358 Review of Br Gardiner'/ EJJays^, Aug. 



from mifinformatlon of the value of the crop, may fometimes have the 

 appearance of infifting for more than is right ; while the farmer, from 

 o diflike to all kind of taxation, is tempted to withhold from the cler- 

 gyman what is his due by law *. Such diflenfions are followed by the 

 worft confequences to the farmer and his family ; for tliey cannot re- 

 ceive, with a jufl fenfe of their propriety, the principles of piety and 

 morality, how forcibly foever they may be delivered, by a parfon whom 

 they neither reverence nor eiteem. This is an additional reafon for a 

 modus, of more importance to the happinefs of the people, than even 

 the farther improvements of our lands, fo warmly recommended in al- 

 mofl every part of this treatife. Wliat a happinefs, therefore, would 

 it be to the proprietors of land, to the farmers, and to the country in 

 general, could fome equitable, and lefs exceptionable method, than the 

 prefent mode of levying the tithe, be adopted! ' Vol. I. p. 483-487. 



To provide for the deftitute poor, has been an important objeft with 

 every well-regulated government ; but few have fallen upon the happy 

 medium of enac^ting laws which adminiftered falutary relief, without 

 lapping the foundations of induftry and morality. Perhapa the objeft 

 is nearer attained to in Scotland than in any country whatever ; where- 

 as in our fifter country, the bu*-den of fupporting the poor is on all 

 hands acknowledged to be an intolerable grievance. The fyftem ad- 

 opted there is radically bad ; though it would be a herculean tafk to 

 reform it altogether. A gradual modification of the evil is however 

 very pra<5licable ; and the firft ftep of amendment is, to place the ma- 

 nagement of the funds of each parifli in the hands of thofe from whom 

 they are levied. 



Dr Gardiner's fentiments may be gathered from the two following 

 paragraphs, p. 522. et feq. 



< The poor's rates in England, from the end of the fixteenth cen- 

 tury, have been gradually increafing with the wealth and population of 

 that country, till ihey have become at laft, in many parifhes, a heavy 



burthen 



* Mr Arthur Younp, who defcrves wtll of the pul)lic, for his laborious and cx- 

 jienhve tours throaigh France and Italy, for the improvement of agriculture, obferves, 

 * That in rejjard to the opprtfTions ot the clergy, as to tithes, I murt do that body 

 a juCiice, to wliich a claim cannot be laid in England. Though ilie Ecclcfiaftical 

 tenth was levied in France more fevercly than ulual in Italy, yet it was never exaft- 

 cd with fuch horrid greedinefs, as is at prefent the dilgrace of Knjjbnd, When 

 taken in kind, no fuch thing was known in any part of France, where 1 made in- 

 quiries, as a tenth ; it was always a twelfth, or a thirteenth, or even a twentieth 

 of the produce ; and in no part of the kingdom did a new article of culture pay 

 any thing. '1 hus, turnips, cabbages, clover, chicuree, potatoes, &c. &c. paid nor 

 thing. Olives, in fume places, paid ; in more, they did not. Cows, nothing. 

 I.aml'S, from the I2th to the 21ft. Woo], notliing. Such mildmfs. in tiie levy 

 of this (kHous tax, is abfolutely unknown in England. ' Vol. I. p. 537. Lond. 



I7Q2. This accurate obK-rvtr, in another part of his tour, previous to the French 



Rtvoliition, fays, ' All I convcrfed vvith in Italy, on the fuhjtO of tithes, exprclled 

 ,ini.i2LnHnt at the tithe we arc fubjt^l to, and fcarcely believed that there was a 

 reople Uft in Euiopc, who paid fo much; obferviig, that nothing Ijke it was to b.e 

 rwnd, even in Spain itl'llf. ' Vvl II. f. 275 of the Tour. 



