132 The Landed Interest. 



hands of laymen, and continued exempt from 

 tithe, and from various other causes a consider- 

 able proportion 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, 

 commuted had a right to share in that increase. Forty 



from pay- 

 ment in years ago it was determined that this should 

 kind to a 



money cease, and it was enacted that, instead of pay- 

 payment. 



ment in kind, tithes should be commuted into a 



payment in money, calculated on the average 



receipts of the preceding 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 



i 



