The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-10-31 00:00:00

VESTRIES AND CHURCH-RATES.

TIIE Edinburgh Review, which has just been
published, contains an ably-written article on the

above subject, stating the arguments on both sides
with much fairness, and making suggestions for al-
terations; but at the same time the position assumed

by the writer is open to animadversion. The pro-
posal of granting exemption from the payment of

Church-rates to every man who declared himself to
be a Nonconformist, was opposed on the ground
that it would be insulting Dissenters by ticketing
them like railway parcels. This the writer stigma-
tises as absurd, because all of us are registered in
different ways from birth to burial, and says, the
mode of opposition distinctly shows that the object
of the party is not to relieve the Dissenters from an
impost, but to rob the Church of a revenue. He
contends that the reform proposed, of the registra-
tion of Dissenters, would not be dangerous to the
Church, but yet it would be wise to abandon it,
because an outcry has been got up against it. The
writer proceeds to state his own plan for the settle-
ment of the question, and proposes that the Church
should give up all that portion of the rate which is
applied to " the necessaries of Divine Service,"
limiting the demand to the mere repair of the
fabric. The cost of this, he suggests, should be
ascertained by a surveyor appointed by each county,
who should make an annual estimate, and that the
sum required for the repair, of all the churches in
the county should be included in the county-rate,
but that every dissentient should have the right of
demanding repayment, so as to confine the rate to
Churchmen. He then proceeds to remark upon it

" This reform, in order to make it complete and satisfac-
tory, must be accompanied by others. In the first place,
the obsolete powers of the Ecclesiastical Courts, and their
vexatious methods of procedure, should be done away.
They should be no more permitted to treat a Nonconformist
as a rebellious Churchman, nor to concern themselves in
any way whatever for ' the health of his soul.' Secondly,
the parochial Synods of the Church should no longer be
rendered useless by the intrusion of Dissenters. This
latter change is elosely connected with the former ; and
gross injustice constantly results from the present law.
For example : when the Church party in a parish, for the
sake of peace, give up the attempt to enforce a rate, and
maintain their church by their own voluntary offerings,
the management of the funds which they have raised is
sometimes transferred to their opponents. `They are
liable' (in the words of Mr. Gladstone) `to have the appli-
cation of their money taken . out of their hands by the
men who had the week before voted against the rate.'
Another example, still more flagrant, is of no unusual
occurrence in the present day : a church is built in some
large town by zealous members of the Establishment. By
their private liberality the fabric rises in all the loveliness
of mdeixval architecture ; breaking the dull and vulgar
line of our commercial streets with belfry and buttress,
gabled porch and mullioned window. Within its walls,
the like harmonious richness is given to the service by
the chants and anthems of cathedral music. If now the
founders turn their edifice into a commercial speculation ;
if they divide the area into pews, and share the pew rents
among themselves ; they will at once have the pleasure of
a service according to their mind and the profit of a lucra-
tive partnership. No law forbids them to make this gain
of godliness; and such a practice is not uncommon in the
builders of proprietary chapels, whether Churchmen or
Dissenters. But if scorning this sordid aim, they are
anxious for the spiritual good of the population which sur-
rounds !their new-built church ; if, accordingly, they

attach to it .a parochial district, and make the clergyman
not their own hired servant, but a parish minister; then
they at once reign the control of their work to a miscel-
laneous multitude: It is true that no rates can be levied
for the church thus gratuitously bestowed on the parish-
ioners.; .5D _that _no inhabiter` """n'hil