from which a tithe is levied. Tithes are, therefore, liable to all the objections which have been urged against taxes on necessaries. They must either directly reduce the wages of the labourer, and depress his condition in society, or they must indirectly produce this effect by lowering the rate of profit, and stimulating the transfer of capital to countries relieved from so heavy a burden.

The average price of corn in Great Britain during the last four or five years, has been very near 80s. the quarter; and the agriculturists contend, that this is the lowest price at which it can be raised on inferior lands. It is plain, however, that if 80s. be a remunerating price when tithes are levied, 72s. would be an equally high remunerating price if they were remitted. When wheat sells at 80s., tithes, supposing them to be rigorously exacted, are really equivalent to a tax of ts. a bushel, or of 8s. a quarter. But, as the average annual consumption of the different kinds of grain by each individual, when reduced to the standard of wheat, has been estimated, apparently on good grounds, at one quarter, it follows that, when the medium price of wheat is 80s., a tithe on corn is really the same thing as a capitation tax of 8s., and consequently constitutes an item of 40s. in the expenditure of every family of five persons!

But, tithes are objectionable on other grounds. They are not a permanent and fixed tax, but they increase according as the difficulty of raising raw produce increases; and are infinitely more burdensome and oppressive in a year of scarcity, than in a year of plenty. If the price necessary to afford a sufficient supply of corn were 60s. a quarter, the tithe would be equal to a direct tax of 6s. a quarter; but if, in consequence of being forced to resort to inferior lands, the increased difficulties of production had raised the price to 80s., the tithe would be 8s.; when prices rose to 100s., the tithe would be 10s., and so on. Nor is this all.-The tithe is not only increased in value, but it is also increased in amount, according as cultivation is extended. When land of the first quality, and which we have supposed would yield 100 quarters, was cultivated, the tithe would be 10 quarters: But after land of the second quality, and which only yields 90 quarters, had been cultivated, the tithe would be levied on 190 quarters: When land of the third quality had been cultivated, it would be levied on 100+ 90 + 80, or 270 quarters, and would go on progressively increasing, both in value and quantity, as fresh soils were brought under tillage.

'Not only,' says Mr Ricardo, who was the first to explain the real nature of tithes, is the amount of the tax increased from 100,000 quarters to 200,000 quarters, when the produce is increased

from one to two millions of quarters, but, owing to the increased labour necessary to produce the second million, the relative value of raw produce is so advanced, that the 200,000 may be, though only twice in quantity, yet in value three or four times that of the 100,000 quarters which were paid before.

If an equal value were raised for the Church by any other means, increasing in the same manner as tithes increase, proportionably with the difficulty of cultivation, the effect would be the same. The Church would be constantly obtaining an increased portion of the net produce of the land and labour of the country. In an improving state of society, the net produce of the land is always diminishing in proportion to its gross produce; but it is from the net income of a country that all taxes are ultimately paid, either in a progressive or in a stationary country. A tax increasing with the gross income, and falling on the net income, must necessarily be a very burdensome, and a very intolerable tax. Tithes are a tenth of the gross, and not of the net produce of the land; and, therefore, as society improves in wealth, they must, though the same proportion of the gross produce, become a larger and larger portion of the net produce.

The increased oppressiveness of tithes, from the increased difficulty of raising raw produce, has been fully admitted by those who consider them as falling entirely on the rent of the landlord, and as affording the best means of providing for the support of the Church. The Reverend Mr Howlett, Vicar of Dunmow, in Essex, and advantageously known by his pamphlets on Population and the Poor-laws, published, in 1801, An Essay on the Influence of Tithes on Agriculture,' in which we meet with the following distinct recognition of this principle.

Tithes, as legally and constitutionally settled in this kingdom, and as far as respects many of the fruits of the earth, are the tenth of the produce, subject to none of the expenses of cultivation, nor of severance from the ground; liable, however, to the land-tax, and parochial rates of every denomination; as also to the charges of collecting, and preparing them for, and carrying them to, market. Hence it is apparent that the real value of all such tithes increases faster than the value of the titheable lands, in the exact proportion of the increasing expense of cultivation, and of severance: and as these expenses have been rapidly advancing for many years past, the disproportion between the increasing value of tithes and of titheable lands, has been growing every day greater and greater.-Accordingly, when I look round this neighbourhood, I find that, in the course of the last fifty years, while the rents of farms have been advancing, upon an average, about one FOURTH, the real value of the tithes has been nearly TRIPLED; consequently they have been increasing about twelve times as fast as the rents of the lands from which they were pro

* Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, 1st edit. p. 228.

duced; and hence it is also manifest that, in time, the tithes may be equal to, or greater than, the rent. This, indeed, is already the case with regard to some articles of expensive culture. It not unfrequently happens that the tithe of an acre of hops is nearly worth 3. or 4., after the deduction of drying and duty-while, perhaps, the annual rent of the ground is only 40s. or 50s.; and I have known the tithe of an acre of carrot-seed worth seven or eight guineas, upon land let for less than a pound.'-p. 3.

It is not possible to form any precise estimate of the value of the tithes paid to the clergy and the lay-impropriators. In Mr Cove's Essay on the Revenues of the Church of England, published in 1796, the tithes belonging to the clergy are estimated at 1,562,000l., and those belonging to the laity at 192,000l., amounting together to 1,754,000l. There cannot, however, be a doubt that this estimate was a great deal too low; as it was a principal object with Mr Cove to represent tithes as a trifling burden; and his computations are throughout extremely loose and unsatisfactory. The Reverend Doctor Beeke, in his valua ble pamphlet on the Income-tax, published in 1799, has bestowed a good deal of attention on this subject; and the result of his investigation gives the entire value of the tithes then collected. in England and Wales at 2,800,000l. But, the average price of corn for the last ten years has been considerably more than double its average price for the ten years ending with 1799; and when the increased extent of cultivation is also taken into account, we shall certainly be warranted in concluding, that the value of the tithes must now be at least double their value at the former epoch: And hence, supposing Dr Beeke's estimate to be nearly accurate, they must now amount to 5,600,000l.,- -8 sum which, great as it is, is yet, we believe, considerably underrated.

