# The Gentleman's Magazine/Volume 1/Issue 3/Remarks on the Bill to Prevent Suits for Tythes

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REMARKS on the BILL depending in PARLIAMENT, to prevent Suits for Tythes, where none, nor any Composition for the same, have been paid in a certain Number of Years.
THE Law for Exemptions from Tythes at present stands thus: If Tythe be demanded, and an Excemption is pleaded, the Incumbent insists upon common Right, and the Exemption must be proved by the Land Proprietor, or he must pay the Tythe.
But by this new Bill, the Proprietor is not to prove his Exemption, tho', if entitled to it, he may very well be supposed to have in his own Hands the Evidence of his Estate being Tythe-free, provided he or his Ancestors bought it really so; but the Proof of Tythe being paid in a certain number of Years, is to rest upon the Incumbent; who coming a Stranger to the Parish, may not know what has been done, and may easily be defrauded where Tythe has not been taken in Kind, but paid in Money, the Receipts for which he can no ways come at, being in the Hands of the Proprietors: Whereas, as the Law now stands, all Clergy are effectually secured against Impositions.
Many Impropriations, Wood-land, Waste, or other privileg'd Lands, which have remain'd so, during the Term to be limitted by this Act, when they come to be improved, or occupied by a Tenant, will be for ever exempted by this Act from paying Tythe, as they ought to do in such Cases.
Considering how many Ways Exemptions do and may grow, there is no Reason to take from the Clergy any Advantages the present Law gives them. The Difficulties they are under, by coming Strangers to a Parish, of procuring Evidence to contest pretended exemptions, the want of Money, or Spirit, to enter into a just Law-suit with a powerful Adversary; the Easiness or Ignorance of some, the undue Influence others are under, particularly Bonds of Resignation (now more openly practis'd than ever) and many officiating under Sequestions, have no Right to sue for Tythes, which may occasion a succeeding Incumbent, who is willing and able to do it, to be wholly precluded by this Act, after a certain Number of Years. This being the Case all the Tythes in the Kingdom may be exposed to, it would be very hard they should be turned into perpetual Exemptions, for no other Reason, but because now and then it may be doubtful, and need the Determination of the Law whether a particular Parcel of Land is really exempt or not.
The standing Rule of all Courts, before and since the Reformation, of admitting no Plea de non decimando, having never been called in question by the Legislature, may have occasion'd some to neglect asserting their Rights, and leave that to succeeding Incumbents, not supposing that Livings would suffer by it, no Statutes for Limitations of Suits, having ever been extended to the Revenues of the Church, which by this Act will be lessen'd every Generation, and possibly more than can be now foreseen.
The Statute of Edward the 6th, on which this Bill seems to be grounded, says, That all prædial Tythes shall be paid in such Manner and Form as hath been of right yielded and paid within forty years next before the making this Act, [or of Right or Custom ought to have been paid.] So that it was not made against, but in favour of the Protestant Clergy, to facilitate the Recovery of such Tythes as had, or ought of Right to have been paid to the Popish Clergy, in the 40 Years referr'd to; all Exemptions to remain as they were before the said Act. Whereas the present Bill is wholly in favour of the Parishioners, and ​upon Pretence of preventing the Clergy's taking Advantage of demanding Tythe for Lands which are exempted, when the Deeds or Writings proving such Exemption happen to be lost or destroy'd, utterly deprives them after a Discontinuance of Payment for a certain time, of claiming their Right, tho' they should be able to prove it by undoubted Authority: And yet it lays the Proprietors of Lands under no Obligation to declare in a legal manner that such Writings are really lost.
A Proposal at this time the more discouraging to the Order, when People of several persuasions either wholly refuse, or are not over conscientious in paying of Tythes.
One great Pretence of this Bill is, the loss of Evidence, viz. of Original. Grants, &c. which are generally very carefully preserved; but if not, may be probably found in Chancery; and in many Cases sufficient Evidence, whether Lands be exempt or not exempt, may be had from the Office of Augmentation, which is open to every Subject.
The other Pretence is, the preventing Law-suits and Differences; a Freedom from which is a very desirable Blessing; and the greater is their Guilt who will not suffer their Nighbours to enjoy Peace on any Terms but the giving up their just Rights, and the necessary Substance of themselves and Families. But on which Side the Breach of Peace, as occasion'd by Suits for Tythes, does chiefly lie, may be gather'd from the Number of Suits that have prevailed, above what have failed on that account: However, many of these Suits appear to be commenced by Lay-Impropriators, and not Parochial Incumbents. So that 'tis remarked, that the Clergy, generally speaking, are not chargeable with a Multitude of Prosecutions, or bringing such as are deemed vexatious and frivolous; on the other hand, the Truth is, the Rights of some Churches have been lost, by an unwillingness or inability to engage in expensive Law-suits, and many more may be lost, when made irrecoverable after a short Time.