The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-22 00:00:00

said that a Government was not fit to be entrusted with the

management of public affairs unless it tried to make a set-
tlement of this question in a twelvemonth, never ventured,

in the plenitudeof his power, and during tho five years
when he might have carried a measure, to grapple with the
subject again. And so it has fallen into weaker and inferior
hands, but with the same obligation to att mpt to satisfy
the public expectations and effect a defini e adjustment.
(Cheers.) After that we come to the ye it 849, when the
hon. baronet the member for Tavistock (Sir J. Trelawney)
first began his career in essaying to deal with this difficult
question. In that year he moved a resolution, " That it is
the opinion of this house that effectual measures should tbe
immediately taken for the abolition of the church-rates."
To that motion an amendment was proposed by one who is
as good a man as he is liberal as a politician—l mean Vice-
Chancellor Sir W P. Wood. He moved the omission of
" the abolition of church-rates," and the substitution of the
words "for discharging persons dissenting from the church
as by law established from contributing to the church-rates
and from taking any part in levying, assessing, or adminis-
tering the same." That proposition was in conformity
with one previously made by the hon. member for Fins-
bury. It was lost by an enormous majority, for only 20
members voted for the amendment, while 183 voted against
it. But, sir, that proposition gained ground afterwards, and
in the year 1853 Dr. Phillimore renewed it by laying a bill
on the table of the house with that object. That bill was
supported, as is best proved by the division, by my right
hon. friend the member for Carlisle, by the noble lord the
member for the City of London, by the noble lord the mem-
ber for Tiverton, and by no less than 185 members of this
house ; so that the proposition which, when first launched,
obtained the votes of only 20 members, had in four years
_ _

gained
so much ground that it commanded a division of
185 members, all the first men in the house going into
the same lobby. (Hear, hear.) The bill, however,
was lost, for on that occasion the noes were 207 against
185 ayes. The next proposition which was made on this

subject emanated from the right rev. bench. I hold in
my hand a bill which was laid on the table of the House of
Lords in the year 1855. The right rev, bench then pro-
posed that a machinery should be framed for the purpose of
ascertaining whether parishes would or would not pay
church-rates in obedience to a monition, and that, if after
monition and citation they refused to pay them during two
or three years,--I forget exactly which period—such rates

parialma Rhnuldbe.

come subject to the provisions of that bill. The provisions
of the bill were that the incumbent, those who frequented

the church, and other parties who were friendly to it should

compose a vestry for the purpose of raising by voluntary
contribution the sum necessary to support the fabric. Now,
that proposition, so made by the right reverend bench,
was, in my opinion, good in its object, but bad in its start-
ing point. It was good in its object, because it sought to
substitute for a compulsory payment a voluntary contribu-
tion. It was bad in its starting point, because it held out
a premium for agitation throughout the length and breadth
of the land. (Hear, hear.) It would have increased
the strife and ill-feeling which exist in the country upon the
subject, and it would have induced every parish to have made
every effort it could to get rid of the burden by any means
that could be devised. (Hear, hear.) That proposition I
believe received no countenance in the House of Lords, and
certainly was not responded to in this, In the following
year the right hon. baronet the member for Morpeth (Sir
G. Grey) to a certain extent adopted that plan. I regretted
it then, and I regret it now, although I think at the same
time he added one of those propositions for which he is
entitled to the gratitude of every man who thinks upon this
subject and who wishes to settle it. The right hon. baronet
proposed that where church•rates had not been levied for
five years there it should be declared in Parliament that
they should cease in future. I think he also proposed that
where they were not levied in prospective for two years,
they should not in future be imposed. Both these proposi-
tions were and are open to the objections which I have
urged, and I will not repeat them now. But the right hon.
baronet added to these proposals ono of his own—viz., that
you might, by repealing the mortmain law, obtain a charge
upon the land as a permanent charge, without renewing it
from year toyear, and so exposing yourself to these annual
contests. That, I think, was the effect of the right hon.
baronet's proposition.
Sir G. GREY—A power was given voluntarily to make
a charge upon the property to a limited amount.
Mr. WALPOLE—I am quite aware of that, but in
stating this I was wishing to pay a compliment to the right
hon. baronet—(a slight laugh)--and to give him the credit
of that which will constitute a part of the measure which I
am going to ask leave to introduce. Ido not desire to take
any credit for any part of this measure which does not be-
long to the Government or to myself. It is the duty of the
Government to examine the propositions which have been

made to Parliament, to see which are unreasonable and
which are reasonable, to distinguish between the two, and to
give the credit, as I most cheerfully do, to those who were
the first to originate them. (Hear, hear.) I have now, sir,
gone through all the propositions which have been made to
Parliament on this subject excepting one. That was the
proposition made by my hon. friend the member for Hert-
fordshire (Mr. Puller). Those who were in the house last
year will not fail to remember the powerful, argumentative,
and convincing speech which he then made against the ab-
solute abolition of church-rates. I wish he had been more
fortunate in the substitute which he proposed. To that
substitute, unfortunately, I could not then, nor can I now

