x803'] Ohfervat'ions on Tythcs. 6^ 



priety of this tax, when originally eftahlifiieJ. Perhaps it was 

 then neceflary and expedietu, money being a fcarce article, and 

 payments in kmd generally referred to, in order that the defi- 

 ciency of what we now call a circulating medir.m might be fiip* 

 j>lied. I fliall therefore confine my enquiry concerning tythes to 

 the period of the Reformation, when the Enghfli feparated fronm 

 the Romifli church ; ar\d this period I relbrt to, {o as the nature 

 of lay-tyihes, and the term lay-impropriator, ni?.y be more ge- 

 nerally under ftood. 



"When Henry VIII. feparated from the Cliurch of Rome, he 

 laid violent hands on the revenues appertaining to abbacies, mo- 

 nalleries, and other religious hoides in tnr^lantl. Manv of thefr. 

 religious houfes pofleflcd lands to a confiderable extent, and like- 

 wife received tythes from land in many parts of the country, which 

 were afterwards, at various times, conveyed by that arbitrary 

 monarch to his favourites arui dependents. Hence originated lay- 

 tythes, which, from good authority it is believed extend to the 

 fourth part of the Englifli territory. Hence lay-impropriators arc 

 either the defcendents of thofe to whom Henry VIII. conveyed 

 the tythes of religious houies, or perlbns who polTeis then"i by 

 right of purchafe. 



If I am not miffaken, tythes, fo far from being then viewed 

 as a facred right, were, after the feparation from Rome, collecled 

 in confequence of an acl of the legiflature fpecially enacted for 

 that purpofe. This, I cheerfully coMctdt^ gives a juft and lawful 

 right to coIle(Sl them, but certainly does not reftrain the Icgifla- 

 ture from making new laws, either to regulate the collection, or 

 eveti to commute the tax altogether- I fupport the abftra<ft right, 

 becaufe it is agreeable to the laws of the country •, but if it can 

 be fhown that the prefent mode of putting the right in execution is 

 detrimental to the public v^elfare, then, I apprehend, it naturally 

 follows that the welfare of the public requires iuch regulation? 

 to be made as will annihilate the grievance. 



Having now faid a few words concerning tythes, as fettled at 

 the reformation, and acknowledged that they are at this time col- 

 lected by legal authority, I proceed to fliew in what refpeifts the 

 exa<Stion operates as an impediment to improvement 



It has long been received as an axiom, that every tax, which 

 operates with greater feverity upon Che induftrious than the 

 Hoven, muft, in principle, be a bad one. Tythes operate precifeiy 

 in this manner : If a farmer allows his land to lie walk, he pays 

 little or rather no tyihe : if he cultivates it imperfectly, his fliare 

 of the burthen is not much encreafed ; bur, if he plows, drains, 

 and manures his wafte land, or introduces a more perfedl fyllem 

 of cultivation on his arable land, then inftantly his payment is 

 da bled, tripled, and even quadrupled. For doing what, ia 



