Predatory Christianity would not be far from the mark. Christianity is
of the nature of a penal settlement where independent-minded persons are
made to expiate the sin of thinking for themselves. There can be no real
goodwill in any one who is not for justice and equality. No cause can
command respect, or can claim a hearing from others which is not based
on absolute fairness. Many well-meaning Christians never inquire whether
the great cause they have at heart fulfils this condition. In the past
this omission has been a lasting cause of alienation from their views.
Between 1850 and 1860 there sat in St. Bride's Vestry, London, a
group of Christian churchwardens who twice a year sent agents to seize
property from my house in Fleet Street, because I refused to pay tithes.
Yet there are people who tell us without tiring, of the depravity of the
French revolutionists and atheists who laid, or proposed to lay hands
upon Church property. Yet these Christian officers, acting under the
eye of an opulent rector in the wealthiest capital in the world, seized
clocks and bales of paper on the premises of heretics, in the name
of the Church! Did not this disqualify the Church as ministers of
consolation? The greatest consolation is justice. Is it not spiritual
effrontery to despoil a man, then invite him to the communion table?
In our day by predatory acts, they confiscate Nonconformist property to
maintain Church schools. Can it be that heaven recognised agents engaged
in petty larceny? Are they intrusted with the keys of heaven? May the
priest be a thief? Can a man expect to be admitted at the Golden Gate
with a burglar's passport in his hand? There exist penal laws against
all who do not stand on the side of faith, which Nonconformists as
well as Churchmen connive at, profit by, and maintain. Is not this
destructive of their spiritual pretensions? Can they preach of holiness
and truth without a blush? No higher criticism can condemn Christianity,
as it is self condemned by resting on predatoriness. No person who does
not stand on the Christian side can leave property for promoting his
views, as a Christian can for promoting his. No Christian conscience is
touched at this disadvantage imposed upon the independent thinker. No
sermon is preached against it. No Christian petition is ever set
up against it. Neither the Church conscience nor the Nonconformist
conscience is stirred by the existence of this injustice. It would cease
if they objected to it. But they do not object to it.
There are prelates, priests, clergymen, and Nonconformist ministers
personally to be respected, who in human things I trust. But for their
spiritual vocation, is it possible to have respect or trust? To tender
consolation with one hand while they keep the other in my pocket is
an act never absent from my mind. I belong to a Secular party who seek
improvement by material means; but were there any body of Christians
upon whom that party imposed legal disadvantages in its own interest,
and kept them there by silence or connivance, Parliament would hear from
me pretty frequently until the insulting privileges were annulled. Any
pretension to having principles worthy of acceptance, or regard, or
even respect, would be impertinence in us so long as we were unfair to
others.
I caused to be brought into Parliament a Bill in which Sir Philip
Manfield took the leading interest, entitled:--
Civil and Religious Liberty Extension.
A BILL
To secure the Extension of Civil and Religious Liberty.
(Prepared and brought in by
Mr. Manfield, Sir Henry Boscoe,
Sir Geo. B. Sitwell, Mr. Picton,
Mr. Illingworth, Mr. W. McLaren,
Mr. H. P. Cobb, Mr. Howell,
Mr. Chas. Feiiwick, Mr. Benn,
Mr. Storey, and Mr. Hunter.)
Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed, 7 November 1893.
PRINTED BY EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE,
PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
And to be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller, from
Eyre & Spottiswood, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, B.C., and 32,
Abingdon Street, Westminster, 8.W.; or John Menzies & Co., 19, Hanover
Street, Edinburgh, and 90, West Nile Street, Glasgow; or Hodges, Ptoois
6 Co., Limited, 104, Grafton Street, Dublin.
[Price 1d.]
[Bill 464.]
Memorandum.
This Bill comprises but a small extension of religious equality.
Its object is to enable a man "to do what he likes with his own" for
admittedly lawful purposes. It is affirmed by legal decisions that any
man may believe what he pleases, speak what he pleases, publish his
honest conviction, provided he does it in a temperate and considerate
manner; and he may, while living, give money to maintain his views. All
this Bill seeks is that he may, at his death, bequeath money for such
purpose. This Bill merely proposes to extend a right which Christians
of every denomination enjoy, but which hitherto has been denied to those
who may conscientiously object to prevailing opinions.
BILL TO
Secure the Extension of Civil and Religions Liberty.
WHEREAS
1 it is expedient to remove the Disabilities under which persons suffer
desirous of endowing, creating, and maintaining charitable and other
Trusts for religious and ethical inquiry, so as to further extend civil
and religious liberty:
2 Nothing contained in this Act shall affect or be deemed to repeal
or contravene in any way such parts of the Act 9 George II., cap. 36,
relating to Mortmain as remain unrepealed, or any other Act amending
or altering such Act; and the provisions of all such Acts now in force
shall apply to all Trusts created under this Act.
3 After the passing of this Act, notwithstanding any Act, Rule of Common
Law, Rule of Equity, or Rule of Practice of any Court of Justice now in
force to the contrary, it shall be lawful for any person to create and
endow, or create or endow, any Trust for inquiry into the foundations
and tendency of religious and ethical beliefs which from time to time
prevail, or for the maintenance and propagation of the results of such
inquiry. And the method of application of Bequests made for the
purposes aforesaid shall be, on the part of those responsible for their
administration, subject to revision at intervals of thirty years.
4 Such Trust, whether created by Deed or Will, or by other instrument,
shall be deemed a charitable Trust, and shall be administered and given
effect to in all respects in as full and complete a manner as in the
case of religious and charitable Trusts now recognised by Law; and the
doctrine of _Cy-pres_ shall be applied to it when circumstances shall
arise requiring the application of such doctrine.
This Bill was not proceeded with. It required a member like Samuel
Morley, of known Christianity and a conscience, to carry it through the
House.
A theory has been started that by registering an association, under the
Friendly Societies Act, it would legalise its proceedings and virtually
repeal all the laws confiscating bequests. No case of this kind has come
before the higher courts. To do the Government justice, I know no case
in which the Crown has interfered to confiscate a bequest on the ground
of heresy in its use. Members of families, legally entitled to the
property of a testator, may claim the money and get it. If the family
enters no claim the bequest takes effect. In the meantime the state of
the law prevents testators leaving property for the maintenance of their
opinions, and Christians bring charges against philosophical thinkers
for lack of generosity in building halls as Christians do chapels.
The Christian reproaches the philosopher for not giving, when he has
confiscated the bequest of the philosopher and the power of giving.
Priests often mourn at the disinclination to listen to the tenets they
proclaim, and advertise in the newspapers the melancholy fact that only
one person in five is found on Sunday in a place of worship, and do not
remember how many persons remain away, not so much from dislike of the
tenets preached, as from dislike of the injustice which they would have
to share if they belonged to any Christian communion.