The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-02-19 00:00:00

CHURCH RATES.

THE attention of Parliament is again to be occupied
this session with the vexed question of Church-rates,
several members having brought forward their pet
projects on the subject, and too many of them betray-
ing, that feeling of hostility to the Church which
ought to be vigorously resisted. There was a time
when Dissenters had the good sense to perceive, and
the honesty to acknowledge, that so long as they
enjoyed toleration for their own opinions, and were
protected in the exercise of them, no principle of con-
science was involved in their contribution to a rate
which was levied on the whole community, and the
greater part of which was expended inlocal govern-
ment, of the benefit of which all were partakers. In-
deed, so far from being opponents, the leading Dis-
senters of former days were supporters of Church-rates,
because they very properly considered the maintenance
of the Church as the surest safeguard for the continu-
ance of that toleration in which they were so largely
interested ; and although they might differ on ques-
tions of discipline, and even on minor points of doc-
trine, they had still, the sense to perceive that the
Church was the pioneer of Christianity, and performed
that portion of the work which they were unable to ac-
complish. The new lights are, however, wiser, in
their own opinion, than were their fathers, and seek
their own aggrandisement on the ruins of the In-
stitution under which they have flourished.
Unfortunately, in all such arguments too much
deference is paid to clamour, and reason is drowned
amidst the noisy protestations of declaimers who rely
for support upon the appeal to pecuniary interests, and
who attempt to persuade their deluded followers into
the belief that they are advocating a principle, when,
in reality, they are merely striving to save themselves
from the liability to a paltry contribution. The cla-
mourers for abolition .assert with unblushing effrontery
that they are anxious to remove a grievance, when they
are but endeavouring to create one; and their cry is
peace, when their hearts are :bent .on war. No better
evidence could be afforded than that which has lately
been furnished by the returns from parishes in Lon-
don, of the feeling of the publiesenerally, with refer,

ence to Church-rates, even under the disadvantageous
circumstances in which the question at present is
placed. Of 123 parishes, from which returns were
received, in only two had a Church-rate been refused,
and in four more no rate had been asked for
from the fear of a refusal ; while in the remainder the
majority of the parishioners were favourable to taxing
themselves for the support of the Church. This it
might be supposed would be a legitimate argument in
defence of a right which is more ancient than the title
deeds of any landowner in the kingdom, and yet it would
seem that our legislators lack the moral courage to
advocate it with the boldness of truth, but content
themselves with suggesting modifications, in the vain
endeavour to conciliate bitter hostility.
There is no doubt that, since the decision of the
House of Lords in the celebrated Braintree case, the
question has been placed in considerable difficulty,
not from the legality being impugned, but from the
mode of enforcement being complicated by technicali-
ties, which render the redress for refusal worse than
the complaint. What is really wanted is a statute,
which, while re-affirming the liability of parishioners
to maintain the fabric of the Church, and to provide
for the necessary expenditure of the wardens, who are
parish officers, shall also provide efficient means for
enforcing the collection. Much anxiety is professed
for the question being set at rest, but it can only be
effectually accomplished by legislating on the basis of
justice and equity.