TOPICS OF THE DAY.
tHUR011-RATE PLANS; THE TRUE REMEDY.
TH:Enz is nothing like a religious-political question for the development of crotchets. It is a mental guano, restoring vigour to the soil, but with a tendency to make its products rank. There is scarcely a man in England from thinkers to vestrymen who haa_not_a crotchet, which if statesmen would only accept it, would terminate for ever the difficulty of Church rates. A collection from the buttermen of the mere pamphlets %Stied on the subject would be-a formidable acMition to bibliography. Not to mention some sixty speeches, .amendments, projects, and other formal political utteiiinces on the point, there are now no less than four distinct lines of policy offered to the nation, all of which will be earnestly, not to say paisiOnately, debated. It is greatly to the credit of their supporters that they are all possible, all free from that impracticable narrowness of view which is the besetting sin of political divines. Each policy will march, will actually lead to some definite and appreciable end—no -slight gain at a time when half the intellect of theTeountry is- content to criticise in order to shirk the trorible of devising. It is of course vain to discuss the controversy in its purely religious aspect. With those who belt* the abolition of church rates a crime, and those who bola their payment a concession to Belial, argument must be thrown away. But we may with some chance of effect re- view the political aspect of these four plans. The first, and as yet the most important, is the one existing ; under the present interpretation of the law, any parish in whieh-the nonconformists are a majority, can refuse payment of tVe rate. In a country accustomed to yield its convictions to the votes of a majority, no arrangement could seem prima facie' more just. Unfortunately it works ill. It does not meet the-religious difficulty at all, and it leaves the political difficulty only half solved. To men who object on religious groiTuds to a church rate, the vote of a majority is simply a nullity. The votes of all mankind can 110 more make church rates morally right, than they can make the sun go round the- earth. The dissenting Galileos yield to force, but " eppur si muove." The plan moreover, while it involves incessant contests, contests growing always more bitter as the parties become more equal and more devout, provides for-One only-of the two contingencies it permits. If the vicer-wins, the rate is levied, and the service paid for. But if he loses, there is no substitute provided for the rate. The churchman may subscribe, but the end of a bitter contest for-a rate is not a happy moment for the involuntary adop- tion of the voluntary principle. As a matter of fact the churchman does subscribe more or less liberally for the ser- vices, and leaves the building to take care of itself. Some- times a wealthy man " restores" it, a process usually fatal to the -harmony of the worshippers, sonietimes the vicar patches it, and not unfrequently the church takes the matter into its own hands by crumbling down. The evil is not fully felt yet, while the refusal to vote a rate is almost confined to towns, but it would be unbearable were the refusal ex- tended through England, without the legal establishment of the voluntary principle. The second policy is that advocated by Sir John Trelawny and the Times, the total and immediate repeal of the laws which authorize the levy of a rate. That policy, so far as it is supported on religious grounds, is at once intelligible and consistent. All consciences would be relieved. All occasion for parochial strife would cease. All England, willingly or unwillingly, would be compelled to adopt the voluntary prin- ciple. But how men who are politicians only, and who are not prepared to give up a State Church, can consent to support total and immediate repeal, is not so easy to understand. If it is wrong to pay for the maintenance of a church, it cannot be right to pay for the minister who °Mates in that church. What objection can a man urge to rates which he cannot urge still more forcibly against tithes ? If it be argued that the tithes have become in some sense property, we may answer so have the rates. If the patron expects that his nominee shall enjoy a certain payment from the landowners, he expects also that his church shall be made habitable by a payment from the parishioners at large. As a matter of fact, the abolition of church rates will entail on the clergy the necessity of outlays, which will perceptibly diminish the value of church property. If there is a vested right in the one case, there is a vested right in the other, and their com- parative extent has nothing to do with the matter. People are not allowed to steal slices of bacon any more than bacon flitches. It may be said that the nature of the English mind renders logic innocuous in politics. Quakers usually pay tithes in coin, though they think it conscientious to pay rates in spoons. Still, principles are apt to permeate, particularly when their application involves a reduction of the taxes, and to give up the right of the State to maintain religious buildings, is to give up the right to pay a religious Order. The State may continue to do it by force, or through reasons of expediency, but the principle has perished. Mr. Beresford Hope and the Bishop of Exeter, whose plans are the third and fourth before the public, are more logical than those who, without accepting the religious argu- ment, would still abolish the rates ; but they both offer im- practicable suggestions. The bishop would still levy the rate for the maintenance of the buildings, but leave the con- gregation to provide the current expenditure for the service. The suggestion is curiously characteristic, retaining as it does the maximum of strife for the minimum of advantage. Dr. Philpots would like nothing better than a yearly fight for the security of the church roof, enjoy nothing more than the necessity of proving that cleristories were especially in accordance with the Gospel. But quiet men, even if, like the bishop, they have lost the last faint idea that Christianity means peace on earth, may still object, in mere worldly pru- dence, to an annual contest, dividing every household on an architect's bill for repairs. There is quite enough chatter about ecclesiastical architecture now, without making it the sole subject of vestry meetings. If we are to have the rate, let it at least bring something to compensate for the nui- sance of quarrelling with one's neighbours. The British churchman will bear much, but to pay a church rate on Sa- turday, and be preached at on Sunday for more funds, may be too much even for his tried resignation. Mr. Beresford Hope wants the rate maintained on churchmen only, a plan to which there is one patent objection : it can't be done. Neither churchmen nor dissenters are ashamed of their creed ; but neither will consent to a harateb, or poll-tax based on difference of creed. The exemption, so far from beinggicceptable, would be resented as an insult. The mere proposal to inquire into men's creeds once in ten years half upset a ministry, yet it is hoped that a law authorizing the inquiry every year will not only be passed but popular. Nor can we deem that man wise who, wishing to maintain the Church of England, subjects that Church to an exceptional and invidious taxation. Doubtless, Mr. Beresford Hope would rush to the collector and pay his rates as for a privilege. But the small Church shopkeeper, struggling to exist in the face of the competition of the dissenting deacon opposite, would be very apt to regard special taxation as a punishment for the sin of churchmanship. The ultimate compromise, we feel convinced, must be based on some such principle as this : the immediate and total abolition of the church rate, and the transfer of the churches to the care of the Board of Works. Let them be repaired, as post-offices and palaces are repaired, as state buildings, at the charge of the State. The annual strife, the permanent bitterness which springs from a religious squabble for a tax will then be at an end, and with the pressure on individuals the agitation will die out. The sternest of reformers will scarcely raise a national ferment against a minute charge in the estimates paid out of taxes the total bulk of which will not be perceptibly enlarged. The service fees can be paid for by the congregation, or, if that be objectionable, by an infinitesimal rent for pews. Nor can a Nonconformist, really true to his principles, object to the State maintenance of State buildings. If in earnest, be believes that his denomination will one day be universal and supreme. In that case he may claim the right, as he will assuredly exercise the power, to occupy at once the buildings so carefully preserved for his reversion.
Previous page
