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THE CHURCH-RATE.
But I cannot express equal satisfaction in regard to everything that
Mr Brownrigg took upon his own responsibility, as my reader will
see. He, and another farmer, his neighbour, had been so often
re-elected churchwardens, that at last they seemed to have gained a
prescriptive right to the office, and the form of election fell into
disuse; so much so, that after Mr Summer's death, which took place
some year and a half before I became Vicar of Marshmallows, Mr
Brownrigg continued to exercise the duty in his own single person,
and nothing had as yet been said about the election of a colleague.
So little seemed to fall to the duty of the churchwarden that I
regarded the neglect as a trifle, and was remiss in setting it
right. I had, therefore, to suffer, as was just. Indeed, Mr
Brownrigg was not the man to have power in his hands unchecked.
I had so far recovered that I was able to rise about noon and go
into my study, though I was very weak, and had not yet been out,
when one morning Mrs Pearson came into the room and said,--
"Please, sir, here's young Thomas Weir in a great way about
something, and insisting upon seeing you, if you possibly can."
I had as yet seen very few of my friends, except the Doctor, and
those only for two or three minutes; but although I did not feel
very fit for seeing anybody just then, I could not but yield to his
desire, confident there must be a good reason for it, and so told
Mrs Pearson to show him in.
"Oh, sir, I know you would be vexed if you hadn't been told," he
exclaimed, "and I am sure you will not be angry with me for
troubling you."
"What is the matter, Tom?" I said. "I assure you I shall not be
angry with you."
"There's Farmer Brownrigg, at this very moment, taking away Mr
Templeton's table because he won't pay the church-rate."
"What church-rate?" I cried, starting up from the sofa. "I never
heard of a church-rate."
Now, before I go farther, it is necessary to explain some things.
One day before I was taken ill, I had had a little talk with Mr
Brownrigg about some repairs of the church which were necessary, and
must be done before another winter. I confess I was rather pleased;
for I wanted my people to feel that the church was their property,
and that it was their privilege, if they could regard it as a
blessing to have the church, to keep it in decent order and repair.
So I said, in a by-the-by way, to my churchwarden, "We must call a
vestry before long, and have this looked to." Now my predecessor had
left everything of the kind to his churchwardens; and the
inhabitants from their side had likewise left the whole affair to
the churchwardens. But Mr Brownrigg, who, I must say, had taken more
pains than might have been expected of him to make himself
acquainted with the legalities of his office, did not fail to call a
vestry, to which, as usual, no one had responded; whereupon he
imposed a rate according to his own unaided judgment. This, I
believe, he did during my illness, with the notion of pleasing me by
the discovery that the repairs had been already effected according
to my mind. Nor did any one of my congregation throw the least
difficulty in the churchwarden's way.--And now I must refer to
another circumstance in the history of my parish.
I think I have already alluded to the fact that there were
Dissenters in Marshmallows. There was a little chapel down a lane
leading from the main street of the village, in which there was
service three times every Sunday. People came to it from many parts
of the parish, amongst whom were the families of two or three
farmers of substance, while the village and its neighbourhood
contributed a portion of the poorest of the inhabitants. A year or
two before I came, their minister died, and they had chosen another,
a very worthy man, of considerable erudition, but of extreme views,
as I heard, upon insignificant points, and moved by a great dislike
to national churches and episcopacy. This, I say, is what I had made
out about him from what I had heard; and my reader will very
probably be inclined to ask, "But why, with principles such as
yours, should you have only hearsay to go upon? Why did you not make
the honest man's acquaintance? In such a small place, men should not
keep each other at arm's length." And any reader who says so, will
say right. All I have to suggest for myself is simply a certain
shyness, for which I cannot entirely account, but which was partly
made up of fear to intrude, or of being supposed to arrogate to
myself the right of making advances, partly of a dread lest we
should not be able to get on together, and so the attempt should
result in something unpleasantly awkward. I daresay, likewise, that
the natural SHELLINESS of the English had something to do with it.
At all events, I had not made his acquaintance.
Mr Templeton, then, had refused, as a point of conscience, to pay
the church-rate when the collector went round to demand it; had been
summoned before a magistrate in consequence; had suffered a default;
and, proceedings being pushed from the first in all the pride of Mr
Brownrigg's legality, had on this very day been visited by the
churchwarden, accompanied by a broker from the neighbouring town of
Addicehead, and at the very time when I was hearing of the fact was
suffering distraint of his goods. The porcine head of the
churchwarden was not on his shoulders by accident, nor without
significance.
But I did not wait to understand all this now. It was enough for me
that Tom bore witness to the fact that at that moment proceedings
were thus driven to extremity. I rang the bell for my boots, and, to
the open-mouthed dismay of Mrs Pearson, left the vicarage leaning on
Tom's arm. But such was the commotion in my mind, that I had become
quite unconscious of illness or even feebleness. Hurrying on in more
terror than I can well express lest I should be too late, I reached
Mr Templeton's house just as a small mahogany table was being
hoisted into a spring-cart which stood at the door. Breathless with
haste, I was yet able to call out,--
"Put that table down directly."
At the same moment Mr Brownrigg appeared from within the door. He
approached with the self-satisfied look of a man who has done his
duty, and is proud of it. I think he had not heard me.
"You see I'm prompt, Mr Walton," he said. "But, bless my soul, how
ill you look!"
Without answering him--for I was more angry with him than I ought to
have been--I repeated--
"Put that table down, I tell you."
They did so.
"Now," I said, "carry it back into the house."
"Why, sir," interposed Mr Brownrigg, "it's all right."
"Yes," I said, "as right as the devil would have it."
"I assure you, sir, I have done everything according to law."
"I'm not so sure of that. I believe I had the right to be chairman
at the vestry-meeting; but, instead of even letting me know, you
took advantage of my illness to hurry on matters to this shameful
and wicked excess."
I did the poor man wrong in this, for I believe he had hurried
things really to please me. His face had lengthened considerably by
this time, and its rubicund hue declined.
"I did not think you would stand upon ceremony about it, sir. You
never seemed to care for business."
"If you talk about legality, so will I. Certainly YOU don't stand
upon ceremony."
"I didn't expect you would turn against your own churchwarden in the
execution of his duty, sir," he said in an offended tone. "It's bad
enough to have a meetin'-house in the place, without one's own
parson siding with t'other parson as won't pay a lawful
church-rate."
"I would have paid the church-rate for the whole parish ten times
over before such a thing should have happened. I feel so disgraced,
I am ashamed to look Mr Templeton in the face. Carry that table into
the house again, directly."
"It's my property, now," interposed the broker. "I've bought it of
the churchwarden, and paid for it."
I turned to Mr Brownrigg.
"How much did he give you for it?" I asked.
"Twenty shillings," returned he, sulkily, "and it won't pay
expenses."
"Twenty shillings!" I exclaimed; "for a table that cost three times
as much at least!--What do you expect to sell it for?"
"That's my business," answered the broker.
I pulled out my purse, and threw a sovereign and a half on the
table, saying--
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