The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-05-13 00:00:00

1,111. no hitheito, The-tail

present amount of b-11.1-nees—Trs;£29 500 a sear.
Mr. Malt moved his resolution aiming at the Disestab
Irstment of the Church of England In these terms i—" That
It Is expedient, at the earliest practicable period, to apply
the policy irritated by the Disestabilshment of the Irish Church
to the Other Churches established by law in the lotted King
doll" Ile presented the question, not as a Dissenters'
grievance, tut WI a matter or national policy, and in corn
bating the usual objections to an abstract resartion he said
his chief object was to ascertain practically how far
the House was dispose 1 to app'y to timid }Whale
rhos. rinciples which It had put into operation in Ire-
land. Vindicating the opportuneness of the motion,
he illalaimed all hostility to the Cirurch or Church parole: ;
an.l he asserted ill it the 79+001 Wet, of the Establishurent
tad disappeared, and that she herself was convulsed by in-
ternal dissensions Nest he went on to argue that the ChurJh
spoon had fulled in every way, and that It was unwise any
longer to be bound by its fetters It had failed to secure um.
veniality, harmony, and ntlformi y of worship, and it had
Salted to supply the spiritual wants of the country, for the
greater part of recent Church rxtensions were cue to the
volu,itary principle working within its borders not to on-
notion wiih the Stair. On the unjust p.woalation of the
whi In eucler lattice' revel ues of the country to one r articular
Church he expatiated at length; and he hald that the pre
cedent of Ireland WU conclusive in favour of the Direstab-
lishment of the C lurch in E Next he touched on the
social mircblefs of an Eitabllshed Church, and on the D:5.
advit .gee to the Church ot being cramf e I by State control,
and arced that she would be all the eater by Disestablish-
II riut when the time of rcvdutionary airwrira should come.

- -
Mr. J 0 Lewis seconded tr.e motion. treating It from the
point of view of a Churchman desiring ecclesiastical freedom.
Mr Bruce, on belled of the Government, opposed both the
opportuneness and the subjemernatter of the motion. On the
fir 4 head lie denied that the Irish Church Act furnished any
pr cedent for dealing with the English Church, and pointed
out that neither In Scotland nor in England was there ally
parttcular demand for Disestabliebruent. Atiniitting &t in
many respects the work of the Church windows in an lunette.
factory manner, that, he alleged, was no lemon for passing a
resolution which would teed to her Immediate overthrow. No
Government wuul I be justified to undertaking such a
enterprise without being assured of success and In the pre-
sent state of public opinion Dlsestablishruont could only be
attained alter protracted cong eta It was for private mem-
bers to prepare the way for these enterprises, and for Govern-
ments to take them up when ripe fur action. Mr Bruce,
though not standing up for Establishment as an abstract
principle, eulogised the brea Ith and comprehensive cha-
racter of the th.urch, and believing that she was deeply
rooted in the affections of the people, and was doing a
great work, he declined on behalf of the Government, to
undertake the task to which it was Invited by tr e resolution.

Sir R. Palmer admitted that the discussion was extremely
natural, though its most important side—the religious—could
not be adequately handled there. lithe Church were a mere
b dy, he agreed that she could not stand; but, on
the contrary, she was a religious Church, resting on a cern-
mon basis if doctrine and worship ; Slut her spiritual character
as, recoßuirld by the 'State when the present relations
between them were formed. Arguing In dehnce of the prin-
ciple of Edabliahments, he warned Dissenters that they would
find a more active opponent in the church when released from
her present bond to keep the peace • and, in answer to Mr.
MialPs nort argues. nt, he asserted that the Church was a
eat, guard against revolution, and that a disseverance of her
con,exion with the S:ate would make the State more open
to social danger.
After remarks from Mr. Richard, Mr. S,:ourileld, and Dr.
Ball,

