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too solicitous about the effects of his words on others. If he paus to consider whether this phrase will inflict a wound, or that cut to deeply, if he be over anxious to spare the feelings of his opponent or to avoid giving pain to individuals whilst he is contending again their misdeeds, he is ipso facto enfeebled or unfitted for the tas of playing the part of a reformer. This disqualification is som thing different from, and infinitely more respectable than, that mor cowardice of which I have just spoken. It is not that the man "willing to wound and yet afraid to strike." His arm is paralyse and his blow loses its effectiveness and force not by fear, but unwillingness to give pain. The motive is different, but the rest is the same.

If amiability has these and similar disadvantages it may further inquired whether a bad temper has not some advantage The highest type of character is, of course, that calm serene steadis force which moves onward towards its end without excitement purturbation, that quiet, noiseless energy, unhasting yet unresti undemonstrative yet unfaltering in its severe resolve, which a from fixed principle as by an inner law of its being-which needs impulse from without, being sustained by its own indwelling resol But in the case of weaker natures a passionate energy is oft almost the only alternative to inefficient languor. Housewives my acquaintance prefer a bad-tempered servant to any other. Th say that when a girl is in a passion she scrubs with unusual for and despatches her work with marvellous celerity. The exciteme of feeling struggling to find vent somewhere passes off as by a safe valve in the broom and scrubbing brush. Where a good temper girl would sit apathetically amongst her pots and dishes opposing sluggish and imperturbable good humour to all the objurgations her angry mistress, an irascible one takes fire at the reproach addressed to her. Furor arma ministrat. She delivers might blows at the demon of dirt wishing the while that it were h mistress she had in her clutches, or even for the moment imaginin it to be so. Our irate Betty furnishes an example of mu titudes in every condition of life whose bad temper is notoriou but who accomplish an amount of work at which languid impa sive amiability can only gaze with stolid wonder.

It must be admitted too that whilst a bad temper rather hinder than helps a man in the acquisition of friends, it yet brings wit it some compensations. I am a very amiable man myself, and an treated accordingly. Anything will do for me. I have prepare a speech with unusual care, when Dr. Bigwig unexpectedly make his appearance on the platform, and the managers want to mak an opening for him to speak. Of course I am asked to give up my Resolution to him, and of course I consent. I should like to se them ask old Surly to do so, or let them try to put him wher

hey habitually put me-either just at the commencement, of the neeting, when everybody is coming in, or at the close when everyody is going out. In private life it is the same. My good nature 3 constantly imposed upon, and it is deemed a sufficient reason for utting me in the worst place that "he's such a good fellow, he loes'nt mind, he's always satisfied.” I see ill-conditioned bad empered people whose wishes are consulted, and whose preferences re studied lest they should take offence or make a disturbance. They get the warmest seat in winter and the coolest in summer, he liver-wing of the chicken, and the best cut from the haunch, he uppermost room at feasts, and the most scrupulous courtesy rom the host, whilst I from my place below the salt, look on and ick my bone in contented obscurity. I know one little minx, who a consequence of her notoriously bad temper, exacts and receives in amount of attention from her elders and betters which they do not render to each other. They know too well what would be the consequences of any neglect, real or apparent, and scrupulously avoid giving her any cause of offence, whilst I am left to sulk in the corner or shiver in the draught of the door.

But if I thus complain of the slights to which good tempered people are exposed, it must not be supposed that they are really in a worse position than the quarrelsome or exacting. "A contented

nind is a continual feast." "Better is a dinner of herbs where jove is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith." The facts glanced at only form part of that wonderful and all pervading system of compensations which tends to equalize all conditions, to mitigate what would otherwise be an unmixed evil, and to prevent the attainment of an unmixed good. Each gain has its associated loss; each loss its attendant gain. There is flaw in the most perfect condition, a crook in every lot, in all sweetness some bitter drop; in the bitterest cup some drop of sweetness is infused. No human character can exhaust and exemplify all the possibilities of excellence, no fortune can exclude all circumstances of disparagement. So, on the other hand, we may discover some gleams of good in all phases of human life-some alleviations in all conditions of earthly trial. What has been now said of temper, good and bad, will apply to almost every aspect of life teaching us to moderate our expectations, to judge kindly of others, humbly of ourselves, to "be contented with such things as we have," and be thankful for the happiness enjoyed "in that state of life into which it hath pleased God to call us."

M.

108

CHURCH RATES IN THE LAW COURTS.

As our readers will see from our title, we are about to restr ourselves within a narrow range of enquiry. We shall not disc the State Church question, nor the propriety of organized effort the abolition of the State Church system. On both these top we may for our present purpose, presume our readers to have ma up their minds. Nor do we think it needful to approve at leng the sound judgment which dictated the selection of church rates a battle-field. Among other advantages, however, it contained t viz., that on this question the war could be carried on indep dently, both in Parliament and all over the country at the sa time. And we believe that if the opinion could be gathered those who have had the best opportunities of showing the resu they would have great difficulty in deciding which of the two li of operation has contributed, or is likely to contribute, most va ably to the final victory.

No doubt in neither has our success been uniform; and th have been one or two skirmishes lately in the law courts, wh are thought, we understand, by some of our friends, not to h turned out for us altogether as might have been hoped for. have had the opportunity of closely examining the cases in qu tion, and we certainly can discover no occasion for uneasiness. Th are hardly more than an affair of pickets; or if they may ren advisable some re-arrangement of our front, our main lines are 1 endangered, not even assailed.

