cxS ^^'pb' ^° ^^^^' ■^' ^' ^'^ Tjthes, Bee, 



quality of the burden which occasions discontent among 

 cultivators, not expectation of profit from an eiiemption. 

 Proprietors may be viewed as more deeply concerned in the 

 removal of tytlies ; but having bought their lands with the 

 burden, their inactivity to get quit of it, may in some mea- 

 sure be tiiereby accounted for. 



In my last I quoted several attempts which had been made 

 in England, to arrange matters for an application to Parlia- 

 ment, v.'hlc]i it is well known were repressed by the circum- 

 stances of the times. If Mr T. S. would for a moment con- 

 sider that tvrl^es are in the hands of the very people who must 

 make the regulation required (in one assembly this is cer- 

 tainly the case), and reflect upon the motives which have, 

 been assigned, as influencing tliose who support ft, he will 

 not feel surpriz.e that legal relief has not been more gene- 

 rally sought after. A learned law-lord, no farther back than- 

 last session, was heard to declare, that if tythes were med- 

 dled with, he would not ensure his hearers the possession of 

 their estates for a single year ! Vv^onderful indeed, that a 

 conversion of grain into money, and changing a tax in kind 

 into a share of the rent paid out of the premises, should pro- 

 duce such a dreadful alarm. Is any man's estate worse se- 

 cured in Scotland than in England ; and yet, in the former,, 

 tythes are not collected ? or v.ould the adoption of such a 

 plan, as I suggested for our sister kingdom, injure the pro- 

 perty of a single individual ? Very good judges haveviewed. 

 i,t in a different light ; indeed the prosperity of all concern- 

 ed would thereby have been advanced, with the exception o5. 

 those who thrive upon the numerous law pleas engendered by 

 the system. 



But to return from tliis digression ; If a patient endurance, 

 of any grievance for a length of time, is to be received as a 

 proof that such a grievance either does not exist, or that it is" 

 not of much magnitude, then every first attempt to remove a. 

 public evil may be combated in like manner-. When Luther 

 argued for a reform of religion, would his adversaries have 

 been successful (we mean in argument), had they answered, 

 him, that Europe had been satisfied with the Koman Catho- 

 lic religion for fifteen hundred years,, therefore that a reform/ 

 was unnecessary. Upon no stronger footing, however, doesu 

 tliis boasted fact of your correspondent rest ;. and with the 

 same success m.ay evcrj^ first attempt to correct abuse be- 

 combated. Because tythes have hitherto been patiently sub- 

 mitted to in England (we recall the expression, for the peru- 

 t-al of any single volume of law-reports will show that it is 

 erroneous), shall Mr 'J'. S. contend that the system is not a 



bad 



