60 Parochial, National, and Miscellaneous Burdens. 



SECT. X. Parochial^ National, and Miscellaneous Burdens. 



BESIDES the rent paid to the landlord, the farmers in Eng- 

 land and Scotland, are subjected to the payment of-various 

 taxes, some of them imposed for local purposes, and others for 

 the general expenses of the state. The real amount of such 

 burdens, every careful tenant ought accurately to know, be- 

 fore he bargains for his lease ( 197 ). They may be classed 

 under the following heads: 1. Parochial; 2. National; and, 

 3. Miscellaneous. 



1. Parochial Burdens. 



These are, 1. For the support of the clergyman ; 2. For 

 the maintenance of the poor ; and, 3. In Scotland, for providing 

 a parochial schoolmaster. 



1. The mode of supporting the clergy in England ( I98 ), 

 by paying them a tenth part of the produce of the land in 

 kind, was established in the Christian world, when the reve- 

 nue of the crown, and the rents of the proprietor, were paid 

 in the same manner. But as the two latter are now commu- 

 ted, no good reason can be assigned, why the former should 

 not follow the same rule. It is certainly highly expedient for 

 the public interest, that an ecclesiastical establishment should 

 be maintained, and amply provided for, in proportion to the 

 opulence of the country. It is not the total amount that is in 

 general objected to, but the mode of payment, which is con- 

 sidered highly injurious to agriculture, and a check to exer- 

 tion. It is a great bar to improvement, because a spirited far- 

 mer, one more enlightened or more industrious than his neigh- 

 bours, would pay more tithes, in consequence of his labour 

 and outlay, while his receiving more profit would be a matter 

 of great uncertainty ; for though the produce might be more, 

 the expense would be greater. Nothing can be more ob- 

 noxious than a law, by which, when a person expends a large 

 sum, either in reclaiming wastes, or augmenting the fertility 

 of land already cultivated, he should be under the necessity 

 of yielding up, one-tenth of its increased produce to a person, 

 who has been liable to no share of the expense, who has run 

 none of the risk, and who has sustained none of the labour 

 attending the improvement ( I99 ). 



Should the cultivation of corn become more operose, and 

 require to be carried on with greater care, attention, and con- 

 sequent expense, the burden of tithes will be still more severe- 

 ly felt ( ao ). At present, great loss is experienced, when they 

 are exacted in kind, and conveyed, with much additional 



