The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-13 00:00:00

patience in that manner to be abused ? How long
are we to tolerate this subordination of our own
wishes to those of the Russian AUTOCRAT ? How
long are our interests, how long are our hopes,
how long is our dignity to be compromised by
the conflicting sentiments of a Coalition, by the
weakness of an ABERDEEN, the delays of a CLA-
RENDON, and the hesitations of a RUSSELL ?
when the solution of all these problems may at
once be arrived at through the energy, the skill,
and the promptitude of a patriotic statesman
like Viscount PALMERSTON.

Lord STANLEY, when he penned his statesman-
like and candid pamphlet on church rates, could
hardly have expected that his almost successful
appeal would so soon prove to be as well-timed as
it was just. The Lords' decision on the Braintree
case, we suppose he expected to be adverse to the
opponents of the rate, since he took it for granted
that it would be " carried again into the Court of
Arches, and finally up to the Judicial Committee
of Privy Council." The same course was, we re-
member, expected by Sir IL J. FUST himself, and
by Dr. LUSHINGTON. The majority of the Judges
having been in favour of the validity of the rate
when Lord STANLEY wrote, most of us looked for
a similar result. The Lords, however, to their
honour in this, as in the other great constitutional
case of the Bridgewater will, which came before
them nearly at the same time, decided indepen-
dently ; and did themselves the lasting honour
of saving in one case the constitutional rights of
majorities, and in the other of saving the con-
stitutional principles on which alone a peer-
age nominated by the Crown in a free '
country can be defended. The rights ofH
majorities in levying taxes must have be-
come
"a mockery, a delusion, and a snare" if
the technicalities of " relative" or " constructive"
majorities could have been applied to them. The
Lords have now, however, finally decided that a
prohibition must issue from the Court of Queen's
Bench to stay all proceedings in the Ecclesiastical
Courts to enforce rates laid by Churchwardens
and a minority. A rate negatived by a majority
of the ratepayers, therefore, can no longer be
enforced.

Lord TRURO, indeed, in his lengthy and some-
what verbose judgment, expressed an opinion that
British subjects were generally too enlightened to
evade or defy the law by voting against rates,
and that the Braintree example would not be ex-
tensively followed. Probably his Lordship used
this language for decorum's sake merely ; if not,
Lord STANLEY, though so much his junior, knows
men and things much better. In his pamphlet he
shows from numerous facts, as well as from the
general conclusion, that men will avail them-
selves of any means, not involving penalties,
to defeat an unjust law, that nothing but
ceaseless battles can be expected from the
attempt to tax Dissenters from the Established
Church for the maintenance of its worship.
His prophecy, in which we fully concurred, is
being fulfilled to the letter. Not a month
has passed away since the decision, and not less
than five or six such battles have occurred, each
one ending in a refusal of the rate.
Kettering led the van. As secretly as possi-
ble the probate officials arranged their plans. Dis-
senters had not heard of the notice till three days
before the vestry meeting. Luckily, the Lords' de-
cision occurred on the second of those days. To
work they set, almost as rapidly as the telegraph
which brought the news, and a crowded vestry
the next day, and a negative of the rate carried by
a large majority and confirmed by a subsequent
poll, was the result of their energy. Immedi-
ately after followed the greater and severer battle
at Maidstone. "It was understood by the in-
habitants (says the local journal) that the conflict
was to be a test of the sense of the inhabitants
concerning the justice or injustice of compulsory
payments in support of the Church by members of
a different communion ;" the precise thing which
Lord STANLEY and his father so unsparingly de-
nounce as unjust. The majority of the Maidstone
ratepayers, including a large proportion of Church-
men, agree with them. The perpetual curate, indeed,
the Rev. W. VALLANCE, was too testy to put a reso-
lution testing the opinion of the meeting on this
point ; they expressed their opinion, therefore,
by negativing the rate by a majority of 4 to 1,
at the meeting, and by majorities of 98 votes,
and 360 persons in a poll of 2,160 votes ; the
pro-rate party withdrawing in despair on the
fourth day of the poll from the contest. The
parish of St. Anne's, Westminster, next refused
a rate by a large majority, and even the diocese
of Exeter dares to show a rebellious temper ; the
parish of St. Mary Arches having caught the in-
fection, and refused a rate. We are bound in
justice, however, to acknowledge that Trac-
tarianism is, to a large extent, honourably dis-
tinguished by its readiness to relinquish objection-
able rates and dues. Bridgewater also defeated
the rate by an immense majority, the Mayor
taking the chair at the Vestry Meeting ; and not
only did the Churchwardens not venture to de-
mand a poll, but they did not even venture to
show their faces at the meeting.

To crown all, we come to Braintree itself—
Braintree, which for eleven years, at least, has
been busy in litigation, while neglecting to repair
its church. Here the battle has been of another
and a more Christian kind. A popular and excel-
lent Vicar, the Rev. J. D. BROWNE, M.A., has
been presented to the living. The congregation,
two years ago reduced to 80, is now upwards of
1,000. A voluntary subscription has been com-
menced, with confident hopes of raising the 1,5001.
at which the repairs are estimated, and here the
Church-rate battle has issued in a contest of
Christian liberality. The patron of the living,
himself a Dissenter, has generously given 1001.
towards the object. If Braintree has been a
model of vexatious litigation, if it has fought hard
for a revolting and un-English principle, it has at
least been prompt in setting the example of re-
pentance, and of " works meet for repentance "
too.

It can hardly be expected that such contests
as we have narrated will cease speedily. The
success of some will embolden others. Liberal
Churchmen and Dissenters will, of course, be
vanquished in some places, especially when they
hazard conflicts in country parishes. Victory,
however, or defeat, will be almost equally fatal to
Church rates. Statesmen will number the con-
tests, rather than the successes of either party.
They cannot quietly look on, and see almost
every large town positively refusing the
rate, smaller towns engaged in annual battles,
and only the priest-and-squire-ridden parishes
quiet through fear. Even amidst the din of the
Reform Bill battle (should Lord JOHN produce
anything worthier of a battle than the last), the
demand for Church Rate Reform will be heard
also. Anti-Church-Rate men, held down for so
many years by the supposed power of the minority,
have made comparatively little stir ; they arise
the more vehemently now by a natural reaction.
Their views have also spread considerably while
tpheetiritvioensstryanadction was repressed, and they re-
rramenee the old struggle with augmented num-
bers and intelligence. Who can blame them ?
have tried in
to use the
law places in
Catholic times, thou
introduction of
va`ikihurch-ra,te martyrdoms" they
grand ; nothing remains for them but
th(elir
heans of resistance which the
Toleration Act, to have becom
is most righteous, therefore,
its abolition the thoroughly
though it
b a law remaining from
Dissent
and elaw, is felt, since the
etoanbruinttu
the passing
English 6 d
tional principle that every tax must'an -
ts
ot law.
bearof
ohl
net
be
constitu-
tional imposed
by a clear majority of the taxpayers.

What is the use of a pawnbroker's license ?
Why should persons submit to pay no less than
151. per annum for permission to carry on a trade
and subject themselves to many stringent regula-
tions as to the mode of conducting their business,
the rate of interest to be charged—the hours
during which they may receive pledges, &c.—if
all the restrictions can be violated with impunity
by any unprivileged person who pleases to open
what is termed a marine store shop,
and advance
money at an exorbitant rate of interest, more
than twentyfold that charged by duly licensed
traders, and can do so under the pretext of buying