The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-03 00:00:00

declares (and (and it will not be suspected of unduly
favouring industry at the expense of capital)—
" we should be alarmists if we said that there was
at this moment any reasonable or general antici-
pation of difficulty or collapse. No manufacture
has been overdone, no trade pushed too far, no
undertakings pledged beyond the limits of easy
performance, no millions cast on the waters in the
shape of loans to insolvent or revolutionary States.
Jonri Bunn, usually credulous, easy, sanguine,
and most incontinent of his cash, has not yet
ceased to ruminate over the decennial catastrophes
that have afflicted his purse. * * * What,
then, is there that should lead our great capitalists
to tighten the reins of confidence just at this mo-
ment ?" We fully and cordially concur with our
contemporary in these opinions. There is, there
can be, no adequate reason assigned for the pro-
ceeding, tmore especially when we consider that
the Bank had at the moment in its coffers, ac-
cording to the latest return, nearly eighteen mil-
lions in specie, and that the importations of gold
during the past week had been at the rate of
nearly a ton per diem.
There is only one rational solution of
the problem. The Chancellor of the Exchequer
had a great financial operation on the tapis, by
which a considerable saving might have been
effectual, if matters went on favourably. This
was the last day for parties signifying their assents
to the conversion of their Stock into any of the
new securities offered as equivalents by Mr. GLAD-
STONE. The success of the operation
ed by the Board during
ainly de-
pended on the course pursu
the emergency. The holders of South Sea Stock
and other securities were waiting to observe the
conduct of the Bank, in order to regulate their
own. The operation has been seriously damaged,
if not altogether destroyed, by the proceedings of
the Directors. Mr. GLADSTONE and his colleagues
will certainly have no cause to applaud their exer-
tions in the present instance. They have injured
the cause which, if they really possessed the na-
tional character they assume, they would have
felt bound to promote to the best and utmost
of their ability. It will be for the Govern-
ment which they have thus seriously damaged
to take care, when there shall be another applica-
tion for a renewal of the Bank Chatter, that there
shall no longer be any mistake on the subject--
that they shall not be entrusted with powers to
be used only for mischief.
We shall not now allude to the rumours as to
the breaking out of the secrets of the Bank par-
lour, and the undue advantages afforded to the
friends of some of the Directors. Suffice it to
say, that the suspicions to which we long si
alluded have been considerably strengthened, that
the hints and surmises have received additional
confirmation, and are now beginning to assume a
consistent and tangible shape, by no means favour-
able to the reputation of some of the City Magnates.

We ought to have read Lord STANLEY'S
pamphlet on Church Rates before the debate on
that question. We are not sorry, however, that,
accidentally, we failed to do so, since it enables
us to invite more specific attention to it. An
attentive perusal of it has given us the greatest
pleasure, and we earnestly recommend it to every
honest and fair-minded Churchman as the most
satisfactory tract we have seen on the subject,
and to every Dissenter as an illustration of the
candour, justice, and high appreciation of religious
liberty which he now can meet with from those
whose political and ecclesiastical connections ap-
pear at first sight most antagonistic to his own.
The pamphlet, moreover, condenses into a few
pages all the information which most readers
would care to have respecting—" (1.) The social
evils arising out of the present law of Church
Rates. (2.) The inefficiency of the law, the extent
to which it has fallen into desuetude, and the fa-
cility with which it may be evaded. (3.) Past and
present attempts towards its reform."
