Mr. Childers on Friday week made to the Church Congress
a proposal having very large bearings. He apparently—fee; there is some obscurity in his plan—desired that the whole property of the Church in each diocese, including the tithe, should be vested in a Diocesan Synod, "fairly representing the laity and clergy." This Synod would then redistribute the income, with the idea of proportioning stipends to the work to be done, and to the age of the incumbent. He would dis- regard the claim of a parish to Ieep its own tithe altogether.. He would sell as much Church land as possible, in order to be rid of fluctuations in value, and be would compel all lay patrons to choose between keeping their patronage as a trust and not as a property, and selling it to the Diocesan Synod at once, payment to be made out of Church property, plus a rent-charge upon the income of the vicarage enfran- chised ! We fear Mr. Childers mistakes his century. The first effect of his proposal, if adopted, would be to transfer the ultimate ownership of the tithe from the nation to permanent ecclesiastical elective bodies ; and the second, to make the administration of Church revenues independent of the State. If he thinks he can pass that Bill through Parliament with- out including Disestablishment in the clauses, he reads the mind of the Houses very differently from us. His financial plan would irritate all Nonconformists, and his patronage plan alienate the whole body of the clergy, by giving a large slice of their income temporarily to laymen.
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