T 1 'I 





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Tithe* were all originally paid in kind, i.e. the tenth 

 whrat-shcaf. Iho tenth lamb or pig. ns the case might In-, 

 1-eloiigcd "f right to the parson of the parish as his tithe. 

 The inconvenience and vexation of such a mode ": 

 raent are obv ions. Tin- practice could only have ongin- 

 m times and in countries in which barter formed the 

 only means of exchange, and the products of the c.irtli 

 the >i>le tc-t uf value. The unproved habits anil 

 civilization of eenturies were nevertheless unable t. 

 what had been sanctioned 1>V custom since the memory 

 of raan, and no attempt had been made in this country, 

 until very recently, to introduce a general improvement 

 in the mode of collection. The inconvenience of paying 

 tithes in kind must long since have been felt, and certain 

 modes of obviating it were occasionally practised. Some- 

 times the owner of land would enter into a composition 

 with the parson or vicar, with the consent of the ordinary 

 and the patron of the living, by which certain land should 

 be altogether discharged from tithes, on conveying other 

 land, or making compensation. In other words, the 

 r of the land purchased an exemption from tithes. 

 Such arrangement* between landowners and the church 

 were re -cognised by law, but it was found that they were 

 often injuiious to the church by reason of an insufficient 

 value being given for the tithes. The acts 1 Elizabeth, 

 c. 19, and 13 Elizabeth, c. 10, were accordingly ]i 

 which disabled bishops, colleges, chapters, parsons, and 

 vicars from making any alienation of church property for a 

 longer term than twenty-one years or three lives. In order 

 to establish an exemption from tithes on the ground of a 

 real composition, it is, therefore necessary to show that 

 such composition had been entered into before the statute 

 of Elizabeth. Since that time compositions have rarely 

 been made, except under the authority of private acts of 

 parliament. 



Another method of avoiding the payment of tithes in 

 kind was that of a tiiodiu decimaiidi, commonly known as 

 a modus. This consists of any custom in a particular 

 place, by which the ordinary mode of collecting tithes has 

 been superseded by some special manner of tithing. In 

 some parishes the custom has prevailed, time out of mind, 

 of paying a certain sum of money annually for every a. -re 

 of land, in lieu of tithes. In others a smaller quantity of 

 produce is given, and the residue is made up in labour, as 

 every 12th sheaf of wheat instead of the 10th, but to be 

 housed or threshed by the owner. 



A large portion of the land of this country is tithe-free, 

 from various causes. Some has been exempted under 

 real composition, as already explained, and some by pre- 

 scription, which supposes a composition to have been for- 

 merly made. The most frequent ground of exemption is 

 that the land once belonged to a u-ii^ious house, and was 

 therefore discharged in this manner. All abbots, priors, 

 and other chief monks originally paid tithes from the 

 lands belonging to them, until Pope Paschal II. exempted 

 all spiritual persons from paying tithes of lands in their 

 own hands. This general discharge continued till the time 

 ol'King Henry II., when Pope Adrian IV. icstraiucd it to 

 the three religious orders of Cistercians, Templars, and 

 Hospitalers, to whom Pope Innocent III. added the Prae- 

 monstratenses. These four orders, on account of their 

 exemption, were commonly called the privileged order-. 

 The Council of Lateran, in 1215, further restrained this 

 exemption to lands in the occupation of those religious 

 orders of which they were in possession before Hint coun- 

 cil. Bulls were however obtained for discharging parti- 

 cular monasteries from the payment of tithes, which would 

 not otherwise have been exempt ; by which means much 

 land has been ever since tithe-free. Another mode by 

 which lands belonging to religious houses became not 

 liable to the payment of tithes, v.as that of unity </ pos- 

 tcition; as where the lands and the rectory belonged to 

 the same establishment, which would not, of course, pay 

 tithes to itself. Yet the lands were not absolutely dis- 

 charged by this unity of possession, for upon any disunion 

 the payment of tithes was revived ; so that the union only 

 suspended the payment. The act 31 Hen. VIII., c. 13, 

 which dissolved several of the religious houses, continued 

 the discharge of their lands from tithes, though in the 

 possession of the king or any other person. Many mo- 

 nasteries had previously been dissolved by act of parlia- 



nt, but as no such clause as that contained in the 31 

 Hen. VIII. had been introduced into other acts, the lands 



of the nun them became chargeable 



with ti 1 



\\ e have stated enousrh concerning the r.i'r.ic of i 

 and the various circumstances affecting them, to show how 

 complicated mu.-t be the laws, and how cut in- 



- of different parties who had ; 