Mr. Leathern, In supporting the Resolution, spoke of the
dablishinent us "paradox," an "excrescence," and an
"anomaly," mid of her endowments as "ecclesiastical
robbery " and "sacerdotal absorption:' He was sanguine
Of the speedy sums, of the movement, and, lu answer to
somebody'. question,—" How long is a party of Dissenters
to follow • Cabinet of Churchmen '--he expressed great con-
fidence in Mr. Gladstone's "receptive aptitude, ' and the
"noble Instinct of self preservaUon " which statesmen dis-
played.
Mr. Disraeli remarked that the proposal was a reversal of
the policy of the old Puritans, who had always appealed to
Win temporal power in spiritual mattsrs ; and he answered
the argument founded on Continental and Irish precedents
by examining the conesonei col of Disestablithment in
France anti Ireland. The Ir'eh precedent, he admitted,
led I ,gically to the Dleestablishment of the Church
here, but we were governed more by rhetoric than
logic, and fortunately, for the experience of Irish
Disestabliehment was not encouraging. Who, he asked,
prompted this appeal to the House of Commons? in
anewerlng title Mr Disraeli expressed • confident
belief that the great majority, both fu the Howe and
I i the country, wee decidedly in favour of the Church.
Ile attributed the movement to Noncomformiste allied for
the moment with revolutin ary philosophers. Mr. MIMI,
he held, should have furnished some better evidence that
the Church ef tngland had ceased to be the Church of the
English lie himself maintained, as a matter beyond ills.
pate, that the Church was predominant In the rural districts
at least. As to the large town., if the majority was not in C.TI).
na tic ion with the C hureh, neither wag it with Meant. But Mr.
Disr sell looked with great confidence to the mince elf qts of
the Church in the great towns. Even now a plebiecite would
te In her favour; but an educated and a cultivated people,
be believed, would be more and more tn sympathy with ner
each year if she conducted herself discreetly. Criticizing
Ph. Bsuce's d lilting tone, Mr. Damen expressed a hope that
the Prime Minister would lay down some principle which
the country could understand, and concluded a brilliant
peroration by declaring that he ehould oppose the motion
molest° the inter eats of the State than ef the Church.

Mr. Gladstone, after defending 31". Lruce, said that the
Government Intended to oppose the motion, not limit', g
themselves to the present occasion. nor regarding it as a ques-
tion of detail on which they might change their °Odors to-
morrow. The Irish Act, he argued, was no precedent I! e hug-
11th Dliestablishment ; and, in following up Mr. Disraeli's die-
. cu- mon of the causes of the motion, he apprehended that the
Internal condition of the Church had contributed great
! strength to it, pointing the moral which both the parties to re-
cent contests might draw from this fact. Criticising the lax-
! Run eof the motion, he drew from it the hiference that Mr. Wall
had not considered the vastness of the operation he contem-
plated Considering the 1 300 years' antiquity of the Estab-
lished Church, al d the mode In which it had intertwined
itself with the law and institutions of the country and the
locA habits and feelings of the people, It wss Impossible to
over-eetimate the magnitude of the enterprise. Replying
to Mr Leathsm's taunts, he admitted that it was in the
por,r of the Non-conformists to break up the fabric of the
Liberal majority at any moment, but he felt donadant
• they would not demand that the policy of the Government
ehould be ruled exclusively by this Among other eit'ogies
of tbe learning, culture, and breadth of the Church, Mr.
Gladstone 5 x premed the belief that she afforded the heat
arena kr the settlement of the disputes between ancient
belies and modern thought; and, &ter vindicating her
claims to be considered the Church of the nvijority, he told
. Mr. 3A Mil that if he would carry his motion he must begin by
! converting the people.
On a 'hellion the Resolution was negatived by a majority
ot 2SS—S7I to 89.
I
- • - - • -• •

