ALTERATION IN THE LAWS AFFECTING WORSHIP IN ENGLAND.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, Issue 69, 24 November 1855, Page 4

ALTERATION IN THE LAWS AFFECTING WORSHIP IN ENGLAND.

[From the Sydney Empire."]

The recent news brought the report of an Act to repeal certain obnoxious clauses of the English Toleration Act. The bill had passed the House of Commons without opposition, almost without debate, so thoroughly did all classes of politicians seem to agree with it, or so completely occupied were they with administrative affairs as not to have noticed its progress. It was then introduced into the House of Lords by the Earl of Shsfteebury, who was met with considerable opposition, chiefly by the Bishops, who, most of them, threw their whole weight into the balance against it. But the opposition was not direct, for an amendment was carried, that the bill should be referred to a select committee. We do not know exactly what the committee did with the bill— whether they altered it in any material points ; for after it came out it was spoken of by its advocates still as the same measure, without complaint, and the opposition to it rested on the same allegations. Tbe bill was read the third time and passed in the Lords by a majority of one. Although we did not perceive that it had received the royal assent, we must assume that it did, Tor that asrent is never withheld now from any measure that passes the twohou«es. So it must be regarded, we apprehend, as the law of the land.

The clause chiefly deemed obnoxious in the Toleration Act, and which this bill was intended specially to repeal, was that which forbade more than twenty persons, over and above the members of the family, to meet in any person's hou^e for religious purposes, unless that house had been first duly licensed and registered as a place of worship. Tho original purpose of tho clause was to make a distinction between Dissenters and Churchmen — no places of worship being, under their own system, allowed to the latter, but such as were licensed or consecrated by tho Bishops of the diocese; and the former being brought under the surveillance of law by (lie penalties attached to a non-observance of the rule of licensing. The ostensible purpose of it, however, was a inflection on the loyalty of the Dissenters — it being deemed probal.le that politically seditious meetings would be held under the figment of religious ones, if they were not restricted by some legal regulation. Of course this ostensible reason has long ago disappeared; for it would be the height of folly and insolence on the part of proud ecclesiastics and bigoted statesmen to insinuate now that Dissenters are less loyal than themselvep. Nor was this insinuated by those who opposed the repeal in the House of Lords. The ground of the opposition was only this—that the laity of tho Church of England would draw off from tbeir clergy, and set themselves to conduct religious services for them selveo, if the law were repealed which demanded that those who held such meetings should register themselves as Dissenters. No intolerance worth naming was uttered against declared Dissenter?. It was solely against giving too much liberty to their flocks that their spiritual lordships protested. It is evident, then, that the temper of the times on the rights of conscience is marvellously different from what it was when in 1523 the Test and Corporation Acts were repealed. At the same time it bhows how little liberty within a large denomination is often enjoyed in comparison with that which is enjoyed outside of it. The Earl of Shaftesbury maintained his gronnd. He said that the clause was a dead letter, universally infringed, and incapable of being restored to practical application ; that the City Mission and other societies of that nature, which it would l>e want of piety and charity to impede, held meetings for worship at pleasure, and asked no leave; their mretings were exceedingly numerous, were doing great good, and were unobjectionable. Those meetings the rigid application of tho law would thut up. Then, as none would contend that such a result was desirable, the law, never fulfilled, was a disgrace to the statute book. He did not believe that the repeal of it would damage the Church of England, for a little more freedom in that Church in regard to lay intervention might be desirable, and the clergy would be assisted by some while, some aids of that kind. At all events, a law which ! could not be enforced was uselest, and worse. It was re| lied to thi>, that it is good to keep a strong law upon the statute book, even when rarely enforced, as it is n fit instrument to apply when cir- ! enmstances call for it. A reason thi«, which wouM go to justify those obsolete laws of the reign of Elizabeth, which ordained terrible pennl ties for non-attendance at the parish church, and which were, till of late, if they are not eiitl, unrepealed. Amid the discussions among tbeir lordt>hips we da not pereeire any reference worth noting to the great moral right of the question, but only to points of expediency and petty convenience. This is amazing, and shows how little reflection there is, ' after all, even among the highest orders of men, on the fundamental distinctions between right anil wrong, anil tbe inalienable nature of the claims of miixl anil conscience. Dot the question is really a moral one. The clause was an iniquity, covered with tbe flimsy pretext of the necessity of preventing the machinations of disloyalty vnder the garb of religion. For be it remembered, that nhile a place of rtligious worship bail to be licensed, wiib. out which not more than twenty might meet to conduct it, political and other meetings required

no such rule. It acted, therefore, as a restriction purely upon conscience, with the insulting inuendo that men might meet politically without beintfsedi tious, but they could not meet religiously without being so. What an absurdity! What an imputclionl How essentially wicked ! How thoroughly did it indicate the absence of all right notions about religion from the minds of those who framed the lawl

