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

to supply deficiencies, which ought to be filled up without
is 'casual and unsure asststance?— Morning Post.
Now or never is the time for members and friends of the
Church of England to rally round our national Establishment
and defend it. The moment expected has arrived. The
Church-rate machination of the Melbourne Ministers has at
length exploded, and the result is, that the O'Connell pro-
ject of the " voluntary principle," so long threatened against
the Irish Church, has been actually launched against the Church
of England in the very heart of England herself, and under cover
of an adjustment of the Church-rates. From the instant of Mr.
Spring Rice's pompous announcement, on Friday evening, of his
own adhesion to the policy of an Established Church, and his
abstract abhorrence of the voluntary principle, every man ac-
quainted with the hahits and character of the gentleman was quite
prepared for what would follow upon the heels of such a declara-
tion. The whole House knew well that the substance of the
" resolution" would give the lie to the speaker's words. The mea-
sure proposed, then, by the Whigs in office is briefly this :—lt sells
the unquestioned inheritance of the Church Establishment for ever,
to purchase with the price of it a six months' truce from a sedi-
tious body of Dissenters. We have the authority of Mr. Joseph
Hume for saying that the consequence of carrying into effect this
scheme will be merely a suspension of their warfare against the
Church by the Dissenters, not a dereliction of it. But to come to
details. Ever since there has been a national Church in England,
whether Roman Catholic or Protestant, the preservation of the
sacred edifices from ruin has been provided for by a levy upon all
landed and rated property within the several parishes. The tax
for that purpose has never been a personal one, as assumed by the
political Dissenters. It has affected men only as incidental to their
possessions, the liability of which possessions to the maintenance of
the parish church has been coeval with the division of property,
and totally independent of its transfer. Tithe has been payable from
the soil ir;, no greater degree, and on no principles more recognized
or more sacred, than the Church-rates. No Dissenter destitute of
land or rated habitation is ever called upon to pay the rate. All the
property on which the rate is levyable has been bought subject to the
burden of a Church-rate, in like manner as the burden of a land-
tax. Does the political Dissenter press his exemption from the
land-tax on religious grounds? When he does, he may with equal
justice object to the Church-rate, but not till then. It is gravely
taunted by Mr. Spring Rice, as one of the misfortunes belonging
to the present system of Church-rates, that each requisition of
them produces much bitterness and animosity on the part of Dis-
senters towards the Established Church, which spirit ought to be
put an end to, and that each contest with regard to Church-rates,
• even when followed by a victory for the Church, serves but to lay
the foundation of fresh quarrels, and to undermine her security.
All this was well answered by Sir Robert Inglis, who represented
it as merely establishing for a rule of action, " resist the law, and
yod will be sure to get it repealed." But we go further. Will
Mr. Rice pretend to say that a spirit of rancorous bitterness against
the Church of England would never break out in the acts of the
Dissenters after the cessation of a Church-rate? Pray what do
the intriguing portion of the Dissenters clamour for under the
name of the " voluntary principle ?" Are they less disposed
to attack the Church on the score of tithe than on the
point now at issue, of a Church-rate ? What do they mean by
telling us that every sect ought to pay its own clergy, as well as
keep its own places of worship in repair ? Is not that a direct
menace that when they have once abolished Church-rates, they
will go for a confiscation of tithe ? Mr. Goring, heretofore a sup-
porter of the Ministry, tells Mr. Rice, that however he has var-
nished his tale, the present measure is " a most unjust aggression
on, Church property ; ' that " it deprives the Established Church
of one branch of her emoluments, giving her no equivalent but
from her own resources—that the money now proposed to be
seized is required to afford a sufficient maintenance to the working
clergy—and, finally, that he will not enable Ministers to give,
however they may disclaim it, a first instalment to the advo-
cates of the voluntary principle." This is the speech of a regular
voter on the side of the Whigs! And what else is the whole
scheme but a foul proceeding, by which the voluntary principle is
fraudulently smuggled into our legislation ? But for what ? For
religious peace ? No such thing ; no pace is expected ; no peace
is even promised. What is the language of that revolutionary
glutton, Mr. Joseph Hume ? He tells us that his 400 Dissenting dele-
gates would have nothing to do "at present" with any question but
. the Church-rates. " They had no intention to ask for any thing
more at the present moment. Dissenters at presene, put everything
else" (what else) " into abeyance, in order that they might not
embarrass Ministers on this question." These words are significant
enough : one instalment at a time. They will not embarrass
Ministers upon this preliminary question by pushing at the present
moment others which they meditate, lest the first and introductory
one might fail, through the alarm created by a demand for too much
et once. See, then, how stupid and how abject are these Minis-
ters ! They exonerate the landed interest entirely from a charge
which it has borne for uncounted centuries, and confiscate for ever
the acknowledged property of the Church, not on the application
or importunity of those who possess the bulk of the soil of Eng-
land, but under the threats of a particular faction, who resist
the lawful claims of the Church Establishment, because they
ehject partially to its discipline and doctrines, and who do not
even pretend to be conciliated, scarcely indeed silenced for a
day, by that which is, as against the Church of England, a
perpetual and irretrievable sacrifice. Satisfy the Dissenters !