For we should form a very erroneous conclusion indeed, if we supposed that the value of the tithes received by the clergy and the lay-impropriators, is equivalent to the whole extent of the burden they occasion to the community. Exclusive of the lands formerly belonging to the greater abbeys, the rent of which is now supposed to exceed two and a half millions, and which are entirely exempted from tithe, a considerable extent of other lands, in virtue of claims of prescription, of payments of ancient moduses and compositions, or by special Act of Parliament, is nearly in the same situation. But, as we have already shown, the produce raised on these lands is notwithstanding sold at the same price as the produce raised on the lands which are fully tithed. In these cases, the landlords are in fact the proprietors of the tithes; and it is they, and not the public, who are

benefited by the exemption. An example will set this principle in a clearer point of view.-Suppose that an annual supply of one million of hats is required to meet the demand,--that they cannot be produced for less than 10s. each, and that the Government imposes a tax of 1s., or a tithe, on 100,000 of these hats; it is obvious that in these circumstances the price of the whole hats would immediately rise to 11s.; for, if they did not, no person would buy the taxed hats; and their producers not being able to obtain the ordinary rate of profit, would invest their stock in some other employment. In this case, therefore, the Government, by levying a tithe on 100,000 hats would only acquire a revenue of 5000l.; but the total extent of the burden thus imposed on the public would really be equal to 50,000l., óf which 45,000l. would go into the pockets of the manufacturers of those hats which were exempted from this charge. Now, this is precisely the case with the tithes paid to the clergy and the laity. They increase the price of the produce raised on those lands which are relieved from them, to a par with its price on those from which they are exacted to the utmost extent.

It is easy from this to perceive, that it will not do to consider the additional burden thus entailed on the community, as limited to the increased rents obtained by the owners of tithefree farms in England. The landlords of Scotland must gain equally by being exempted from this charge. The produce of this division of the United Kingdom, is freely admitted into those markets which are chiefly supplied by the produce raised on the tithed lands in the other divisions; and its value must, in consequence, be proportionably advanced. If tithes are really an advantageous tax, they ought undoubtedly to press equally on all qualities of land. As now levied, a very large proportion, perhaps not less than one half of their total amount, is not received by the clergy, for whose use they were originally intended, or by the lay-impropriator, but by the landlords of Scotland, and the owners of tithe-free lands in England.

It is true, that if an equal revenue were raised for the support of the Church by any other tax, which should vary pro portionably to the expenses of cultivation, its effect, when considered only with reference to the sum taken from the pockets of the public, would be the same. But, as tithes are now levied, they amount, as we have just seen, to a much larger sum than is received by the clergy-and, what is still worse, they are a perpetual source of divisions and contentions between the pastor and his flock. The clergy cannot certainly be blamed for exacting payment of that portion of the produce of the soil which the law has set apart for their support; nor is there any

set of men more deserving of a liberal provision, or whose labours conduce more to the public advantage. It is the manner in which they are provided for, that is vicious and objectionable. Perhaps the circumstance of the provision for the maintenance of the clergy, being chiefly derived from a heavy tax on the most indispensable of all necessaries, is the least revolting part of the system. It will not be denied, that the influence and usefulness of a clergyman must mainly depend on his possessing the esteem and affection of his parishioners. But, so long as stipends are paid by tithes, this esteem and affection, in most cases, if not in all, cannot be acquired, except by a sacrifice, on the part of the incumbent, of a portion of his income. The rate of tithe is a tolerable barometer of the love or dislike of parishioners; where they are higher than ordinary, you may be certain of finding a turbulent divine, who will have his rights, regardless whether he is liked or disliked. If, on the contrary, they are moderately exacted, the love and respect of his neighbours follows of course. ' * It would be of no use to tell a farmer, that the greater the rigour with which tithe is exacted, the higher must be the price of corn. He only sees the immediate sacrifice he is called on to make; and he does not give himself the least trouble about the ultimate effects which may result from it. Besides, prices would be equally high if the tithe was exacted from the worst lands only; and the farmers of the richer lands have, in truth, a real as well as an apparent interest to reduce the tithe to the lowest possible amount. It is undeniable, that this system holds out a bounty to extortion and rapacity, on the one hand, and to fraud and chicanery, on the other. It has often set the duty and the interest of the clergy in opposition to each other; and has done more to paralyze their exertions, and to deprive them of the esteem of their parishioners, than all the efforts of all the infidels and sectaries that ever existed. In the emphatic language of Mr Grattan, it has made the clergyman's income to fall with his virtues, and to rise with his bad qualities; just as it has made the parishioner to lose by being ingenuous, and to save by dishonesty.' No better plan could have been devised to disseminate the worst vices, and to make the ministers of the Gospel of Peace the unwilling instruments of endless litigation and implacable animosities.

To the credit of the Church of England it ought to be mentioned, that the clergy seldom carry their claim for tithes to its full extent; and that they are, in general, much less rigorous in their demands than the lay-impropriators. But, in despite of this moderation, tithes constitute an extremely heavy burden.

* Survey of the County of Clare, p. 186.