132 THE LANDED INTEREST. 



laymen, and continued exempt from tithe, and 

 from various other causes a considerable pro- 

 portion of the lands of the country has become 

 exempted. As the country became more 

 populous, and its demands upon the produce 

 of the soil more difficult to meet, the payment 

 of tithes in kind was found a great hindrance 

 to improved agriculture, as men were naturally 

 unwilling to expend capital for the purpose of 

 increasing the produce, while others who ran no 

 risk, and bore no part of the toil, had a right to 

 commuted share in that increase. Forty-two years ago it 



from pay- 

 ment in was determined that this should cease, and it was 



kind to a 



money enacted that, instead of payment in kind, tithes 



payment. 



should be commuted into a payment in money, 

 calculated on the average receipts of the pre- 

 ceding seven years, the annual money value to 

 vary according to the annual price of corn on a 

 septennial average, but the quantity of corn 

 then ascertained to remain for ever as the tithe 

 of the parish. 



A very important change of principle here 

 took place. Up to that time, the income of the 

 Church increased with the increased value 



