The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-29 00:00:00

CHURCH RATES.

(From the Tinies.)

It is the favourite pastime of some se'f-constituted
champions of the Church of, England to.. insult the '
common sense of the country with unreasonable
propositions. If a scheme or a demand, however
square, symmetrical, and convenient to the friends
of the author, is quite certain to be rejected, either
because it is wholly unwarranted, or because it, or '
the like of it, has been rejected a hundred times
before; it is 'Unreasonable. There can be no good
reason for making such an appeal, so the real
reasons must b 3 bad ones. It was quite clear to
every reasonable being before Tuesday evening that
neither the country nor the House of Commons
would agree to Mr. Puller's neat preposition of a
compulsory and universal rent-charge on all pro-
perty
now liable to be assessed to a CSurch-rate iu
lieu of that liability. Nehely in his senses could
have imagined for an instant that in the towns and
parialtes, contaiSng altogether nverll ro"lbn in.-
habitants, in which either Church-rates have
either never been collected at all or after a severe
struggle have been abanioned, the owners would
quietly sueruit to the same impost in a harder and
more permanent form. We need not form any '
judgment whatever on the feelings or motives that
would induce the opposition. It is sufficient to
kuow that an opposition there would be, and that
it would b 3 effectual. This, then, would oely be
to renew the mischief in an aggravated ferm., for
the. resistance this time rould be against the State,
and the authority of tile State would be that com-
promised in the inevitable result. The House of
Commons, though just now not in its wisest mood,
is wise enough to see this, and to act on this know-
ledge. It accordingly made an example of Mr.
Puller, or a martyr, as his friends will probably
"Noes" against the
mover and his select
tshiin,,lcAhyimes,,,btyoabims
majoortiiotymofT3hle7
body of supporters appear to have been anxious to
disguise the poverty of their numbers by with-
drawing the motion. In this attempt, however,
they were defeated by the member for Abingdon,
who has thus let the country kn6w how the House
of Commons views this sort of prop )sition.
We repeat that the real reasons for making a re-
quest which is certain to be rejected mustbebad
ones. It is true that on very trivial occasions and
in very indifferent matters there are people who say
" There's no harm in asking," but there can only
be no harm where no feelings are hurt by a refusal,
and where no results folio wone way or another. In
'such cases as that before us the greatest harm is
done. Mr. Puller's motion, clad as it is in legal
.rhraseDlogy, being apparently sufficient for the
purpose, and hitting upon an equivalent for Church-
rates in just a penny in the pound upon all rate
able property, is eminently calculated to impose on
the minds of country clergymen and those gentle-
men and ladies who give much attention to the
system of the Church. These persons are not much
to the habit of considering those necessities, which
far more than any supposed expediencies, limit ra-
ther than regulate the course of a nation. The fact
that a thing must be, which a statesman may per-
ceive as clear as the black rock with its white fringe
of breakers right ahead of the ship's course, weighs
little with those who are more usually employed in
the contemplation of proprieties, dec.tricies, graces,
elegances, and duties of the more optional and
tractable class. Invest a proposal with a sacred co-
loering and they will embrace it and commit them-
selves to it, as they would to a canon of architecture
or even au article of faith. Defeat makes no mate-
rial difference in their self-esteem, for it matters not
much to people who fight
in their studies and great religious warfares
drawing-rooms whether
they are. conquerors or martyrs. But an im-
practicable policy does not seriously affect the
relation of those committed to it towards the
rest of the world. Every step drives them further
into that class which our forefathers were wont to
describe by the name of "malignant?." Of
course, if objects are impossible, if demands are
certain to be refused, if everything is done to
elicit denial and provoke contradiction, the
inevitable consequence is increased bitterness of
feeling towards those whom we compel toresist us.
If a man were fool enough to knock at the first
house in Belgrave-square, and ask the footman to
take in a request for the loan of a sovereign, his
feelings towards the aristocracy would certainly be
intensified by the result. Mr. Puller's proposition
was that the Church of England should be em-
[lowered to knock at every door in this kingdom,
and demand a sovereign from this house, 10s. from
that, and 2s. from that, towards a Church Fund,
and in lieu of an impost upon which for thirty
ye ire there has been a grievous social warfare. The
House of Commons, with a view to the certain re-
sult, will not give this power. It will not repro-
duce the social warfare in a more aggravated from.
t The conseq.aence of its refusal is that most proba-
bly in some hundred pulpits and SOM-3 thous and
drawing-rooms it will be denounced as an ungodly,
Anti-Christian Legislature, the base slave of IVlam-
mon, the worshipper of expediency, a traitor to
truth, a despiser of righteousness, and a great deal
more of that.sort. Of course, the people who use
this language and entertain these eeutiments to•
wards toe House of Cemmous, and pru -feat politi-
cians in general, will, in a correspeuding degree,
rise in their opinion of themselves.
Ac for the question itself, all that can be reason-
ably alleged for Church-rates is the principle of a
national Church said to be involved and attempted
to be preserved by the various substitutes going
the round of Cuureh circles. The principle of the
existing rate has been reined t_o a very shadowy
fotm, being merely the power of the majority
in a vestry to levy a small rate for a limited
numb .r of Church purposes. There is • not
a parish in the kingdom in which it is not
necessary, and geneeally easy, t 3 appeal to volun-
tary piety for the more substantial, more
expenses of conducting the service in a better
im-
po:taut, and more decorative works, and for the
style. In every parish any ratepayer may refuge
to pay a Church-rate, with almost the certainty of
successin the first instance. It will devolve on the
churchwardens to prove that the rate was made ex-
actly according to form of law, and for certain
strictly legal purpesae If the ref i actoi y rate payer
is a rich man, he can keep the parish in hot water,
fir years, and nourish a feeling which will proba-
bly give him at list a inaj •rAy of the vestry, and
so eicieguieh the raee. If he ii a poor man he has
only to sutler a distress or go to prison, and he will
li come a martyr. The Church-rate, hlwever, not-
with tandiug its boasted principle, as the sign of a
n tional Co urch,` is seldom, if ever, levi el
from the poor. The real insig riffle
ince of
the so-called principle is nowhere so apparent as in
whether to regard it as a personal or proper y
the inconsistencies of its upholders, who never
know
tsx. Mr. NWT, tt e champion of Tuesday night,
assumed it to be a t-ix on persons in respect of the
occupation of property ; but, instead of leaning to
what really is the highest quality of the rat,.—its
per's, nal bearing—he was ready to commute it fora
go )d hold on house and laed. There is no principle
in the matter of sufficient importance to be worth
saving at the expense of another fierce religious
war. The living practice of tie 'voluutary sys'em,
which is carried out in the principal as well as the
largest parishes in the metropolis, and in some of
our most populous cities, is infinitely better than
any decaying principle of compulsory taxation.
There is' no doubt of ies sufficiency, and as little
doubt that it will receive a new impulse from tee
surrender of an impost which, besides its other ill
consequences, cieatel a ivory fictitious and exagge-
rated opinion of tiaticml support. At the risk of
ten thousand anathemas, we beg to retain our con-
viction, which a few years will amply test, that the
bast-thing for the Church of England is to-throw
herself for the maintenance of her fabrics on the
of her congregations.
1 free offerings

