The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-05-16 00:00:00

THE ESTABLISHMENT AND ITS DEFENDER&

To the &Mee%
(Concluded from our kat isms.)

That I am richt in this position. may he seen horn the
followinx quotation from the r 151041 in • leader on one clif
Mr. Gladetenves speeches in the delete on the " Church
Regulation BM," when Mr. Gladstone argued for freedom
for all parties in the Church. Referring to the obligates
which rested on the rimer to Adorn the law, and
rubrics of the Church, this is what the Ness maid —"The
Act of Uniformity is the lent great used of settlement be
which the clergy hold theig benefice,, the dignitaries
their thrones and stall', and the congregations their
churches. It I. really nothing less than the latest title
deed of the Church of England. That a considerable
number of its requirements have become obsolete chiefly
through change of manners and customs, may be allowed
without prejudice to the meaning and authority of the
deed considered as • whole. Huh as it is celled the Act
of Uniformity, and they who would not submit to it are
called Nonconformists, uniformity is the first principle,
SA it is the very title of the Act." "If the Act of
Uniformity," remarks the Them further, "Is no longer
good for anything, then there remalas no !WM why the
successors of the ousted 2.000 should not step in." Now
this view of the matter, which cuts root and branch at
the history and philosophy both of the rector and the
lecturer, and which is the only consistent view of it,
makes it incontestable that the Church of England is
indeed • law made Church, established by the State
holding its offices and its pay from the State, as if it were
simply • breach of the Civil Service. If this is not so, then
I the Times and many distinguished statesmen ars
grievously mistaken as to the relations of the Church to
the State, and have been usurping authority whit*
brands their actions each, most samiligious in the h
of the world. The Rector at Bridport may net se=
that he has his position in • Church which.
whether founded by the Apostles or not, has sin°,
their time been aeguredly taken under the fostering
care of the State, which has cared so completely
eared font, is in no sense to allow it to take care of itself,
which has amply endowed it with material good, and in
return has claimed and exercised absolute control over it.
Surely this Is a position which, at this time of day' is
Incontestable: and if this be doubted, let me direct the
attention of doubters to such utterance' is Sir William
Harcourt'., who simply throws scorn on any idea of the
Church, which does not regard it as an institution subject,
In all things, to the authority of the State, and who
asks ironically whether it is by the authority of the
Apostles that a Bishop possesses • palace and .C 3,000 a
year?
The next question which the lecturer touches is the
burning one of Endowment He contends alter the manner
of Church Defenders that the state has n 'thing to do with
them.—Here, however, the lecturer uipe somewhat
For in the next breath or nearly so, be tells us that the
State has interfered to cut down capitolar sees, and to
reduce the income of the Bishops to • minimum salary,
using the rest of the property to augment poor living, at
their good will and pleasure. I wonder what the Marquise(
Westminster would say if Government appointed so many
Commissionen to overhaul his vast estates, and to reduce
him to • minimum income and appropriate the rest of his
estate to augment "smaller livings." Should we then
hear anything about confiscation and robbery, and all the
other pretty epithets with which Liberationists are pelted.
Of worse the State has a right to interfere, and does Inter-
fere because the property is unquestionably State property.
As to the question of tithes, I will not quote from Mr.
will quote from an unsuspected authority, Sir
Robert Phillimore. He says "about the year TIM Offs.
King of Mercia (the most ancient of all the Saxon
kings of his time in the Island), made • law whereby he
gave unto the Church the tithes of all his Kingdom:
which, the historians tell us, was done to expiate the
death of Ethelbert, King of the East Angle., whom in the
year preceding he had mimed basely to be murdered.
This law of Offs was that which first gave the Church
• civil right (in tithes) in this land by way of property and
Inheritance, and enabled the clergy to gather and receive
them as their legal due, by the coercion of the civil power.'
Such is the testimony of • great ecclesiastical lawyer
whose sympathies lie with the English Church. In the
facie of this authority Mr. Hicklin most, I presume,
give up the question as against bun. A great part of the
lecture is occupied with • rehearsal of the great things
which the Church is doing, with which we cordially'
sympathise, and could wish she were in a position to do
more. It is not because we feel the Church is not doing
much that we ask for Disestablialunent ; it is because she
Is doing so much, and evincing a capacity to do still
greeter things, if she were not hampered and shackled on
every hand by the interference and authority of the State.
She wants more Bishops and can pay for them; the State
says, you can't get them. She wants to extend her
operations in the way of building Churches, where the
lot Christ may not now be preached ; the State says,
wont give you a Public Worship Vacuities Bill." Maui
of the clew are anxious to fraternise with the ministers
1 of the Tres Churches, to exchange pulpits for instance ;the
State says, you will he subjected to pains and penalties if
you do. A sincere admirer of • State Church, longs to eee
' certain reforms which are urgently needed to bring his
' Church into harmony with the age, and although 'holies as
the writer says, like " • huge stranded whale, helpless and
shiftless,' yet the state says no. I forbear to speak of.
' Patronage and the sale of livings which makes the Church
stink in the nostrils of friends and foes alike. This is the
Chinch which we are seeking to liberate, so that she may
take bar rightful p:ace and do the work for which she is
so amply fitted and equipped. We believe that while
, Disestablishment will be an act of political justice to the
non-eMempal Churches, the real gain will accrue to the
Church herself. In no sense that I can see will she loss;
in every sense she will be the gainer. It is because I
1 believe that good and not harm will come to the Church
of Ragland through the policy of Disesteblishment and
Disendowment that I am an ardent supporter of the liber.

