16 NOVEMBER 1861, Page 9

MR. DISRAELI ON THE CHURCH.

MR. Disraeli has a happy art of laying his finger exactly on the real danger in a critical case. Very truly does he remark of the Essayists and Reviewers, and bitterly must the observation have frequently come home to himself: "The evil is not so much that they have created a distrust in things; that might be removed by superior argument and superior learning. The evil is that they have created a dis- trust in persons, and that is a sentiment which, once engen- dered, is not easily removed even by reason and erudition." The able Tory leader will excuse us for observing that no politician in this country emulates so successfully the Es- sayists and Reviewers in this respect as himself. We do not say that be violates any "engagements" with his party or his country such as those for which clergymen are respon- sible, but be is always going out of his way to produce im- pressions on the public mind which no one who knows his unfettered writings will be likely to believe true transcripts of his own thoughts. In this speech at Aylesbury, he chal- lenges the attention of the country to his private convictions concerning Essays and Reviews, yet very skilfully evades di- rectly giving that conviction, while certainly insinuating one that is likely to be palatable enough to churchmen if they could but believe that Mr. Disraeli really holds it. " Perhaps it may not be altogether unsuitable," be Bays, " that a layman should make a remark on this subject, and that the brunt of comment should not always be borne by clergymen." Surely nothing could be more suitable. Surely, on private occasions such as these, nothing is more welcome to the country than to know our greater statesmen's own deeper convictions. If they are very High Church, like Mr. Gladstone's, we know how to estimate. the difficulties of the position of the states- man who holds them while connecting with them thoroughly liberal political opinions. If they are naturalistic, like Lord Palmerston's rather bald Pelagian views of infantine inno- cence, we feel clearer as to the true interpretation to be put on the selection of the Palmerston bishops. Nothing is more natural and proper than that our statesmen, at appro- priate times, should give us their own deeper faith. Why, then, does Mr. Disraeli simply insinuate his ? These are the kind of speeches which shake faith in persons while labouring to inspire it. After a humorous and perhaps not very exaggerated account of the progressive changes in Ger- man theology,—the source to which Mr. Disraeli rather hastily and perhaps falsely ascribes the scepticism of Essays and Reviews,—be concludes : "That, I believe, is a literally accurate sketch of the various phases through which the intellect of Germany has passed during the last century. Well, I ask, what has the Church to fear from specu- lations so over-reaching, so capricious, and so self-destructive P And why is society to be agitated by a volume which is at the best a second-hand medley of these contradictory and discordant theories P No religions creed was ever destroyed by a philosophical theory (cheers); philosophers destroy themselves. laugh.)' Now this does no doubt echo Mr. Mansel's philosophical scepticism, but it skilfully avoids the issue of religious belief. And throughout his speech, while glorifying the Church of England, Mr. Disraeli carefully avoids any direct assertion that her theology is his own. We have dwelt thus long on Mr. Disraeli's personal treat- ment of the Church theology, because we believe it to be the true political key to his speech. He desires to inspire confidence in a " person" rather than a " thing," not in a theology directly, but in himself, on the ground that he agrees with that theology. He appeals to the clergy to guard the Church. And he tries to inspire the clergy with the conviction that he is the leader to represent them. We believe, that could Mr. Disraeli succeed in this quest of per- sonal confidence, he might become the organ of a very great country movement. But he will fail, and his mode of deal- ing with the Church-rate question betrays sufficiently his own fear that he may fail. He wishes to see it decided by the present Government, before his own party make any push for power. The whole drift of his speech appears to us this: The Wednesday victories of last Session show both that in home affairs Church questions are still in the ascendant, and that in dealing with such affairs the Tory party is preferred. He sees his way to a really solid " plat- form" of Conservative resistance to innovations if once the perplexing Church-rate question were laid at rest; but he does not wish that a Tory Administration should incur the responsibility and odium of proposing any concessions to Dissenters in a Church matter. He endeavours, therefore, to elicit a moderate measure from the Whig Government, by promising it the sanction of the Tory party if not too radical, in order that his ground might be clear for a purely Conservative Church policy afterwards. The Liberals, he sees, can be defeated on all minor questions, on marriage law and revision of the Liturgy, simplification of the Articles, and so forth ; but the Church-rate question cannot, he knows, be indefinitely postponed. While endeavouring, therefore, to rouse all the ecclesiastical and orthodox enthusiasm in the country for the Conservatives, he would gladly see the Whigs take the odium and responsibility of the one needful reform before he ejects them. We earnestly trust they may. We wish as heartily as Mr. Disraeli to see this disgraceful bickering between Churchmen and Dissenters at an end without any surrender of the really national basis of the National Church ; and we should have confidence in any measure proposed by the present Government, as embodying an honest desire to re- move all the grievances which still rankle in the hearts of Dissenters, without forfeiting the right of the whole nation to the National Church. We know, and Mr. Disraeli knows, that no measure, however wise, introduced by the Wings, will increase their popularity in the country. For the hotter Dissenters of the boroughs it cannot go far enough ; while it will excite 'very strongly the impatience of all the more Con- servative country Liberals to see the rights of the Church In any way tampered with—as they will think it. But still we should be glad to see the present Government dealing frankly with a question which it is cowardice to evade, and the unpopularity of solving which will not long outlive the Session in which it is achieved. Nor are we sure that the recent extreme Conservative reaction on Church matters will very long survive the settlement of the irritating problem which has thus strained and excited the ecclesiastical nerves.

One word more. Mr. Disraeli, while recognizing in the broadest way the large margin allowed to honest " differences in the Church," is evidently and unscrupulously anxious to take up the ground of refusing all simplification of the pre. sent tbsts to clergymen. For the present this is thoroughly sagacious Conservative policy. The true lesson of Essays and Reviews has been missed by the country. People are dis- posed to exact new guarantees of conviction instead of sim- plifying the old ones. We hope no true liberal will take so blind a course. It is because we are thoroughly alarmed at the amount of intellectual and moral juggling which this movement has revealed, that we would lighten the burden on men's consciences. It is the complexity of a pledge which offers the temptation to explain a part away. Men will reason that "as no one man literally bolds all these propo- sitions, each must be the judge in his own case of the amount of agreement actually required." The result is disastrous enough, and the only remedy is to simplify the profession of faith so far that thousands may honestly and entirely assent. If the use of a liturgical form be really not sufficient guarantee to honourable men, why should not one of the simpler creeds—say the Nicene—take the place of all these metaphysical temptations to conscious insincerity ?