DUKE OF ARGYLL ON CHURCH ESTABLISHMENTS.
THE Duke of Argyll made a speech of great ability on Wednesday at Helensbargh, in favour of the principle of Church Establishments, and against that of a Regium Donum. His distinction between the two was strong and clear enough. He wished to see the various Churches possess sufficient pro- perty to render their religious teachers more or less independent of their congregations, but he did not wish any Church to be made to feel thereby its absolute dependence on the Government of the day ; and still more, he did not wish to see any Government indulge itself in the habit of interfering to suppress or foster particular religious faiths and practices. He "hated the very name of a Minister of Public Worship." "I do not think there should be such an office existing, because, suspicion and, we should even suppose, dislike of Erastianism, constituted as the nations of Europe now are, divided as can yet distinguish so clearly the advantages to be derived the Churches of Christendom now are, it does not appear from an Establishment, that he prefers an Erastian Establish- to me that anything in connection with public wor- ment—supposing the influence of the State be not too grossly ship should fall into the hands of any secular Minister mixed up with religious policy,—to pure Voluntaryism. More- whatever." In other words, the Duke of Argyll, partly over, he has drawn the distinction broadly and vigorously between as an observant statesman, and partly, no doubt, as a Pres- mere State salaries for clergymen, and any national endowment byterian, has something of the old feeling of Puritan dislike over the expenditure of which the State has no direct control, to see any earthly institution placed higher than the Church, though it may have exercised its right of choosing the personnel and able to mould it by bribes and threats. We share that of the higher order of clergy. In point of fact, the Duke's feeling only so far as modern experience has proved that position is very much that which we might expect reasonable statesmen, if their power over Churches is too immediate Presbyterians in this country to take up. He evidently regards and too strong, will not use it in a manner con- even the National Church of England, and still more that of sistent with the primary object of all Churches on the Scotland, as occupying an intermediate position between one hand, and with the well-being of the State itself a largely-endowed Voluntary Church, and a mere State- on the other. We have always been hearty Erastians on two governed Church, such as the State Church of Prussia. Now, points,—first, as believing that the judicial authority of lay it seems to us of the greatest importance to the fair political Courts onaw should besupreme in all questions of ecclesiastical appreciation of a question which seems likely to become a trusts and duties, for the very simple reason that lay judges considerable one during the next year or two, that this inter- have always shown a far higher and truer sense of impartial mediate position should be clearly understood. Our State equity than ecclesiastical judges who have permitted theo- Church is not only not such a State Church as that of logical arrigTe penee'es to bias their interpretation of the law ; Prussia, but not more exposed to many of the evils which and next, as believing that, with a popularly constituted Dissenters usually attribute to a State Church than a richly Government, State patronage will always secure a wider and endowed Voluntary Church would be, of which there are now more varied range of thought and tendency in the distri- a great number gradually growing up around us. Of course, bution of the more important ecclesiastical appointments than we do not mean that this fulequately meets Mr. Miall's main any purely voluntary system, and is therefore perfectly just charge against the State Churcb,—that national wealth and where the ecclesiastical property whose resources are in question national dignity inevitably bias the minds of inquirers towards is really of national, and not of private origin. Whether the Church which possesses them, and so disturb the balance the Duke of Argyll would agree with us in either of these of judgment requisite for the discovery of religious truth. But positions we should regard as extremely doubtful, though it is true that every Church, in exact proportion to its accumu- there is nothing in his speech that is absolutely incon- lated private wealth and the social distinction it achieves for sistent with them. But we are certainly disposed to agree itself, does exercise this distorting influence on the judgment with him that, to judge by recent experience, the influence of truth-seekers, and that if you are to get rid of that alto- of the State over ecclesiastical bodies may be very easily gether, you should abolish not merely State establishments, stretched beyond what is at all healthy, whether for Church or but Church endowments of all kinds, and compel every Church for State, and that where all, or almost all, the Churches of any to live on the hand-to-mouth system,—i.e., on the yearly people are made directly dependent on Government grants, contributions