The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-10-04 00:00:00

CHURCH RATES.

We have elsewhere given a report of some proceed-
ings of the church rate-payers of the parish of St. Bo-
tolph Bishopsgate, who have sapiently resolved to be
church rate-payers no longer. The Mister Brownes of
St. Botolph's Bishopgate, or even the vestry of that
enlightened parish, are not personages of any great im-
portance, and their resolutions, upon ordinary occasions,
might be suffered to rest in their own glory about
the purlieus of the said St Botolph's. But this re-
fusal of church-rates has been for the first time openly
proposed and carried by the Dissenters from the Church
as such, and upon the declared ground that, as Dis-
senters, they will not contribute to the support of the
Church. This is, unquestionably, no whit farther re-
moved from rebellion against the laws and government
of the country, than Lord Milton's refusal to pay the
King's taxes; but it is not only equally rebellious and
disloyal, for it is a hundred-fold more formidable and
dangerous, when other meetings and decisions of the
same kind have been held and come to, and it can no
longer be disguised that the dissenting body is acting
under a system of organised attack upon the very exist-
ence of the establishment, as an institution of the State.
It is equally clear to us, that in return for the political
support they are rendering to the Whig faction now in
power, that body is to be supported in its designs by the
Government of the country. Before such a combination
it-were needless to add, that without immediate and vi-
gorous exertion on the part of the friends of the Church,
THE CHURCH MUST FALL!

And in this crisis—with the foundations of the building
absolutely riven, and the lever of its overthrow introdu-
ced—where are the natural friends, the appointed protec-
tors of the establishment ? We profess that to us the'
apathy of the clergy, under the imminent peril with which
that which they preach and we believe to be the pure
church of God is beset, utterly surpasses all our powers
of comprehension.
In that admirable speech of the Archbishop of Canter-
bury, upon the Irish church bill, which will never be for-
gotten, the most reverend prelate complained in calm,
but severe language, of the insult put upon the church
for the first time in its history, by the adoption of a mea-
sure so deeply affecting its interests, without its dignita-
ries having been taken into the councils of the King.—
The complaint will be recorded and referred to in his-
tory—but what did it avail ? Is there any doubt that a
measure of greater violence is contemplated against the
church in England ? Have the heads of the church been
consulted upon it ? If they have not, of what use will be
his Grace's lamentations when the'bill shall bebefore the!
House of Lords, and the existence of that branch of tlie
legislature depending upon its second reading ?
If the heads of the church have a right, according to
the practice of the constitution, to be consulted in the
preparation of measures affecting its interests, it is their
duty to demand of the supreme and sworn protector of
the church—of the King—that that right be observed.—
If they fail in that demand, it is their duty to appeal to
the body of the members of the church, and to suffer no
" folding of the hands to sleep," while the institution is
in danger. Have these, or either of these duties been
performed ? We pause for a reply.—Old England.