THE CEYLON CHAPLAINCIES.
Irdebate the Ceylon Chaplaincies, which occupied a partte of Tuesday evening, is interesting rather from its relation to the general theory of religious establishments, than from its practical moment. When Mr. McArthur asked the House of Commons to declare that the payment of annual subsidies to the Anglican and Presbyterian Churches out of a revenue mainly contributed by Buddhists, Hindoos, or Mahom- medans, "inflicts great injustice and occasions serious discon- tent," he plainly went beyond the strict facts of the case. The present ecclesiastical arrangements in Ceylon do inflict some small injustice, and they occasion a trifling discontent. There is nothing to show that anything more than this can be maintained with truth. Buddhists and Mahommedans do not like being taxed for the support of religions which they do not believe any more than English Dissenters. They are so taxed in Ceylon, and they would naturally like to see the burden removed. But then,the burden is very small, amounting, Mr. Lowther says, to about a farthing ahead; and as the Liberation Society has not yet begun active work among the Cingalese, they are seldom acute enough to distinguish between this particular halfpenny and
the others which the Government extracts from them. It would have been difficult to have called up much enthusiasm in their behalf, even if Mr. McArthur's proposal had been intro- duced as a Government Bill, and this difficulty is not lessened by the circumstance that while the Conservatives are in office there is net the remotest chance of these payments being dis- continued.
Neither side can be complimented on their management of the discussion on Tuesday. Mr. McArthur made a wholly unnecessary and inappropriate attack upon Bishop Coplestone, described his attempt to make Episcopal clergymen subject to Episcopal authority as an arrogant pretension, and ended by saying that during the short time the Bishop had been in the island "he had done more to degrade the English creed in the eyes of the Natives than the lifelong labours of the inoffensive pastors he persecuted had done to render it honourable." In that case, the lifelong labours of the pastors must have been as inoffensive as their characters.
The natives of Ceylon must be in a very singular mental con- dition, if the spectacle of a Bishop trying to maintain his jurisdiction over the clergy professedly subject to him can
have so extraordinary an effect on them. Mr. Lowther was audacious enough to accept the parallel between the Irish Church and the Ceylon Chaplaincies set up by the supporters of the motion, and to rest his defence of the action of the Government in maintaining the subsidy on the fact that Parliament had changed its mind, and would now deal with Ireland on very different principles from those on which we acted in 1869. Bishop Coplestone's deeds or misdeeds have nothing to do with the question ; and to compare the Ecclesiastical position of Ceylon with that of Ire- land before Disestablishment, is to paint the grievances of the Natives a great deal worse than they really are. Indeed, the circumstances of the case need only be a little different for there to be no grievance at all. If the Ecclesiastical Establishments in Ceylon were wholly what they are in part, a provision for the spiritual wants of the Government servants, Sir George Campbell's parallel with a staff of doctors would be perfectly accurate. The provision of chaplains for soldiers, or prisoners, or any other class of persons who are completely under the control of the Government and have to live where they are ordered to live, has nothing to do with a religious Establishment. It is simply a matter of convenience and arrangement. The Civil Servants of the Government in India or Ceylon stand in very much the same position in this respect as the Army. They are sent to this station or that at the pleasure of their employers, and in stations in which they constitute nearly the whole population they can only obtain the services of a chaplain by paying one themselves or by having one given them by the Government. The Government know nothing of religious creeds in its selection of such chap- lains; it only asks to what religious creed its servants belong. If the great majority of the Government servants, and conse- quently of the Government chaplains, belorig to the Church of England, it is convenient that they should have a bishop attached to them. This is an expense, no doubt, which does not arise when Presbyterian chaplains are employed, but this is merely tantamount to saying that Episcopacy is a more costly form of religion than Presbyterianism. In so far, therefore, as the Ceylon Chaplains are chaplains, strictly so called, their maintenance is quite properly charged upon the revenues of the island. It is an item in the general expenditure of the Government, and like other items, must be paid out of the taxes. The case is changed, however, if the Chaplains, instead of being maintained for the benefit of Government servants, are maintained for the spiri- tual improvement of the white population not serving under Government. They then possess all the characteristics of an Established Church, and the propriety of retaining or abolish- ing them must be judged by the same considerations as apply to other Established Churches. The first of these considera- tions, of course, is whether they render any practical service to the community, or any service which would not be equally well rendered if they ceased to be supported by the State. The second is whether, given that a service of one of these kinds is rendered, the good done by the money is counterbalanced by the evil attendant on the mode in which the money is raised. As regards the first point, it is probable that the whole population of Ceylon is in some degree the better for the ministrations of the Chaplains. If they were with- drawn, a considerable part of the white population would dispense with all external observances of devotion, and a community does, we believe, suffer when no visible deference is paid to religion. It does not follow, however, that the Chaplains would be withdrawn, if they were no longer main- tained out of the revenues of the island. Granting even that the white population would pay nothing towards their support, the great religions Societies at home would probably come to the rescue. The Propagation Society, in particular, is specially charged with the duty of ministering to the religious wants of English plantations abroad, and it would keep more strictly within the original lines of its foundation by contributing towards the pastoral care of English settlers in Ceylon than by engaging in more directly missionary efforts. The wealth of the Church of England, or rather, of individual members of the Church of England, is sufficient to make an additional burden of £14,000 a year a very light matter. The Bishopric of Colombo would undoubtedly be maintained ; for the Church of England, if she has not been specially elastic as regards creating new bishoprics, has been equally rigid in maintaining the bishoprics that are in existence, and an energetic Bishop would not be long before he managed to surround himself with the necessary clergy. Still it is best, in dealing with questions of this kind, to face the most despondent view that can be taken of the future, and we will therefore assume that the withdrawal of the Chaplains' salaries will be the same thing as the with- drawal of their services, and that neither in Ceylon nor at home will any money be forthcoming for replacing them. It is conceded that the whole population will suffer by the loss ; where will be the gain, or will there be any gain? On the whole, we think there will be. We have to do in Ceylon with a very large native population, and it is at least possible that the result of charging this native majority with the cost of the spiritual custodianship of the Euro- pean minority will be to degrade Christianity in Cinga- lese eyes. The severely practical Churchman whose thoughts are entirely occupied with what he grandiloquently calls "Church finance "—meaning the methods by which he succeeds in extracting money for Church purposes from more or less unwilling hands—is not disturbed by this reflection. "Thy money perish with thee" is not an expletive much in favour with established Churches. But to those whose zeal for religious establishments is tempered with discretion, it may well appear doubtful whether the effect upon some millions of Buddhists, Mahommedans, and Hindoos of being compelled to contribute their farthings towards that spiritual superin- tendence for which their white masters will not pay out of their own pockets, is not at least as damaging to Christianity as any consequences that can accrue to these same whites from losing those spiritual goods to which they have not yet learned to attach a money value.
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