The Press.
London, England, 1855-05-26 00:00:00

HOME POLICY.

AMONGST Lord PALMERSTON'S more gigantic
experiments upon the patience of the people
of England the lesser evils of his Adminis-
tration almost pass unnoticed. Nonchalance
about such old-fashioned little matters as
" Church and State," and all that belongs to
them, is not, indeed, so immediately disastrous
as it is at Vienna or in the Crimea; bat,
perhaps, in the long run it may turn out that
the Premier's indolent laissez alter is as mis-
chievous at home as it has unquestionably
been abroad. It is not so much that the
Established Church is openly assailed, or
" heavy blows and deep discouragements "
inflicted wilfully on our national Protestan-
tism; it is, that the whole time and manner
in which such matters are discussed in the
House of Commons—we had almost said its
ecclesiastical and social morale altogether—
have been lowered very nearly to the flippant
indifference with which its leader regards
them.

Great or little principles, or details, it is all
one to his Lordship. Sir J. PAKINOTON brings
forward a careful, comprehensive scheme for
the education of the poar; open to amendment,
doubtless, but still a scheme. Mr. MiLNER
GIBSON immediately promises another. The
Government must do something ; so Lord
JOHN RUSSELL stands sponsor to a bill so
ludicrously meagre that any member of
average capacity could extemporise something
more profound currente calamo in ten minutes.
Again, a motion is brought forward for the
opening of the British Museum, &c., on Sun-
days, involving what is felt on both sides to
be the whole question (to put it on its lowest
grounds) whether the English or the conti-
nental notion of the Sabbath shall be recog-
nised henceforward in the country. Lord
PALMERSTON'S philosophy amounts about to
this : " No, no, Sunday ought to be observed
" respectably' ; let it alone." Then, again,
the feeling of at least one-half the nation is
as strong as anything well can be against our
continuing to support a seminary of Romish
missionaries with public money. A deputa-
tion on the subject waits on Lord PALMERSTON;
the Premier "regrets he cannot receive them;
" in fact, he knows all they have to say already;
" can't take the trouble." Then, again, two or
three charitable societies for church-building,
schools, and the like, have hitherto had collec-
tions made for them in the churches under
" Queen's Letters." It is not alleged that the
letters amount to a command, or are enforced
where there may be an unwillingness to comply
with them; but a few of his Lordship's per-
sonal friends express an objection to them,
and they happen to be the same persons he
has just been snubbing about Maynooth ; so
trouble is saved again, and the Queen's Letters
thrown into the fire.

We might multiply instances of this sort of
impertinence ad infinitum, but we must hasten
to the last and most mischievous of them all.
The church rate question is not perhaps the
greatest, but at all events it is the most press-
ing social one of the time. It fares no better
than the rest in his Lordship's hands. Here,
as before, everybody else is in earnest. Sir W.
CLAY is ready with his Radical measure; the
Archbishop Of CANTERBURY and Mr PACKS with
rational ones; and a thoughtful, able article
in the Edinburgh had led the world to think
that at last Government had made up its
mint Not a bit of it. Lord PitLMERSTON .

MAY 26, 1855.

"all right," as lively as usual, only unfortu-
nately, as usual, be " has nothing to propose."
Indeed, if we are to believe his Lordship, it is
quite unreasonable to expect that he should.
Many gentlemen (said his Lordship in
the debate on Sir W. CIAY'S Bill) say it
is the duty of the Government to " propose
a measure." Loud cheers from both sides
of the House intimated a belief that the
expectation was not wholly preposterous. The
Premier is of different opinion :

It is very easy to say so. ( Gaughter.) It is exceed-
ingly easy for gentlemen who have puzzled themselves to
solve an enigma to say Government must find out the
secret of the riddle. Governments have tried before and
failed. I can only Nay that at the present moment Govern-
meat has no proposal to make. /so doubt (he continues)
the importance, and, I may say, to a certain degree, the
urgency of the matter, have not escaped the attention of
the Government—[though the head of it seems to have
kept tolerably clear of the subject]. And most happy
should I have been if I had been able to propose, dm, but
not being at present in a position to make such a tender,
and (it is superfluously added) feeling that this is a ques-
tion on which it would be unbecoming in a member of the
Government to trifle with the House.

So, the Premier sat down. Two or three
of the Ministers opposed the measure, while
a majority of their colleagues supported
it. And this is not " trilling with the
House"!

Lord PALMERSTON seems entirely to have
forgotten that the Government in which he
was himself Home Secretary promised last
year (if we remember by his own mouth) to
endeavour a settlement of the question in the
course of this session ; that it is one ripe, and
more than ripe, for settlement; that the pre-
sent uncertain footing on which the main
tenance of our churches stands is the cause
of more squabbles, and a greater hindrance to
the efficiency of the Church herself, than,
perhaps, any other thing ; and that a law
which provides no practical penalty for its
infringement is a dangerous element in the
statute-book. Of course, also, he is wholly
unaware that it is a point on which, perhaps,
men's minds are made up with unusual
unanimity, that something must be done in
the matter at once. We have no space here
to enter into the various schemes proposed ,
but we are sure that we speak the sentiments
of even the stoutest defenders of the rights
of the Church (with very few exceptions),
when we avow our belief that they have no
wish whatever to continue to tax Dissenters
for the maintenance of the services of the
Church, provided only due provision be made
for the maintenance of the fabrics (by some
better means, however, than by excluding the
parishioners from two-thirds of their areas,
us Sir W. CLAY proposes), and that those who
refuse to contribute to the support of the
Church shall (of course) be debarred from
interfering in the administration of her affairs.
We are now, however, speaking not so much
of the measures of the session as of Lord
PALMERSTON'S mode of treating this whole class
of subjects; and we repeat that Parliament
has never witnessed such injurious levity
before. If the Noble Lord were his own too
celebrated " civis Romanus," and Christianity
were as recondite a mystery among us as the
theology of JOANNA SOUTHCOTE, we could make
more allowance for a person whose solitary
principle of administration in things moral
and spiritual appears to be that of GALLIO.
As it is, we can only suppose either that his
Lordship, faithful to his happy theory that
" all men are born good," considers churches,
schools, Sundays, and the rest to be all very
" respectable," no doubt, but rather humbug
than otherwise ; or that, divining by instinct
(it required no sagacity), that his Administra-
tion would be the crucial test of constitutional
Government, he determined to make the
experiment as complete as possible in all its
parts ; and he has been very successful. If it
can bear that it can bear anything.