TOPICS OF THE DAY.
* REPEAL, OF CHURCH-RATES—NEW CHURCHES.
IF the Government seriously contemplate a reform of the abuses which are allowed on alr• hands to exist in the English Church . Establishment, it is high time that they should set about it. The events of the last fortnight prove that it can no longer be delayed with safety. A most formidable, because peaceable, legal, and successful opposition to the payment of Church-rates, has been got up in various parts of the country. We called the attention of our readers in October last to the refusal of the Birmingham Dis- senters to submit to any fresh assessments for the purpose of repair- ing churches. We then advised the Dissenters to wait with patience for the report of the Commissioners, who at that time were supposed to be engaged in making inquiries and maturing plans for the re- moval of these grievances, which were peculiarly annoying to them. What the Commissioners have been doing during the last six months, we know not; but we believe that no tangible evidence of the benefit expected to be derived from their,labours has yet been made public. In the mean while, the spirit of resistance to the Church has spread far and wide. Last week, the rate-payers of the parish of Manchester, a parish containing 240,000 inhabitants (the very existence of which as a single parish, by the by, proves the necessity of some alteration in the internal constitution of the Church), have refused to submit to the insignificant assessment of a halfpenny in the pound to defray the expense of repairing the church, churchyard, and for other ecclesiastical purposes, for the ensuing year. During the same week, at the other end of the island, a similar scene has been acted. The Maidstone Gazette contains an account of a vestry meeting in the old church at Chatham, at which an assessment of fourpence in the pound was proposed, and rejected by a large majority. In the North, Middle, and South of England, then, the Church-rates have been refused ; and unless the members of the Establishment choose to submit to the same hardship which the Dissenters endure,—namely, that of repairing their own places of worship,—they must expect them to tumble to the ground. The Globe, in commenting upon the Manchester proceedings, admits that an alteration in the mode of defraying those charges for which Church-rates have hitherto been levied, is very desira- ble; but says, at the same time, that any arrangement that would relieve the Dissenters from the payment of their share of the bur- den which they have shown so spirited a determination to shake off, would in fact be a premium on dissent. What then would the Globe propose to be done in this dilemma? The Dissenters re- fuse to pay any more rates ; and will be relieved from this forced contribution to the support of other people's religion, in all those places where they form a majority themselves, or where they are able to form one by a junction with that numerous class of Church- men, who, as far as the payment of money to the Establishment is concerned, are most zealous and sincere Dissenters. It will not do to allow sectarians to escape scot-free in one part of the island, and to tax them in another, because they are too weak in numbers to resist what will then appear to be intolerable oppres- sion. In one way or another, we think it is clear that the direct payment of Church-rates will soon cease : but that an effort will be made to tax the country at large indirectly for the same pur- pose, is more than probable. This, however, would be a dangerous, though perhaps, for the present, a practicable mode of proceeding. The trickery of it would be seen through speedily ; the Dissenters would consider themselves duped as well as oppressed; and should the time arrive when the power to- oppress should change hands, the bad consequences to the Church would not be mitigated by the recollection that she had played an unfair game. In whatever light we view this subject, it assumes a dark ap- pearance as regards the Establishment.- The Dissenters are now so wealthy, numerous, and keensighted, that to preserve the ex- isting connexion between Church and State, will not, we appre- hend, be practicable much longer. We trust that it will be dis- solved without violence. When, like other works of mortal hands, the Church Establishment of England has accomplished its course, it should prepare to fall with dignity. But we fear, that they to whom its guidance in these perilous times is committed, are not sufficiently aware of the dangers which environ it, and are by no means acquainted with the most likely way to escape from them. For, while the Dis- senters are coalescing with disaffected or poverty-stricken Church- men to get rid of supporting the chinches which now exist, the efforts of the Bishops seem directed to increase their number, and thereby augment the weight of the impost which is complained of. In the very same week that the Manchester and Chatham rate- payers turned restive on the hands of their respective church- wardens, a meeting was held of the " Society for Building Churches," which was attended by the Primate and ten Bishops. The following extract from an account of its proceedings is taken from the Times. " The report observed,:that the operations of the Society were going on in a manner the most satisfactory to its friends and supporters. In the last year, 58 new grants had been made, and additions had been also granted in 15 cases to sums previously voted. The Committee had voted, during the last year, 9,260/. ; and with that aid 14,643 additional sittings had been secured? 11,021 of which were free and unappropriated. Since the origin of the Society, the
number of places lrnefited by its assistance falls little short of 1,000. It has contributed to the building of 22 additional churches and 98 chapels ; to the
rebuilding of 94 churches and 55 chapels, with enlargement ; and in a much greater number of cases to the increase of accommodation by extension of struc- ture and better arrangement of the pews. By grants of 157,920/. the ntinar of 239,867 additional sittings have been procured, of which 179,822 are free.'
These operations, so satisfactory to the friends and supporters of the Society, are gall and wormwood to the more ardent spirits among the Dissenters, who consider every new church and chapel as a fresh means of emptying their pockets, and an additional engine of injustice. We might ask the Bishop of LONDON, who has the reputation of being a shrewd man of the world, what in the name of com- mon sense is the use of building new churches, when the people declare that they will no longer keep the old ones in "tenant- able repair?"
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