Gosling,  1841-53,  4  H.L.  Gas.  679).  By  this
time  the  victory  over  compulsory  rates  was
practically  won.  It  had  been  aided  by  the
feeling  roused  by  the  imprisonment  of
Thorogood,  a  Chelmsford  shoemaker,  for
contempt  of  the  ecclesiastical  court  in  refusing
his  rate  in  1839.  Henceforth  church  rates
were  only  collected  in  country  districts  where
dissent  was  comparatively  weak.     In  large


towns  they  were  systematically  refused,  and
could  not  be  enforced.  Erom  1853  Bills  for
their  abolition  were  continually  brought  in,
and  met  with  varying  measures  of  success.
That  of  1861  was  only  lost  on  third  reading
by  the  Speaker's  vote.  In  1864  a  Bill  to
commute  them  for  a  rent  charge  on  land  was
defeated.  The  Bill  of  1867  passed  the
Commons,  and  was  rejected  in  the  Lords,  all
the  bishops  present  voting  against  it.  In
1868  the  Compulsory  Church  Rate  Abolition
Act  (31-2  Vic.  c.  109)  was  passed  through
Mr.  Gladstone's  (q.v.)  influence.  Payment  of
church  rates  could  no  longer  be  enforced  by
law  except  in  so  far  as,  though  called  church
rates,  they  were  applied  to  secular  purposes.
But  the  vestry  might  still  levy  a  voluntary
rate,  and  parishioners  refusing  to  pay  it  had
no  voice  in  its  expenditure.  Voluntary
church  rates  have  since  been  generally  super-
seded by  pew  rents  and  voluntary  contribu-
tions. But  compulsory  church  rates  are
still  levied  in  a,  few  parishes  under  private
Acts  of  Parliament.     [Parish.]  [o.  c]

Burn,  Eccl.  Law  ;  Law  Reports  (the  Braintree
cases  are  also  published  in  volume  form) ;
Hansard,  Pari.  Debates,  1834,  '37,  '39,  '53-'68  ;
Cornish,  Eng.  Oh.  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,
I.  viii.  ;  Cannan,  Local  Rates  in  Eng.
