f 213 ] 



in the county of Derby, the agreeing for the tithes 

 is left entirely between the clergy and the occupiers 

 of the land ; and although this is not the cafe on 

 many other eftates, yet it is a matter of faft, that no 

 eftate in the county is in a better ftate of cultivation 

 and improvement. So far as this goes, it is a proof 

 that lands may be improved under the prefent fyftem 

 of tithes, where there is moderation on the fide of 

 the clergy, and candour on the fide of the farmers. 

 ' To render tithes lefs obnoxious than at prefent, - 

 the rights of the church more equitable, and to pre- 

 ferve individual rights facred and inviolate, the clergy 

 loved and honoured, and to keep up the happy in- 

 fluence of religion in the flate, are objefts well worth 

 the attention of every good citizen. To effect this, 

 where the clergyman is not fatisfied with a compen- 

 fation equal to what the land would produce, with- 

 out the aid of foreign manure, and where he infifts 

 on the full tenth of the produce in its improved 

 ftate, perhaps the mod probable means would be to 

 oblige him to pay one-tenth part of the money bona 

 jide expended in manures bought and laid on the land. 

 Such a regulation would do away much of the rea- 

 fonable objection to tithes, and be no diminution to 

 the eftates of the church; on the contrary, I think 

 the value of her tithes would increafe, and a flow 

 be given to the fpirit of improvement, by the farmer 

 knowing that a tenth of the money expended therein 



was 