e need not deceive ourselves on that question. `Nil the abolition
of Church-rates content them ? No. Will that of tithe content
them ? No. So lung as there is recognized throughout the land
the title of Archbishop, or Bishop, or Dean—so long as a surplice
shall be worn, or an altar fixed, or an organ played, or a litany re-
cited, we have pretty strong evidence of the sort of religious equa-
lity which would reconcile these lovers of spiritual freedom to the
existence of the Episcopalian Church, when we turn to the annals
cf the 17th century, during a portion of which their predecessors
were triumphant and in power, when an adherence to prelacy was
treated as an atrocious crime, and when even the performance of
public worship according to the rites of our national Church was
tiot so much as tolerated by the crop-eared tyrants of the Corn-
men sealth. Heaven defend us from the resurrection in this
country o their base, greedy, grinding, corrupt, and hypo-
critical dominion. This new manosuvre of the Melbourne
tioverement professes to he forced upon them by the im-
possibility of continuing the law of Church-rates on its pre-
sent footing. We do not wish to see the present law perpe-
tueted. It appears to us a monstrous thing that the question
should be left even no worse than doubtful where a parochial fac-
tion, composed-partly of Dissenter? from the Church, partly of
politica; intriguers within her own b°s°' should or should not
have it at their option to refuse the sum neeeseary for maintaining the
fabric of the Church, and thereby deprie g the poorer members
cf the Establishment of the comfort and benefit of public worship.
We are not, therefore, for the continuance of the present law ; o,n
the contrary, it would accord with our opinions to see the principle
of Lord Althorp's measure of 1634 recurred to—a provision made
out of the Land-tax for the due repair of Churches on the specific
principle which the old law of England has immemorially recog-
nised, and on the main one which an " Established" Church sup-
poses and implies—viz., that the Church shall be upheld and pro-
tected by the nation. Lord Althorp, it must be in the recollection
of ,our readers, declared that it was in subserviency, not to the
members of the Church, but to tb ,exactions of the Dissenting
body, that he gave up his plan. Hoe., ver,the outline of Mr. Spring
Rice's proposition is this : He some 7-les, by Act of Parliament, be-
tween the lessors of Church land and their lessees, as to render the
property which supports them both more valuable in the money-
market, and therefore claims the right of turning the additional
value thus ingrafted on that property to the benefit neither of the
lessors nor lessees, but to that of a third party not connected with
either—to wit, the murmuring Dissenters. Now this, upon the
face of it, is a flagitious robbery. If it be pretended that the Bi-
shops, and Deans and Chapters, have not hitherto been enabled by
law to administer their property to the best advantage, on the same
footing as any other landlords, and if the defect of legal power to
do so has been susceptible of a legal remedy, why was not that re-
medy, viz., an Act of Parliament, applied much sooner for the use
of tSe Church herself, many of whose clergy have been sunk in the
dreariest poverty, and many objects connected with her efficiency
and welfare incapable of being provided for out of her own ecclesi-
astical property, because of the thriftless condition wherein the Le-
gislature had left it ? The fact, as now described by Mr. Spring
Rice to the country, is, that Parliament—the great Trustee
for the Church—as in a large sense it ought to be for every
other national institution—Las grossly neglected its duty to
the Church, the cestui que trust, and that from being a defaulter
towards the Establishment it now becomes a robber. There is still
a party which possesses an equitable interest of the most important
nature under the present arrangement of Church property—we
mean the lessees of the Bishops and capitular corporations. How
are they dealt with by the Chancellor of the Exchequer? They
have heretofore, for time out of mind, been morally certain of the
continuance of their leases on the payment of an ascertained cus-
tomary fine, recurring at given periods, and constituting, together
with a nominal rent, an easy pecuniary obligation. These leases
have been regarded as equivalent to estates of inheritance, and have
formed from generation to generation the subject-matter of wills,
deeds, and marriage settlements. They are to be annihilated from
this hour. There are to be no more dealings between Bishop
or Dean and Chapter and their former lessees. The lands are
to be wrested from the Church, and put in the hands of a Com-
mission. The payment of fines is at once to cease, and in lieu of
them the tenant is to be called upon to pay twenty-five years' pur-
chase for the fee-simple of the land, or to obtain his perpetuity by
the payment of a rack-rent to the Commissioners. If he should
not accept either of these terms, the public are to be let in upon
him as competitors, and there is an end of his beneficial interest.
