Parish Clergy. 135 



it was not contemplated that the landowners 

 should thus obtain the whole growing value of 

 the land without leaving any part of it for the 

 support of religion. The operation of this 

 change has been chiefly in favour of the better 

 class of lands, those which from their quality 

 and position have risen most in value. On the 

 poorest kinds of arable land — the cold clays, 

 and the thinnest chalk — the increased cost of 

 labour has, in some exceptional cases, brought 

 about a lowering of rent, while the tithe can 

 undergo no diminution. The landowner in such 

 case has to bear the loss, just as in the other he 

 gets the gain. 



In a country like this, in which the inevitable Parish 



clergy 



tendency of increasing wealth leads to the equrvalent 



in number 



gradual diminution of small estates, there would to more 



than one- 

 be some considerable loss to the ranks of small fourth of 



the resi- 



resident proprietors by any change which should dent land- 

 owners, 



lead to the absorption of Church property. In over ^200 



^ a year. 



every parish of the kingdom there is a resident 

 landowner, who, as the clergyman of the parish, 

 receives in residence, glebe, and tithe, about a 

 tenth part of its rental, which he spends within 