But as to the right— what right has any State whatever to impose religious restraints, to dictate the places for religious practices, or the terms of religious duties ? Always reserving the right of the State to prohibit practices of positive crime under the pretest of religion, such as the Hindoo Suttees, the obscenities and cruelties of Juggernaut, and the bigamy of the Mormons, there is no case of pure conscience in which human authority can interfere without higher guilt than any which its interposition can prevent. All such laws therefore, without exception, and every shade of them, ought to be expunged from the law books of every free nation, so as to let the Churches shift as they may under a system of pure and equal justice.

TURKEY AND ITS NEW CHRISTIAN ARMY. — The Journal de Constantinople publishes the Imperial hatt, by which the Christian subjects of the Sultan, hitherto excluded, by jealousy of religion and race, from the profession of arms are called to take part in the military service of tbe empire. The proclamation starts fiom the point, that all the subjects of the Sultan are alike, and without exception cared for by their Sovereign. It is nest intimated, that measures are taking for consolidating the basis of the Ottoman State, for carrying out administrative reforms, and for giving legal guarantees for the welfare of all. It is under these circumstances that the regulations respecting the military service of the empire come under revision. The fact that the Mussulmans at present perform all the military service, while the patrie belongs to all, is presented as an anomaly which it is time to abolish. Accordingly, it has been resolved, with the advice of the hiyh dignitaries of the state, that all the Sultan's Christian subjects shall be liable to be called to serve in the army, as they are already bound in duty to do ; that those enrolled shall form a military contingent ; and that those who do serve in person shall pay in addition to the ordinary taxes a special impost, to be called the Djidzye, or indemnity. It is said, further, that owing to the great numerical superiority of the Mussulman population and their habit of carrying arms, the Christian portion of the Sultan's army will always be smaller than that composed of the same elements as at present. The rules under which these measures are to be carried out will be publibhed in special firmans. In the meanwhile the enrolment will commence both in Asia and in European Turkey, the soldiers so raised to be entitled to ail the rights which may hareafter be established more definitively for tha benefit of the Christian army. Those soldiers who give proof of capacity and merit wdl be raised to the rank of officers. In this way the burden of military Bervice, which has hitherto weighed exclusively upon tbe Mussulmans, will be alleviated, and the other classes of the population of the empire will be admitted to the honour and glory of serving the state and tbe country.

Wire- Worm and Potato Grub.— In a letter to the Geelong Advertiser, Mr. H. S. WIII9, M.L.C., remarks :— " Of potntoes I had three patches ; one of five ocrei, cultivated in tho usual way with plough and scarifier, and heavily manured, open to the eun, utterly destroyed by the grub; another, of one acre, subso'leil, also open to the sun, partially injured by grub; and a third, adjoining the second, subsoiled, protected from the sun by maize or Indian corn, which prospered well and escaped the grub altogether. I have all along imputed that exemption to the shelter afforded hy the maize, and I was prepared at onre to coincide with the implied inference of the writer of the extract, that the sun's direct rays are necessary to the existence of the wire-worm in wheat, and to the potato grub. Of course ihe maize remedy is not applicable to wheat culture, but may be readily applied to potato crops; and I consider it advisable to publish my own experience, as an inducement to others to experimentalize and test. 1 wish also to observe that Rreen maize stalks are excellent food for cattle and swine, and for this purpose tbe cultivation generally succeeds; and further, I take the opportunity to mention, for the bent-fit of inexperienced farmers, that strong ammoniacal manures for potato culture are now abjured by the English grower, in consequence of their tendency to generate grubs and other noxious insects. As a corrective to such manures, gas tar has been used extensively, when mixed in small quantities with the manures. Some dip the "set" also in the