aspiring na tures in the Civil Service: in other words, he would use the stimulus of an honourable ambition, and the love of personal distinction, as assistants to attract talent and energy from the walks of commerce and the learned professions. This suggestion, humbly made by Mr. DISRAELI, is of great importance. Upon its consideration hinges the whole question, for those who overlook it will never produce a perfect plan on the subject. Man is not a being entirely ruled by salary, as routine mongers suppose. Sentiment, the thirst for distinction, the desire to be honourably spoken of, powerfully sway the brightest spirits of the human race. The great honours open to the Bar attract a vast quantity of talent to the repulsive stud)/ of the law. Fame, not less than fees, urged on the ERSKINES, BROUGHAMS, and COPLEYS of the profession. On the second part of the question, Mr. DISRAELI is not less fertile in suggestion. In order to increase the efficiency of the public service, Mr. DISRAELI has frankly declared " that great changes are necessary.' Not con fining himself to generalities, the Member for Bucks laid down as a rule, " that entrance " into the Civil Service should not he obtained " by mere favoritism," and further, that " it " should he made subject to a substantial and " real test of fitness." Still more important is his suggestion that " the Civil Service should " be made strictly and completely a profes sion" (words full of practical sense and hope ful significance), and " that the great offices in "it should be reserved for those who have " been trained and educated for it." Nothing could be more thoughtful and distinctly sug gestive than these important announcements from the Leader of the Opposition. And lastly, in the abolition of useless offices, classi fication of departments, &c., in order to pre vent the too arbitrary reforms of a single mind, Mr. DISRAELI proposes a " Royal Com mission of Inquiry," composed of the highest practical authorities, such as was on the point of being recommended to the Crown when the Coalition conspired for the fall of Lord DERBY'S Cabinet. With these large and luminous views before us, we return our hearty thanks to Mr. DRUM MOND for his sneer at those who talked about Administrative Reform. The Member for West Surrey was the means of drawing forth from Mr. DISRAELI a detailed statement of the measures contemplated by Lord DERBY'S Cabinet at the time when its leader in the Lower House referred to " Administrative Re form." Now, at that time the word had never been heard, and it is evident that when Mr. DISRAELI used it that he must have been referring to some views of the Government at that time. We think it very likely that after seeing the question of "Parliamentary Re form blown into a mere bubble by the Whigs, that Mr. DISRAELI'S intuitive sagacity perceived what real and practical Reform was to be procured. And we desire to have it recollected that Lord DERBY'S Cabinet did issue particular commissions to inquire into various depart ments. Even the present CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER bore frank and ample testimony to the improvements effected during Lord DERBY'S rule. ' Mr. GLADSTONE testified also to the same effect. Will any stereotyped vilifier of the Conservative party dare in the presence of these testimonies to assert that the Conservative Cabinet was not sincere in sig.