The Express.
London, England, 1866-07-19 00:00:00

TAR CHURCH HATES QUESTION.

The Times thinks the general tune of yesterday's
debate unfavourable to the prospects of Mr. Gliidstone's
bilL The dissenters are content with it, but the church
party are not, so that the measure fails to answer the de-
scription of a " compromise," and this was the only merit
its provisions ever possessed. The plain practical mean-
ing of the compensating clauses would be that thole who
refuse to contribute to the church should cease not only
to exercise an interest in it, but even to have a claim on
its services. The bill sets the church on one side, and
dissenters on the other, and makes the church the pro-
perty of those who pay for it, not of every one within its
reach ; but church rates are far from being the only thing
which gives a man a legal right in the establishment.
In the various proposals that are made there
is a universal oousent that church rates should cease to be
compulsory, and the principle being thus conceded, it
ought to be the simplest thing in the world that evey-
body should agree to do what everybody agrees ought to
be done. The only difficulty in the way is the supposed
necessity for some compensating security to the church.
But it is idle to suvpose that in ordinal parishes any
legislation can secure that church people shall entrench
themselves in their own ecclesiastical pale. The church
is the common property of the whole parish, where friends
and parents and neighbours have been married and buried,
sad round which all parish associations cluster. The
people would not be willing to give up their hold on the
church, and the church would be supremely unwise if it
endevoured to make them.
' "

Our tory ministers objecting, as it would seem from
Mr. Disraeli's remarks, to the principle of Mr. Gladstone's
bill, it would have been desirable, the Daily Neva says,
to ascertain how far their opinions harmonise with that of
the house. For the sake of peace and quietness we have
admitted Mr. Gladstone's bill as a settlement of an irri-
tating question. But if so fair a measure is rejected, there
is :he satisfaction of knowing that the longer the question
of church rates is kept open the more thorough education
will the public receive on the great principle of religious
equality, which is the destined heritage of our children.
The advance which that principle has made in public opinion
in the last ten years, owing to discussions of this order,
is worth every farthing of the money paid within that
period as church rates, and is a security for the abolition
not only of those exactions hot of every invidious distinc-
tion founded on differences of religious faith.
The Telegraph describes Mr. Disraeli as playing a very
cunning card, and as having allowed Mr. Gladstone to
accomplish his part of a tacit compact, and a :th then get-
ting np and coolly abjuring his own. That his followers had
silently agreed to the second reading he did not, he could
not, deny ; but, he added, they did not accept the mea-
sure even in principle. Then why did they not oppose it?
Surely, with such opinions, a government having any pre-
tensions to the name was bound not to allow the passing
of the bill into committee without recording a vote against
it. To retain the confidence of churchmen, and take from
a dangerous opponent a fair triumph, Mr. Disraeli stooped
I to a dodge.
There are so many understandings and negotiations
prevalent now, observes the Star, that we shall soon want
• new terminology and new definitions of parliamentary
procedure. Formerly if the second reading of a bill was
not opposed its principle was admitted ; but in our new
system it seems possible to maintain absolute neutrality
L while performing a parliamentary act which has legally
and actually the force of a decision.