ation movement.
The one other point which calls for notice in the lecture
Is that which refers to statistics. Mr. Hicklin claims a
large majority for the Establishment, and leaves • very
small minority indeed for the Dissenters. And the method
of his calculation is, to say the toast of it, novel. There
are so many baptiaed and married in the Church : so many
taught in Church schools, and therefore there is only a
fraction left for the Dissenters. The method of calcula-
tion Is preposterous. As to marriages there are many who
object to the presence of registrars, others are not
ire/oughts to the "sentimental attractions of • genic*
celebrated in an ancient and beautiful building "; and to
say that all who are thus married in Church are members
of it, is as absurd as to reckon all the burglars and wife-
beaten who are generally in gaol registered as members
of the Chun& as Its real adherents. The lecturer
he scored a point when he quoted the authority of ivar.
stone, who in an article in the Contemporary Review for
July IWS reckoned the adherents of the Church in this
country at fifteen millions, to which the Than in a leader
on the article in question made reply—speaking of the
vast, and various portion of the British people to whore
Mr. Gladstone. makes little allusion, including Roman
Catholics, Ton. Dissenters, of all kinds. The
Times says, the allusion the "writer," to, Mr.
Gladstone, 'makes to this vast and various portion of
the British people, is to be found in a numeriaiestimate
of church people at fifteen millions. This which is rather
over than under the number, leaves eighteen mUliona.
Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, and Meeenters of all
kinds—outride the Anglican Communion. Does not the
writer, "pertinentlywWr. the Times; me that themakri
are tg
HickeritctihmisrfrienceisTitmgr{ d end tband feel dieese etatisUcs ted tc;
thlulethatirew, they may put quite • new face in the
matter. majority of the country is undoubtedly out-
ride the pale of the Church. although as yet not disposed
to act in concert for it. Diseetablightnent. Time which is
• revealer of secrets, will speedily disclose the rights of
the matter but if the non-aet•blithed bodies MOM
smaller than they are, we are quite sure that there are
quite enough materials within the Church WWI to
accomplish the work; and even if the Liberation SOCiein
were Is cease all its labour to-morrow, the work of
Disestahliahnient so far from ceasing would probably be
accelerated. Nothing, in our humble judgment, can ems
the Establishment even from it. own friends ; and I vral
ekes those remarks by the statement Lord Derby made
some few years ago, and which many Churchmen will
probably be found to agree with. Spesking of the mote
of the latablishmeut, he said—" I look on that question
as one which is entirely in their own bands (Churchmen,
be means). Noneonformists and Secularists co
will not bring about diseetablishment ; but the reel nut*
tion is whether the contending parties within the Church
itself can keep their hands off one another. If they
cannot— if there is any considerable secession on one side
or the other—l should begin to think that the end wag
not far off: Can any rational man think that they can
keep their hands off each other I And if not her doom
according to a Tory Minister of State, is sealed. Let her:
therefore, hear her true monition, "Set thins house in
order, for thou shalt die and not live."
Yours,
Taos Nun.
Riehlin, in his lecture, mekse much of the
objection of the Nonconformists to • religious census.
The fact is, the Nonconformists did not object to a canna
they only objected to the proemed method of taking it
Let there in a Sunday fiMid when the worshippers in
churches and chapels can be numbered, and let the
Church patty abide by the result, and we ham no meaner
of objection to such • census. But we very decidedly
object to a census in which every person shall be °°°
for the Church of England who goes to no Church and
bathos' in no Church, but who okes not yet wish to he
ticketed as an infidel Zvi/Mae can see at • glance bow
unfair snob a seams would be. The census of 1351 was
altogether favourable to the Nonoonfostradbut because
It was takes as a Sunday, it was by the late
Bishop of Windsester„that the day to be wet
which accounted for the larMr number of attooditete at
=te than at Churches I Does Mr. Malin fear a
result /

TBOUSANDe are unable to take Cocoa because the
Thristie. ecegi.aniy sold era weird with Stark. ander
the pbr et rendering Quin soluble : whits really making
then auk, 7 mod, iierliefrieir: This may be easily
fer • dor Muer*s se the rip it roses
dereitictieire goat. Cansours Cocos Essence is
issnins; it is eref ore three times the stnngth of this.
and a refreshing Beverir like Tea or Cons.
A Dismoows Pascroa—For the sake of satin red-
Kane unprincipled tradesmen. when asked for amours's
Prue BLUR 1/11 %oar, subttitote inferior kinds in the
satr_forr The Paris Moe. As am eram PRINCE
Or W &LAT Leumnar," is UMW DO UldWiffeelli vetoreed
for Its splendid qullty —sbeve all other blnes—that it is
illiMertent to sh.srvs it is elll.l uls. when sold in
row" +rimed 11P in Pink Parr L Reokitt andla Road Mila• and tole mark. mann Bl ue whisk
ash isrminia.

COCKLE'S ANTIBILIOUS PILLS,
Le WIG the laet 78 years for
LIVER COMPLAINTS.
Ii BOLO at bled, 11. 9d, 4564, sad II&

COCKLE'S ANTIS' L lOUS PILLS,
TIE sum
FAMILY Ji.PCIWINT.

In lous.at ii S, 4111 Z sad 11s.

DEPPER'S QUININE AND IRON TONIC
J. for Digitate Perniss and Wesidy Ailing Oliildnin.