The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-20 00:00:00

LOYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
Lessee and Manatrer, Mr. A. Harris.
THIS EVENING, TRUTH AND FICTION. Supported by
Messrs. F. Matthews,Widdicombe, Shore, Cathcart, Garden;
Miss C. Leclercq, Miss R. Leclercq, and miss M. Harris.
Followed by THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
Messrs. Phelps, "V(l2iLl, Widdicombe, are.

NENV THEATRE-ROYAL, ADELPHL-
Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. B. Webster.
Reproduction of "The Colleen Baron. " The Adelphi
"Census " every Evening,.
THIS EVENING, the successful new Farce, entitled A
TURKISH BATH. Mr. J. L. Toole, Mr. P. Bedford.
Alter which (211th time), THE COLLEEN BAWN. Mr.
D. Roucleault, D. Fisher, Billing-ton, Falconer, Stephenson,
C. J. Smith, Romer, Howard, Ward ; Mrs. Boncicault, Miss
Woolgar, Mrs. Billington, and Mrs. Chattcrley.
To be foll Tole, new apropos Sketch, T ENSUS.
Messrs. J. o 14:burne, Romer, C. J. Smith; Miss
Kate Kelly, Miss E. Thorne, and Mrs. Chatterley.
Doors open at half past 6—Commence at 7.

CIANIERBURY -HALL CONCERTS
AND FINE ARTS GALLERY.
EVERY EVENING,
Two Grand Selections from celebrated Operas, including
Verdi's new Opera, THE BAL MASQUE (first produced
in England at this Establishment), with a Chorus of Forty
Voices, and upon a scale unequalled'at any:other Concerts.
Miss Russell, Miss Ernst, Mr. Greville, Hr. Herbert, Signor
Tivoli, Mr. Bernard; popular Solos on the Cornet-a-piston,
by Mr. Levy (the first performer of the day); the Brothers
Conrad (ia an entirely original entertainment on the double
rope, not to be seen elsewhere); continued success of Mr.
Wood and his talented little Son.
The Comic Department comprises the following favourites:
—Mr. Marshall, Mr. Hollingsworth ; the NERVES, by
Messrs. Harvey and French ; and Mrs. Lawrence.
Musical Director, Mr. JONGHMANS.

CANTERBURY HALL AND FINE ARTS
GALLERY.
TRF. NERVES, a Comic Duet, by Messrs. Harvey and
French, EVERY EVENING.

T H E

O X FOR D,
6, OXFORD-STREET.

Mr. LEVY, undoubtedly the best performer of the day on
the Comet-a-Piston—Grand Selections (on the most complete
scale) from Dinorah, Martha, Stradella, &c., and other vocal
and instrumental music, by Miss Russell, the Misses Stuart,
and Miss Ernst, Messrs. Charles Greville, Fornari, Kimber-
ley, Bernard, Beaumont, Bervon, Hnish, Signor Tivoli, and
Mr. Henry Herbert, with full band and powerful and selected
chorus, conducted by Mr. F. Jonghmans.—The following
Comic talent, Messrs. W. Randall, J. Blanchard, W. H. Wie-
land, Hollingsworth, E. Marshall, Harvey, and French, and
the Brothers Conrad in their latest and best entertainment,
every evening. Admission, Hall, six" pense ; Balcony and
Stalls, one shilling. Private Boxes, 10s.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tare DAY.—Morning, 11h. 36m.—Afternoon, h. m.
To-moußow.-]Morning, 12h. 13m.—Afternoon, 12h. 38m.

THE WEATHER.—Sux OFFICE, JuNE 20, 1861,
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADS.
73...._highest since noon yesterday.'
58—lowest this morning and during the night.
69—this day at noon.
BAROMETER--29.98 ; falling.
WlND—Easterly—light ; with dull rainy weather, and
occasional glimpses of sunshine.
HALF-PAST ONE.—Wind, S.E., with very sultry weather
and hot sunshine. Thermometer, 72 in the shade. Heavy
white clouds, portending a thunderstorm.
QUARTER TO Two.—Very heavy rain and a thunder-
storm, with vivid sheets of lightning.
2.10.—1 t is all sunshine again. The wind has gone to
S.W., and the heavy torrents of rain have washed the
streets of London FO thoroughly that they look as clean as
a man-of-war's quarter-deck.

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THE SUN.

LONDON, THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 1881.

