has long been considered one of which it was obligatory, for the Government to undertake the settlement. It is nearly twenty-five years since the greatest Minister of modern times said, that this question was one which admitted of no delay; that it required an immediate and a practical adjustment; that for the satisfaction of the great body of the people, in the interests of the Church, for the maintenance of social harmony, and to preserve obedience and subordination to the law, the Government entrusted with the management of affairs was bound to take the question in hand at once, in order that it might not remain during auother twelvemonth a theme for parochial meetings and a subject of resistance for parochial martyrs. When I find such an opinion delivered by such a man-when I remember all the Administrations that have succeeded him in the twenty-four years that have since passed over our heads-and when I see that during that time nothing has been done in relation to that question except to renew agitation and controversy upon it, I feel more than ordinarily anxious lest this Administration should now neglect its duty, even while proposing what might not have been, perhaps, in the commencement of these debates the best settlement of the question, but which would then have been a good settlement, and I believe is now the only practical mode of bringing it to a conclusion. While alluding to what I have found calculated to discourage me, the House will permit me to point to one circumstance, which tends to give me confidence. I refer to the tone and spirit in which the question was debated in the discussions of last Session. The right hon. Baronet the Member for Morpeth (Sir G. Grey) who proposed the abolition of church rates, was anxious that some substitute should be found for them before the abolition was made. From every quarter of the House a strong desire was expressed to see if some substitute could not be found. When the Bill went up to the other House of Parliament strong expressions no doubt were used against the measure, which was a measure brought forward for a total abolition; but equally strong opinions were expressed there-equally by the noble Duke who brought forward the question, as by other noble Peers-in favour of a settlement. Such being the position in which we were placed, my noble Friend at the head of the Government stated, no doubt in strong language and with powerful argument, that the Bill was one which nobody could accept, who felt what I think all of us ought to feelthe duty of maintaining the rights of prescription from time immemorial, and who would not desire to repudiate for himself or for the landowners of the country a charge fairly resting upon the property of the country from the payment of which it ought not to be absolved. My noble Friend urged with equally powerful argument that it was for the benefit of the poor man that you should not deprive the Established Church or the country of the means of keeping up those fabrics which are a greater blessing, I believe, to the poor than to the rich whose estates are taxed for their support. At the same time my noble Friend held out, and wisely held out, encouragement for those who looked to a settlement, and did intimate in the plainest terms a manifest desire on the part of the Government to see in what way this controversy could be concluded. My noble Friend remarked, "I will venture to say to Dissenters on the part of the Church, and I believe I may say on the part of the Government, that we will meet them with the most conciliatory feeling. "But," he added, and "but" I may add also, "unless some prospect is held out to us that we shall be met by them in the same spirit, we must maintain the law as it stands. That law, as it stands, is plain and clear; and the inconvenience of that law is equally plain and clear. In substance, that law, so plain and so clear, has by the highest tribunals in this country been declared to be a law which imposes an imperative obligation upon the parishioners of every parish to maintain the fabric of their church. These are very nearly the words of Lord Chancellor Truro when pronouncing his judgment on the subject. At the same time, Sir, I think it cannot be denied that that law has now some inconveniences. It was made at a time when the whole population of the country was of one mind in matters of religion. That law is not now the expression of the religious opinion of the time; and some opinions on these matters are not, unfortunately, now universal. Since we are not unanimous on them-and since, in consequence, persons not belonging to the Church do not derive the benefit which the Church by its ordinances can give, what could formerly be said with truth no longer applies. The Church does not impart to the Dissenters, except indirectly, those advantages which she formerly imparted to the entire people. of parishes that have exercised the right which have refused to obey the law, you Before, Sir, we can approach to the consideration of a settlement it is necessary to make ourselves thoroughly acquainted with the case as it now stands. In order to do this, I hope the House will allow me to refer to Returns presented to this House, and which are to be found in our Blue-books and from other sources. Inounced, that, for the sake of 408 parishes shall first refer to the Return presented in 1852, and which was for the eighteen years preceding, or from 1833 to 1851. I shall afterwards refer to the Return presented in 1856, and which was for the fifteen years