needed, as a protection against breaches of faith which would embarrass the clergy or churchwardens, as well as involve personal dishonour ?

We do not suppose that the promoters of this Bill wish to substitute one form of coercion for another, or that they contemplate the establishment of such a new system of obtaining funds for such purposes as is hinted at in this particular provision; and, if we are right in that supposition, it is the greater pity that they should have raised so disquieting an issue. As it now stands, the Bill suggests the idea that its authors lack faith in the fundamental principle on which it is based. There is about it a leaven of the old unbelief in the possibility of safely trusting in the willingness of episcopalians to provide for the worship of the Almighty as spontaneously as is done by other bodies of religionists. Speaking as a chancery lawyer, Sir Roundell Palmer will, doubtless, supply some excellent lawyer-like arguments in support of such a proviso; but this is a matter in which we care more for the teaching of the Gospel than for the teaching of the law. We, in fact, want to lift the whole subject out of the region of parchments and pleaders, and this enactment, that "voluntary assessment" and "voluntary contributions" may be "enforced in the same manner as other contracts of a like nature might be enforced in any court of law or equity," is just enough to remind us of the dangers involved in compromise, or in anything short of abolition pure and simple.

The excision of these two clauses (5 and 6), would both simplify the Bill and improve it as a practical measure; and, remembering the spirit in which Mr. Gladstone has dealt with the subject, we are not without hope that he will arrive at the same conclusion. Supposing that he does so, and that he presents the measure in a form sure to command the support of the whole Liberal party, will it prove more successful than the pile of Church-rate Bills which have been consigned to the parliamentary limbo? That is a question the answer to which depends on the upholders of Church-rates, rather than upon the abolitionists. For, if the Bill is to be hotly opposed as that of Mr. Hardcastle's has been, why should it be pressed, in preference to the measure of that honourable member?

If a Church-rate Bill is to be carried through the Commons, only to be rejected by the Lords, the Bill had better be a complete than an imperfect measure. If, therefore, Mr. Gladstone wishes to succeed, he has to address himself, not so much to the benches behind him, as to the benches in his front, and more especially to a certain bench in "another place," the lawnsleeved occupants of which can make, or mar, his fortune in the matter. As yet he has received no encouragement from those whom he desires to conciliate; for the Churchman hastens to call his measure an outrageous Bill," and would rather that the Church should be victimized by avowed enemies" than see it passed into law. The Clerical Journal, also, describes the drift of the Bill as being "actual abolition of the rate altogether, only with a deceptive exterior; and it is evident it would be as much a measure of spoliation as the Bill of Mr. Hardcastle." If the prompt utterances of these journals foreshadow the reception it is to meet with at the hands of the Church-rate party generally, they also foreshadow the ultimate fate of the measure, and Mr. Gladstone's name will have to be added to the list of those who have tried their hands at compromise and have failed.

We shall regret such an issue; for we believe that the interests of religious equality would be served by getting the question out of the way before the next general election. Liberal candidates whose ecclesiastical liberalism is summed up in hostility to Church-rates must then needs take up some other item in the liberation programme. Other themes, which would not only be fresher, but broader, and involve far higher interests, would then be pushed to the front for discussion and settlement; while such new topics would be debated without the depressing influence exerted by the fact that there has been a thirty years' debate on the Churchrate question, and that even that is not yet disposed of.

We know that there are those who think that this exaction keeps open a running sore, which, like some other sores, is as useful as it is unpleasant. The averment is not a highminded one, but in times past it was in accordance with facts, and was not without force. Now, however, the sore has pretty nearly run itself dry. Church-rates have, practically, been

extinguished in the majority of parishes, and in many other parishes where they still exist, those who levy them are wise enough to forbear from enforcing them against objectors, whom they thereby effectually disarm. The battle has, in fact, been fought and won in the plains, and it is now being followed by a guerilla warfare in the mountains-where the fighting is, no doubt, difficult enough, but where little is gained as the result of abolitionist success. Meanwhile, the parliamentary forces of the abolitionists are still engaged in annual conflicts at St. Stephen's, which consume time and energy, the application of which to other purposes is now eminently desirable. On these grounds, we shall feel indebtedness to Mr. Gladstone if he proves himself able to hasten, though but by a single year, the abolition of compulsory taxation for religions purposes. That he may fail, so far as this particular Bill is concerned, is too probable; but he will not even then have played the last card in his pack. Let him, in the case supposed, announce himself as one who is converted, however reluctantly, to the policy of total abolition; and let it be authoritatively declared by his lips that the triumph of that policy must be one of the first results of the creation of a regenerated liberal party. Nothing would be easier, or safer. than such an advanced movement,-nothing less should satisfy the requirements of that large and influential section of the Liberal party which has so long faithfully followed its political leaders, while receiving from those leaders but scanty services in return.