them, lint apart from such considciations it may be well 

 to inquire whether tithes be, in their original nature, a lit 

 mode of supporting a religious establishment ; and if not, 

 in what manner they might be made so. i 



'.v be a doubt that the pavmciit of tithes in Kind is a 

 cause of constant irritation and dispute between a (] 

 man and his parishiom is. \Vith the best intentioi 

 both sides, the very nature of tithes is such, that i:< 

 and difficulties must a ,-u them ; and even v. 



there is no doubt, the form and principle of paymen' 

 odious and discouraging. The haulship, and injust: 

 tithes upon the agriculturist are well described by Dr. 

 Paley : 'Agriculture is discouraged by every constitution 

 ot landed property which lets in thoM who iiave no con- 

 cern in the improvement to a participation of the profit : 

 of all institutions which are in this way adverse to culti- 

 vation and improvement, none is so noxious as Hi 

 tithes. A claimant here enters into the produce who 

 tributed no assistance whatever to the production. When 

 years perhaps of care and toil have matured an improve- 

 ment : when the husbandman sees new crops ripening to 

 his skill and industry ; the moment he is ready to p. 

 sickle to the grain, he finds himself compelled to divide 

 his harvest with a stranger.' .Mural mid J'"liticnl Philo- 

 sophy, chapter xii.) 



If tithes then be in principle an injurious and restrictive 

 tax upon agriculture, and if the mode of collection be 

 vexatious and unpopular, it became the duty of a h 

 tureto provide a remedy for these evils. But tithes are un- 

 like any othertax, which being found injurious to the slate, 

 may be removed on providing others. They are not the 

 property of the state, but of its subjects ; they are payable 

 not only to the church, but to lay impropriators : they have 

 been the subject of innumeiahle private bargains: land has 

 been sold at a higher price on account of it- , I'rom 



tithe ; the value of the patronage of the greater portion of 

 the livings of this countiy is dependent upon the existing 

 liability of land to tithes ; in shoit. the various nlalx 

 society have been for centuries so closely connected with 

 the receipt and payment of tithe?, that to have abolished 

 them would have been a gross injustice and spoliation to 

 I many, and no advantage to the community ; for the whole 

 ! profit would immediately have been enjoyed by t' 

 | lands were discharged from payments to wh'ich tlicv bad 

 always been liable, and subject to which they hnd 

 probably been purchased. 



As for these reasons the extinction of tithes was imprac- 

 ticable, a commutation of them has been attempted and 

 has been found most i. l) r . Paley. who v . 



clearly the evils of tithes, himself suggested" this im; 

 ment. ' No measure of such extensive i 

 to me so practicable, nor any single alteration s,, |, 

 cinl, as the conve'rsion of 'tithes into eorn-ri 

 commutation. I am convinced, might be so adjusted as to 

 secure to the tithe-holder a complete and peipetual equi- 

 valent for his interest, and to leave to iudnstrv its full 

 ration and entire reward.' (Moral n/id Political I'luin- 

 .vo////y, chapter xii.) This principle of commutalion 

 lirst proposed to be applied by the legislature to Ireland. 

 In addition to the common evils of a tithe system, that 

 country was labouring under another. Its people 

 pay ini: tithes for the support of a clerin possessing a re ij_ 

 gion at variance with their own. Resistance to the pay- 

 ment of tithes occasioned by this appropriation ol I 

 had become so general, that a commutation w;> 

 absolutely necessary for the safety of the church of Ireland. 

 It was recommended by committees of both houses of 

 parliament in 1832, but not finally carried into effect until 



isaa 



The statutes for the general commutation of tithes in 

 England are the 6 & 7 Will. IV., c. 71. the 7 Will. IV. 

 and 1 Viet., c. 69, the 1 & 2 Viet., c. 64, the 2 fc :i Viet., 

 c. 32, and the 5 & 6 Viet., c. 54. Their object is to sub- 

 stitute a rent-charge, payable in money, but fluctuating 

 according to the average price of corn for seven preceding 

 years, for all tithes, whether payable under a modits or 

 composition, or not. A voluntary agreement between 



