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

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.

JUNE 23, 1855.

its desire to procure " Administrative Reform?"
Even Mr. DRUMMOND'S jocose cynicism might
be silent when such convincing evidence is
given that more than talk was meant at the
time when Mr. Disaextt first stirred the
question.
But, without further retrospective discus-
sion, the subject is now fairly started, and
" Administrative Reform" is now before the
whole country It is a singular fact that,
after the Coalition of Fox and NORTH, the
politics turned on purely " administrative "
questions. The rival India Bills of Fox and
Purr were then what plans in " Official Re-
form" will be in our generation, after the fall
of a still worse " Coalition." At present there
are only three parties who can deal with the
subject. First, it is not unlikely that organ-
ised clamour and confederated declaimers
may succeed in establishing a tritunitian
influence, which will be sure to end in " class-
cries," and to degenerate into mere elec•
tioneering claptraps. Then the Whig Oli-
garchy may adopt the cry, and pretend to act
upon it. But, of course, any reform from
their hands would be quite illusory, for they
should first have to reform their own close
borough system, with its " family compact."
And, lastly, there is the practical and con-
stitutional plan, so vigorously sketched out by
Mr. DISRAELI. We are convinced that the
plan of the Member for Bucks will be that
which will secure the support of the country.
It is intelligible, broad, and safe. By giving
the offices to merit a death-blow will be given
to that system under which the public service
is made to swarm with incompetent under-
lings, the mere spawn of electioneering cor-
ruption. That talent which now sours in an
ungenial shade will ripen when genial patron-
age is let shine upon it, and the best intellects
of the nation will engage in the Civil Service
when it shall have been stamped as honour-
able by the bright rewards given to worth and
real services.
We are convinced that Mr DISRAELI has
proposed to deal with the complicated ques
tion in the most statesmanlike manner. It is
scarcely too much to assume that a new leaf is
turned in our domestic politics. Official
Reform will be in the coming year what India
Bills were seventy years ago. It is a fortunate
omen that the Conservatives have been fore-
warned and forearmed on this most interest-
ing of questions.