of its supporters. Admit, as we must, that the there is pretty certain to be both a want of adequate energy funds contributed by the State are much larger, and the and spontaneous vitality in those Churches, and a disposition position secured by the State is much more dignified, than any either to corrupt them or persecute them on the part of the which other Churches will be able to compete with on equal Government,—.a disposition which is in the highest degree terms, still that does not show that an Establishment is evil in corrupting to the power which displays it. We agree, therefore, principle, unless it be also asserted that every Church should with the Duke that popular Church Establishments, where the be as far as possible stripped of all adventitious attractions Church property is more or less independently held by freehold- transmitted to it by a zeal and piety that have now passed ing trustees for the religious benefit of the people, and where away. Such attractions do not bias the mind of the truth- the Government has no power to interfere, except by the action seeker so much as those which Establishments provide, of regular Courts of judicature, after the appointment of these only because they are less in quantity, but they do pro- freeholders, with their modes of religions action, are far safer bably bias it seriously, so that a compulsory law of and better than State-paid salaries for clergymen, which almost ecclesiastical poverty would be the only way to carry Mr. always give rise to too close, and not altogether pure, relations Miall's chief object into full working effect. Such Estab- between the civil and the spiritual power. But how the Duke lishments as those of England and Scotland are really far argues from his not unjustifiable distrust of Ministers of Public nearer in effect to the independent revenues of Voluntary Worship, and of the kind of transactions with which their Churches, than to the conditional stipends,—which may be names are connected, that in removing the gross anomaly of an withheld by the State at pleasure,—of a clergy who are a depart- Irish Protestant Establishment quartered on a Catholic people, ment of the Civil Service, and have no liberty to resist their there was no choice but to disestablish and disendow all official superior. In point of fact, the clergy of our State religions equally, we are quite unable to see. Why should the Church resist the Government only too successfully, even when Government have been limited to choose between concurrent the Government is backed by the people. endowments of the Regium Donum kind and universal disen- Indeed, nothing is more important than to remember that a dowment ? Would it not have been possible to transfer some richly-endowed Free Church, which appeals to the secular part of the National Church property to the comparatively Tribunals to interpret the contracts it has made with its clergy unendowed Churches, with at least as much reservation of and its laity, is so far as this an Established Church,—that
the influence of the Government as still obtains, at all events, no one generation of its worshippers can overrule the organic in Scotland ? We can see no reason for the rigid alternative, law on which it is based, and that what that organic law is, which the Duke of Argyll seems to say that all true statesmen is decided for it by lawyers by the general rules applicable to must have accepted, between the award of mere State salaries, legal interpretation, and not by any vote of the faithful. No the conditions of which it would have taken something like a doubt, it is not what we call an Established Church, so far as Minister of Public Worship to superintend, and the Policy it concedes no administrative authority to the Government in actually adopted of complete disendowment. If private respect to its rulers or teachers, and so far as all its persons can endow churches nowadays, and impose wealth is derived exclusively from those who once professed certain conditions on the endowments which do not either the same faith or the faith of which the present involve a perpetual and minute interference in their affairs, faith is a development. But practically it is only the former dis- why not the State ? It seems to us, that if the Duke of tinction which is of real importance. We see hardly any Church Argyll really holds that an Established Church in tolerable which has not inherited wealth from founders who would have religious sympathy with the people is a great blessing to any been thoroughly shocked at the convictions which that wealth nation, there was no reason why he should have despaired of now goes to support. The National Church itself inherits giving such a blessing to Ireland, though we quite agree that from the Roman Catholics, and even Roman Catholicism it was of course far better to confiscate to truly national pnr- has so far developed that the "Old Catholics" pro- poses the national endowment of a sectarian and unpopular fees not to know it in its modern form. Unitarians Church, than to leave matters as they were, inherit from severe Trinitarians, and Arian Baptists from
