Page:Church courts and church rates.djvu/10

6 Assuming the grievance of Church Rates, my object is rather to connect the remedy of that grievance with the entire reform of our ecclesiastical law; and, in order that the remedy may be complete, both as affecting the welfare of the Church and the people, I propose that this reform should extend to the details of the parochial system so as to disconnect the Churchwarden's office from all functions of a civil nature, and to separate the management of the Church fabric and worship from the general parish vestry. The great subject of Ecclesiastical Court reform was ably set forth by Mr. Collier in his speech upon the 1st of March last; and I cannot help thinking that the whole of his proposition was far more calculated to benefit the Church than the less complete change advocated by the Solicitor-General upon the 6th of April.

Neither of these propositions seems to have been entirely approved by Dr. Phillimore, whose proposed Bill upon the subject of Church Rates, upon which I would offer some remarks, involves the continuance (with certain reforms), of the ecclesiastical tribunals. I need not recapitulate the various propositions made during the last twenty years for the alteration or abolition of the present system of Church Rates. Both Churchmen and Dissenters opposed the earlier plans (Lord Althorp's and Sir Robert Peel's) of defraying the expenses of Church repairs out of the consolidated fund or the