THE LAST VOTE ON CHURCH RATES.
Tin bill for the abolition of church rates has passed its second reading, and is rather further than ever from becoming law. So long as the question was not brought to the test, the opponents of the rate obtained all the advantage of vague numbers and uncertain strength. The Nonconformists, how- ever, have put out their utmost energy, and have been aided by large sections of Liberals who care nothing about the rate, yet, under these favourable circumstances, their majority in a House of 517 was only fifteen. The House of Lords cannot be coerced by a majority of fifteen, and without coercion the Lords will undoubtedly throw out Sir J. Trelawny's BilL The agitators promise that the question shall be made the test point of future elections ; but the first analysis of the borough votes at their command will teach them the impolicy of a proceeding which would throw the whole strength of the Evangelical party on the Conservative side. The Liberals cannot sustain such a loss, and the result of the vote must therefore be a compromise. The great majority of the Church electors, and a large minority of the ablest Dissenters, are determined, while abolishing church rates, to maintain the church buildings. None but infuriated partisans want the scene at Braintree—a church out at windows, with crumbling walls and unrepaired roof—repeated in every . country parish. An amendment intended to preserve the churches will come down from the Lords, and if Sir John Trelawny is wise he will accept it, and not, by protracting the contest, rouse the most dangerous of English influences, the combined strength of the country clergy.
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