The Sun.
London, England, 1853-05-27 00:00:00

//~

e,z. -, _

there was no agitation with respect to it in the (mutt?:
It was much better to mend one's house in a calm then
to be obliged to set about doing so in a storm. He
would now call the attention of the house to the propo-
sition he was about to submit, and he was anxious to
impress on it one point—namely, that if they would
examine the evidence taken before the select committee
in 1851, they would find that the real objection of the
dissenters to the payment of church rates was founded
on conscientious scruples. That that was the case was
abundantly proved by the evidence. What lie proposed
was that all dissenters should be exempted from the
payment of church rates by the simple process of stating
in writing that they were dissenters from the Church of
England, and handing that statement to the church.
warden. He thought there could be no harm in re-
quiring a man to state that he was a dissenter, and be
proposed that that statement should be kept by the
churchwarden, and a certified copy of it produced in
court should be sufficient evidence of exemption. It
was said that it would be difficult to define what was
dissent. He admitted that it would, probably be a
meanshopelessfo
r
task,
definingand it.
he felt
Buthere
t entirely
‘a incompetent.sn,
iha
rdsitos, ui
p igg : ast
dissenter—athere
urcsoeu. ldalbeearno,
hmaarin shaiypi nagntdi i at;
noh ed
iufl'iacsu latyd iistsi
hsoe adr.e c) l a
rHe
de
tphioe.upi
soesievde
sf
du
irstsheenrtethr
sa, tantdh e
obijieecrtseodu stoas. hu op
suphadport
and maintain the Established Church in what was neces-
sary, and who thereby obtained exemption,—he proposed
that they should have no right whatever to any church
rights, or privileges, or ceremonies—(hear, hear)—that
they should not be able to compel the clergyman to the
performance of any religious service—that they should
not at one and the same time say that they objected to
contribute to a church which was their abomination and
aversion, and at the same time insist upon the rites and
1 ceremonies being performed for their benefit whatever
which
hheiho ii
l objections
dme might b
left
abandoned.t
thee. I
InipcnieociAsfuelieritp,aherdtooouupori
g. proposed enuadgit:htaeial
odsto ofo thetfdh mightauj , thereteer
con-
sideration not Church
wbehodefermomed essonmecemsaoryti,viensotaf
or the subject, had dissented from the doc-
trines of the Established Church, and who wished to re-
turn when their irritation had subsided, and he should
be sorry to close the door for ever against them. He
proposed, therefore, that regard being bad to the due
ecclesiastical authority, the dissenter who wished to re-
lagoirhave the power of.swithdrawing hie state-
, ould thereby be restored to the Church, and
receiving at the same time all the privileges and blessings
enjoyed by the Churchman. He proposed also that dis-
senters should not have the right of appearing at vestry
meetings, or vote on the appropriation of the rates. As
regarded the Churchman himself, it had, he was aware,
often been urged that theladjud'cation of church rate
cases should be transferred to the magistrates at quarter
sessions. At present it was well known that there were
no less than six suits which might arise from the appeals
from the Consistory Court to the Court of Queen's Bench,
from that to the Exchequer Chamber, and finally to the
House of Lords, all upon a sum perhaps not exceeding
ss. 6d. That arrangement was wholly indefensible.
The question was, whether an arrangement might not
be effected by improving the present court of judicature
or transferring it to another court. There was this evil
in transferring it to the court of quarter sessions—that
the law, as it at present stood, gave different degrees of
power to the parishioners, the clergyman, and the bishop.
A rate might be made by the clergyman for bread and
wine for the Holy Communion, for the washing of sur-
plices, and other necessary purposes, without the sanc-
tion of the parishioners. But when anything ornamental
or any alterations beyond those of mere necessity or
utility were required, the parishioners had a vote in
vestry, and might reject the rate proposed. Or, if
passed, the ordinary might afterwards revise it, and pre-
vent the proposed ornaments being put up in the church.
It was well known that at present some of these altera-
tions and ornaments involved questions of doctrine, and
the law in this respect being fair and just, he proposed
that it should remain as it was, and that the Consistory
Court should decide in all cases summarily, and
viva voce, upon the question. If these questions were
transferred to the magistrates for decision, many
questions of an embarrassing character would arise.
There was no reason why the Consistory Courts should
not be rendered fit to adjudicate upon those ques-
tions by rendering them more expeditious, and making
their decisions final, instead of transferring them to
courts, the decisions in which might grievously interfere
with the discipline and practice and doctrines of the
Church. Such was an outline of the plan he proposed
to submit. The evidence of Mr. Baines would lead him
to infer that such an arrangement would not be agree-
able to all classes of Dissenters. One objection that had
been urged against his plan was that it would tend to
the dissolution of the connection between Church and
State. He should certainly witness with great regret
any scheme with that object, but curiously enough many
of the Dissenters believed that the continuance of the
present law would have the effect equally of producing
that dissolution. They believed that these continual
squabbles and battles were the best vantage ground for
carrying out the object of effecting the separation of
Church and State. He was well aware that he had ex-
posed himself to much criticism and censure, and much
animadversion from various quarters. No doubt there
was something extremely satisfactory to one's self-esteem
in deploring and confessing the existence of an evil, carp-
ing at the remedies proposed, and then sitting down with-
out suggesting anything feasible. That observation was
not applicable to the amendment of the hon. member for
the Tower Hamlets, which he had iu the course of his
observations endeavoured to deal with. But there was
another class of objectors for whom, although he widely
differed, lie entertained the highest respect. These were
