200 Tithes versus 1 Rent. [FEB. 



This erring individual had, it seems, become from a thriving brewer 

 a bit of a landowner ; and having, according to the parson's very plau- 

 sible account, been, while in the brewing line, distinguished from or- 

 dinary brewers by a reluctance to admit the claims for poor-rate upon 

 the profits of his coppers, and mash-tubs, and coolers, it was not odd 

 that he should be similarly disinclined to allow the parson's interference 

 with his produce, as soon as he became a country gentleman. It appears, 

 that this gentleman was so far prejudiced against the system of legisla- 

 tion upon which the poor-laws are founded, as to forget the obligation 

 'to bear his share of the burden of its positive legal enactments. Accord- 

 ingly, in the excess of his zeal (no doubt only against the theory of the 

 poor-laws, and not with an eye to his own personal exemption) he went 

 such lengths, as to make out the profits of his brewery very much less 

 'than they were upon inquisition proved to be. This was patriotic, 

 doubtless ; but still it indicated a mind not disposed to stick at trifles ; 

 and common candour therefore obliges us to make great allowance for 

 the parson, who pressed the divine right of tithe into his service 

 agairfst so dashing and unhesitating an opponent as this ci-devant 

 brewer. This slight preamble was necessary to illustrate the animus 

 by which Parson Bearblock was actuated in his treatise. Now for the 

 contents of the text, as they bear upon the argument, " Tithes versus 

 Rent." 



Parson Bearblock's gentleman brewer had stated, totidem verbis, that 

 the parsons had " forfeited by their conduct all their right to tithe, 

 and to the protection of the state," and urged as a raison de plus for 

 their being still farther bullied, " they are perpetually quarrelling in 

 law-suits." Our parson answers thus. " Our adversaries are the 

 quarrellers ; for they have been beat in nineteen out of twenty tithe- 

 cases, that have come before the courts !" 



" No part of the community/' says Parson Bearblock, " have suffered 

 so much oppression as many individuals among the clergy. No men 

 have been so harassed to get their daily bread, though they have seldom 

 demanded more than half their due. Lord Mansfield declared once in 

 the House of Lords on a tithe-cause, that ' he was ashamed .to see such 

 a cause in that house ; for it was one of the blackest complexion that 

 ever disgraced any tribunal/ " 



The parson being considered a knowing man, was asked to value 

 some tithes in the West of England. He found the parish of vast 

 extent, and that the poor bullied vicar had been awarded, by composi- 

 tion, to the amount of 268 per annum. This sum he had, with the 

 utmost difficulty obtained by pleading to his liberal, benevolent parishioners 

 in forma panperis. These considerate souls though, had so harassed 

 him with a law-suit about pews, that he became involved in debt, and 

 died in a low and miserable way, wholly insolvent ; leaving his pro- 

 perty in the pockets of his parishioners, unthanked, though by no means 

 itnregretted ; for his successor was not so likely to be dependent upon 

 their will and pleasure for his subsistence. " I gave," says Parson 

 Bearblock, " my opinion, that 1,400 would be a moderate annual 

 composition for the tithes. Up was the parish in arms, of course, 

 directly. Exorbitancy, extortion, oppression, downright robbery, was 

 the cry ! but what was the issue ? Why, a composition to the amount 

 of very nearly 1,200, in preference to setting forth the tithes in kind. 



In this instance then, the landowners had been pocketing nearly 

 950 a year, during the life of the former vicar ! 