As we understand the matter, the system of vestry tactics whi have for some years past been counselled by the Liberation Socie and its advisers, amounts to this :-That so long as church ra continue unabolished, the making and payment of them sho everywhere-in every parish in which they are sought to be ma and levied-be resisted to the uttermost. Not that it is now bei proposed to us to suffer distress-that was done long before t Liberation Society was thought of, and will be done still witho the exigency of any pressure likely to be needful from them; b our friends at Serjeant's Inn have devised and elaborated in gre detail, a means of resistance in and after vestry by the forms of la and they have held out to us, as we understand, that if the cour advised is acted out with reasonable good sense and determinatio it is always safe and mostly effectual. The rate will not be obtaine and the recusant will be undespoiled of his goods, and une dangered as to his personal liberty.

If this be the result, the procedure to attain it is much too in portant to be given up until we are well satisfied of its inefficac

These vestry contests are the best of lectures on anti-state-churchism, and they have certainly had to do with that continuous decline in church rates, the significance of which is aggravated by the concurrent increase in church building and in the annual value of rateable property. As regards this matter of church building, indeed, their necessity is becoming serious. The law is that when once a vestry has legally agreed to anything in the shape of church building, and has authorized the effecting of the loans necessary for the purpose, it has no further control over the rates. The church

wardens-not the vestry, make the rates thenceforward; and no matter how egregiously they may be misapplied, the parishioners must continue to pay them until the whole loan for which they are security has been discharged. It is observed, by those who have to advise professionally, that church-building by means of rates appears to be becoming systematic and general; so that unless the country is to be saddled with the system for twenty years after it has been legislatively abolished by Sir John Trelawny, vestry contests must be systematically and generally persevered in.

What then is really our legal position in regard to church rates? The truth is, that of all rates a church rate appears to lie under the singular disfavour of the law. Any other rate-a county rate, a highway rate, or a borough or watch rate-is made snugly enough by the justices or town council: and unless the recusant has successfully taken proceedings against it himself in the first instance, or can at least show that he has either no property or is over-rated, pay it he must. But in order to the enforcement of a church rate, no less than five requirements must be fulfilled. It must have been made by a legal vestry; the notice convening the vestry must have been legally sufficient; the proceedings incident to making the rate must have been substantially regular; it must not contain one illegal item; and lastly, it must be enforced in time.

Into the manifold sub-requirements which go to make up each of these conditions of legality we cannot enquire here. They will be found fully treated of in the Society's "Practical Directions," Mr. Wills's "Vestryman's Guide," and Dr. Foster's "Acts and Cases." The mere statement will satisfy our readers how it may be that our sturdy recusants, relying courageously upon their advisers, and fighting every point at every step, have been able all through the provinces to interpose almost insuperable obstacles both to the valid making of a church rate, and to its practical levy, when it has been nominally made. It has happened, no doubt, as was to be expected, that they have been met by counter tactics; the committee of Laymen have issued tracts* framed with considerable skill for brow-beating a vestry and carrying a rate coute qui coute; but we

* Published by Seeleys, Fleet Street.

have not yet heard of a case in which a rate made in reliance upon them, has been contended for in the Ecclesiastical Courts. The cases of failure to which we referred at the outset, have rather been instances in which our friends, flushed perhaps with too great facility of former victory, have hardly paid due attention to the conditions required for its repetition.

The truth is, that the very success of our tactics has driven our opponents to defences, from which it requires corresponding countermoves to dislodge them. This is not, however, a matter of difficulty. For instance: one great recommendation of our advisers has been, that when summoned for nonpayment, we should, upon such legal grounds as in our particular case may be open to us, "dispute the validity" of the rate, and thus by force of a statute in that case provided, oust the magistrates from their jurisdiction to deal with the case. The churchwardens are by this proceeding driven into the Ecclesiastical Court, into which, as the events have shown, they are rarely inclined to go. To do this successfully, it is not necessary to satisfy the magistrates that the rate is certainly bad; but it is necessary that there should be, and that there should be shown to the magistrates to be at least some legally arguable ground of objection to it, and that upon the faith of such objection, the rate is bona fide disputed. In a late case, the solicitor for the defence took three objections to the rate, two of which he did not press, and were disposed of summarily. The third was on the face of it substantial; namely, that part only of the parish was rated. The magistrates adjourned for further evidence, when the churchwardens produced an order in council, purporting to sever from the rest the unrated portion of the parish. The solicitor, by some misunder standing, was not present to contest the effect of the order; and the magistrates decided that the objection was not bona fide. On the matter coming before the Queen's Bench, Mr. Justice Cromp ton upheld their decision; saying, as we must think with much reason, "You must show the magistrates that there is an objection, not a possibility of an objection. The facts were against you." In another case not reported, a ratepayer attending in person, his remedy by action against the magistrates for a distraint upon him under circumstances which would have gone far to ensure exemplary damages, because from his ignorance of technicalities, he had failed to make it sufficiently apparent that he intended formally to dispute the rate, and so place himself under the protection of the statute. In a protracted litigation still pending, it is yet to be seen whether a verdict actually recovered against magis trates in a similar action will be sustained or not on the legal merits. If it should be reversed, it will be so simply because * Ex parte Crofts, Bail Court, Nov. 19, 1862.

† 11 & 12 Vict. c. 44.

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