76 Tithes versus Rent. [JAN. 



upon those classes which have least to spare. Taxes tending to enhance 

 the price of food are, pro tanto, the worst taxes. Land taxes, of all kinds, 

 ought, therefore, to be commuted as soon as possible. In the mean time, 

 however, it is not to be contradicted, that the real full, legal tithe, can at 

 present, without inconvenience to farmer or labourer, be paid, if all but 

 the rent of the very best land be taken off altogether, and this list be 

 very much reduced. 



30. The evil of tithe, as a deduction from profit, is sensibly felt at 

 present, solely and entirely in consequence of the pressure of rent. The 

 evil of tithe, as a bone of contention between parson and farmer, and 

 through the latter the labourer also, can be remedied directly through- 

 out the kingdom, by forcing the landed proprietor himself to pay the 

 full tithe to the parson. It is a monstrous absurdity that this has not 

 been always insisted on. The parson would thus have a very few to 

 quarrel with for his subsistence instead of a great many ; and these few 

 would be, on the average, less likely to push their animosity towards 

 him, for demanding his income, to such irrational lengths. At all 

 events, he need not scruple to make them do him justice as men, who 

 very well know that he has a legal and equitable right to back his pre- 

 tensions, and who can pay him without greater inconvenience than 

 usually attends the discharge of a debt by a wealthy man. 



31. The landed proprietor, then, must be forced into cultivation on 

 his own account first ; and when the country deems it best for its in- 

 terests, the clerical tithe-holder must be compelled to cultivate also. 



32. Whatever rent continues to be paid at present should be paid in 



Sroduce alone, thus in justice exonerating the farmer, the smaller in- 

 ustrious capitalist, from the losses incurred by monetary fluctuations, 

 from the necessity of selling his produce at unfavourable junctures, in 

 order to provide cash for the rent day. 



33. Until tithe has been commuted for its full value in land, by impe- 

 rative demands upon proprietors, thus to redeem their property from its 

 legal dues, it would be a manifest injustice to force a parson to buy 

 carts and horses to carry his corn to market. The landed proprietor 

 should, therefore, be obliged to pay the parson in cash until the com- 

 mutation has been made. The question of tithe has nought in common 

 with that of bishopricks, and pluralities, and luxurious provision for par- 

 sons. All such things may be, and, no doubt, are absurd enough, still the 

 public has a right to claim, and surely will not suffer itself to be cajoled 

 out of the full deduction of the tenth from the landed property of the king- 

 dom. Nay more, the parsons may be the most immoral and useless 

 men in the country, which, by the by, they certainly are not, without in 

 the least invalidating their claim to the property which they hold, not 

 under divine authority, nor as successors of apostles, but as men capable 

 of possessing civil rights, and invested with those rights by the laws 

 under which they live. 



34. A public right, most indubitably, is that of tithe, and to the most 

 beneficial public purposes may it be, whenever the country chooses, ap- 

 plied. It only needs the public demand for something more than a 

 black- coated, shovel-hatted, on working days, decent-looking; but on 

 Sundays, demure and sanctified, preaching and prayer-reading parson. 

 It only needs the public to require a masculine style of clergyman, in- 

 stead of the old-womanish, catechetical idol of clerk, and beadles, and 

 sextons, and pew-openers, and Sunday-school children. As soon as 



