10 



Tithe Commissioners in 1836. Remissions have been 

 made on many estates, and by many clergymen, of 10 and 15 

 per cent. In all abatements, or claims for abatement, the 

 reduction is made not upon the par value, bnt upon the 90 per 

 cent, which represents the i^resent value of the tithe rent-charge. 

 In Hampshire farraei'S demand a reduction of 25 per cent, on 

 the tithe ; their demand has not been acceded to, and at Andover 

 they have opened a subscription list to resist any action taken 

 for the recovery of the charge. In Essex large arrears have 

 accumulated through the unvrillingness of titheowners to apply 

 the cumbrous and unpopular means of enforcing payment which 

 the law provides. Considerable sums have been altogether lost 

 to titheowners through the operation of the Statute of Limita- 

 tions, or through the land falling out of cultivation ; in many cases 

 payment has only been obtained on the condition of abatements 

 of from 10 to 20 per cent. At the present moment a general 

 tithe war is imminent in the county. Reductions of 20 per cent, 

 have been asked by the tenants of Hatfield Broad Oak and of 

 Great Bardfield. In both cases the titheowners, Trinity College, 

 Cambridge, and Guy's Hospital, have refused to make the 

 reduction claimed. The Essex Chamber of Agriculture recently 

 resolved that a revaluation and reapi^ortionment of the tithe 

 was rendered imperatively necessary by the depreciation of 

 land and the vahie of its products. Elsewhere in the east of 

 England, in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and Suifolk, there is but little 

 opposition to the payment of tithe. In the midland counties 

 scarcely any difficulty has been experienced in the collection of the 

 money ; this class of property is comparatively rare ; the persons 

 interested in resistance are few and scattered. Yet, even in 

 these favoured districts, abatements have been asked and given 

 of from 5 to 15 per cent. Agricnltui'al depression and political 

 agitation combine to make the country as inflammable as touch- 

 wood. If once resistance takes a hold on a county it will spread 

 like wildfire. Yet, apart from the political question with which 

 the movement is associated, and apart from the advantages of 

 emancipating the land from all fixed charges, no thinking man 

 reasonably acquainted with the nature and history of tithes can 

 sympathise with the anti-tithe agitation or uphold its justice. 



I have said that at the present moment titheowners, both lay 

 and clerical, are perhaps better off than other landlords. The 

 rent-charge payable this year is possibly more than the tithe- 

 owner would realise if he still continued to take a tenth of the 

 gross produce of ai-able and pasture land. In any such com- 

 parison the amount of produce which is wasted in removing and 

 housing a tenth taken in kind must bo considered. The tithe 

 rent-charge may be more than the titheowner would have 

 realised under the old system ; it is probably not so much aa 



