The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-06-27 00:00:00

ABOLITION OF CHURCH-RATES.

On the,order for the selkond reading of the Church-rates
_ _

'.3lr.'Pntria.Tr and Mr. MURROUGH spoke in support of
the bill, urging the obnoxious and oppressive character of
the rate as a compulsory tax.
Mr. Gomm:Tux expressed his astonishment that leave
should have' been given for the introduction of a bill which
he regarded ,AS unjust in principle, and as inconsistent
with political wisdom as with Christian ,=charity. This
bill was avowedly a step towards the separation of the
State from the. Church. It was a bungling mode of legis-
lation, to evade the difficulties in the way of an amend-
ment of the law by abolishing the rate altogether. He
moved to.defer• the second reading for six months.
Mr. H. T..DIDDELL seconded the amendment. He
could not agree with the argument used on alormer occa-
sion by Lord Stanley, that as church-rates were -rapidly
repealing themselves, it was high tune for parliament to
provide for their abolition. It might be true• that many
of the large towns::in the kingdom had refused these rates,
but was •it not also true that they were still voluntarily
and cheerfully paid in thousands of countv parishes
The ease of Liverpool, where a church-rate had lately been
refused,. had: been very much relied on, but the cireum-
stances -attending that refusal very much weakened the
force of the argument which members opposite strove to
deduce from it, for they showed that, though it certainly
indicated great indifference on the part of the Churchmen
in that town,, it did not indicate any such great-change of
mind in the inhabitant:: on the subject as would .at first
sight appear. The pakish of Liverpool, before it ;had
attained to its present; populous state, had originally beea
a township in the parish of Walton. Afterwards, how-
ever, as thetown increased two rectors were appointed for
it, and proviaion was made eor their stipend by a parochial
rate, which was secured •by various statutes. According
to the arrangement, Awo:rat<es ought, therefore, to have
been collected in Liverpool—one for the stipend of the
rectors, and the other the ordinary church-rate for the
maintenance and .repair of the parochial churches. Both
these rates, however, for convenience sake had been edl-
lected in (ma roka4 ,but .last your, when a occund anti, was
proposed for the -purpose of liquidating an arrear of £3,000,
caused by the purchase of a new cemetery—not for the
benefit of Churchmen only, it must be remembered, but
for the whole town—the opponents of church-rates took
advantage of this advanced demand, and being an active
and well-organised party, they succeeded in persuading the
parishioners to reject the rate. He believed this success of
theirs would only be temporary, and that next year a very
different result would be witnessed there. So far the result
of this rejection of a church-rate had been very much to
awaken the good feelings and energies of churchmen in
that town. (Cheers from the supporters ,of the bill.) He
believed he expressed the sense of the House and the
,eountry when he said that this question required some
:adjustment. He would trust Lord J. Russell to under-
take that adjustment, because he believed that he was
impressed as much as any man with a conviction that it
was necessary to maintain the established Church, which
ever since the Reformation had been the mainstay of the
religious feelings and institutions of the .country. He
believed, if the national Church were dissevered been the
State, there would ensue jealousies. and struggles for pre-
eminence among the different sects which would be most
dangerous to the interests of true religion ; and, believing
this bill to be one step towards that disseverance, lie most
cordially supported the amendment.
The CHANCELLOR of the ExcnEguEa admitted that
there was a wrong in this matter, which ought not to be
left without a remedy. He agreed that the case for a
change of the law of church-rate was irresistible, and, not-
withstanding the difficulties of the subject, the govern-
ment would encounter them, and endeavour to make an
equitable and fair arrangement. In any case, one thing
was indispensable,—that, if in all or any parishes church-
rates were to be abolished, the measure should not stop
there, for the'ehureh would then be left in a condition of
nominal equality, but of practical inequality ; and it would
be most unjust not to allow the ratepayers to take into
their own hands the management of their own funds.
Mr. BRIGUT professed that be was puzzled to know to
which side of the question Mr. Gladstone intended to
address his arguments. He should vote for the bill, and
should do so if his opinion respecting a church establish-
ment had been different from what it was, it being acknow-
ledged that the law was bad and unworkable. If the rates
were abolished, the paralyzing influence of old customs
would be removed, and a better principle substituted ;
religion would acquire a fresh impulse, and sects and
churches live in harmony.
Lord J. RUSSELL defended the opinions he had expressed
regarding this bill, and insisted that the whole tenor of
the debate confirmed his argument, that the unconditional
repeal of church-rates was designed to forward the views
of the enemies of the Established Church. He denied
that he had used the word " compensation " in the former
debate ; what be then said and now repeated was, that, in
abolishing church-rates, some provision should be made
for maintaining the fabrics of churches erected by our
ancestors as places of worship for the whole people. The
Dissenters of former days, so far from complaining of
church-rates or of the Established Church; considered
that church as a bulwark of Protestantism, and desired
its maintenance. The quarrel of the last quarter of a
century was not with regard to the ancient parochial
churches, nor to the law of church-rates, but, as to the
remedy. To abolish these rates altogether would, he
thought, be inconsistent with the principle of a church
establishment, and a hardship upon those who used the
parish churches. Whatever plan was adopted for the
amendment of the law, one principle ought to be adhered
tot namely, that the eburch should retain the right of