The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-05 00:00:00

GOLD CHAINS.—JOHN BROGDEN b.n.
t 6 call the attention of the public to the FORM of IN
VOICE which he delivers with Gold Chains purchased at MS
4.
manufactory: A L
To workmanship of pattern chain. Si inched long
To as' carat gold, weighing on dwt. gm ,at
ES Ss. Std. per ounce. Mint price

-=_-
um%
gr. i=rtlatir, WEIGHT, and `ritigat
guaranteed to this
Aillagaggeavitieggvetregabit to emunerstion on the work
slepmety, ilwisteitory wimp*.
cite of that patterw—Msautantory, 10. Henriettaotreet, Covent-
ordeal. Laub&

(PRIZE MEDAL AWARDED.)
ALLEN'S PATENT PORTMANTEAUS had
rghtritUnot RADE with square onanings,
LAMER WABDRODE TRUNIOI, DREESIND MDR with
silver Mast
DEMME DORM WEITLEG and DEMING CAM, toe
toe other sticks forborne.* continental travelling. ilittatrated
catalorm Poet fr...
Also Alkn's Barrack rartdtore Catalogue of Portehte
steel,* Drawers, Drawers, Easy Chaim Washltandstands, Canteens, Lt.,

D oet free.
J. W. ALUM, Manufacturer and ?Manteca. M. West Strand,
London. W.C.

TURTLE, TURTLE, TURTLE.
Ow, Thick and Invalid TORT'S SOUPS ahroPe road,.
IT. JAYSTS-11A itZOINTSTILIWP,
Proprietor. PIOCADLLLY.
AI DONALD,

the erirrelni.

TO 0011.1130PONDENT8.
ilvertheasents intended for " The Lapeer," London Evening
=must be at the Moe, 10, Boaveiretreet, by Two
if on the day of publication.

MAYMARRIT.
TV! bViornia, A ROMANTIC ATTACHMENT. Moira
LlVand Farm ; Mir Ada Civeadlah.—TßE TAVOZITI
IrTUNI M
eta—AMA Buckskin', Chippendale
WEL Chippendale,

--nuarczars.
sysarnia. A GHOST IN SPITZ OEN. Messrs. HIMSZLE.—A
which THE STREETS OF LONDO. Vine*, T. Mar
D. Norm. Shore. and VSliars ; Yrs. H. Manton. and Ids=
and IL Raisers

LI L'EUAL
TIIIe Eriornio, A DAY AFTER THE WEDDING. News.
Hartman, Fitzpatrick, and t2Lfford ; Mrs. norms; de. —And
HAMLET. Messrs. Yachter, Emery, Addison. Widdicorab, Veda.
Jordan, Fitspatrick, de. ; Nesdaroas Elzworthy and C. Laclerco.

BRITANNIA.
Tin Worm, THE SAILORS RlTURlC—Theicksiso /way.
—CLOUD AND BUNSHINI Mr. James Andenom—To con-
abide with THE H THE BLA MOUNTAIN&
NW Clara BA CareDARK, Mrs. MI
B. law,OF sad Mute L Bandon.

RIGA-WATER AT LONDON-MD6I.
THIS DAT —Morning. 6b. esa Aftersocik, 6b. !6•.
To-htobsow—Moneing, 6b. 4 Memos, lb. 7E.

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 5.

Tax House of Commons fatigued, it may be,
with the protracted discussion on Reform, and
looking forward to the prospect next week of a
renewal of the conflict, shows little disposition to
deal promptly with the minor questions which
come before it. Counts-out and early adjourr-
ments have been the order of the day. Yesterday
. .

--_ _
evening an untimely interruption of public lxvii-
nese deprived the Caaneamma of the EXCHEQUER
of the opportunity of announcing the details of
the compromise on the subject of Church-rates
which he had shadowed forth in a recent debate.
But whatever uncertainty may exist as to the pre-
cise terms of the measure which he will presently ex-

plain, there is no room for doubt as to its ge-
neral spirit and scope. While leaving
the machinery for levying and collecting
the tax unimpaired, it will make pay-
ment of it purely optional. The law will
remain, but whit jurists call the sanction of the
law will be taken away. In all probability this
end will be attained by an enactment, declaring
that on and after a certain date no suit shall be
instituted in any ecclesiastical or other courts, for
the purpose of compelling payment of Church-
rates. Such a provision as this can only
be prospective. Ex post facto legislation is
generally bad, even when it removes a grievance.
In some parishes, debts have been incurred on the

security of the rates ; and to render the payment
of the rates optional would be to make the payment
of the debts optional, or to saddle the merely
official representatives of a community with a
_ .

burden which personally they are not called oa
and would be unable to bear. In plain words,
this course would amount to repudiation. Fur
similar reasons, where a ride has been already
made, it would be improper to relieve those
who are subject to it from the obligation of pay-
ment. Works may have been begun, the expenses
of which can be defrayed only out of the
fund it will produce ; and good faith re-
quires that, whatever the incidental grievance
and wrong, an understanding shall be kept and
the means of fulfilling an engagement preserved.
Wherever any initial step has been taken under
the present law, it is only fair that the means of
bringing the matter to a conclusion under the same
law shall be retained.
The method of breaking peaceably with the
existing system at once presents less difficulty and
is of less importance than the method of estab-
lishing a new one, which shall reconcile moral
rights with historical claims, the principle of reli-
gious equality with prescriptive ecclesiastical ascen-
dency, the conscientious scruples of Nonconfor-
mity, with the =abandoned, if somewhat abated,
pretensions of the Established Church. The pro-
posal formerly made of entirely exempting Dis-
senters, as such, from liability to Church-rates has
nolonger any advocates. Itwas always inadmissible.
The Church Establishment, though as a Church it
includes only a part of the nation, is, as an Estab-
lishment, the common concern and propery of
all ; and to acquiesce in exclusion from the privi-
lege of taking, part in its concerns would be to
submit to a kind of disfranchisement. On its
political, if not on its religious side, every English-
man has rights in it. The objection sometimes
made, that specially to exempt Dissenters from
liability to Church-rates would be to put on them
a badge of inferiority, never expressed, we be-
lieve, the general feeling. They are not ashamed
of their nonconformity. They stand upon their
legal and constitutional rights as English subjects
to take part in the management of a national
institution, not less firmly than on their moral
right to be relieved from forced contributions
towards the support of a religious communion
other than their own. The difficulty has always
been to reconcile these apparently conflicting
claims.
If forced contributions are inadmissible as in-
fringing religious liberty, and if sectarian discrimi-
nation is out of the question, as at variance not
less with the claims of the Church of England to
be considered a national institution than with the
rights of all Englishmen in a national in-
stitution, it may seem that no alternative
is left but unconditionally to abolish Church-
rates, and to rely on the voluntary prin-
ciple. This course, however, the political
" friends of the Church" are not yet prepared to
adopt in its naked simplicity, though, if the spirit
of the late debate were not misleading, they are
ready to accept it under very thin dis-
guise. The Bill which the count-out last
night prevented Mr. GLADSTONE from in-
troducing will probably provide that Church-
rates, though they be made in due form, shall be
levied only from those, whether Churchmen or
Dissenters, who are willing to pay them ; but that,
in order to prevent those who do not pay the tax
from spending it, only ratepayers shall have the
privilege of voting in vestry upon any matter
which relates to the fabric or service of the

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