Will the lessees of Church lands like such treatment ? We suspect
not. Will the House of Commons sanction it (we say nothing of
the Lords)? It is extremely doubtful ; for the Act is an outrage
property, individual and ecelesiastjcal, as it is a scandal to all
public faith, integrity, honour, and enlightened policy. But sup-
pose theq, by some miracle, the Act should pass, and that, without
any mira.lle at all, the bulk of the lessees should' refuse to take new
leases at within five per cent. of a rack-rent, or to buy the fee-
simple at twenty-five years' purchase, of that which they have
hitherto enjoyed on much easier terms. How -stands the mat-
ter? The renewal fines, mark you, are at an end, so that
the 261,000/. per annum, or thereabouts, necessary for the
support of the Bishops and cathedral bodies, is no where producable
from the Church property. Why, the Consolidated Fund must be
resorted to, and that for a period of twenty-four years, which, ac-
cording to Mr. Spring Rice, forms the average duration of the out-
'sanding leases. Mark, again, the Church-rates, like fines, are
espally at once put an end to. Whence then comes the 250,0001.
requiced by this precious project for the repair of churches? Why,
from the hard-bestridden and cruelly-belaboured Consoli-
datedaeai
Fund, which will therefore have to come down—
cot. Bishops, &c £261,000
In .ileu of Church-rates....

Total £511,000
per annum for a period of no less than 24 years (we believe we
have underrated this annual outgoing by some thousands, but have
not now time to look back), which yearly charge is equivalent to a
capital in money of surnethin, more than 20,000,0001. sterling !
And what is all this for ? We are told by Mr. Hume, to bribe
some hundred thousand factious Dissenters into a short relaxation
of their fury against the Church, while it is en behalf of Ministers
a _renewal fine towards prolonging their lease of Downing-street
to tile end of the current Session ! Rat the country at large re-
quires no such abominable oppression as that the lessees of the
t:hurci should be squeezed out of 250,0001. a year to quiet the
ela.momrs and relieve the pockets of Messrs. Hume, Fox, and Co. ;
nor, if isuch a sum could be equitably raised from such a source,
would tlue people of England be blind to the fact so justly affirmed
by Sir Peel, that there arc millions of our poor countrymen
still to be acoommodated with church-room, and thousands of poor
clergymen who:=e families have scarcely bread to eat. Is not theirs
a prior claim to t,:,iat of the political Dissenters ? Tisnes.

BELL'S LIFE IN LONDON AND SPORTING
CIIRONIFLE of yesterdaT, March 5, contained the most correct
description of the eight fo.11own:(s steeple Chases : St. Albans,
High Wycombe, Bath, Liverpoc!, Birmingham, Brocklebb;
_Hunt, Haverfordwest, and Tamworth. The price of Bell's Life
in London is fivepence. Office, 170, Strand. Bell's Life can
b,n bought every Saturday, after three o'clock in the afternoon,
at any of the newspaper Offices about the Royal Exchange.
The number of songs in competition for the premium
offet,ifiby the Melodisti Club, amounts, we hear, to about 213.