C 226 J 



peafe or beans are gathered when green, and fold, 

 both the reftor, if impropriate, and vicar, claim tithes 

 of one and the fame crop, and threaten to recur to 

 law for the recovery thereof. If the farmer gives 

 tithes to the reftor inflead of the vicar, or vice verfa, 



*' Incidet in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charibdim;" 

 and this is actually the cafe in the parifli of Sunbury 

 hi Middlefex, where tithes of green-peafe have been, 

 time out of mind, given to the reftor impropriate, 

 and now, for the firft time, claimed by the vicar. 



The confequences of tithes in kind taken by the 

 clergy are, continual difputes and bickerings between 

 them and their pariihioners; the farmers grumble, 

 flacken in their improvements, give their fpiritual 

 guide all the trouble in their power while colle(5ting 

 his tithes, and cheat him if they can; he recurs to 

 law, and foon becomes the mofl: unpopular man in 

 his parifli, and the church is deferted. The philo- 

 fophy of religion is fpurned with the profeflbr. 

 Thefe are notorious, melancholy truths; and who- 

 ever attempts to refute them, muft be driven to the 

 pitiful necefTity of reafoning in the face of a fa£l. 



I highly refpeft the learning and virtues of the 

 clergy; it is a primary wifli of my heart to break 

 afunder the gothick chains with which they are 

 bound, and I call upon all honeft men to aflifl me. 

 The reformation isa precedtn: in point; I cannot have 



a better; 



