30 



The result to the clerical titheowner will be a neb and certain 

 income, paid quarterly, of 8(3Z. a year, in lieu of his present 

 uncertain income of 100?. a year. Mr. Hyde relies on the 

 cumulative power of money at comiDonnd interest when regularly 

 invested by annual jDayments to recoup the principal in forty- 

 seven years. At the end of that period — 



" We shall have not only the land made of the value which land 

 and tithe rent-charge together now possess, but we shall have in 

 addition to that 75 millions of pounds sterling created by the thrift 

 enforced by the Redemption Act." 

 The scheme is one which deserves careful attention. 



Mr. Eyde's plan is, of course, open to objections. It may be 

 said, for instance, that the redemption at 90 per cent, is unfair. 

 No doubt the average value of the charge since 1836 has been 

 3 per cent, above par. But it is obvious that the average of the 

 next seven years, unless a great war should in the interval tem- 

 porarily raise prices, will witness a reduction even upon the 90 

 per cent, of 1886. Nor is it likely that the present generation 

 will witness any material rise in the price of corn. The full 

 resources of India are yet undeveloped ; but already she can 

 throw vast quantities of corn upon the home market at prices 

 which defy English competition. A formidable objection was 

 suggested to me by Mr. Smith Woolley, another past President 

 of the Surveyors' Institution, that the scheme, if carried into 

 effect, will make the clergy Government stipendiaries. But it 

 is submitted that this objection is more formidable in theory 

 than in fact. The clergy are already represented as salaried 

 servants of the State, and, though the statement is absolutely 

 erroneous, it is largely credited ; also no relation into which the 

 clergy are brought with the Government is so detrimental to 

 their interests as their present dependence upon poverty-stricken 

 parishioners. Another objection is that it is hard to compel 

 landlords, whose land is their ruin, to buy up a further interest 

 in land. Men are often compelled to sell in the interests of the 

 public; have they ever before been compelled to buy ? Land- 

 lords may urge that it would be equally just to compel the 

 titheowners to buy out the landoAvners ; no doubt numbers 

 would be glad to sell. On this point it is only fair to say that 

 Mr. Ryde's scheme holds out large advantages to the landlords 

 which would begin to accrue from the moment that the scheme 

 of redemption is set in operation : — 



"It will," says Mr. Ryde, "place it out of the power either 

 of the titheowner or the landowner to object to the price paid 

 for the rent-charge if the same rate of interest which is 

 represented by the purchase-money is charged to the landlord 

 for the loan. For instance, supposing the price to be paid for a 

 rent-charge of 1001. a year to be twenty years' purchase, or 2,000^., 

 it is proposed to charge the landowner during the continuance of 

 the loan 5 per cent. — that is, 100?. a year — interest upon the 



