The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-05-02 00:00:00

THE POLL FOR A CHURCH-RATE.

THE manner in which the poll for a Church-rate
was permitted to be concluded betokens an apathy,
on the part of the Churchmen of Liverpool, for
which it is difficult to account upon any recognised
principles. In every large community there are
many who, true to their animal instincts, hold
pecuniary considerations above all others, and
would have neither Divine worship nor instruction
of the young, nor anything that did not contri-
bute to money-making, so long as they could save
paying for it themselves ; and, therefore, it is not
at all surprising that many voted against even a
three-farthing rate because it was to be devoted to
maintain the decencies of public worship. It is,
however, to be lamented that in Liverpool, which
has been justly renowned for its zeal in behalf of
the Christian religion according to the reformed
faith, and the piety and munificence of many of its
inhabitants, such individuals as those to whom we
have referred should be allowed to be successful
in their opposition to so small a rate for so
obviously necessary a purpose as that which has
just been rejected. It was giving an opportunity
to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, and
affixing a stigma on the reputation of the town
which we fear will be indelible. As for the flimsy
pretext of conscientious scruples, that has already
been proved by the highest authority to be utterly
worthless, and on no other ground could the
slightest justification be raised for the adverse
votes, except a total disregard for the celebration
of Divine worship. The rate, however, ought to
'have been supported not only by every Church-
man, but also by every parishioner who considers
the religious instruction of the poor to be the
positive duty of all who have the means, and the
more so that the payment of the rate has never
been enforced upon those who could fairly raise the
plea of inability.
We much fear that this decision is only one
among the many proofs of the baleful effects
arising from Liberalism in religion as well as in
politics which has been gaining ground in this
country for some years past. There was a time,
ere England's griefs began, when humility was
practically, as well as theoretically, one of the
graces of the Christian character—when men were
content with the teaching of the Divine word, and
presumed not to question the authority of inspira-
tion—when the Church was attended for the
worship of the ALMIGHTY, and not to criticise the
merits of the individual preacher—and when the
refusal of a rate for the necessary expenses
incurred in the celebration of Divine Service
would have been deemed an offence little short of
high treason. All this, however, appears to have
been altered, and we are hastening to that state
which was one of the crying sins of the ancient
Jews, when every man did that which was right
in his own eyes. There is, moreover, another
reason why this rate ought not to have been
refused. Among all the rates and taxes to which
we are called upon to contribute, both for national
and local purposes, a Church-rate—improperly so
called, for it is in-reality a parochial rate, realising
the long-cherished notion of local government—is
the only one which directly depends upon the vote
of the ratepayer ; and, therefore, it shows a want
of grace to refuse to grant at all that contribution,
over the levy and expenditure of which we have a
direct control. It is a practical admission that we
are incapable of self-government, and demonstrates
forcibly that, if the raising of revenue for any pur-
pose were to depend upon the will of those who had
to pay it, nothing at all would be granted. We
feel ashamed of our fellow-townsmen, at least of
those who did not vote for the rate, because they
have lost in self-respect as well as in the good
opinion of others ; and we may be allowed to hope
that the earliest opportunity will be taken to
I retrieve the error, so that Liverpool may be
restored to her high character of being the first
community in the empire for religion as for
commerce.