shall be dissatisfied with any such decision of the commissioners or assistant commissioner," yet the framers of it perfectly well knew who alone were likely to make use of it. In fact, it is a proviso almost solely for the benefit of the oppulent landowner. They could never dream that one needy clergyman, or little farmer out of a thousand would dare to bring an action against the decision of the commissioners, especially when we read in the following clauses that "proceedings are not to abate by death of parties," and that "in case of death of parties before actions brought, &c. the same to be carried on and defended in their names! " 66 O, what a beautiful, healing measure is this Act for the Commutation of Tithes in England and Wales" likely to turn out. Lawyers, barristers, solicitors, petty-foggers! give over your days of mourning. Cast aside your "bread and water of affliction." You have had rare feastings out of the poor old church for couutless ages, and, my word for it, you shall continue still to feed on her, so long as there is a single bone in her skin worth picking. Never exclaim, "Othello's occupations gone;" for only let our whig ministers set down to frame an Act of Parliament, and Othello's occupation shall have as fine a field for exercise as honest heart can desire, since, all tricking partaking of the nature of stupidity, blunder upon blunder may be depended upon as the inevitable consequence. CLAUSE XLIX. Statutes of limitation not to be affected. These "statutes of limitation," which I have only heard of, are probably such as many would deem adverse to the rights of the church, an opinion I am more inclined to entertain from the fact that this Commutation Act thus hallows their memory. This clause does, in my mind, as good as tell us that all which, in times past, they have swindled the church out of, by their pretended moduses, they are to hold fast. Success sanctifies the deed, a whig maxim of incontrovertible importance. I should have thought, and so probably would every plain honest man, that, what was originally of the nature of fraud and injustice, would have so continued to the world's end, notwithstanding the evidence of our terriers, which transmit these frauds as solemn facts "from one generation to another," and which are so received and treasured up by all whom it may concern. But no our great whig commutation legislator, Qui redit ad fastos, et virtutem æstimat annis, Miraturque nihil nisi quod Libitina sacravit, is, it seems, of a different opinion. Keep what you have got, appears to be his rule of right. How you have gotten it, shove, without shame, in the back-ground. It is enough that these parish annals consecrate the theft, and "possession being nine points of the law," none but simple men and the Almighty care much about the tenth. Alas! for moduses and abbey lands! I see nothing in the two or three clauses following this of a healing or harmonizing nature. There are parties indeed that may be harmonized by this act of legislation, but they are none of them parties much connected with the church. There is the party of Dissenters, the party of Infidels, the party of Roman Catholics, the party of Radicals, the party of the London University, that tag-rag party who are trying what the "Diffusion of Useful Knowledge will do without religion; what a philosopher is likely to turn up without any superstitions cleaving to him connected with the "fear of God." For these men -nursed in the hope of ascendency and plunder which they are already snuffing from afar-this Tithe Commutation Act has every charm. But if our poor clergy will look into these, and, among others, into clauses 70, 71, 82, 83, &c. they will not, I think, find them of a very refreshing quality, replete as they are with the rudiments of continued altercations, vexation, trouble, and expence; with all that a lawyer must ardently admire, and all that an incumbent must seriously dread. Indeed, there is hardly an item in the Act that a wealthy adversary, assisted by his legal adviser, may not make the ground work of some glorious bothering uncertainty. CLAUSE LVII. Rent-charges to be valued according to the average price of Corn, according to returns, ending Christmas, 1835. Mr. White has here, in his explanation of this clause, given us what he calls "the progress of every commutation;" and because it may be of use to such of my clerical brethren as may not possess his edition of the Act, and may serve us in our various estimates, I will here give it entire. "The corn returns are made weekly from 150 towns in England and Wales, under the 9 GEO. IV., cap. 60. The returns ending Christmas, 1835, are those on which all commutations, at whatever period they may be made, will be founded. They are for an imperial bushel of Wheat, 7s. 04d. Barley, 3s. 112d. commutation will be as 1st. To ascertain the gross annual amount in money-value of the tithes which have been paid in any parish or district; calculated in the case of an award by the commissioners, on an average of seven years, ending Christmas, 1835, upon the principles of the clauses XXXVII. to LII. 2dly. To ascertain how many bushels of each of the three kinds of grain would be purchased with such amount at the average prices ascertained by the returns, ending Christmas, 1835; as, e. g., if the gross amount be £300, £100 would be calculated as if laid out in wheat; £100 in barley; £100 in oats. 3dly. To ascertain in each succeeding year the money-value of this number of bushels of each kind of grain, at the price fixed by the average of the seven years, ending at the then preceding Christmas. Thus, suppose the whole amount ascertained before Christmas, 1836, is £300, then taking nearly the average prices of the seven years ending Christmas, 1835, and neglecting the fractions, one-third of the £300, or £100, at 7s. per bushel, would give 286 bushels of wheat. £100, at 4s. per bushel, would give 500 bushels of barley. £100, at 2s. 9d. per bushel, would give 727 bushels of oats. Supposing that at Christmas, 1836, the average price of the seven preceding years should be Wheat, 6s. per bushel Oats, 2s. 6d. do. The rent-charge of 1837 would be 286 bushels of Wheat, at 6s. = Barley, 3s. 6d. = Oats, 2s. 6d. = Total for 1837 90 17 6 £264 3 6 And the like process would take place in every future year, according to clause LXVII.; the moneyvalue varying according to the price of the seven years' returns, ending at the then preceding Christmas."* I cannot think that this commutation for tithes ought to have been founded upon the price of wheat, barley, and oats alone. I am of opinion that another, and perhaps essentially different scale, should have been resorted to for their estimation of vicarial tithe. It often happens-it has so happened within this prescribed period of seven years-that the value of the small tithe has not, as a money-payment, been materially affected by the depreciation of the great. While corn was low in price, vicarial property has been even high. How then can we use the same scale for the determining the worth of such different property? Suppose a state of cultivation to take place some years hence-for agricultural intellect is awake and beginning to rub its eyes-by which vicarial tithe property may be doubled in value. What is to be done? Are poor vicarages still to be tied down to a law which does not in the least seem to concern them; and to be tied down to it, moreover, when wheat, barley, and oats may happen to be peculiarly low? Will such a scale of estimation afford any, the most distant, resemblance of the value of vicarial tithe? 66 The solicitor for the Bill observes, It was strongly urged that the price of meat should be taken as a criterion; but even if this were desirable, it is to be recollected that there is no machinery for ascertaining the price with sufficient accuracy. Something ought to have been done to modify this injurious scale as to the poorer livings; and, if one thing had not answered, another should have been * See White's Edition of the Act, p. 50. H |