The value, however, of the Duke's speech lies in the clearness Baptists of the most stringent orthodoxy. If it be the with which he shows that a statesman who cherishes the greatest evil of Establishments that in them wealth is used on behalf do not think there should be such an office existing, because, suspicion and, we should even suppose, dislike of Erastianism, constituted as the nations of Europe now are, divided as can yet distinguish so clearly the advantages to be derived the Churches of Christendom now are, it does not appear from an Establishment, that he prefers an Erastian Establish- to me that anything in connection with public wor- ment—supposing the influence of the State be not too grossly ship should fall into the hands of any secular Minister mixed up with religious policy,—to pure Voluntaryism. More- whatever." In other words, the Duke of Argyll, partly over, he has drawn the distinction broadly and vigorously between as an observant statesman, and partly, no doubt, as a Pres- mere State salaries for clergymen, and any national endowment byterian, has something of the old feeling of Puritan dislike over the expenditure of which the State has no direct control, to see any earthly institution placed higher than the Church, though it may have exercised its right of choosing the personnel and able to mould it by bribes and threats. We share that of the higher order of clergy. In point of fact, the Duke's feeling only so far as modern experience has proved that position is very much that which we might expect reasonable statesmen, if their power over Churches is too immediate Presbyterians in this country to take up. He evidently regards and too strong, will not use it in a manner con- even the National Church of England, and still more that of sistent with the primary object of all Churches on the Scotland, as occupying an intermediate position between one hand, and with the well-being of the State itself a largely-endowed Voluntary Church, and a mere State- on the other. We have always been hearty Erastians on two governed Church, such as the State Church of Prussia. Now, points,—first, as believing that the judicial authority of lay it seems to us of the greatest importance to the fair political Courts onaw should besupreme in all questions of ecclesiastical appreciation of a question which seems likely to become a trusts and duties, for the very simple reason that lay judges considerable one during the next year or two, that this inter- have always shown a far higher and truer sense of impartial mediate position should be clearly understood. Our State equity than ecclesiastical judges who have permitted theo- Church is not only not such a State Church as that of logical arrigTe penee'es to bias their interpretation of the law ; Prussia, but not more exposed to many of the evils which and next, as believing that, with a popularly constituted Dissenters usually attribute to a State Church than a richly Government, State patronage will always secure a wider and endowed Voluntary Church would be, of which there are now more varied range of thought and tendency in the distri- a great number gradually growing up around us. Of course, bution of the more important ecclesiastical appointments than we do not mean that this fulequately meets Mr. Miall's main any purely voluntary system, and is therefore perfectly just charge against the State Churcb,—that national wealth and where the ecclesiastical property whose resources are in question national dignity inevitably bias the minds of inquirers towards is really of national, and not of private origin. Whether the Church which possesses them, and so disturb the balance the Duke of Argyll would agree with us in either of these of judgment requisite for the discovery of religious truth. But positions we should regard as extremely doubtful, though it is true that every Church, in exact proportion to its accumu- there is nothing in his speech that is absolutely incon- lated private wealth and the social distinction it achieves for sistent with them. But we are certainly disposed to agree itself, does exercise this distorting influence on the judgment with him that, to judge by recent experience, the influence of truth-seekers, and that if you are to get rid of that alto- of the State over ecclesiastical bodies may be very easily gether, you should abolish not merely State establishments, stretched beyond what is at all healthy, whether for Church or but Church endowments of all kinds, and compel every Church for State, and that where all, or almost all, the Churches of any to live on the hand-to-mouth system,—i.e., on the yearly people are made directly dependent on Government grants, contributions of its supporters. Admit, as we must, that the there is pretty certain to be both a want of adequate energy funds contributed by the State are much larger, and the and spontaneous vitality in those Churches, and a disposition position secured by the State is much more dignified, than any either to corrupt them or persecute them on the part of the which other Churches will be able to compete with on equal Government,—.a disposition which is in the highest degree terms, still that does not show that an Establishment is evil in corrupting to the power which displays it. We