~1826.] Emigration-Report. 355 
ocheck, andsmdeed you must’ check it; but you will now do so'to:your 
‘own degradation. « Things myst be forced back into their wonted channel, 
sbut they cannot be thus forced back without tumultuous effects; and, 
«what is worse for»you, without serious losses, and among others, ‘to 
‘thousands of you, the loss of caste inherited or assumed. Bq 
‘i But above ‘all other classes, have the owners of the soil the least 
-xeason to complain. They have had greater facilities for pursuing their 
own contemptible interests than any other, and they have, if possible, 
more zealously pursued’ those interests than any other. They have 
made use! of those facilities both in public and private life. In private 
dife; they have exacted higher rents from the farmer, and turned over 
»to him the labourer, an helpless victim, to screw out of him an in- 
odemnity. Corn-lands have been converted into pasturage, at once to 
elude, or almost to defraud the tithes, and to lessen the employment of 
Jabourers.. He has stripped the labourer by degrees of his rights of 
«common, and of his patches of ground, and left him no resource but his 
hands, and rapaciously and cruelly deprived him even of the benefit of 
them, by substituting, to the utmost extent of his power, machinery— 
and all and solely to augment his own advantages. Still farther to aug- 
ment those advantages, he has employed the influence of his station, in 
his public capacity—as ‘sole legislator; he has secured to himself the 
monopoly of the materials of bread; and flung from his shoulders the 
burdens of the state ; and now hugs himself on his dexterity in imposing 
‘those’ burdens on the bulk of the people. Delighted with the relief 
which this ‘transfer’ afforded, he has all along eagerly seconded the 
wanton! extravagancies of ‘the government; and the government, in 
grateful return, has rained down the fertilizing showers of taxation upon 
‘the families and ‘protégés of its zealous and admiring supporters. 
. Well, say ‘the ‘ae of the land, and we were surely justified in 
throwing some part of these burdens upon others. Are we not saddled 
with the support of the clergy and the poor? Is not the land groaning 
under the weight of tithes and poor-rates? And shall we be sinking 
under these oppressions, and not relieve ourselves by casting something 
of the load upon the shoulders of others? No, say we; you have 
no right to any such relief, on any such score. Having more, in com- 
~mon equity, you were bound to pay more. Your claim of relief onthe 
ground of tithes and poor-rates is an idle pretence. You labour under 
no peculiar oppression from the one, and scarcely any from the other. 
Which of you pay tithes out of property, which is strictly and legally 
your own? In other words, which of you possess titheable. estates, 
om which the value of tithes was not deducted in the purchase? 
The tithes you profess»to pay, were never yours.. How many of you, 
~besides, are yourselves in possession of the tithes? | Full one-half of the 
owhole ofthe tithes ‘are actually in your own hands—in the hands of 
Ulay+proprietors.-\ And again, of what has the tenant, in the matter of 
tithes, to complain?’ Does he not calculate their value, and. bargain 
owith his ord accordingly? Tithe, then, is no burden whatever, 
‘either:to: landlord) or tenant. The tithe-owner is neither more nor less 
than joint-owner of a titheable estate—only to.a very small amount—and 
he takes his rent in kind, or, if he pleases, in composition, which differs 
MAG PA ea, Ht Set, Sich ae Te ore 
with distinct rights; the tenant,who farms the estate has two rite 
to one of whom he pays what he re rent, and to the other what, he 
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