I t9i ] 



Survey of Oxfordshire, p. 31. 



It has long been difputed what is the befl fyllem to 

 follow, when tithes are to be commuted. In this county, 

 many inclofures have taken place within a few years, 

 wherein all the feveral methods have been purfued. 

 In divers of thefe inclofures the land has been left 

 titheable as before, becaufe the tithe-owners and 

 proprietors did not agree upon terms. In others, an 

 annual rent has been fixed, to be paid out of each 

 eftate, varying according to the prices of corn taken 

 at dated times ; and this method has been fatisfac- 

 tory in many cafes. But the mod ufual mode is to 

 fet out an allotment of land in lieu of tithes, by which 

 both reflorial and vicarial eftates are often greatly 

 improved in value: amongft other inftances, I am 

 favoured with the particulars (too copious to give 

 here in detail) of a vicarage near Banbury, which im- 

 proved from 105I. to 220I. a year immediately upon 

 the inclofure; and at the expiration of a 21 years 

 leafe, the value was further confiderably increafed. 



On the fubjeft of commutation of titbeSf however, 

 if the matter be fairly viewed, it is right, 'briefly at 

 leaft, to obfervc what is faid on the other fide of the 

 quefiion. 



It is undeniable that, as matters are at prefent, agri- 

 culture is daily improving, and therefore, though it 

 mufl: be confefled a defirable objeft to exonerate lands 

 from tithes, yet it may be doubted whether they are 

 fo great an obftacle to improvements as fometimes re- 



prefcnted. 



