74 Tithes versus Rent. QJAN. 



26. 2*. 6JW., more than quadruple. The disproportion since this period 

 has probably encreased rather than diminished in favour of rent. Tithe, 

 the?i, has never been nearly so much as a quarter of rent. 



17- But, independently of all calculation, the proof of the enormous 

 profits of landed proprietors is established by the visible addition during 

 the last 40 years, of acres upon acres to different landed properties ; all 

 bought with the accumulated profits of rent ; besides the heaps of pro- 

 fit from the same source, at present in the funds and other investments. 

 " Field has been laid to field, and house to house, till there is no place 

 left." 



18. It is possible that the country can still afford to allow the privilege 

 of rent in a very reduced degree from the best land j but it is impossible 

 for ordinary observation not to conclude, that for the worst land none 

 at all, and for the indifferent hardly any at all, ought to be paid. 



19. The profits of landed proprietors already realized, exclude rent 

 from the claim of any farther factitious protection whatever. If farmers 

 and labourers can pay any, and be content ; let it be paid : if not ; let 

 it go, like other property invested for profit is continually going, " to the 

 dogs." 



20. The laws of the country make express provision for the payment 

 of tithe. Rent, on the contrary, is left to arrangement between man 

 and man. 



21. Rent consists equitably of surplus produce, after all the poor who 

 are able to work, and can get no other employ, have been enabled to 

 earn a comfortable subsistence without help of poor laws : after the small 

 practical capitalist, the farmer, has received the due return to his capital 

 and skill, and industry ; after the government dues, amongst which is 

 tithe, in reality nothing but a land tax, have been levied. 



22. Whenever the circumstances of a country are such, that all these 

 dues cannot be paid without causing misery to a population, the deduc- 

 tion must first be made, exclusively made, from rent. 



23. The capital of the merchant and manufacturer is not protected 

 from annihilation, even. This can never be the landowner's lot, though 

 it would be difficult to shew in what respect he deserves this advantage, 

 more than the manufacturer and the merchant. In fact, since neither 

 ingenuity or trouble is required at his hands, he has in all respects 

 much less claim to consideration than either of them. He cannot, how- 

 ever, and need not be deprived of his great advantage over them, 

 which results from the naturally imperishable condition of the material, 

 in which his property is invested. 



24. Let the landed proprietor not presume to crave for rent, then, to 

 the starvation or degradation of his fellow-countrymen. Let him be 

 abundantly thankful for the resources he has still left : let him hug 

 himself for a lucky fellow, that he has the power of betaking himself to 

 that liberal occupation, the active superintendance of the tillage of the 

 earth : let him, if he be a scholar (shame upon him if he be not), take 

 down his Cicero from its shelf, and construe, and endeavour to catch 

 the spirit of that philosophic nobleman's true and eloquent sentence 

 " Nihil est agricultura melius, nihil uberius, nihil dulcius, nihil homine 

 libero dignius :" let him only beware of rendering agricultura by his 

 favourite term rent : let him not mistake the sense of the word uberius 

 for any profit, but that which the "bountiful earth yields to an intel- 

 ligent, highly educated, learned, philosophic, but assiduous withal, and 

 practical cultivator." 



