C I90 ] 

 realm found It neceflary, earlier than the time of 

 Edward the firft, to ordain, " that the poor fliould 

 " be maintained by parfons, reftors, and the parifh- 

 •* ioners."* How ftrange! that the holy precepts of 

 rehgion could not deter the immediate minifters of 

 it from rapacity and avarice! — It is the happinefs of 

 the prefent age to fee moderation keep pace with 

 power in the venerable preachers of the gofpel. 



Survey of Northumberland, p. 6i. 



In our journey through this county, we found 

 that the payment of tithes in kind was confidered 

 as the chief obftacle to improvement. In our furvey 

 of Cumberland we have (hewn the great uncertainty 

 of employing money in fpeculations of improving 

 land, and that the tithes, in fuch cafes, are a large 

 portion of a man's capital in trade, and not a tenth 

 of the improved produce of the earth, which is all 

 that fome have believed was intended by the original 

 irapofers; as there can be no wifli to take any thing 

 from the holders of tithes, but to render them a fair 

 equivalent for what is juftly their due, (which there 

 would be little trouble in doing, notwithftanding the 

 many difficulties that have been invented to perplex 

 this mod interefling queflion) it is to be hoped that 

 the time is not far diftant, when this great means of 

 national improvement will be brought under the 

 confideration of parliament. 



* Mirror. SuRVT-Y 