• (From the Daily News.)
It won't do. The country has made up its mind
on the point, and the ETotne of Com.nuns,
this respect at least adequately represents the feel-
ing of the country, is equally decided. Church-
rates are doomed. It is not a case for compromise ;
it does not admit of subterfuge. The time has
come when nothing short of a total abolition of this
03i0U3 and thdefensible impost will satisfy the deter-
mination of the constituencies. Miserable enough
it is to see the chiefs of parties—Lord John Russell
among the number---eauerly catching at any substi-
tute, however absurd, for that measure of full and
cpmPlWeilletice which alone will, which alone ought
to satisfy the country. It is really difficult to say
whether Mr. Puller's proposalfor making Church-
rates a permanent rent-charge, or Mr. Buxton's
for increasing tithe in order to create a fund for
maintaining church fabrics, be the more absurd.
It is not necessary to say more of either than that
they bo'h tend to fix and perpetuate a tax of which
the country demands the abolition, and which in the
course of a very few years would in all probability
abolish itself. The cry of the constituencies is—
" Remove this impost, which we feel to be odious
and vexatious." The answer of Mr. Puller is—
"itri'slciVte, eadlenitoildfelrbdeoti
e
being transitory." Was there ever.such an ans er
ughtall:toa' nibtteitinrtegdwellets cyalpdne 1 cpihneaatnUkga ttl
1 Ss certaintne 9O
to such an appeal—such alliative for such a pais-
order ? The 'louse of Commons pronounced the
fitting judgment on the absurd proposal. 'the
numbers of the division list—ayes' 54; noes, 3.17-7.
are the appropriate epitaph on thedefunctloleci4m.
It is really lamentable that the wiser ifiend4 of
the Establishment do not contrive in same w a to
put a stop to
these very pitiable exhibitions. lie
Crutch of England is rich ; the members of he
Church cf England are just now very much in ear-
nest, They are eslY:eially fond, ai anyone who knows