PKOTECTION AND TITHES 169 



Even supposing landowners could prove their case 

 against the tithe rent-charge, a glance at the nature of 

 the charge shows how hopeless is their expectation that 

 the nation will submit to its reduction. Tithes form part 



averaged 101,000,OOOL If 33 millions was at that time the rental, the 

 produce only amounts to three rents. Four rents is a more reasonable 

 allowance, and this would bring the rental of 1836 to 25 millions. 

 Again, Schedule B of the Income Tax, 1814-16, gives the rental of 

 England and Wales at 34,028, 655Z. But these are the war rentals. 

 There was no Income Tax from 1816 to 1842; but the evidence given 

 before Sir James Graham's Select Committee on Agriculture in 1833 

 shows that rents were undergoing a reduction of from 20 to 30 per 

 cent. They continued to fall for the nest five years. If in 1836 the 

 rental was 25 millions, it would show a reduction of 25 per cent. ; 33 

 millions only allows a reduction of 3 per cent., which is contrary to the 

 evidence before the Select Committee. Lastly, in 1845, a careful 

 inquiry into the valuation of land for taxing purposes shows that it 

 had not even then materially increased in value since 1815. (See 

 Pari. Papers, 1846, vol. xl. page 14). For these reasons it is impossible 

 to put the rental of 1836 higher than 28 millions. The tithe rent- 

 charge has been reduced 12j per cent, since 1836. Therefore, unless 

 landlords are prepared to prove that their rentals amount in 1887 to only 

 24^ millions, they cannot assert that the relation which the rent-charge 

 bears to rents in 1887 is disproportionate to that which it bore to 

 rent in 1836. It is perhaps worth while to notice that a pamphleteer 

 in 1767, who advocates the commutation of tithe, states that it then 

 amounted to between a fourth and a third of the rent. He puts the 

 rental of England and Wales at 16 millions, and the tithe, at its lowest 

 computation, at 4^ millions. (^Political Speculalions on the Dearncss 

 of Prorisio7is, Part II., 1767.) Another writer {Three Letters to a 

 Jfember of the House of Commons, from a Country Farmer, 1766) 

 demands the abolition of tithes in kind, and asks that the existing 

 charge should be commuted at a ' portion of the fair rent — say an 8th, 

 a 7th, a 6th, or a 5th.' This advanced reformer never contemplated that 

 for a considerable portion of the last half-century the tithe would not 

 amount to a tenth of the rent. Arthur Young calculates tithe at 

 3s. &(l. an acre; to this he adds a further sum for the gathering. He 

 estimates the rental of the land of England at 22,400,000?. and the 

 tithe at 7,000,000Z. {Eastern Counties : London, 1771, vol. iv. p. 459.) 

 Yet landlords and farmers complain that they have lost by the Tithe 

 Commutation Act of 1836. See also ' The Tithe Question,' Edinburgh 

 lievien', January, 1888. 