the gentlemen who saw no evil at all in the existing state
of things—who could not conceive that any person friendly
to the Church could propose so great a boon to the Dis-
Isenters without being a traitor in disguise to the Esta-
blishment and an enemy to her institutions. To that sort
of imputation lie was extremely sensitive, and although
in ability he might be exceeded by most, in his desire
to serve her interests lie yielded to no one, because he
was desirous of seeing her blessings extended through-
out the country. Because he deprecated the evils that
would result from a separation between Church and
State—because he was most anxious that she should
reign by legitimate spiritual means, and maintain her em.
pire over the hearts of the people—it was that he did
implore her to consider well that these privileges which
had been unquestionably guaranteel to her by law had
brought odium upon her institutions, desecrated her doc-
trines, and had created a furious spirit of party which
was opposed to her very existence. He submitted the
present measure because he conscientiously believed that
it would tend to promote that great blessing of religious
peace. He had no other object whatever. He might
apply to it the language in which, in their incomparable
ritual, they invoked the divine blessing upon the pro-
ceedings of Parliament, when he said that this was a
measure which had foundations whereby truth and jus-
tice, peace and happiness, religion and piety, might be
established in these realms, and, he would fain hope,
nay, earnestly pray, for all generations. (Loud cheers.)
Sir W. CLAY, in rising to move his amendment, "That
this house do resolve itself into a committee, to consider
whether church rates should not be abolished, and provi-
sion made for the charges to which such rates are at pre-
sent applicable from pew rents, and from the increased
value which inquiries instituted by authority of the Crown
have shown may be derived, under better management,
from church lands and property,"--said he was happy to
find he so far had the support of the hon. and learned gen-
tleman that he admitted the disgraceful state of the law on
the subject, which, indeed, had been so exposed by the
inquiries of the select committee that it was difficult to
convey an idea of its utter absurdity. The law was so un-
certain that it was doubtful how a good church rate could
be made, by whom it was to be made, or in what way it
could be enforced. This was remarkably illustrated in the
history of the Braintree church rate case, which had com-
menced in 1836 by the refusal of the vestry to make a rate.
Churchwardens had then made it, and the ecclesiastical
courts bad been resorted to, who decided the rate to be
valid. Next, it came before the Court of Queen's Bench,
who decided it to be invalid. Then it went into a court of
error, who affirmed that judgment, but intimated that if
the churchwardens made the rate with the concurrence of
a mini
anew .t
minority of th
evestryewas madethed eciisn that
onmigmhatnnbeer,and the
different.
Accordingly
ecclesiastical courts held it to be valid. The Court of
Queen's Bench supported this decision, and their judgment
was upheld in the Court of Exchequer. (Hear, hear.) An
appeal had, however, been carried to the House of Lords,
where the case was " ripe for hearing"—(a laugh)—and if,
as was even probable, the judgment of the court of law
was affirmed, then the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical
courts would be revived, from which an appeal now lay to
the Privy Council ; so that after the lapse of 20 years the
people of Braintree might know whether the rate made in
1837 was valid. (Hear, and a laugh.) The jurisdiction
was at common law in the spiritual courts. The 53d Geo.
of the rate arrested the magisterial jurisdiction,
olfllzuer.6l2r73,tehsadbeelmoNpvol‘wve.riend
athmeomunatgi;stbruatters,
dtoisps;ttotlge.aoueferas.s.ntheteseee
validity
The e enforcingconsequence
that in largo towns where the dissenters were numer-
was, wbothhe.triega
tchheurecohllercatteiosnhacinl
cases
wasted intsovmaleidaTy.of
aagnadin practicallys
against those
enforcingoffor 51. 12s. 6d. had been
enforcednnstslolofefa levying
distress was most oppressive. In one
hlaen par o;v ea
purchased du d t h. t
Dr.
L churchnpsrho. .
671. 108., of which only 61. 7s. had been returned, (Hear.)
In 1837 the present Lord Chief Justice (Lord Campbell),
iwcleuisaistes aelanedne.dtel ipteTholhweeev year powerful.
had published a letter on the subject to Lord Stanley, the
iunp own h it
chhe
rapretessenfotrEmaedrl ofno Derby, in
purely personal
ington, in his evidence before the committee, had
Thetar toretcheoisevedwhano
pressed a similar opinion. What, then, became
argument so often urged—that people ex-
cpheratrygesuabnltittocewthde enhoarmgoer?e
blet
avvrtasena
frreemmiessciobne,rgtehfaetr wheyl loch they
the
h therebyave relieveben t
to
than a similar answer would
tssscpelaiemuleidartlhyeremissio of the window tax,
Periodt equivalent,t those
aoensm
ei semelw,vhseoi
corn laws. The retention. of churchil or the
rates at the present
tion the country was
of unjustifiable, Before the Reforma-
church rates was reasonablele religion, and the levy of the
least logically defended and just ; awl it could be at
was found that the even long after that era, while it
not be supposed i e remained of one religion. It must
Catholics we sec that
i when we ceased to be Roman
replaced himself in became Protestants. Henry VIII. had only
the Pope , Elizabethssion from which he had de-
thronedwas as arbitrary as Mary,
and under the Stuar
ts the Star Chamber made short work
of the Nonconformists. (Hear, hear). The country only by
degrees comprehended. the full import of " civil and
religious liberty," and while the Test and Corporation
Acts continued unrepealed church rates could, with some
sort of consistency, be levied. But it was otherwise when
the law recognised Dissenters. (Hear.) And to persist.
still in retaining church rates was to persevere in all the
insolence of Land, and clinging to the spirit of obsolete
intolerance. And if they were retained from pecuniary
considerations, and a desire to grasp the money of Dis-
senters, then the motive' was one so contemptible that
the spirit of intolerance was comparatively respectable
.
penal laws appeared by comparison
and the retention of the
._
(Hear.) With these feelings he came to sa
almost noble.