The Press.
London, England, 1858-07-03 00:00:00

THE PRESS, hru-8, IbsB.

this great question, which concerns. more or less,
every parish in the fifty-two counties of England
anti Wales."
4'o one, therefore, who had read these two
articles with an honest mind; could possibly obi
derstand us to mean, that Conservative principles
bound a man to defend everything just as it
stood, and to resist the most obvious and nem.
sary intprovementit.
In fact, what is le,riststion, and what occasion
have we for a LegislatiVe Assembly, unless it be
admitted, at starting, that our long-tried and valued
institutions will inevitably require, from time to
time, such modifications and improvements as
new circumstances render necessary ?
The case of the Church, and especially of
Church-rates, sufficiently explains what we mean;
and it explains also the difference between Con-
servative and Liberal reforms.

The British Constitution gives a prominent
place to our Established Church. By a law so
ancient that none can fix the date of its com-
mencement, the inhabitants of each parish are
intrusted with the duty, and are liable to the
charge, of repairing their church, and of keep-
ing up Divine Service therein. For this purpose
they have been accustomed to meet each Easter,
to deliberate upon the amount needed, and to
assess that amount upon the inhabitants.
For centuries this state of things continued,
and no change, no reform, was needed. But the
French Revolution of 1789 opened many ques-
tions, and among others raised in England, was,
that of the lawfulness and expediency of an Es-
tablished Church. The Dissenters began to
question this; and since then—i.e., for about
sixty years—their warfare has been directed, not,
as previously, against some habits and practices
of the Church, but against the Establishment
itself.

And this warfare has quite changed the
position of the Church-rate question. Dissenters
found that they could come, like other inhabi-
tants, into the annual vestry, and oppose the
Church-rate altogether. In many places they
have done so, and in about 450 parishes out of
9,000 they have stopped the rate.
Now, this is a case not contemplated by the
law. The Judges tell us, from the bench, that
there is not the least doubt that each parish is
bound to repair its church. But, practically, the
right to discuss the amount of a rate may be
stretched into a right, or at least a power, to
refuse that rate. And thus a legal obligation is
evaded.

Legislation, then, becomes necessary ; and we
have two modes of action proposed,—the Con-
servative, and the Liberal.
The Conservative plan is, of course, to adhere
to the principle of an Established Church ; and
to meet the new circumstances of the case, by
enabling the Church to raise the necessary funds
in some other way. The Liberal plan is, to "con-
cede" to the opposition; to let a noisy minority
have its way ; and to give up, wholly, Church-
rates in 9,000 or 10,000 parishes, because Dis-
senters have succeeded in stopping them in 450.
Common sense, surely, is opposed alike to
inaction and to weak and groundless concession.
To do nothing, is criminal neglect; with which
neglect we charge, alike, Sir ItoliEnr PEEL,
Lord JonN Itussmi., and Lord PALMERSTON.
I lad these statesmen valued, as they ought to have
done, the Church more than their own personal
interests, they would have perilled everything to
settle this question. But they saw that to touch
it might shorten their official existence, and they
preferred place to the Church's welfare.
But it' inaction was weak and criminal, what is
that total concession which Sir &mix TRELAWNY
counsels ?

Viewed merely as a political question, such a
concession is absurd. It is an ascertained fact,
that in eighteen or nineteen parishes out of
twenty, Church-rates are quietly granted. That
an opposition is raised, in one parish out of each
twenty, may furnish reason enough for a modi-
fication of the law. But that the one parish is to
prescribe the law, and that the nineteen are to
succumb to the will of the nne, is a novelty in
politics and legislation. If minorities are to rule,
there can be no end or limit to the absurdities
we may perpetrate.
A true Conservative, then, would be always
amending; or else, why should our Legislature
sit during half the year ? But he will ever con-

tend against weak end foolish concessions ; espe-
cially concessions which involve constitutional
principles. To give up Church-rates, as Sir
&nix TRELAWNY proposes, is to give up the
principle of an Established Church. And, as
soon as that is conceded, tithes will immediately be
questioned • and the seats of the Bishops in the
House of Cords will be scarcely defensible.
We have thus touched upon the Church-rate
question, As fsir ex.ample of what we mean by
" CosglitiVATlvt RE:Point." Such reforms
always have preservation as their main object.
We may briefly enumerate many improvements
of this class which have been made in our day.
1. Before his first declension, while acting
properly as a Conservative Minister, Sir ROBERT
PEEL proposed and carried many most valuable
reforms. Some of these have been so long in
operation among us, that we forget their date
and their authorship. But the facts remain the
same. One of these reforms—the substitution
of the excellent police of the metropolis for the
old " Charleys "—is at least a thing which need
not be forgotten.
2. Lord Joirc Rl:mm.l. carried through Par-
ment, some twenty years ago, an excellent mea-
sure, the Tithe Commutation Act. This was a
scheme worth twenty " Appropriation Clauses,"
and it would have done credit to any Conserva-
tive Government.

3. The Reform of the Municipal Corporations
in 1835-6 partook too much of a party character
to merit praise. But at this moment it is open
to any Government to bring forward a scheme
which would be truly one of " Conservative
Reform." We mean, for granting corporations
to the great metropolitan boroughs.
Such a measure would be both right and expe-
dient. It would be right, inasmuch as there is no
reason why a man should have fewer privileges
in Hackney than in St. Alban's. If it is proper
for Leeds to have a Town Council, why should
not Lambeth have one also?

It would be expedient, inasmuch as creating
offices and functions for active men of the
middle classes is distinctly a Conservative mode
of action. So placed in office and in power by
the law, men become loyal supporters of the
powers that be. But, excluded, they find public
occupation for themselves, become agitators, and
often demagogues.

THE SESSION OF PARLIAMENT, AND
SOME THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN
DONE IN IT.
IN spite of committees who hazard their lives in
the rooms of the Parliamentary Palace of West-
minster, and risk their persons in steamers on
the inky surface of the river that washes its
walls—in spite of the contrivances of the men of
science, of deodorizing curtains and shiploads of
lime crammed into his pestiferous maw, Old
Father Thames seems to remain master of the
situation ; and it is pretty evident that as soon
as the India and the Money Bills can be passed a
cry will be raised of "To your tents, oh Israel,"
and Lords and Commons, men who are in office
and men who want to be in office, will give up
the campaign and disperse every one to his par-
ticular vanity, as Sam Weller has it—to his river,
his moor, or his watering place. For once since
many years a Speaker will be able to open the
grousing season, and after the 20th of July we
may expect that the Parliament will pass, like .
the famous Indian Fakeer, who went into his
coffin for six months at a time, into a state of
suspended animation.
The Session of 1858 will be at an end, and
people will ask what has been done in it. And
what is the true answer? Men, whom tempera-
ment or position naturally disposes to dissatisfac-
tion with everything that is, will present us in
reply with a long list of measures that might
have been introduced, and of bills that have not
been passed, which will be made as a matter of
course to assume imposing-looking dimensions.
They will exclaim, See how small the account of
new laws looks by the side of our list ;—what
time has been lost ! We, who do not, as many
do, measure the progress of the country by the
number of new laws with which it is loaded and
too often mischievously hampered, take a totally