54 Ohfev'Oations on Tythas, ~ [Feb. 



facl, defervcs a public reward, an additional payment is impofed 

 on him, and this paywent is at all events certain, when the profit? 

 of the undertaking ;ire contingent and hazardous. This is not 

 declamation, but a fobtr ftatement of facTts. Surely then fuch a 

 fvftem muft be coniidered as holding out a great obitacle to im- 

 jirovements. If farmers polTffs common fenfe, or have any re- 

 gard to their own intereft (which your correfpondent, to be after 

 noticed, feems to coniidcr as fynonimous) then afTuredly they 

 ■will be cautious how they embark in improvements, which muft 

 at all events prove beneficial to others, without any moral cer- 

 tainty of benefiting themfelves. Tythe is a handfome profit 

 when wafi-e land is cultivated : the natural value of the ground 

 is trifling, but the expences laid out in rendering it arable are 

 ^onfiderable. Tythe is of courfe drawn, not only from the land, 

 but alfo out of the whole expences incurred in improving it, 

 which, in numberlefs inftances, far exceed the original worth of 

 the property. 



Tythe, though apparently an equal tax, is in reality more un- 

 equal than any tax yet devifed. On poor foils, the tenth of the 

 crop, though nominally exigible, upon the fame ratio, is more 

 fevcrcly felt by the pofTefTor than when paid from good foils. To 

 you, who unqueftionably have ftudied the fubje<St, an explana- 

 tion may be fuperfluous •, but to others, who are not fo verfant in 

 political oeconomy, it cannot be improper to elucidate an opinion 

 which, I confefs, has at firft fight a paradoxical appearance. 



All poor foilsj like land in its natural fiate, require confider- 

 able outlays before they can be rendered comparatively'fertile and 

 produ(flive. I do not hazard much when I maintain, that five 

 quarters per acre will be gained at lefs expence upon rich loams 

 and clays than three quarters per acre from thin clay and moor- 

 i£h foils. Thefe inferior foils require more manure, more labour, 

 as much, if not more, leed than (oils of the firft defcription, con- 

 fcquently the difpofeable balance, from which tythe muft be 

 paid, is out of all bounds diminifiied. In the one cafe, tythe will 

 amount to about 1 7 per cent, on the difpofeable produce, where- 

 as, in the other, it will be found not lefs than 32 per cent, a dif- 

 ference which few people ever troubled themfelves to calculate. 

 As I wiQi to make myfelf perfecfUy underftood, I fubjoin a fev7 

 figures in illuftration of the argument. 



Take 



