THE DISESTABLISHMENT BILL

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 276, 18 May 1912, Page 5

THE DISESTABLISHMENT BILL

DISENDOWMENT AND SECULARISATION. By Oabl«—Pre* Association—Copyright London, May 18. The Prime Minister stated that he night assume, while the Irish Disestablishment Act was unrepealed, that it was mot contrary to the laws of morality and honesty to deal similarly with Wales. Mr. Cave, in reply, said that because Parliament was once unjust there was no reason to repeat the injustice. The Prime Minister declined to facilitate Colonel Griffith-Boscawen's Welsh Religious Census Bill. Mr. Asquith, in the House of Commons, Indicated that financial concessions would be made in the Welsh Disestablishment Dill in committee. The Manchester Guardian says there is much uneasiness amongst Liberals regarding disendowment and secularisation, and hardly one outside the Welsh members has not a strong desire for substantial amendments in the Bill. THE CHURCH'S MONEY. A SCATHING INDICTMENT. Received 17, 9.20 p.m. London, May 17. In the House of Commons the Disestablishment Bill was read a second; time by 348 to 267. Twelve Liberals ah- j stained from voting. Sir Edward Beauchamp. Liberal member for Lowestoft, and Mr. George Harwood, Liberal member for Bolton, voted against the Government. ■ Lord Hugh Cecil said that establishment being a relation between the United Kingdom and the Church, ought. to be treated Imperially, not as concerning Wales alone. The confiscation of property which the Church had held without dispute for three hundred years, and its diversion to secular objects, was wholly indefensible. Mr. Lloyd George denied that the funds derived from tithes were the property of the church. They were held in trust for the nation. The Church, while accumu- j lating endowments, accepted the principle that the maintenance of the poor was the service of God, but the poor's share of the tithe had been annexed. The Government had been charged with pillaging the Church, but the Church set the example when it severed its connection with the ancient faith. Property intended fsr the use of the poor and sick went to great families. The Duke of Devonshire had issued a circular accusing the Government of the robbery of God; yet the foundation of the Duke's fortune lay in property taken from the Church. Such an accusation should not be made bv those whose family tree was laden with the fruits of sacrifice. At the Reformation of the Catholic Churches, monastries and almshouses, the poor, and even the dead, were robbed. Now, when the Welsh were seeking to recover part of the pillage for the poor, those dripping with the fat of sacrilege ventured to accuse the Government of robbing God. Mr. Edgar Jones and Mr. T. Richards indicate that the Welsh, while desiring a settlement, did not want the Church's money. The Church had failed in its trust, and must surrender it to the j nation. { Mr. Bonar Law taunted the Govern- J ment, which, he said, was not proud of its proposal. The motive of the Welsh members was to weaken the Anglican Church, not to strengthen the. free J church. He censured Mr. Lloyd George \ for his attack on the Duke of Devonshire, which was the most extraordinary ! he had ever heard in the House of Com- I mons. Did he mean that the Duke ought i to hand over his property to the State? | It was an unfair attack on a man for! what his ancestors may have done four centuries ago. He was satisfied to base the Welsh Church's title to endowments on prescription alone. Mr. McKenna defended disendowment. The tithe was a creation of the law. Parliament ought not, after disestablishment, to impose a tax on Welshmen for the benefit of a church which was not j national. '