preceding that year. The Return of 1852 sets out that cities and Parliamentary boroughs in which the rate was made or levied from Easter, 1833, to Easter, 1851. From this Return it appears that out of 1,047 parishes, from which Returns were sent, there were only 216 in which church rates were actually refused during the whole period of eighteen years. That, no doubt, was a limited Re- I now come to a different Return, giving turn, confined to 1,047 parishes. I now the amount of expenditure under three come to the Return of 1856, the summary heads. First, for the fabric of the church; of which I take not from the Blue-book, secondly, for the celebration of Divine woras there is some difference in the figures, ship; thirdly, for other purposes. It gives, but from a Return which I am informed is in addition, the sources from which the substantially a correct one. It appears money has been supplied; and this it also that this Return, extending over fifteen gives under three heads. Firstly, from years, came from 9,672 parishes. How many of these does the House imagine granted the rate, and how many refused it? Of these 9,672 parishes, 8,280 granted the rate, 408 refused it, 444 gave dubious replies, and 544 had provision made for church repairs from other sources; so that not one-tenth of the parishes from which this Return was made had refused this rate for the period of fifteen years. The right hon. Baronet the Member for Morpeth (Sir George Grey), when this Return was referred to two years ago, made an observation which produced a great effect in the House at the time. He said rates; secondly, from endowments; thirdly, Now, I stop here for one moment to remark the proportion between the voluntary subscriptions and the money raised by rates. In those 10,500 parishes £261,000 was raised by rates; £262,000 was raised by voluntary contributions. ["Hear, hear!" from the Opposition benches.] I am exceedingly glad to hear that cheer, because before I come to the conclusion I intend to His make use of that circumstance as the House for a few minutes' indulgence while foundation of part of the Government mea- I endeavour to exhaust the different modes sure. There is another fact I wish to point hitherto suggested, and to reduce us, as I out to you, and it is a very important one. think I shall, to the only mode, or the That Return gives you the number of only modes which, taken together, can now Churchmen, as compared with the Dis- be propounded on the subject. The first senters; it also gives a statement whether remedy sought to be applied was in 1834. the property in the parish is much or little That was a proposition of Lord Althorp in subdivided. These two returns I am taking which he suggested that the land tax, to from the blue-books, for I have not yet the the extent of £250,000 a year, should be analysis of the subsequent returns from charged with the sustentation of the fabric the 500 parishes I have just adverted to. of the churches. The objection to that It appears that the landowners in 1367 of was obvious. After the land tax is parthese parishes were all of them Church- tially redeemed, if you apply £250,000 men; in 7436 the landowners were Church a year of the unredeemed part of the land men generally; the Dissenters and Church- tax to the support of the fabric you are men were about equal in 1050 parishes; taxing one portion of the landowners, and and as to 353 there was no return on this one portion only, to do that for which the head. So that out of 10,206 parishes whole are liable. That scheme was so obthere were 8803 of those parishes the jectionable that it was given up. The second landowners of which are Churchmen gene- was made by the present Lord Monteagle, rally; 1050 partly Churchmen and partly when Chancellor of the Exchequer. Dissenters; and 353 were not stated. proposition was that you should arrive, Observe the enormous proportion of the if you could, at the improved value of landowners who were Churchmen in those church property, and that you should parishes. I then take the divisions and charge that property to the extent of subdivisions of the property. It appears £500,000 a year for the purpose of affordthat in 5750 parishes the property is in ing the necessary funds. The objection to very few hands; in 1480 it is subdivided; that was twofold-first, that it was unjust; in 2713 it is much subdivided. I mention secondly, that it was improvident. It was these facts because I intend to rely on unjust, because, in fact, you were transthem afterwards. The result then is this, ferring a charge from the laity to the in round numbers, and, taking a general clergy, and were giving every landlord a view of the question, that out of 10,500 receipt in full for a debt not a single parishes £261,000 per annum is contri- farthing of which he would have paid. It buted by rates, and £262,000 by voluntary was improvident, because it was taking benefactions; the greater part of the land- away the only available means you had to owners in the parishes are Churchmen, and meet the religious destitution of the country the property is in the hands of propor- by anticipating the funds in the hands of tionably few persons. And these circum- the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, which stances will facilitate the proposition I shall funds at this moment are not nearly equal make to you hereafter. These are the re- to keep pace with our ever-increasing popusults of the Returns before you; and I lation; and unless you husband these funds think it will encourage