308 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK III. 



fund for the relief of the poor, charged with an annuity 

 equal to that which the state had to grant in order to raise 

 the money for purchasing it, there would be a surplus of 

 313,000. a year applicable to the purposes of the national 

 rate we have recommended ; while the 10,640,OOOZ. might 

 be invested in the purchase of rent charges in Ireland, 

 which would tend to reduce the interest of money, and 

 enable landlords advantageously to pay off incumbrances 

 upon their estates. 



The gain, it will be observed, would result entirely from 

 the difference in value between a Government annuity and 

 tithe composition ; the former being worth about thirty 

 years' purchase, and the latter sixteen. 



It would be foreign to our duties to express any opinion 

 upon the disputed political principles which are at present 

 involved in the tithe question. Without attempting to do 

 so, we think ourselves warranted in submitting the above 

 suggestions as tending to a fiscal arrangement which pro- 

 mises benefit to the country. 



REMARKS. 



The House of Commons has adopted the idea 

 of the Commissioners, of securing to the English 

 Church the same revenue which it enjoyed by the 

 existing tithe. This met with the greatest opposi- 

 tion from the House of Lords and from the English 

 Church, whom this measure deprives of the chances 

 of increase of tithes by the improvement of agri- 



