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

CHURCH RATES.

(Prom tlae Times.)

It is the favourite pastime of some self-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 be 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 Church-rate iu
lieu of that liability. Nobody in his senses could
have imagined for an instant that in the towns and
parishes, containing altogether > everal million in-
habitants, in which either Church-rates have
either never been collected at all or after a severe
struggle have been abandoned, the owners would
quietly submit 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
know that an opposition there would be, and that
it would be effectual. This, then, would only be
to renew the mischief in an aggravated form, for
the resistance this time would be against the State,
and the authority of the 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
"Noesad his select" against the
n
tsh4in"kAhyimes,"btyo ahismmapotriiotyn.ofThe mover
317
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 know how the House
of Commons views this sort of proposition.
We repeat that the real reasons for making a re-
quest which is certain to be rejected must be bad
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 follow one 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
phraseology, 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
in the habit of considering those necessities, which
far more than any supposed expediencies, limit ra-
ther than regulate the course of a nation. Tne 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 sore usually employed in
the contemplation of proprieties, dec Aicies, graces,
elegances, and duties of the more optional and
traci able class. Invest a propos•il with a sacred c
louring and they will embrace it and commit them-
selves to it, as they would to a canon of architecture
or even an article of faith. Defeat makes no mate-
rial difference in their self-esteem, for it matters not

much to people who fight
great religious warfares
in their studies and drawing-rooms whether

they are conquerors—br 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 '`malign an ts. " Of
course, if objects are impossible, if demands are .
certain to be refused, it everything 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. Pullet's proposition
wai that the Church of England should be em-
powered to knock at every door in this kingdom,
and demand a sovereign from this house, 10s. from
that, and 2a. from that, towards a Church Fund,
and in lieu of an impost upon which for thirty
years 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.
The consequence of its Tefax,e.l is that most proba-
bly in some hundred Fitilpits and 501115 thousand
drawing-rooms it will be denounced as an ungodly,
Anti-Christian Legislature, the base slave of Mam-
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 whe use
this language and entertain these sentiments to-
wards tue House of Commons, and prudent politi-
cians in general, will, in a corresponding degree,
rise in their opinion of themselves.
As 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 Church circles. The principle of the
the power of the majority
vestry being
oraleerveyl
existing rate has been reduud to a very shadowy
a small rate for a limited
ina form,
numbsr of Church purposes. There is not
a parish in the kingdom in which it is not
necessary, and generally easy, to appeal to volun-
tary piety for the more substantial, more im-
poltaut, and more decorative works, and for the
expenses of conducting the service in a batter
style. In every parish any ratepayer may refuse
to pay a Church-rate, with almost the certainty of
success in 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 purposes. If the refractory rate-payer
is a rich man, he can keep the parish in hot water
for years, and nourish a feeling which will proba-
bly give him at last a m 3,1 rity of the vestry, and
so extinguish the rate. If he is a poor man he has
only to suffer a distress or go to prison, and he will
become a martyr. The Church-rate, however, not-
with,tauding its boasted principle, as the sign of a
national Church, is seldom, if ever, levied
from the poor. The real insignificance of
the so-called principle is nowhere so apparent as in
the inconsistencies of its upholders, who never
know whether to regard it as a personal or property
tax. Mr. Puller, tin champion of Tuesday night,
assumed it to be a tax on persons in respect of the
occupation of property ; but, instead of leaning to
what really is the highest quality of the rats—its
personal bearing--he was ready to commute it fora
good
hold on house and lard. There is no principle
in
the
matter of sufficient importance to be worth
saving at the expense of another fierce relisious
war.
The living practice of the voluntary 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
There
any decaying principle of compulsory taxation.
is no doubt of i.s sufficiency, and as little
doubt that it will receive a new impulse from the
surrender of an impost which, besides its other ill
consequences, creates a very fictitious and exagge-
rated opinion of national 'support. At the risk of
ten thousand anathemas, we beg to retain our con-
viction, which
a few years will amply test, that the
best thing for the Church of England is to throw
herself for the maintenance of her fabrics on the
free offerings of her congregations.

It won't do. (Prom the Daily New.)
on the point, and the House of Commons, which in
Tne country has made up its mind
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
odious and iudbfensible impost will satisfy the deter-
Initiation of the constituencies. Miserable enough
it is to see the
chiefs of arties—Lord John Russell
among the numlyr—eafferly catching at any substi-
tute, however absurd for that measure of full and
c )mplete justice
p
which alone wilt, which alone ought
to satisfy the country. It is really difficult to say
whether Mr. Puller's proposal fur making Church-
rates a permanent rent-cha.rge, or Mr. Buxton's
for increasing tithe in order to create a fund for
maintaining church fabrics, bu the more absurd.
It is not necessary to say more of either than that
they bo'h tend to fix and perpetuate a lax of which
the country demands the abolition, and which in the
course of a very fow 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—
" We c in't do thr.tt, but we can change its n-:me,
and, under that altered style, make it certain
instead of being contingcn.t—perpetual instead of
being transitory." Was there ever SllOll an answer
to such an appeal—such a palliative for such a dis-
order ? The louse of Commons pronounced the
fitting judgment ou the absurd proposal. The
nunal:ers of the division list—ayes' 54 ; noes, 317
are the appropriate epitaph on the defunct solecism.
It is really lamentable that the wiser friends of
the Establishment do not contrive in some way to
put a stop to these very pitiable exhibitions. The
Church of England is rich ; the members of the
Church of &gland are
just now very much in ear-
nest.
They are especially fond, as anyone who knows