us in two inferences. for the purpose of augmenting the small The one is, that since there is a charge livings and for the purpose of providing upon persons in respect of property, and further pastoral superintendence and care, those persons are principally Churchmen, you will not have the means of making the plea of conscience is not a strong plea your religious instruction keep pace with for doing away with a charge that has the wants of the people. The third remedy existed from time immemorial. The second was that of Sir Robert Peel. inference is, that since it appears that by sition was never reduced to the shape of a voluntary contributions large sums are now Bill; but the proposition was to throw raised for the purpose of supporting the the charge on the Consolidated Fund. To fabric it will be wise in the House and in this objections were immediately taken. Parliament, as far as it can, to look to Independently of the objection that the voluntary benefactions to get rid of a com- landlords would thereby be relieved to the plaint which is made when the payment is extent of many millions of charge on their compulsory. property, there was the objection, an objection constantly raised in this House till it has become almost an universal rule, that we Now, in discussing the question, whether any remedy can be found, I must ask the His propo "That it is the opinion of the House that effectual measures should be immediately taken for the abolition of Church Rates." ought not to impose on the general taxation | 185 Members, the first men in the House of the country a charge to be applied for the going with them into the same lobby. performance of any special religious du- That proposition, however, was lost, for ties. That objection was long deemed to the House rejected it by 207 votes against be so forcible that Sir Robert Peel, although the 185. The next proposition made on he said that no Government was fit to be this subject emanated from the right rev. entrusted with the management of public Bench. I hold in my hand the Bill that affairs unless it tried to make a settle- was laid on the table of the House of ment of this question, never ventured in Lords in 1855. The right rev. Bench the plenitude of his power, and during the then proposed that a machinery should be five years when he might have carried a framed for the purpose of ascertaining measure, to bring forward the subject. And whether parishes would rate themselves or so it has fallen into weaker and inferior not; and that if, after monition or citation, hands, but with the same obligation to they refused to pay church rates for either attempt to satisfy the public expectations two or three years-I forget exactly which and to effect a definite settlement. After that period-church rates should cease in those we come to the year 1849, when the hon. parishes, and those parishes should become Baronet the Member for Tavistock (Sir John subject to the provisions of the Bill. The Trelawny) first began his career in attempt- provisions were, that the incumbent and ing to deal with this difficult question. those who frequented the church, and He moved a Resolutionother parties who were friendly to the Church, should compose a church vestry for the purpose of raising by voluntary contributions the necessary sum to support the fabric. Now that proposition was, in my opinion, good in its object, but bad in its starting point. It was good in its object, because it sought to substitute for a compulsory payment a voluntary contribution. It was bad in its starting point, because in point of fact it held out a premium for agitation throughout the length and breadth of the land. increased the strife and ill-feeling that exist in the country on the subject, and it would have induced every parish to have made every effort to get rid of the burden by any means that it could devise. That proposition received no countenance in the other House, and certainly was not responded to in this. In the following year the right hon. Baronet, the Member for Morpeth (Sir G. Grey) adopted the proposition to a certain extent. I regretted it then, and I regret it now, though I think that at the time he added to the proposition another, for which he is entitled to the gratitude of every man who thinks on the subject and wishes to settle it. The right hon. Baronet proposed that in parishes where church rates had not been levied for five years it should be declared by Parliament that they should cease for the future. He also proposed that when a rate had not been levied for two years more it should not be levied again. These two propositions are open to the objections I have already presented, and I will not repeat them now. But the right hon. Baronet had another proposition, namely, To that proposition an Amendment was made by one who is as good a Churchman as he is liberal as a politician. The Amendment I refer to was that moved by the present Vice Chancellor, Sir William Page Wood, and it was to omit the words "the abolition of church rates, " and to substitute for them the words 66 discharging persons dissenting from the Church as by Law established from contributing to Church Rates, and from taking any part in levying, assessing, or administering the same. That proposition was in conformity with the proposition previously made by the hon. Member for Finsbury, (Mr. T. Duncombe.) It was lost by an enormous majority. There only voted for the Amendment 20 Members, while against it there were 183. But, Sir, that proposition afterwards gained