1803. ^7; Tithes. 1 43 



with the approbation of all parties) for making a turnpike road, 

 and yet talk of force and injultice here. Why fhould the king- 

 doms of Great Britain and Ireland have been united, while fuch 

 a large proportion of our friends on the other fide of the water, 

 were decidedly averfe to the rtieafure, and when it was to do 

 fuch a material injury to the houfeholders, and the ale-fellera of 

 Dublin ? Were it neceflary to obtain the confent of all par- 

 ties to every meafurc which was to be brought about, none, 

 even the moil: falutary, Oiould ever be carried into efF^£l ; for 

 there are always fomc mules among us, who, fiiice they choofe 

 not to be led, ought to be driven. 



Why infill fo much en right a/ul jujiice ? Are not the clergy 

 a fet of men who are paid for doing a certain piece of work ? 

 Where then fliould be the mighty injuftice of altering the mode 

 of payment ? Your correfpondent will doubtlefs tell me, that 

 we have long gone on in the fame way ; and that, on the faith 

 that we are to continue, benences are daily bought and fold in 

 England at a fair pri-ce, like fwine in a market. So, I will tell 

 him, are the Africans in Jamaica \ and fo does the fmuggler fell 

 his geneva and his tea on the faith that he ihall be paid Each 

 takes his riik, and each hopes that no meafure will be brought 

 about foon eftough to afFe^l him. 



But if your correfpondent will innft on right ; what right, I 

 will now roundly aik, has the Church to be fubfiiled by the 

 landed interell of the nation alone ? O ! it is law, he ftill an- 

 fwers. Are our laws, then, like thofe of the Medes and Per- 

 fians ? If it is confelTed that we abide not by the Mofaic dif- 

 penfation, I know not how^ the idea can be reconciled, of laying 

 the whole burden of the Church on the Ihouiders of any one fet 

 of men in the ftate. There is not a Gngle inflance in which the 

 landed intereft does not bear its (hare of taxes equally v/ith the 

 rell of the community j and this, thanks to the law, they have 

 into the bargain : while a gentleman who comes home with a 

 fortune, or he who iruikes his money by commerce, if he choofes 

 to throw what he has laudably earned into ihe (locks, or ether- 

 wife lay it out to intereft, can have an opportunity of hearing 

 the oracles of God iliuftrated, without paying a fingle fixpence 

 for the fupport of the prieflhood. It is idle, nay, it is highly 

 indecorous, to amufe us, by talking of perfeci right and jujlice^ 

 while fuch things are. In vain need we be told that this has 

 nothmg to do with the right by which the clergy hold their 

 tithes J in vain exclaim, that we lay hold of periodical publica- 

 tions to bring forward our popular arguments; for it is wtU 

 known, that the dif:ipprobation of the people at large againft 

 them is become fo ilrong, that it muft find utterance fomewhere ; 

 and th:^t the gr\ev;^cice is turning fo fciious; as calmly to call for 



R r •; * rcar.^i>. 



