Deity by a word of four letters ; this 
“ nations, 
112 
T 
deny, for moft of the European nations 
have called the Deity by a name of three 
letters, or by fuch as are radically trilite- 
ral. According to the Archzologia Bri- 
tannica, a learned work » printed 7°7, 
God is named by a three lettered name in 
the follo wing ancient and modern Euro- 
pean tongues, viz. Englifh, Anglo-Saxon,” 
~Old Cornith, Welsh, Irith, Scotch, I{- 
Jandic, Daniih, Italian, Portuguefe, and 
Sclavonian. tr. I. fays God is called 
Idio in the Italian ; my author fays Dio 
and Iddio : thas he fas evaded the former 
and for ought I know altered the latter. 
God is named in the Gothic tongue Goth: 
now here is a four-lettered name; but who 
does not fee that one is an afpir ate, which 
being pronounced without, it is Got and 
God: but if the Greeks, Romans, Spa- 
niards, &c. ufe a four-lettered name, 
others again ufe five and more letters: 
here then the obfervation is partial. Again 
in the Afiatic, Afi rican, and American 
God is named by a word of ma- 
ny letters in almof all thofe langtages : 
here again Mr. T. is defeated? I ne 
further remarks on this & ibjeét, fir, if your 
correipondent is willing to hear them. 
en 
fo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
K YERY few clersymen in England, 
who take tithes in kind, retain the 
good opinion of their parifhioners, ‘and 
- therefore have but little profpeét of mi- 
nifteri ing to their religious improvement. 
It is however a great hardfhip on a re- 
ipectable con{cientious cler gyman, to be 
placed in a fituation in which he muft 
either quarrel with his parifhi oners, or 
greatly injure his own family. It 1s 
potlible that a clergyman with five or fix 
children may hold a living of sol. per 
ena. ariling from tithes; but he may 
have great reafon to believe that his /egal 
right, if he could obtain it, would amount 
to 2001. per anu. ‘The neceflitics. of his 
family urge him te claim his utmott right 5 
but by doing this he would lofe all hope 
‘of doing good in the parifh as a minifter of 
the goifpel; and thus the fole end of his 
being fent into the parifh would be fruf- 
trated. This is a dilemma from which 
thofe who regard the fleece more than the 
flock will much more eafily extricate 
themfelves, than a clergyman who has 
right views of the important duties of his 
OWice. 
A clergyman in this fituation would be 
Advaniages of a Commutation of T; 
-to the laws of his country. 
Tythes. 
greatly relieved by a commutation of 
tithes for government annuities. If he 
receive at prefent only 150l. per anz. and 
his legal right fhould be valued at 200l. 
per ann. that right fold at thirty years 
purchafe, would - ps 60001. which 
would buy 12,000, 3 per cent. Confol. 
Ann. at 50, and of Nourt produce an 
annual income of 3601. ; and if laid out 
in’ 5 per cent. Annuities at 75, would 
purchale 8cool. flock, and produce an 
annual income of sool. 
It is ealy to affert, that every clergy- 
man is juftified in purfuing his legal right. 
But it is as eafy to reply, fiat whee is ay 
gal, is not always obvicufly juft. The laws 
of tithes, and the rule.of ey appear to 
be often at variance, @ quicquid efi contra 
NOY NAG: PEN iajuria. ‘Tne tithe-owner 
claims from the farmer the tenth part of 
the produce of all his extraordinary la- 
~bour in tilling his sround, and of all his 
extraordinary expence in purchafing ma- 
ure to lay upon it. ‘The inequality of 
the law which authorifes this claim, is 
conftantly felt by the farmer, and as con- 
ftantly Operares on his mind in direét op- 
pofition to that allegiance whicn he owes 
If all im- 
provements in agriculture were at an end, 
and the produceof land was a fxed quan- 
tity, the gee when he takes his farm, 
would be able to calculate the value of 
the tithe to be paid, and make a deduction 
of it, as of an out-rent, and his com- 
plaints againft tithes would ceafe. But 
fo long as the tithe- owner takes a tenth 
part of the improvements of the farmer, 
and thus takes money out of his pocket 
again{t his confent (for the farmer is com- 
pelled'to fpend his money for the benefit 
of the tithe owner), the tithe-owner hag 
an intereft in the preduce of land which i is 
inimical to the intereft of the farmer, ‘and 
is afource of perpetual contention be- 
tween inem. 
Between the clergy | and the laity, tithes 
have been the caufe of incurable enmity, 
- and endlefs difputes. Satan himfelf could 
not have deviled a greater fource of mif- 
chief i the Chriftian werld than the pay- 
ment of tithes. No other mode of pay- 
ing the clergy could have produced a 
thoufandth part of the evil which this has 
produced for more than 1000 years paft ; 
and he who fhall point out an equitable 
method of commuting tithes, will cer- 
tainly deferve the thanks of his country. 
QUZSITOR. 
Auguft 6th 1798. 