agree, therefore, principle, unless it be also asserted that every Church should with the Duke that popular Church Establishments, where the be as far as possible stripped of all adventitious attractions Church property is more or less independently held by freehold- transmitted to it by a zeal and piety that have now passed ing trustees for the religious benefit of the people, and where away. Such attractions do not bias the mind of the truth- the Government has no power to interfere, except by the action seeker so much as those which Establishments provide, of regular Courts of judicature, after the appointment of these only because they are less in quantity, but they do pro- freeholders, with their modes of religions action, are far safer bably bias it seriously, so that a compulsory law of and better than State-paid salaries for clergymen, which almost ecclesiastical poverty would be the only way to carry Mr. always give rise to too close, and not altogether pure, relations Miall's chief object into full working effect. Such Estab- between the civil and the spiritual power. But how the Duke lishments as those of England and Scotland are really far argues from his not unjustifiable distrust of Ministers of Public nearer in effect to the independent revenues of Voluntary Worship, and of the kind of transactions with which their Churches, than to the conditional stipends,—which may be names are connected, that in removing the gross anomaly of an withheld by the State at pleasure,—of a clergy who are a depart- Irish Protestant Establishment quartered on a Catholic people, ment of the Civil Service, and have no liberty to resist their there was no choice but to disestablish and disendow all official superior. In point of fact, the clergy of our State religions equally, we are quite unable to see. Why should the Church resist the Government only too successfully, even when Government have been limited to choose between concurrent the Government is backed by the people. endowments of the Regium Donum kind and universal disen- Indeed, nothing is more important than to remember that a dowment ? Would it not have been possible to transfer some richly-endowed Free Church, which appeals to the secular part of the National Church property to the comparatively Tribunals to interpret the contracts it has made with its clergy unendowed Churches, with at least as much reservation of and its laity, is so far as this an Established Church,—that
the influence of the Government as still obtains, at all events, no one generation of its worshippers can overrule the organic in Scotland ? We can see no reason for the rigid alternative, law on which it is based, and that what that organic law is, which the Duke of Argyll seems to say that all true statesmen is decided for it by lawyers by the general rules applicable to must have accepted, between the award of mere State salaries, legal interpretation, and not by any vote of the faithful. No the conditions of which it would have taken something like a doubt, it is not what we call an Established Church, so far as Minister of Public Worship to superintend, and the Policy it concedes no administrative authority to the Government in actually adopted of complete disendowment. If private respect to its rulers or teachers, and so far as all its persons can endow churches nowadays, and impose wealth is derived exclusively from those who once professed certain conditions on the endowments which do not either the same faith or the faith of which the present of a special Creed which was not contributed by the adherents of that Creed, it is an evil which in a very large, though not perhaps equal degree, affects all endowed Churches.
No doubt, the wealth of the Churches which have broken off from the Establishment is less than it ought to have been if they had inherited the wealth contributed by their religious ancestors. But, then, who were their religious ancestors ? Whoever they be, if they had taken away some of the national property with them,—as we wish they had,—they would still have appropriated to the spread of one creed, wealth contributed by the believers in another creed. It is absurd to suppose that in any ancient country, the ideal of the Nonconformist,—a fair field and no favour to any particular. creed,—ever can be reached. The vices, as they call them, of Establishments, apply more or less to all Churches which inherit wealth ; and the distinction between these and such Establishments as those of Scotland, or even England, is one of degree, and not of kind. The Duke of Argyll brought out this very powerfully, and though we are well aware that it will not affect the "Society for the Liberation of Religion from State Patronage and Control," it may, and we think should, affect very powerfully those moderate Liberals who are hesitating as to their course, and who have a vision flashed before their eyes of a kind of religious equality,' which is as intrinsically impossible of realisation as that absolute equality of wealth of which Socialists dream,—intrinsically impossible, that is, except on condition that the world both of religious opinions and of endowments shall start afresh.
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