agree. He proposed to the house that you should pu
upon the land of the country one charge, equal in amount
upon all, which would raise the rates necessary to provide
for the sustentation of the fabric. The objection to that
plan was this—and it is similar to the objections to many
plans which have been sent to me—plans for putting church-
rates upon the county-rates and making them part of it—
plans for putting them upon the poor-rate and making
them part of it ;—the objection to that plan was this,—
that by it you would transfer a charge which has
always rested upon property in certain amounts and
in certain proportions to other property which
was not necessarily subject to ghat charge, and so would
impose a compulsory obligation to pay the rate upon land
which might previously not have been liable for it to that
amount. Now, Sir, I have gone through these propositions
for these purposes—first, to eliminate from them those plans
which I am sure hon. members neither will, nor, according
to the reasons which I have urged, ought to agree to ; and,
secondly, to bring them to the only practicable and reason-
able solution of the question. I think the result of that
examination may fairly be described as follows :—ln the
first place, we shall agree to reject all plans which would
transfer the charge from the property now liable to it to
any property which is not liable to it at present. (Hear,
hear.) In the second place, we shall agree to reject the
plans which would attempt to throw the charge upon the
public taxation of the country—(hear, hear)—because it
would be acting contrary to that principle which now seems
to be generally recognised—that we should not impose on
the public taxation the burden of paying for any specific
religious obligation or duty. (Hear, hear.) In the third
place, I hope that we shall all, or at least most of us, agree
in rejecting any plan which would attempt to transfer from
the landed gentry of the country to the revenues of the
Church a charge which that gentry have always paid, and
I believe would willingly pay—(hear)—rather than dry up
those resources still left to the Church, by means of which
she may provide for the spiritual wants of the people, and
which at this moment are not more than sufficient, or any-
thing like sufficient, to meet those wants to the full extent
which is required. In the fourth place, we shall reject all
plans which, like those proposed by Sir W. Clay—and, by
the way, I have omitted to mention the propositions which
he made to the house—attempt to substitute for this legal
obligation a payment by means of pew-rents. Of all the
plans ever yet devised, that is the most objectionable.
(Cheers.) If an established church means anything, in
every town, in every parish, in every hamlet in the
kingdom it ought to be free and open to all. (Hear,
hear.) The church-rate is that part of your establish-
ment, taken in connexion with another part of the sys-
tem—viz., the payment of tithes, which has hitherto fur-
nished to every poor man in this country who wishes to re-
ceive them the blessings and ordinances of religion ; and
whoever may again propose the plan of substituting pew-
rents for this rate, I hope it will meet with the condemna-
tion which I see by your cheers it now receives, and that
Parliament will never listen to or dream of such a thing.
(Cheers.) In the fifth place, we must exclude one other
plan—that is, a plan which would declare that church-
rates were to be abolished as the result of a successful agi-
tation. We are attempting to settle the question peacefully;
but if you leave the elements of strife and disorder—if you
cannot make a pacific settlement, and if you attempt to make
an arrangement which is only to increase the agitation and
strife, infinitely better would it be for you to allow things
to
with such
nearly neexhausted as they are than to attempt such a settlement
prospects.
every (Hear,
plu
whichn hear.)
can
übe believe we e have
considered.
vo we
which yet remain. There not, however, quite exhausted them ; there are two
have
'GT.huere is the proposition of the right
hon. baronet
mortmain laws, and, I wilii7)e-d-that, by the repeal of the
refer, theresom some
unfortunate
endeavour to aid voluntarywsueppshortoulodf
the fabric ; and, notwithstanding
contributions cl, by oth other means, mteoanthe
cir-
cumstances to which I shall
means of completing this plan by giving relief to think,awho
are no longer of the established religion, without those
offending
them, and I hope without injuring the Church. It is
these two bases that the Government intend to rest upon
their
propositions. In the first place, then, we
Propose that
power should be given to the owners of land, notwithsta nd-
standing the mortmain laws, to charge their lands with the
amount of church-rates which those lands have paid within
a period specified in the bill. In the second place we pro-
pose, since church-rates are a charge which has existed
that those who have
upon property from time immemorial,
limited estates in their lands should have power to make
that perpetual which is now annual ; in other words, we
propose to give a power of charging their lands not merely
to owners of fee, but to tenants for life. In the third place,
upon
we propose, in order that the charges thus imposed
property should not be wasted, to make the inoumbent and
churchwardens in every parish a corporation for this
purpose, with perpetual succession. In the fourth place
we propose to aid Woo rent-charges by encouraging
voluntary enbscriptions and benefactions. In the
next place we propose, net merely that tb,est3 subscriPti°lls
and benefactions may, at the will of the 4040 r, be kept as
a fend im 44d. of the charges for the snstentatiO4 9f 010