Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/263

 1834.] The First Reformed Parliament. 249 and passed by a majority of 164 to 75. It was, of course, rejected by the Peers, there being neither time, nor force of public opinion, enough to induce their lordships to consent. There was yet another Church question raised on which the Whig ministers, anxious to please the dissenters without alienating churchmen, failed to satisfy either party. On the 1 8th of March Dinett moved a resolution for the abolition of church rates, when Lord Althorpe said that, as he had given notice of a Government measure on the subject he should oppose the resolution, and it was therefore withdrawn. On the 2 ist of April Althorpe moved his resolution, "that after a fixed time church rates should cease and determine, and in lieu thereof a sum not exceeding 250,000 should be granted from the land tax, to be applied to the expenses of the fabrics of churches and chapels in such a manner as Parliament should direct." It was an indication of the want of sympathy of the Whigs with the public feeling that they either did not themselves see, or thought the dissenters would not see, that this proposal, instead of being one of favour to Nonconformity, was in reality a strengthening of the establish- ment, and that to propose to transfer the burden from local to imperial taxation was a mere pretence of relief. The dissenters knew exactly what the proposal meant, and they immediately raised a strong opposition, which was well expressed by Hume in the debate. Ministers carried their resolution by 246 to 140 votes, but they proceeded in the matter no further. The Government seemed quite as little able to enter into the feelings of the dissenters with respect to their objections to the marriage laws, and therefore proposed a bill which contained in a striking form the worst feature of the old plan. The measure which they introduced provided that marriages might be celebrated by dissenting ministers on proof that the banns had been published in church. It was really absurd to offer to those who asked for religious equality with regard to the civil act of marriage, a proposal which contained the glaring condition of inferiority, or subjection, involved in the