Ca 
J am equally unfortunate in differing from Mr. 
Davis, whofe general fentiments on rural matters I 
highly approve, by thinking that the rent of tithes, 
when once fixed, ought not to be difturbed every 
year. What the celebrated Dr. Smitru has faid on 
taxes, feems equally applicable to the fubje& before 
us, viz. “ The certainty of what each individual 
<¢ ought to pay is a matter of fo great importance, 
«< that a very confiderable degree of inequality is not 
“‘ near fo great an evil, as a very fimall degree of 
‘¢ uncertainty.” 
There can, I think, be little doubt, that it would 
be more equitable, and more defirable, both to the 
landholder and tithe-owner, that the one fhould know 
his expenditure, and the other his income; and that, 
when a fair rent was once fixed, it fhould remain for 
a term, and not be difturbed every year by compli- 
cated calculations, drawn from the prices of various 
commodities; the nature of which, and the contin- 
gencies they are liable to, fubje& them to fo much 
error and uncertainty. 
The Rent of Tithes, like that of the land out of 
which they iffue, fhould, as I conceive, be regulated 
not by the temporary and occafional, but by the 
ufual and average price of the produce; or, of the 
moft general, fteady, and important parts of it, which 
influence the price of other articles. It is not the 
price in market only, of any or every commodity 
which is brought there, that ought to be regarded. 
The 