PALEY tells us that one use of our House of
Commons is to furnish the people with amusement,
—be would have been willing to pay all his share
of the public taxes for the pleasure which he re-
ceived from the public discussion of political mat-
ters. The House certainly performed that part of
its duty well last night. The debate, for a topic so
well worn, was far from an uninteresting one, and
we can hardly imagine a man of any party, not
even of that which may be regarded as the losing
me, who was so sour by nature as not to laugh
when he read of TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FOUR'

against TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FOUR,
and of Mr. SPEAKER, thinking it therefore best
for him to give the House an opportunity of trying
its hand at the work again, by giving his vote to
the NOES. The hon. gentleman, carefully explain-
ing that ho did not say no, to the bill, but to the
responsibility of a final decision.
But when we have all had our pleasant laugh,
we can but begin to ask what does it all mean ?
But a year or two ago we had a majority of seventy
or more for the same bill. What is become of it ?
Is it the Tory reaction—the CECIL and
MONTAGU reaction ? Not exactly; rather
the DERBY-Disßani Parliament, and the
CECIL and MONTAGU whip. The truth is that
the last election gave us a Parliament much more
favourable to the Ministers who called it ; and that
the CECILS and MoNTAGUs first whipped Mr.
DisnAELT back to uncompromising Toryism, and
then whipped up the county members and the
clergy. The majority of seventy has hardly
suffered at all by defection, but it has been met by
activity on the other side. Sir JOHN TRELAWNY'S
army is as large as ever, but his opponents have
brought up their reserves. Till the recent
clerical effort began, a large number of
the better Tory members could not be got to
vote Or even to pair. But the Church-rate
question is now made a party one, it is even re-
garded as lying in the road to office, and therefore
clerical importunity, combined with party zeal,
have enabled the Tories to bring up their per-
functory ones, and to balance the scales.
But what is the battle now really for ? Glancing
over the debate it stiikes us, as it must every man
with his eyes open, that the real victory is gained.
May we not say that not a single oppontion
vote last night was a vote for Church-rates—
not a vote for Church-rates as they are,
for Church Rates such as have been at-
tacked so vigorously for the last quarter of a
century. When the battle has brought things to
this that every enemy wants to make terms, the
final triumph cannot be long delayed. The struggle
was really last night, first and chiefly a party one;
next, so far as the subject itself was concerned, a
struggle not to keep the old position, but to be
allowed to retire from it with the honours of war.
The discreditable pretence that the Church of Eng-
land really needed the penny and twopenny rates
was hardly even mentioned on one side; while Mr.
BRIGHT and Sir G. C. Lewis on the other
equally denied that the pence were the cause of
the Anti-Church-Rate agitation. But what
was said was, that the Church of England
could not descend t, the level of a sect, which she
would do if she gave up compulsory powers of
parish txmation ; and in reply, that Nonconformists
were plled, not with the weight of the pecuniary
Yoke, but with its being a Church yoke.
There can be no doubt that this is the pith of the
whole case. It would be sheer hypocrisy for any
member of the Church of England to pretend that
every parish in the kingdom could not, either itself,
or by the aid of wcalthyneighbours,n2ei: t the expenses
of its own worship; but we fear it would be equal
hypocrisy to deny an unconfessed, or hardly con-
fessed, pleasure in iin
posing a tax on Dissenters,
such as the Turkish Mahomedans used to impose
on Chrfstians. The Church-rate is a kind cf
Haratch—atriblitepillpably showing the inferiority
of those 'who pay it. Ever since
, - nee the times of
GRAIL& tiB IL, of pious memory, the pa
T1t.411 dogs

The Bankruptcy Bill we have all of us been look-
ing forward to eagerly this Session as to our
one legislative consolation. If in nothing
else, we have thought, the Session of 1861
would, at any rate, be productive of good
to the entire community, more particularly to the
mercantile community, by securing the readjust-
ment of the hitherto confused and unsatisfactory
laws relating to Bankruptcy and Insolvency. In
the scanty programme for the session vouchsafed,
at its opening, by her MAJESTY'S Ministers, the
Bankruptcy Bill was visible there, from the first at
a glance,conspicuously and encouragingly. Hearten-
ing us to count, at the very least, upon the all but
certainty of securing that boon during this year's
sitting of Parliament, the Attorney-General intro-
duced his measure very speedily after the first as-
sembling of the Lords and Commons down a IV est-
minster. Not only thus, however, did Sir RICHARD
BETHELL lead us to calculate confidently upon
securing the effectual reconsideration and recon-
struction upon an entirely new basis of the jumbled
laws of Bankruptcy and Insolvency—the First Law
Officer of the Crown appeared in a measure to make
" assurance doubly sure," in that particular, by
moderating in that direction his energetic efforts at
legislative improvement. Attempting far less than
he had attempted in the Session of 1860, he seemed
all the more likely, of course, to be able to carry
his point, so far as he attempted to carry it. There
were, consequently, these three considerations dis-
tinctly in his favour—first of all, the considera-
tion that there was really so little to do otherwise

this year in the Legislature—secondly, that the
Bill itself was introduced betimes—and thirdly, and
finally, that it was characterised in itself by the
evidences of great moderation. The future not
unnaturally, therefore, looked propitious enough for
the Bankruptcy Bill at the moment of its original
introduction. And the Commons welcomed the new
bill accordingl.
Witstoeuset,
oannytthheg at a
r ally on t , k
withe
precipitation orycareles
every evidence of careful scrutiny
and deliberate
i nc
r li
premeditation, the Bill was passed on glibly
through its several stages, here and there amended
and modified while going, clause by Clause, through
Committee—until, stamped with the approbation of
the popular branch of the Legislature, it was sent on
for further consideration, and it was hoped for
approbation to the Upper House of Paola,
In furtherent .

