720 
Sale of Corn- hy Weirjhi. 
annual incoriie arising from tithe rentcharge), and that Some 
part, though a constantly diminishing and now a comparatively 
insignificant part, of these Returns are made in measure only, 
unaccompanied by any weight, the saving of trouble and the 
sense of greater accuracy which would result from a uniform 
weight is obvious. 
The importance of a correct quotation of the price of com in 
the interests of the public generally was particularly insisted 
on by the Select Committee (of forty-one members) who reported 
on this question in 1834. This would appear to be almost a 
truism. The iron trade formerly used three weights, but they 
met and reduced these to one, and did so in the interests of the 
employes. The Committee of 183-i considered uniformity of 
chief importance in the interests of the farmers themselves, as 
well as of the public, and that the legislature should step in and 
do what individuals, classes, or districts could not do for them- 
selves. The tendency to sell by measure is found mostly in the 
Eastern counties, wliich may have been the result of the corn 
duties they so much regretted to see abolished. As, however, 
these counties have had to pay a much larger amount of tithe 
rentcharge than other counties, we might have supposed, if they 
had been led to consider the importance of correct corn averages 
in connection with tithe rentcharge, they would have felt 
greater interest than the Midlands in having correct quotations. 
Their alleged desire to sell the one cereal, barley, by measure, 
however, appears to operate in a contrary direction. 
The Scotch have a fiars court (this word meaning average) 
to determine each year the annual value of grain in the county, 
on which, as well as other products of the soil, varying in dif- 
ferent counties, the minister's salary is fixed. They experience, 
therefore, no such dissatisfaction as we do when the tithe is 
fixed on com averages obtained in a way never likely to give 
satisfaction to those who know that the same lot of corn is 
returned sometimes as many as six times at Mark Lane, giving 
a totally erroneous impression of the amount of grain in the 
market, and tending to raise the average price unfairly. 
The Select Committee of 1831, already referred to, made an 
exhaustive inquiry into the weights and measures by which 
grain was sold, two years before the passing of the Tithe Com- 
mutation Act. That Act adopted the well-known plan of find- 
ing the gross average money value of the tithes of each parish 
for seven years ending Christmas 1835; secondly, of appor- 
tioning the amount of that value upon the lands of the several 
tithe payors ; thirdly, of ascertaining how much corn can be 
purchased witli such amount, one-third of it to be laid out in 