ΑΝ

THE ABYSSINIAN WAR.

N additional penny in the pound of Income Tax, a second to come presently, and the balances in the Exchequer, set aside for the reduction of the National Debt, all absorbed; these are the first fruits of the Abyssinian war; a war, be it remembered, not sanctioned by the House of Com

mons.

It is a Foreign Office war, as almost all our recent wars

have been. That by next May the expense of the expedition will have increased to five millions, the Chancellor of the Exchequer himself anticipates, but the Indian papers are preparing us to expect a much larger call upon the national purse. The expense of transport is so large, and the difficulties to be grappled with at the landing place and among the hills so great, that, says the Daily News correspondent at Zoula, “The budget must exhibit an expenditure of at least six times the two millions sterling modestly requested by Mr. Disraeli." By May, too, it will be settled that the expedition cannot possibly return this season, and as much money as may have been spent to take it into Abyssinia will be wanted to keep it there till the rains are over, and then to bring it home. That it will ever achieve its ostensible purpose, is very generally doubted; that it will have some disastrous results, very little intended by the Government, not a few believe.

We have said that the war is a Foreign Office war-it would be more proper to call it an Indian war. The Home Government have admitted that one great reason for undertaking it was the maintenance of our prestige in India; it was counselled in India; it was virtually determined in India; it has been organized in India; and it is India that really determines its dimensions, its movements, its character, its aims.

On the 29th of July, Lord Stanley, being urged by some members of the House of Commons to declare instant war upon the King of Abyssinia, said :—

"I feel bound to tell the House frankly and fairly, that to obtain the release of these men by force is not an easy matter. I do not speak of military resistance, which in all probability would be insignificant; but we have to consider the country, the climate, the heat at one season and the rains at another, the cost of supplies, the absence of all means of transport, and our total ignorance of the feelings of the people-which all make operations against Abyssinia a very serious matter. It would be madness to

throw a British army into an unknown country, in a tropical climate, far from the sea, far from its resources and its supplies, without a full previous investigation as to the means of moving, feeding, and keeping them in health. That inquiry we look upon as the indispensable preliminary."

In less than a month after the speech an announcement that an ultimatum had been sent to King Theodore, and orders given for the expedition, formed part of the Royal message on the prorogation of Parliament. The "investigation" which

Lord Stanley said was an indispensable preliminary had been carried on in India, for his lordship, when charged with having misled Parliament by the speech we have referred to, explained that the telegrams he had received from India satisfied him that the expedition was feasible, and determined the Cabinet to send the final order for starting to Bombay. "If," telegraphed Sir John Lawrence, "the expedition be well commanded, we consider there is every prospect of success." The expedition must be presumed to have this one requisite of success, for everybody says that Sir Robert Napier is the very man to lead it. The expedition once resolved upon, it was, of course, the duty of the Government to see that everything was done that could be done to make it a brilliant affair. The force was organized on a scale which would leave no fear of failure, either from want of men to fight, or from inability to keep up communications between the sea and the interior. The south of Europe and Asia Minor were scoured for mules, no matter what the price, and the means of transport, with every possible appliance for the health and well-being of the troops provided, regardless of expense. It is positively stated that baggage animals, for which £40 a-piece were paid, cost £20 more to carry from Bombay to Massowah, and when they got there they died off at the rate of thirty or forty a day. There have been the usual blunders and mishaps. Mules sent without tethering chains; muleteers without clothing, regiments with Enfield rifles and Snider ammunition, and at first great insufficiency of water supply; but these things must always be expected in an English enterprise, and we may be thankful that the mismanagement has not been greater.

And now let us see how matters stand. At the commencement of the year half the troops had arrived at Annesley Bay, and Sir Robert-their commander-disembarked there on the 4th of January. Then the transports were sent back to Bombay to bring the rest of the force as quickly as they could. Great numbers of mules, horses, and camels, had died of a disease peculiar to the country, but the men were in good health,. and might expect to remain so till the rains—already overdue -converted the arid shore into a mud swamp, and bred fever and dysentery in the camp. Some troops had been sixty