ground; and in the year 1853 Dr. Phillimore renewed it by laying a Bill on the table of the House. That Bill was supported by my right hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (Sir James Graham), the noble Lord the Member for the City of London (Lord John Russell), the noble Viscount the Member for Tiverton (Viscount Palmerston), by both the Members for the University of Oxford (Sir William Heathcote and Mr.Gladstone), and by no less than 185 Members of this House. So that the prop sition which, when first launched, obtained only the votes of 20 Members had gained ground in four years to such an extent that on a division there were in its favour It would have that you might, by the repeal of the laws of mortmain, create a charge upon the land as a permanent charge without exposing parishes year after year to the present annual broils. That, I think, was the effect of the right hon. Baronet's proposition. SIR GEORGE GREY: A power was given voluntarily to make a charge upon the property to a limited amount. us to the only practical and reasonable solution of the question. I think the result of the examination may fairly be described as follows:-In the first place, I think we all agree to reject all the plans which would transfer the charge from the property now liable to it to any property which is not liable to it at present. In the second place, I think we should agree to reject all plans which would attempt to throw the charge upon the public taxes of the country; because it would be acting contrary to the principle which seems now to be clearly recognized, that we shall not impose on the public taxation the burden of paying for any special religious obligations. In the third place, I think we shall all agree to reject any plan-at least, I think, we shall most of us agree to reject any plan which would attempt to transfer from the landowners of the country to the revenues of the Church a charge which the land has always paid, and I think ever would willingly pay, rather than dry up those resources still left to the Church, by means of which you may provide for the spiritual wants of the people, and which are not at this moment more than sufficient, or anything like sufficient, to meet the wants to the extent required. In the fourth place, I think we should reject all plans which, like those proposed by Sir William Clay-by the way, I omitted mentioning the proposition which he made to the House-but I think we should reject all MR. WALPOLE: I am quite aware of that; but in stating the proposition which was thus made to us I was wishing to pay a compliment to the right hon. Baronet, and to give him the credit of what will constitute a part of the measure I am about to ask leave to introduce. I do not desire to take any credit for any part of the measure which does not belong to the Government or to myself. But it is the duty of Government to examine the propositions which are made to Parliament, to watch the reasonable and the unreasonable, to distinguish between the two, and to give credit, as I desire to do, to those who first originate the good. Now I have gone through all these propositions that have been brought forward in Parliament excepting one. That was a proposition of my hon. Friend the Member for Hertfordshire (Mr. Puller). Those in the House last year will not fail to remember the very powerful arguments and convincing speech which he then made against the absolute abolition of church rates. I wish he had been more fortunate in the substitute he offered for church rates, for to that sub-plans like the one proposed by Sir William stitute I could not then and I cannot now agree. The substitute was this:-That you should put upon all the land of the country one charge, equal upon all, that would raise the church rates necessary for the sustentation of the fabric. The objection to that plan is this-and it is similar to the objection to many plans which have been sent in to me for placing the church rates on the county rate or the poor rate and making them part of it-the objection to that plan was, that if we transferred the charge which has always rested on property in certain amounts and in certain proportions to other property which was not neces.. sarily subject to that charge, that you put a compulsory obligation to pay the rate on land which might not have been to that extent previously liable. I have gone through those propositions for the purpose, first to eliminate from them those plans which I am sure this House neither will nor, as I think, ought to agree to; secondly, in order to bring Clay, for attempting, as the substitute for the legal obligation of church rates, the payment by means of pew rents. Of all the plans ever yet devised that is the most objectionable. If an Established Church means anything, it means a Church, which in every town, in every parish, in every village in the kingdom ought to be free and open to all-it means that part of your Establishment, in connection with the other part of your system, namely, the payment of the tithes, which enables you to furnish to every poor man in the country who wishes to receive the blessings and ordinances of religion, a free opportunity of enjoying those blessings without money and without price. Whoever may produce that plan again, I hope that it will meet with the condemnation which I find by your cheers it receives now, and I trust that Parliament will never agree to it or listen to it. In the fifth place, I would exclude one other plan, and that is the plan which would declare |
