The last two months has witnessed a vigorous and legitimate
opposition on our part to that detestable of all Taxation,
the Church Rate. Our triumphant success at the poll in St.
Thomas's district has incontestably proved to all parties, that
the imposition of this tax _rests alone with the Ratepayers_,
and that, as hitherto, a mere _vestry coterie_ shall not tax
the conscientious Dissenter without _first_ giving him the
honest and Englishman-like opportunity of ascertaining for what
purpose he is to be taxed.
The fact having now been fully established, the staff having
now been really placed in the hands of the Ratepayers, it
becomes a question of the most _vital pecuniary_, as well as
_public_ and _legal, consideration_, how far we are morally
justified in further resisting the _claims of a Church
Established by Law_; after we have lately testified that those
claims shall first receive our sanction and approval at the
tribunal of a parish poll.
Fellow Christians, lose not sight of the fact that success has
often intoxicated the victorious, thrown them off their guard,
and given the enemy vantage ground. Beware of placing implicit
confidence in the opinion of that class of agitating law-givers
who deceive you by propounding to your ignorance _what they and
you would wish the law to be, keeping from you what it really
is_. Recollect, Ah! and enquiry will convince you, ye unfledged
sons of popular opinion, that the laws were made for the Church
at a time when _ignorance was bliss, and it is now even a folly
to be wise_ to the tune of an Ecclesiastical enquiry, viewing
with Argus eye the value and extent of your goods and chattels
from Westminster Palace Yard. _Resist the law according to
law_, but for the sake of him whose name we all bear, "render
to Cæsar the things that be Cæsar's," and lend not your
conscientious sufferings, either to elevate a meanless party
into public notoriety or compromise that brotherly love, which
we profess to render even to our enemies.
Enquire of your elder brethren _how fared the dissenters in
the notorious Wood Case, and the echo will be defeat and
payment_. Let us not again enact a folly that inevitably shall
constrain us to appeal to strangers in the flesh, but brothers
in the faith, for pecuniary assistance in the midst of our
never-to-be-forgotten consternation and alarm. Nay! let us
rather weigh the matter honestly over in our own breasts, and
consider whether it is not better to pay honestly (and leave
the ignominy to those who receive it) the demands that we now
believe to be illegally demanded at our hands, and save our
money, _not to feed the jaws of D.C.L.'s_, but to legally
contest and maintain our rights for the time to come.
Petition the Imperial Parliament for the repeal of the
vexatious Tax. It is known that many honourable sons of the
Church will join us, for they bleed and feel acutely for us,
who are men of like attributes to themselves--Reject the
election of any man who refuses to assist us in his place
in St. Stephen's to get rid of our burden; and, above all,
whilst the Church Rate Enactment lasts, be careful to elect
such Churchwardens as shall faithfully perform their unpleasant
duties, observe scrupulous economy in the expenditure of our
money, be open and candid in their transactions with the
public; neither given to bolster up obsolete customs and
practices of the Church, used only in the middle ages, nor yet
inclined to accede to the rapacity of a once popularity-seeking
Vicar, at once a misfortune, by example and precept, to the
Church, and no great love of those who dissent from his
unproductive teaching.
Henceforth, let peace and vigilance be our watchword, and the
Poll Book our bulwark against oppression and injustice.