TITANIUM. 
flower, which, when they have discovered, they 
daily visit so long as a single seed remains, hold- 
ing each seed firmly between their claws till it is 
neatly unkernelled. During autumn and winter 
both species come into gardens and orchards, 
like the tom-tit, in families or small flocks, but 
do little or no injury. — 
The greater tit, oxeye, joe-bent, or willow- 
biter, Parus major, has a shining black head and 
breast like the cole-tit, but is readily distinguished 
from all the other species by being nearly a third 
longer, while it is more gaily coloured with yel- 
low, olive,and blue, The greater size and strength 
of its bill renders it more capable of digging into 
the crevices of the bark of trees than any of the 
preceding; and it is also fonder of climbing up 
the trunks of trees than the tom-tit, in pursuit 
of lurking grubs and beetles. In this way, it is 
of essential benefit in orchards and gardens, and 
| ought not to be grudged a walnut or a filbert in 
reward for its ‘services; and even were all the 
roots and seeds reckoned up which it may occa- 
sionally eat, they would be of such small amount 
as to be unworthy of consideration. 
TITANIUM. One of the rare and recently 
discovered metals. It was not satisfactorily proved 
to be a distinct elementary substance till the 
year 1822. Minute crystals of it are found in 
the slug of iron works; and have a cubic form, 
a coppery colour and lustre, a specific gravity 
of 53, and a hardness so great as to scratch a 
polished surface of rock crystal. Titanium com- 
bines with oxygen, chlorine, and sulphur, so as 
to form oxides, chlorides, and sulphurets. 
TITHES. The tenth part of the increase 
yearly arising from the profits of lands, the stock 
upon lands, and the industry of the occupants, 
allotted to the clergy for their maintenance. 
The custom of giving and paying tithes is very 
ancient. In Gen. xiv. 20, Abraham gives Mel- 
chizedek the tenth of all the spoils taken from 
the four kings defeated by him. Tithes were 
first legally enjoined by Moses. They were not es- 
tablished by Christ. The early Christian ministers 
lived upon the oblations of the devout. For the 
first three hundred years after Christ, no mention 
is made in ecclesiastical history of any such thing 
as tithes. The first authority produced (setting 
aside the apostolical constitutions, which few of 
the advocates of tithes will insist on) is a pro- 
vincial synod at Cullen, in 356, in which tithes 
are voted to be God’s rent. After the church 
had enjoyed tithes without disturbance for two 
or three centuries, the laity in the eighth cen- 
tury obtained possession of part of the tithes, 
and appropriated them to their own uses. Some 
time afterwards they restored them, or applied 
them to the founding of monasteries or chapters. 
In 1179, the third council of Lateran commanded 
the laymen to restore to the church all the tithes 
which they yet held. Upon the first introduc- 
tion of tithes, though every man was obliged to 
pay Meee in general, yet he might give them to 
TITHES. 465 
what ministers he pleased, which were called aréz- 
trary consecrations of tithes; or he might pay 
them into the hands of the bishop, who distri-: 
buted among his diocesan clergy the revenues of 
the church, which were then in common. But 
when dioceses were divided into parishes, the 
tithes of each parish were allotted to its own 
particular minister ; first by common consent, or 
the appointments of lords of the manors, and 
afterwards by the written law of the land. How- 
ever, arbitrary consecrations of tithes took place 
again afterwards, and became common in Eng- 
land till the time of King John. This was pro- 
bably owing to the intrigues of the regular clergy, 
or monks of the Benedictine and other rules, 
and will account for the number and riches of 
the monasteries and religious houses which were 
founded in those days, and which were frequently 
endowed with tithes. But, in process of years, 
the income of the laborious parish-priests being 
scandalously reduced by these arbitrary conse- 
crations of tithes, it was remedied in England by 
Pope Innocent III., about the year 1200, in a 
decretal epistle, sent to the Archbishop of Can- 
terbury, which enjoined the payment of tithes to 
the parsons of the respective parishes, where 
every man dwelt, agreeably to what was after- 
wards directed by the same pope in other coun- 
tries. This put an effectual stop to all the arbi- 
trary consecrations of tithes, except some traces 
which still continue in those portions of tithes, 
which the parson of one parish has, though rarely, 
aright to claim in another; for it is now uni- 
versally held that tithes are due, of common _ 
right, to the parson of the parish, unless there 
be a special exemption. This parson of the pa- 
rish may be either the actual incumbent, or else 
the appropriator of the benefice; appropriations 
being a method of endowing monasteries, which 
seems to have been devised by the regular clergy, 
by way of substitution to arbitrary consecrations 
of tithes. 
Mr. Smith observes that tithes, as well as other 
similar taxes on the produce of the land, are, in 
reality, taxes upon the rent, and, under the ap- 
pearance of equality, are very.unequal taxes; a 
certain portion of the produce being, in different 
situations, equivalent to a very different portion 
of the rent. In some very rich lands, the pro- 
duce is so great, that the one-half of it is fully 
sufficient to replace to the farmer his capital 
employed in cultivation, together with the ordi- 
nary profits of farming-stock in the neighbour- 
hood. The other half, or, what comes to the 
same thing, the value of the other half, he could 
afford to pay as rent to the landlord, if there was 
no tithe. But, if a tenth of the produce is taken 
from him in the way of tithe, he must require 
an abatement of the fifth part of his rent, other- 
wise he cannot get back his capital with the 
ordinary profit, In this case, the rent of the 
landlord, instead of amounting to a half, or five 
tenths, of the whole produce, will amount only 
2G 
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