36 



the sudden rise and fall would introduce a gambling element into 

 farming which would be altogether disastrous. The experience 

 of agricnlturists in the first twenty years of the present century 

 condemns any such change by its appalling record of ruin and 

 bankruptcy. 



So far, then, the only change proposed is that tithe shoald be 

 paid directly by the landlord. The result of the proposed change 

 will be advantageous to both the clergy and the landlords, 

 who are really the only parties concerned in the question. The 

 clergy will be at length relieved from the false position in which 

 they are placed towards the tenant farmer, and a fruitful source 

 of misconception and hostility will be checked at the spring. 

 The landlord will be in a better position to judge of the length 

 of tether which he can safely allow to his tenant. At the 

 present moment parsons can distrain for two years' arrear of 

 tithe, and their claim is a first charge upon the land. Many 

 landlords, if the occasion arose, would be unpleasantly surprised 

 by finding that the farm produce on which they calculate aa 

 security for rent is subject in the first instance to the parson's 

 claim for two years' arrears of tithe. Again, landlords will be 

 better able to calculate what remissions of rent they may 

 reasonably grant. At the present moment a farmer can play off 

 landlord against parson, demand reductions from the one because 

 he has to make a payment to the other, and often obtain abate- 

 ments from both. 



The shape which the present agitation has assumed is the 

 demand for a recommutation of the tithe rent-charge. Here, 

 ao'ain, the bargain made between landlords and tenants for their 

 mutual advantage has plainly inspired the cry. But in any 

 discussion of the principles of the Commutation Act of 1836 it 

 must be borne in mind that that arrangement was sanctioned 

 by the Legislature, that it is confirmed by reiterated Acts of 

 Parliament, supported by hundreds of legal decisions, acted 

 upon in innumerable sales and transfers of land, ratified by 

 every purchase of tithe rent-charges, strengthened by repeated 

 and undisputed acts of ownership. In all dealings with land for 

 the last half -century the bargain made in 1836 has been regarded 

 as permanent. Eound it have grown up the vested interests 

 and the reasonable expectations of fifty years. Changes cannot 

 bo lightly made in the terms of a bargain, thus made and 

 ratified, solely on the ground that it is disadvantageous to a 

 class which is not one of the parties to the original contract, 

 nor even concerned in its present effect. To transfer the i^ay- 

 ment of tithes from tenants to landlords will postpone the 

 question which is ultimately at issue ; it will not bring 

 about a final settlement. Similarly, any readjustment of 

 the averages can only prove a temporary expedient. It is 

 alleged that the present mode of calculating the averages 