Some olher business mu disposed Of, and the House ad.
journed.
In the llonre of Commons, May 10, Mr. H. R. Brand, in
moving the second reading of the Registration of Parham..
tary Voters Bill, Waffled that its obit et was to provide a
InGrellifllDie machieery, and leas expensive, for the registre-
Men of Parliamentary voters ttao that which at present
existed fhe anomalies of the present system had frequently
been commented upon, and they had hetn greatly increassd
ey the extension of the franchhe by the Reform Act The hill
went(' throw greater responsibility upon registration otti_ees
and proviele for an official correction of the lists prior to re-
vision and would also provide that lodgers who conthme in
the um° lodgings shall continue to be registered without
malting annual claim, and that lodgers changiug their
residence may continue to he registered by presenting a
simple Vern of notice, Tte second clause altered the
date of the qualification to the list May, so ns to give
the vaistres a month's time to examine claims and
make obinetious. the period of qualification would he
shortened to ten mouths. Tu remedy the groat incon-
venience caused by the want of educated and efficient
registration officers, in eonsequence of which the work
of inspection had been driven into the hands of political
organisations. the bill proposed that the poor-law union
sheuld be the area of registration, and that the nfficer
of the union ahould be the registration officer. The
justice. of the peace would have power to provide as
macs, polling places as were necessary, but they would
have to take precautions that the area of the polling dis-
trict IFILS that of the union. It was also provided that
three lists should be prepared, one to be published
on the list May, a second on the 10th August, for the kyr-
tion of corrections, anti the third to be published on the 31st
Dicember, showing whit claims and obje s had been
oisuelowed. The revising barristers must be of seven years'
stu.ding, and would he paid according to the work they
die. Tee whole expense of registration would not be in-
creased by the bill
Me. A. Pell moved that the hill be read a second time that
day three months. As a member of the select committee of
last year he maintained that the bill would not tend to ,lm.
plity the process by which a voter was placed on the register,
and that there was nothing be the report of that committee
which would Justify the House to adopting the measure It
would not remedy the present inconveniences of registra-
tion, and would deal most recklessly and cauaelessly with the
funds of the ratepayers.
- - - - -

. -
Mr. C. S. Read, In seconding the amendment, maintained
that a bill on so important a sot ject ought to have emanated
from the Government, and condemned the measure as an
unsatisfactory attempt to simplify a matter too compli.
cated for slmplifluition, and as a means of increasing the
burdens at present thrown upon the ratepayers.
The discussion was continued by several hon. members,
and
Sir C. W. Mike replied to the objections which had been
raised to the bill. Re replied to the objecthns which had
been raised against the bill, and contended I hat It would
place the duty of registration In the hands of those who were
best fitted to discharge it, whilst it would not cause any
increase of esnendlt are in the boroughs, although it would
in some counties. Great dissatisfaction would be caused In
respect to the lodger registration if the bill were not passed,
for, owing to the preient unsatisfactory system, the number
of registered lodgers In Westminster had decreased from
4,05 to 1 945 ; In Marylebone, from 4,026 to 2e3; and in
Gre--nwich from 237 to E.
Mr. Secretary Bruce said that it was the duty of Psrila-
',lent to see that proper security was given that there should
boa goon register of Parliamentary voters. Sorbet the details
of hot teen succe.sfully impugned, but all the ob-
jections that had been raised seemed to be merely agate at
'let ills, and could be made in committee. In the present state
ot public business, and considering the vast number of sub
jecia of great Importance which pressed upon the attention
or the Government, he could not undertake to intrrMucei a
Mil on this subject for some time to come, and under these
circumstances it was their duty to support those members
who ha brought in thls measure, the main principles of
Mch were satisfactory.
.'ter remarks from Colorel Beresford, Mr. G. Gerdy, and
Mr. Vernon 11 trcourt, and Mr. Brand having replied, the
Hove divided—

Y.ir the second reading, Itl ; against, 135; majority, lb.
The hill was then read a second time.
The Registration of Vetere (No. 2; Bill, which relates to
borough reglEtration, was read a sec end time without a
dirt don.
Mr. Maier Trowel the second reading of the Charities, itc..
Ex :mptliti bell. ard explained that its 4.1-jot was to give
pow or to the ove eee rs, with the consent of the vestries, t
exempt all charitable institutions from rates, there belug a
variety of charities at present exempt, whilst others were
cal:ed ut,on to contribute E. the rate., until the the bill Fo-
n:hied by the Governmint fur putting an end to ail ex-
emptions should be passed.
31r. Ilardvistle opposed the MIL and moved that it be read
a ucond tine that day three months.
Mr. Look seconded the amendment.
S. me discussion ensued, alter which,
31r. StansfEld, on the part of the Government, charged the
ho; . member for Bi,mtnghnor with endeavourii g to obtain a
nap nivision, and deprecated a division being taken without
(MI discussion. If the House would cons.), to an adj urn.
ment of the debate be would move itH" No')—but it not he
should continue the diacussion.
As the hand of the clock was now approaching the time
whim all discuselon must cease, this announcement was re-
ceived with loud Cites of " Divide," which were contimud
during the remainder of the right hon, gentleman's speech-
Ile ultimst..ly moved the adjournment of the debate, but on
a division the motion was defeated by 117 votes toil.
The Second reading of the bill was deferred until to-
morrow.
The other orders were disposed of, ami the House ad-
j