the principle that lay at the foundation of all their demands was, that they were liable to church rates, that is, that they were taxed towards the expenses of the national religious establishment. From this impost they claimed to be relieved, on the broad principle that it was unreasonable and unjust to make them contribute towards the support of a religious system from which they altogether dissented. This is a principle which it is impossible to reconcile with the existence of a national church; for it is equally applicable to stipendiary clergymen paid by the state, or to any payment made by the state towards the expenses of public worship, as to tithe drawn by the clergyman in right of his beneäce, or to rates levied directly and exclusively to meet the cost of divine service. It was a principle, however, with which ministers were under the necessity of not only dealing, but of dealing favourably; because it was one which they had sanctioned in their Irish Temporalities Bill of the preceding session. During the discussion of that measure, they had been warned, that ere long a similar demand would be made on the part of the English Dissenters, to whom they would have precluded themselves from giving a plausible answer. That demand was now made-made on the same ground, and supported by the same arguments, which had enabled the Catholics of Ireland successfully to insist that they should bear no part of the expense of the Protestant worship.

On the 18th of March, Mr. Divett moved a resolution, "that, in the opinion of this house, it is just and expedient that effectual

measures should be taken for the abolition of compulsory payments of church rates in England and Wales." The mover stated, that by a return of the local taxation of the country for the year ending 27th of March, 1827, the churchrates appeared to amount to 564,000l.; thus forming a very important item in the general local taxation, which was somewhere about 9,489,000. The repairs of the churches in one year had cost 248,000l.; the charges for organs and bells 41,000l.; for books and wine 46,000l.; for payments to clerks and sextons 126,000l.; and for other charges 184,000l. Some part of this, indeed, was not now enforced by law; but the rest was enforced, and proved most injurious to the established church by engendering in the Dissenters feelings, not merely of dissatisfaction, but of disgust. The Dissenters raised not less than a million a year for their own religious purposes, and surely the members of the established church might support their own religious edifices, without calling on the aid of those who disclaimed its tenets. The increase of dissenting meeting houses both in England and Wales had been immense. In two parishes in Monmouthshire, having a population of about 16,000, twentythree places of dissenting worship had sprung up within few years. This showed the infamous nature of the tax in question, and its tendency to injure the best interests of the established church; for in all of these parishes the most bitter hostility was entertained by the Dissenters towards the established church, and was mainly engendered by this

impost. Abolish it, and a vast deal of that hostile feeling would vanish, for he knew of no subject which created more heartburnings than the compulsory assessment of church-rates. He utterly disclaimed any intention of interfering with tithes; for though he thought that men who dissented from a religion ought not to be compelled to pay towards its support, he was himself a churchman, and thought he was doing the church good service, by striving to remove what only created enemies against her.

Other members enforced the motion by similar statements. According to them, the Dissenters had become so formidable in numbers, that if arrangements which they disliked, because they enforced practical grievances, were not forthwith altered, the established church would be anything but secure. It was to the principle, and not to the amount of these payments, that they objected; and no measure, short of one which would relieve them from such payments in any shape, would satisfy them. They deserved this more especially at the hands of the present ministry, to whom no body of men in England had rendered more essential services. Mr. O'Connell, a catholic legislating in matters touching the welfare and stability of a protestant church, laid it down as the plain principle of justice and common sense, which the house should establish, that no Christian ought to be compelled to pay towards the religious observances of a church from which he dissented; and he advised the Dissenters, if they wished to succeed, to show the ministers how much

government depended on them, and what it had to dread from their anger.-Lord Althorp stated, that as he himself had given notice of a motion on this subject, he would not at present enter into it any farther than to declare that the question of church-rates rested on very different foundations from the question of tithes. The measure, which he intended to introduce would be brought forward, not in the shape of a resolution but as, an effective and practical motion. Under these circumstances, he did not think the present a desirable occasion to adopt the principle contained in the resolution, and he should therefore move the previous question. Mr. Divett, however, expressed himself willing to await the appearance of the government plan, and withdrew his motion.

