The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-17 00:00:00

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by plunging deep into the future. So we hare old
gentlemen who resolutely and systematically refus
to receive a single new idea, or enter on a new uni
dertaking, unless, indeed, it be an exact repetitici
of the past. But why this chapter on impossibili-
ties ? Because here is another. - Itis impossible 4
settle the church-rate question. So says the Pre-
mier, and some half-dozen other very sensiblemern;
The question must work itself out at the' expense
perhaps of a very summary and disagreeable solu-
tion, and infinite bitterness meanwhile. It is im-
possible
to extinguish or abate a struggle that is
spreading all over the country, passing from town
to town, and everywhere ending eventually against
the Church, which is put into the painful position
of possessing rights which she cannot reallyenforce.
The Church of England is assured by the highest
authorities that she has a common-law right to the
maintenance of her fabrics and the support of her
by
that the right can only be carried out the worship, and then she is told by the Houseof Lords
ma-
jority of a pari-1. So, of course, wherever the Dis-
senters are strong enough, they fight it out with
the Church, and always beat it in the end. It is
impossible, says Lord Palmerston, to prevent this.
ys, is not the wa to do itsy
There may be some way, perhaps but it has not
yet been found out ; and Sir William Clay's bill,
his lordship sa
Certainly, as Lord Palmerston says, " the
question is
surrounded by difficulties." Many
measures have failed, and so this may fail ; that
is, many measures have failed to pass through Par-
liament, and this measure may fail to work well.
tpineegcbthoefisdoema eoflenimgtpho,sstihheirty Pre-
mier
measurer e
the can pass t
it is impoisible that this
of large churches in poor parishes
„aint
is .
Lords ;it is impossible to secure ths;
main. enancs
underthis bill •
it is impossible "to solve the enigma.
Bible to please all parties. All this mightblemtrue
in fact, and sound in policy, if the present state of
things were itself a possible one ; but there is no
impossibility in Sir William Clay's measure to be
compared with that of the existing law* Supposing
the present law not to exist as law, but to be be-
fore Parliament in the shape of a bill, brought in
by smile amiable young Churchman, we should
then have Lord Palmerston or some lynx_eyed
county member getting up and exclaiming, c, whys
the bill can't work ! Here it provides for the elec-
tion of churchwardens, and authorises them to re-
pair the church and defray the expenses of Divine
worship, and then creates no other fund for this
purpose than a rate, which cannot be enforced un-
less a majority of the vestry have agreed to it !
You'll have every large parish thrown into con-
fusion by the churchwardens and church people
repairing the church and levying a rate for the ex-
pense, and the people refusing to pay the rate, be-
cause it was not agreed to by a majority of the
vestry !" But no discrepancy in an ill-drawn
statute can equal the discordance that exists in
fact, because, while the common law says the
church must be repaired and Divine worship
maintained at the expense of the parish, and
says, also, on the other hand, that no rate can be
levied except by a majority of the vestry, ecclesi-
astical law comes in and authorises the church-
warden to levy the rate by the terrors of excom-
munication, which, in these days, are reduced to
fine and imprisonment. Now, take any large town,
such as Manchester, and here you have impossi-
bility upon impossibility. It is impossible to get
vestries that will carry a rate, or churchwardens
who, will levy one. It is impossible to excom-
municate or even to fine and imprison. So the
existing law is an impossible one. Granting, then,
that the proposed remedy is impossible, that hap-
pens to be no conclusive reason against it, for it
cannot be more impossible than the existing law.
In a house of more than four hundred members
the bill passed its second reading by a majority of
2S. After Lord Palmerston's announcement,
however, that the bill could not. pass the Lords,
we cannot doubt that a larger majority 'will be re-
quired to force the measure through that Conser-
vative body. Meanwhile, it will undergo the
scrutiny of a committee, and very possibly be
adapted to the taste of the *Upper House. We are
far from thinking it free from objection in its de-
tails, though it so happens there is not an objection
to it which does not apply in a still greater degree
to the existing law. Lord Palmerston fears for
the maintenance of our fine old churches if they
are left to a voluntary rate, to be collected from
the gripe of poverty, ignorance, and covetousness.
This does not indeed express the whole of the
danger, for to these things are to be added the
chance of the clergyman's unpopularity. Un-
fortunately, however, for this argument, many
hundreds of our finest old churches in remote
districts, where there are no resident gentry and
no regard for church architecture, are in a very
miserable condition. When they are put in order
it is generally by a subscription or a voluntary
rate, and not by putting the law in force.
Everybody who has had to do with farmers knows
very well that they will often give pounds
much more cheerfully than shillings, and that
after haggling over a demand for 3s. 6d. they will
put down their names for 101. Their whole life is
a battle against little expenses and for little gains,
and they must be taken out of their daily round,
and translated into the region of higher thoughts
and kinder affections, before their truenature begins •
to show itself. But is it credible that we are so
much worse than our forefathers, or that our reli-
gion is so much less generous and self-sacrificing
than theirs, that we will not freely maintain the
churches which they freely founded ? Every
church in this country, from the most magnificent
cathedral to the humblest parish church in the
poorest or most desolate district, was built by
voluntary subscription ; and we will not allow
ourselves to doubt that every church may be left
to the same fund for the comparatively slight cost
of its annual repairs and the maintenance of Divine

THE LORD MAYOR'S DINNER TO HER
MAJESTY'S MINISTERS.

•
( From the Morning Herald of this day. )
Last evening the customary dinner was given
the Chief Magistrate of the city of London to her
Majesty's Ministers. Never has the Egyptian-hall
enclosed a more brilliant assemblage—never were
hospitalities dispensed with more elegance and less
ostentation—and, we will add, never was that tact
which has peculiarly distinguished the mayoralty
of Sir Francis Graham Moon more conspicuous than
in the selection of his guests on this remarkable oc-
%Mon, when a strange juncture in political affairs
must have rendered the assembling of so large a
company, whose sentiments should be in accord, a
matter of peculiar nicety. Yet in this difficult
achievement the Lord Mayor was eminently suc-
cessful. The entertainment was perfect, so far as
care and judicious arrangements could make it ;
and nothing was wanting but that enthusiasm
which those whom it was designed to honour failed
to elicit, and which their excellent host on their
part could not command.

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