The Sun.
London, England, 1837-03-06 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TIIE PUBLIC JOURNALS

Our anticipations of the success of th,s Government plan
for abolishing Church-rates have been amply realised. The
language of Reformers out of' the House is in complete ac-
cordance with that held by Liberal Members on Friday
night. We may, therefore, now congratulate the friends
of reform and improvement, and the true friends of the
Church, on the introduction of a measure which promises
to diffuse satisfaction both among Dissenters and the mem-
bers of the Established Church, while it holds out advan-
tages to those whose properties are affected which will af-
ford compensation for the demands upon them. It is, in-
deed, no slight 'evidence in favour of the measure that so
large a proportion of the complaints of the Tory objectors is
directed against the manner in which it is introduced by
Mr. Rice. This is pueril-. The measure is the Reform
Government's, and for its merits or demerits that Govern-
ment is responsible. The most coutemptible faction could
dream of mixing up the principles and objects of so large a
question with the defects of tile individual who was acci-
dentally entrusted with proposing it to the House of
Commons. Nothing, gave a' conscientious] Churchman
more pain than the reflection that the celebration of
his own religious worship imposed a painful burden on the
Dissenter. He has now the consolation of finding that a
fund has been provided for the support of the fabric of the
Establishment, which will neither impair the resources of
the Church, nor impose any additional burden on its mem-
bers. The fund is derived from what may well be termed
a new creation of property. When by some new process
a district has been drained of the superabundant moisture
which prevented the productive powers of the soil from
being called into action, there may be said to be a new
creation of property. Immense tracts in Lincolnshire
have been rendered productive in this manner. The fund
from which 'the burden of supporting the fabrics of the
Establishment is to be defrayed is as much a new creation
as the recovery of a fen in Lincolnshire. The fetters
which manacled the occupiers of church lands will be re-
moved. At present they can only derive from the occupa-
tion the benefits compatible with the restricted nature of
it. By the simple process of converting a precarious and
fettered right of possession into a fee-simple, subject to
a certain quit-rent, the owner will have a motive for
making expensive but profitable improvements, which
it would have been madness to have attempted
without such a security as will be afforded by the Govern-
ment. An addition to the productive powers of the coun-
try will be made by the measure. The plan, therefore,
merely devotes a part of the now property which it creates
to an. object equally desirable to all parties. The Stan-
dard toll us that " there was not a civil word for the Dis-
senters throughout the whole of Mr. Rice's two hours'
speech. Their positions were disputed, their data denied,
and their favourite voluntary principle scoffed at. But, to
make the whole affair complete, everything that they asked
was conceded." But what does this say ? Nothing was
conceded which does not benefit the Establishment as much
as it benefits the Dissenters. Is it nothing that the mem-
bers of the Establishment are freed from the unseemly
broils which constantly desecrated the churches and chapels
of the country ? Is it nothing that they are freed from a
reproach that many of them acutely felt, that the celebra-
tion of their own religion entailed an odious burden on the
Dissenters ? Is it nothing that all cause of collision is re-
moved ?—that Dissenters will no longer be appointed to
offices connected with.the administration of the Church?
Is it nothing that those who will hereafter be charged
with watching over the ecclesiastical arrangements of
the Establishment will be imbued with zeal for its
welfare and prosperity, and peace and harmony among
its members ? And the means for freeing the Dis-
senters froth a burden which necessarily animated them
with a spirit of hostility to the Establishment, and
for enabling Churchmen to dispense with that burden,
are not taken from :any party, but called into ex-
istence by the removal of obstacles to bdneficial improve-
ment. But (says the Standard) the Dissenters hope and
expect, through this concession, "to overturn the Esta-
blishment." What the Dissenters hope and expect the
Standard cannot know. But how a measure which frees
the Church from the invidious relation in which.; it was
placed towards the Dissenters, which extinguishes in the
latter the chief ground for their hostility to the Establish-
ment, the oppression which they suffered from it, can aid
them in their projects for overturning the Establishment,
if they have any such projects, it would puzzle even a con-
juror to say. But this stale argument against the conces-
sion of just claims, that they will lead to further demands,
has been too often exposed to require further notice from
us at this time. But it is the approvod practice of the
Tories to raise a clamour against every measure of a liberal
Government. The Church,in danger is their adopted stalk-
ing-horse for the Session ; and no Turnpike Bill will be
introduced without some of their scouts discovering that it
opens a road to the spoliation of the Church or the
destruction of religion. The settlement of the disturb-
ing question of Church-rates offers a bait that no
Tory angler can be expected to resist employing, and we
shall therefore find the whole tribe active and loud in their
endeavours to persuade both lessors and lessees of Church
property that the Government is bent upon robbing them.