On the 21st of April, lord Althorp brought forward his plan, but in the shape of a resolution, "that, after a fixed time, churchrates should cease and determine, and, in lieu thereof, a sum not exceeding 250,000l. should be granted from the land-tax to be applied to the expenses of the fabrics of churches and chapels in such manner as parliament should direct." His intention, he said, was not merely to relieve Dissenters, but likewise to provide for the fabrics of the church. The Dissenters, indeed, said that it was not so much the amount of the rate that was objected to, as their being compelled to contribute towards the support of a church to which they did not belong. One way of relieving the Dissenters, no doubt, would be to leave the system of church-rates as it was, but to exempt the Dissenters from

commissioners found that the demand upon them was larger than the sum at their disposal would justify them in granting, they would, of course, be compelled to reduce or to dismiss the claim. In addition to this, when the churchwardens and the clergyman thought repairs were necessary, they would, in the first instance, be obliged to call in the surveyor of the county to examine and declare whether these repairs were in fact demanded by the state of the building or no, and then the surveyors would have to report to the quarter sessions, and upon a certificate from the quarter sessions only would the repairs be ordered and commenced. Thus, all the evils of extravagance, of which he hesitated not to say, there had frequently been a great deal, would be prevented. The result of the whole was, that although 250,000l. was to be taken from the landtax, yet the church-rates were to be done away with altogether, and these averaged between 500,000l. and 600,000l. annually. The amount of last year's churchrate was 560,0001. The effect of the measure consequently would be to relieve the people of England from a very heavy tax.

When lord Althorp announced on the 18th of March, that he had a plan to propose in regard to church-rate, he had said that he trusted and believed that it would give satisfaction, and that he was sure it ought to do so. However unaltered his conviction might remain, he now found his expectations utterly disappointed. The friends of the Dissenters immediately attacked his plan with unmeasured violence, led on by Mr. Hume, who moved, that all the VOL. LXXVI.

words in the resolution should be left out except those which declared, that church-rates should cease and determine. The proposal, they said, was nothing less than an experiment on the gullibility of the Dissenters a contemptible juggle, founded on the old financial principle, that if money were taken out of the pockets of the people by indirect instead of direct means, they would not be sensible of their loss. The government, when it surrendered the churchrates in Ireland, broke the magic circle of the inviolability of church property; and the English Dissenters never would be content until the same measure of justice was dealt out to them—namely, the unconditional surrender of church property. The Dissenters complained of the grievance of being compelled to pay anything towards the expenses of a church which was not their own; and the relief tendered to them was, to continue to pay as much as before, but in a different shape, though for the same purpose. The Dissenters did not complain of having to pay much, or of having to pay directly; they complained of having to pay a single farthing in any shape. It was a question of conscience, not of sums, and checks, and other paltry details. The exaction could not be presented in any point of view in which it did not appear as a grievous and distressing impost, and an infringement of religious liberty; for the restraint was the same whether it presented itself in the form of a pecuniary payment or of personal imprisonment. It was the undoubted right of every man to worship God according to the dictates of his own

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conscience, without being punished for doing so either in purse or person. It was not to be endured that men, who, like the Dissenters, paid from 500,000l. to 800,000l. a-year for their own places of worship and their charitable institutions, should be called on to contribute to the expenses of the established church. The demand of the Dissenters was this, that not one farthing should be taken from them directly for church-rates, and that not a farthing of the general taxation of the country, to which they contributed, should be applied to church-rates. Let government say they would concede, or would resist this demand; but let them not add insult to injustice by refusing all that was worth asking, while they granted what nobody cared about, and yet professed to be giving relief. The Dissenters would in fact be worse off than before. At present they possessed to a certain extent a control over the church, which the proposed plan would take out of their hands by converting the church-rate into a charge on the general revenue of the country. All this was done, too, while there were funds in abundance, without taxing either Dissenters or members of the church. The church itself was wealthy enough to provide for the building and repairing of churches. It was demonstrable, that the revenues of the church were more than sufficient. It was generally admitted, that there were sinecure offices in the church which might be abolished or reduced without in any degree impairing the efficiency of the establishment, though such a course might possibly affect the festivities of the

deans and chapters. In no case, at least, ought the state to furnish to the church more than was necessary; yet here the people were asked to furnish 250,000l. a-year, while they were kept absolutely in the dark as to the true extent of the resources of the church. They had never been informed of the real available property belonging to the establishment; and it was not acting a very friendly or devoted part to the church to allow them to be constantly, as at present, speculating unsatisfactorily upon that subject. Until it was shown that the revenues of the church were not sufficient for its support, without the aid of any tax whatever, there was no reason for voting 250,000l., or any other sum for church purposes. Did ministers seriously mean, that while the house was abolishing sinecures in all other quarters, they were to suffer a nest of sinecures to exist in the church? Why should they suffer deans and chapters, which were a mere batch of sinecure offices, to exist? Why not let their revenues, one and all, fall in as the places became vacant?Mr. Hume said, that if the clergy wished to have a separate establishment, they ought to give up their revenues altogether. Then let the chancellor of the Exchequer put them into the budget, and let the house provide for the bishops and all classes of the clergy in the way which should seem fit, and proper, and becoming to parliament. He did not wish to touch the revenues of the church-not just yet. The country was not prepared for it yet. He never put forward a proposition which he did not hope to carry by convincing the