Later Agrarian Legislation. 457 



radical alteration in tlio processes introduced by the Act, 

 stating its belief that no other basis would so effectually ex- 

 clude all disturbing elements, except those caused by good or 

 bad harvests, in the estimation of the corn averages. It was 

 hardly to be expected that the Board would have done other- 

 wise ; for had the statesmen of Lord Melbourne's cabinet fore- 

 seen the disastrous eJBfects of the Repeal of the Corn Laws 

 on tithe property, there is little doubt that they would have 

 introduced a measure far less lenient to the tithe-payer. In- 

 deed Sir James Caird ^ has shown that between 1836 and 1876 

 the rent of tithable land had increased from thirty-three mil- 

 lions a year to fifty millions, while the tithe rent-charge of 

 four millions has remained constant. In this sense therefore 

 the tithe-owner has lost two millions a year by the Act of 

 1836. 



The history of the Extraordinary Tithe Rent Charge is be- 

 yond the limit of this present undertaking, but as it illustrates 

 vividly the drag on the high farming of these later times 

 which the old system of tithe payment might have become, 

 we must give a brief sketch of its origin. 



When the Tithe Commutation Act was under Parliamentary 

 consideration a deputation of Middlesex market-gardeners 

 pointed out to Lord John Russell that if they were not 

 afforded some special protection they would soon be driven 

 out of the market by the competition of future market-gar- 

 deners who, by improving the neighbouring commons and 

 arable lands, after the date of the Act, would evade the heavy 

 tithe rent-charge now about to be imposed on themselves. 

 The Government had been ill-disposed to discourage the vege- 

 table, fruit, and hop gardeners by rendering them liable to 

 any increased tithes whatsoever, but this view of the case, as 

 illustrated by the Middlesex deputation, compelled Lord John, 

 much against his will, to introduce the system of extraordinary 

 tithe. It met with the approval of the hop and market-gar- 

 deners of the times, but it had a strong repellent influence on 

 any future extension of the area devoted to this form of agri- 



^ Landed Interest. Sir James Caird. 