They will tell Paul that.lie is robbed to cheat Peter, and
Peter that he is robbed in order to ruin Paul. But neither
Paul nor Peter will believe them without first taking a
quiet debtor and creditor view of the question, when they
will discover that] this enfranchisement of Church lands
tends to benefit both parties. It will render the lessees
secure, and allow them to ameliorate their holdings, and
give a certainty to the revenues of lessors, and take from
them the power of jobbing. We leave the appreciation of
this measure to the sound practical sense and -experience
of the country ; but in the meanwhile we would just warn
the Tories and the clergy, before they set up their howl
and their cry of Church in danger, with the usual varia-
tions and accompaniments of plunder and Popery, that
there are other sources from whence funds for the pay-
ment of Church-rates may be derived, which it may not
be quite so agreeable for flourishing rectors and bishops
to pay, but which are not the less open to Parliamen-
tary and legal control. Have they never heard of
first fruits and tenths ? These are the unquestionable
property of the State, which even Sir Robert Inglis will
not deny ; and if the Nullion Tempus Act be good and
available on one side of the question, it is to be a shred of
mere waste parchment on the other ? Is it to give the
clergy an interminable power of litigation, and recovery of
what they deem their never lapsing_ rights, and to refuse
the State all power of asserting its claim to those dues and
fines to which it is by law and ancient usage fully entitled ?
How would the clergy, and their dangerous friends the
Tories, like to see an inquiry instituted into the present
value of livings, deaneries, and bishoprics, with a view to
apportioning their real and bona fide amount of tenths
and first fruits for the payment of church-rates ? We fancy
they would rather see these rates made payable out of the
spoliation funds accruing from the Ministerial measure than
from this recoverable fund, which in days now called sound
old Protestant days was made payable by the Church to
the State. We throw out this hint to the Clergy ; and
we would also remind those lessees of Church property for
whom the 'Polies will no doubt affect the deepest sympathy,
that it is not a year since a proposition was made by the
Church Commission, and therefore sanctioned by the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury and his Right Reverend Colleagues,
to allow all the leases in the diocese of Ely to run out, in
order that the Church might obtain full or absolute pos-
session of its property. What respect did this propo-
sition show for the acquired claims of the lessees for a
fuvourable consideration ? And what consideration would
these and other Church lessees find if it were proposed to
let all their leases throughout the country fall in, in
order that an increased rent might be obtained, whose
surplus should be applied to building additional churches
or increasing the revenues of the smaller livings? We
fancy none. The question of the administration of Church
property has now been raised by Government in Parliament,
and it will never be set at rest, be it sooner or be it
later, until an improved administration has been obtained.
It is for the lessees and lessors to decide whether the
terms now proposed to them are not more advantageous
than any they are likely to receive or obtain should these
be rejected. These hints are thrown out for the consi-
deration of the parties whose pecuniary interests are
more immediately concerned ; but while wo do this we
in no degree forget the higher and more important inte-
rests of national peace and religious concord which are
deeply involved in this question.—Morning Chronicle.
There are two motions of great importance on, the order
book of the House of Commons—both embracing the same
object—the one by Mr. Ewart, the able and indefatigable
Member for Liverpool—the other by Mr. Roebuck, which
stood on the order book for last week, but which was of
course superseded by the paramount subject of. Church-
rates, brought forward by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Both notices have, as we have before said, the same object,
namely, the establishment of a' system of National Educa-
tion. The argument which we have applied lately, while
treating on the various projects for the purification and ef-
fectuation of the electoral system, will strictly apply, or
rather will more forcibly imply on the present occasion, A