The reception awarded to the Bankruptcy
ntocye Be iolfl
in the Lords has long since been matter
anxiety and notoriety. Scarcely had it
seriously
there when it began to be very e
threatened. IL ;?as eventually referred, as we all
know, to a Select Committee. Having been brought
up again (together with a report) from that Select
Committee, the Bill, " ticked" with suggested im-
provements, or at least we will say with suggested
alterations, has at length passed through its
remaining stages in the House of Lords, and is now
referred back by the Lords to the Commons in its
altered condition, as emended in compliance with
the suggestions of the Lords' Select Committee.
Naturally, very naturally, Sir RICHARD BETHELL
has already avowed his excessive annoyance at the
wholesale character of the alterations thus made
by the Lords in his projected consolidation of the

1 'Ezl Y AL, HAYMARKET. have paid tribute to the State Ulemahs, and the
1 0
L,r)iee, tar. J. B. Backstone. I surrender of that tribute, not its paltry amount, is
5: _ i LV the performanoes will commenac with
the Comedy of THE OVERLAND ROUTE. Messrs. Chas. what pro-rate Churchmen really feel. How lcng
Mathews, Backstone, E. Villiers, Rogers, &c.; Mrs. Wilkins,
Mrs. C. Mathews, and Miss E. Weekes. and hardly feudalism fought for the privilege of
Followed by THE ADVENTURES OF A LOVE
LETTER, bar. and Mrs. C. Mathews. freedom from taxation—for the honour of it, not
And THE GALICIAN FETE. for the money. Different only in form is the present
Commence at 7.
contest on the part of Churchmen. They all want a
, compromise, foreseeing that the settlement must
come, bat they want one which shall not diminish
their prestige. They must hare the name of rate—
the parochial forms of levying and collecting it—and
compulsory powers against somebody, even if it be
against Churchmen themselves ; they cannot con-
sent to be placed on a level with ignored outsiders,
to make collections and contributions amongst
themselves only, like Dissenters, Methodists, and
" Pograms," They so love the name of rate that they
would rather pay the same amount under that name,
than as a freewill offering—just as there are tens of
thousands of liberal and well off Dissenters who,
while they resent a Church Bate would readily
give double the sum out of the same neighbourly
feeling which leads different sects of dissenters to
help each other.
But if the desire to maintain the forms of supe-
riority is so strong on the part of churchmen,
equally strong is the feeling of dissenters against
their continuance. Hence the soul of the resistance
to many of the compromises. The exemptions for
Dissenters, which the opposition is willing to con-
cede, are all so contrived as to affirm
superiority on the part of the Church, and
and to affix a stigma on dissent. The Church
is presumed to have a natural or a national right
to tax ; the nonconformist is to be exempt just as a
blind, a lame, an under-aged, or over-aged person
might be exempt from serving in the militia.
Dissenters resent being put in a list of persons let
off from what the laws deal with as a national duty.
If the State, they say, holds it the duty of all per-
sons to support one particular mode of worship, we
do not want to shirk any State duty; but we hold
sacrifice of the mass, or the silent worship of the
the Quaker, or the psalm-singing of the Meeting
House, to be worthy of equal honour from the State
with the Liturgy of the Prayer-Book ; and, as you
will not give a compulsory rate for all, we demand
that the last should not be honoured above the res
of us.

Is is not, however, a great weakness for the
Church of England to be in such terror of the word
—sects It is useless to ignore the fact:that she is
but one sect among many. She is a sect in general
Christendom, for the Roman Catholic Church and
the Greek Church each out-number her. She is a
very modern sect even in these kingdoms. She is,
indeed, but one of several State Churches. In Eng-
land itself she is but the largest sect ; and
were she not held together by law and statute, the
present divisions of High Church and Low Church,
Broad Church, Essayists and Puseyites, would soon
show that the Church itself—that which bears the
general name—is but a number of sects held together
by the golden chain of emolument, and the more
sentimental ties of aristocratic position.
Oar conclusion from the whole is that like the
Paper Duties, be it reasonable or unreasonable, the
Rate must go at last. It may be fought off for a
time ; the hope of a compromise may beguile many
worthy folk till it is seen that every one which can
be proposed does not affect the kernel of the agita-
tion. But Religious equality is the demand at the
bottom, and it must succeed. In England at the
present age nothing can resist it. Men in
daily life, laugh now at the once dreaded
words heretic, excommunication, dissenter ! No man
can look another in the face and tell him, because
I accept the thirty-nine articles and you do not, I
have therefore a right to the policeman's services to
extort money for my worship, while your's must
get on how it can. We regard, therefore, the pre-
sent display of votes for Church-rates as one having
no basis in the intelligence of the day—as a meteor
generated in the stagnant and decaying notions of
a past age, destined only to flash for a moment, and
soon to vanish for ever.