Lord STANLEY had the honour to be elected for
Lynn while absent on a tour in America ; and we
have little doubt that, with a mind of the charac-
ter displayed in this publication, he was deeply
impressed, like the present Earl of CARLISLE, then
Lord MORPETH, on a similar tour, with the im-
mense social advantage of the absolute religious
liberty enjoyed in the United States. Any ob-
servant English Statesman beholding with his own
eyes the entire absence of ecclesiastical friction in
the working of their State machinery, must be
tempted with the Noble Earl to "envy them their
perfect religious liberty." We believe most read-
ers of Lord STANLEY'S pamphlet will agree with
us that it shows in no small degree some of the
best qualities of the Statesman. With a full
perception of theory and its logical conse,
quences, he looks upon men as they are, and
society as it is—at the same time exhibits
a fair degree of comprehensiveness of mind,
and, above all, a calm, dispassionate judg-
ment, evidenced especially in his fair and
kindly sympathy with the feelings of those whose
religious views are opposed to his own. We
are pretty confident that this pamphlet will dis-
pose the better class of Dissenters, and of the
Liberals who act with them, to think that they
have in Lord STANLEY the promise of a rising
Statesman in harmony with the predominant cha-
racter of educated English feeling. The demand
is now, doubtless, for Statesmen disposed to rise
above class distinctions, to look with equal kindli-
ness upon every section and grade of the popula-
tion of the Empire, and to insist, above all, upon
religious equality as the great problem remaining
for our Legislators
,to solve. We strongly sus-
pect that the criticisms of an old politician, in
the recent debate, were very much due to
the advanced position which Lord STANLEY
takes in his pamphlet. Partly no one likes
to be cut out in his own line, and partly
every one even more dislikes to be clearly and
irrecoverably outstripped. His Lordship is per-
fectly right, and all the evidence, as well as the ob-
servation of every man not absolutely blind to what
passes around him, proves it, that Dissenters of
every kind do regard Church Rates as a tax in a
different sense to that in which they regard tithes.
The highest legal authorities, as he shows, state it
to be a personal tax, though proportioned accord-
ing to property. Unlike the other legal endow-
ments of the Church, it has to be laid and assessed
by the parishioners themselves. No one can
claim the tax if not thus laid ; while tithes are a
definite portion of the proceeds of property await-
ing a claimant. The occupier knows, at least,
that they are not his, and that he has no right to
keep them ;he never hired them. The landlord
knows they are not his ; he never bought them or
inherited them. With the Rate it is altogether
different. The Dissenting rate-payer, till the day
of his exemption, will feel that but for his neigh-
bour's shirking his fair contribution to the ex-
penses of his own worship, and imposing the pro-
portion he escapes upon Dissenters, the latter
would pay no such tax at all. Supposing that in
strict theory, however, all are b
hound to pay taxes
to the Established Church, yet is Lordship justly
observes
" Men in all countries, and more especially in this
country, are not governed by theories, nor will a wise
Government push abstract reasonings to a hazardous
extreme.' And, moreover, the theory of exclusive re-
ligious endowment, though it still to a considerable ex-
tent affects our practice, has been long disavowed. The
existence of Presbyterianism in Scotland, th
devis Regium
Donum, the grant to lVfaynooth, the equaldivision of
Clergy Reserves among the various sects
in Canada, are
all witnesses against it. And though the institutions of
an old country cannot be at once overthrown, nor its
traditions departed from without danger, yet weded of
may
safely say, that whenever an opportunity is affor
dealing with Ecclesiastical establishments de novo—un-
fettered by past pledges or immemorial custom—the
principle on which the present generation i s i maned of
to
of
act is that of strict religious equality. A a m
justice, it is felt to be wrong tv call upon men to pay for
the propagation of opinions in which they do not share;
and as a matter of expediency it ig certain that such au
attempt in the case of Church Rates could only end in
levied
disgraceful failure—failure, in all probability, fatal to the
latter, is
tkiclitsotry undertaking it. I take Wit these views : but
We had
Do
.3,Boeu'wbh demur to the former, I ant content to say,
from Nonconformists,
that the amount of rates which can be
the struggle which
wort onconformists, again at the will of the
tion, but the cost pecuniary; moral' and social, of
marked very
attend its c ollection "
airo-ved. very much more for quota-
real concern for the
the tone. of repasee
naelltraet will give a fair idea of
~ton of the country which
religion
common sense, and
pervades the whole pamphlet. The author asks