The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-01-15 00:00:00

THE TITHE QUE6TION:

On Saturday Mr. Akers-Douglas, M.P., presided at
a meeting held at the Guildhall, Canterbury, to con-
sider the new extraordinary Tithe Act. Amongst the
speakers were Lord Harris, Mr. T. H. Bolton (Pre-
sident of the Anti-Extraordinary Tithe Association),
and Mr. Herbert Knatchbull-Hugessen. The fol-
lowing resolution was unanimously carried: "That
this meeting, wishing in every way to assist the Land
Commissioners in their inquiries on the subject of
extraordinary tithes, hopes that in their assessment
of the capital value of the tithe they will pay par-
ticular attention to the serious fall in the price of
hop, and of the likelihood of a considerable acreage
being grubbed in." The feeling prevailing in North
Wales could not be more strikingly illustrated than
by the unanimous rejection by the tenant farmers of
Mr. Ellis Manney's generous offer to pay the whole
of the tithes on his estate. The farmers met on Friday,
the date fixed for the tithe audit at Llanpstum-
dwy. Mr. John Owen Jones, the vicar's agent,
who had come to collect the tithes, was requested
to leave the room. When he bad gone, Mr. Henry
Jones, the secretary of the Anti-Tithe Movement, read
the following letter: "Estate office, Criccieth. Dear
Sir,—l am desired by H. I. Ellis Manney, Esq., to
inform yod that it is his intention to pay the half-
year's tithe rent on your holding, due in January and
July, 1887, by way of a remission. If you would
kindly forward me the demand note served upon you
I would remit the amount direct to the tithe-owner.
Should you have already paid before the receipt of
this letter, the money would be refunded on produc-
tion of the receipt, which may, if more convenient, be
sent me by post.—l am, &c., WALTER B. C. JONES."
The chairman (Mr. Lloyd Roberts) asked the farmers
individually what they intended to do in the face of
this letter, and they all expressed their determination
to stand out against paying the tithes that day unless
the rector granted their petition for an abatement.
This resolution was at once conveyed to the tithe
agent sitting at the Belle Vue Inn. A resolution was
also carried thanking Mr. Ellis Manney for his gene-
rous offer, and expressing regret that under the cir-
cumstances they were unable to accept it.

SOME men are so lacking in hospitality that they
will not even entertain an idea.
A rorr sings: "I have a son, a little son, a boy
just five years old." We don't see anything peculiar
in this. If the poet had a little daughter who was
a boy just five years old„it would be interesting.
THAT was a happy point made at a civic feast by a
naturalised German. In responding to a toast, he
said: I am the best Englishman, perhaps' of any a
you, because you are all born English, and could not
help it, whereas I became an Englishman from
choice.

Do cannibals always eat toast with their horrible
banquets? We ask the question, because, as every-
one knows, Robinson Crusoe found an empty toe's
track on the sand on a certain occasion; and it is
hard on any other assumption to conjecture how the
toast rack came to be there.
A CORRESPONDENt wants to know "how human
skin can be tanned." He must 'have been a remark-
ably good boy when he went to school not to have
learned that.

MISS MIFFINS is not well. Yesterday, as her nurse
brought her a packet which had evidently just arrived
from the doctor, the excellent invalid sighed and
said: Ala! that is my medicine. Well, well, I'll try
to take it as soon as I feel well enough.
AN English lady, for the first time, found herself in
a parish church not far erom Crathie, in a large pew
occupied by farmers and their wives, and by one or
two herdsmen—about a dozen in all. At the end of
the first prayer there was handed round the pew a
large snaff-mull. The lady passed it on, without
taking a pinch, to her neighbour, an old herdsman.
Just before the sermon the null again made the round,
and Mrs. L. again passed it on as before to the old
shepherd; but this time he returned it, saying, in a
low, significant tone, " Tak' the sneeshin', mem. Tak'
the sreeshin' ;ye diana ken cor minis—ter ;'ye'fféè
it afore hes dune."

SUDDEN DEATH OF LORD
IDDESLEIGH.
The Central News states that during his interview
with Lord Salisbury on Wednesday afternoon, Lord
Iddesleigh was seized with a sudden illness, which
resulted in his death the same evening.