The National Register.
London, England, 1818-03-01 00:00:00

Tile Public at large are very much indebted to Mr.
Cetwen for his most laudable exertions in. promoting
this Bill. Its object is not to deprive the clergy or
the lay impropriator of any Tithes they are justly en-
titled to; but to reform that law or practice, which
.has for many years enabled, and still enables them, to
subvert moduses, compositions, and exemptions from
tithes, and to Subject lands to the payment of tithes,
which art justly entitled to exemption. It may be
useful in addition to Mr. Curwea's speech, again to
explain to the public how this arises.—Lands may be
discharged from payment of tithes various ways, viz. •
part by pecuniary payment, cr other compensation mu-
.dered as a commutation in lieu of tithes, which took its
origin from agreement between the parson,- the patron
of the living, and the bishop on the one part, and the
landholder on the other, made in Vae reign of King
• Richard 1., commonly called u eselus; which is tried by
a jury (when sent to their) 1;y war, to which there
is no objection, because it is the c:lnsit4tional tributrai
for trial of matter of fact. The objection Isere is, that
• a great many of such moduses are not sent to that con-
stitutional tribunal, but arc condemned by the Court as
rant, althrogh proved by usage ; and again in cases
where tncalcses are clearly Proved, and the Court is of
opinion against the Rector, they will allowhim another
-chance by giving him a liberty of trying it by a jury.
whereas if they are against a layman, they will not
gave him a liberty of trying it by n jury; but deerce
tithes l kind to the Rector, &c. The only reason iii.

this is, favour to the elotrelt. Can this be devinud
impartial jnstiee? One *fleet of the Dill is to renietly
• 'this evil. Another mode of discharge is by a like coin-
• mutation for tithe of later origin, vi :,% orii.,,inating be
tween the Ist of Ilietutrd I. quid the 13th of Elizabeth,

when, by a strained eonstruction of 5 statute, it was
pit an end to. This is called a composition.—
, .1f this were peamitte4 to be pt.ovoil in tbe sac stir
nudes, by ustio, these wad be us oleo**, but
the produrtion of the very deed by which it wns ereat.
ks, is required, or some evidence that such deed was
s.ecuteti, otherwise the Hector recovers tithes in kind,

and wive, nod enjoyment, however long or cogent,
ovals nothing. In the lapse of time, since the
:aft Enz., it, is next to an impassibility to produce
such deeds, or give any evidence of such deeds having
'0:on executed, they have beer lost. or dostroyed for age*
Therefore another object of thitt Bill is to dispense with
product:on and proof t f the deed itself, and to make
song usage tad enjoyment presumptive prod of it,
less the chzfroi can rhciv Ikt• contrary ; if the church
• eta by any evidence written or parole, shew the con-
_ trary, they will be still left nt liberty to do so, in the
sine milliner as they do upon trla! of immemorial mo-
d-ow. Anotiler ole of exemption 6, net by way of
c -eintutatio, as in modases and real compositions, but
a. being hits v.•hi;ll belpn;P:l. to the larger al,boys nod
. religious houses, dissolved and given to the Crown in
the Reign of Henry VIII. Many of there be.d their
lands:exempt trout tithes, and by the statute of dissolu-
tion, those exemptions are Iv ever to remain to the
Crown and its afliauees. Here agai the same sort of
proof is required to make out those hinds belonged
to the abbeys, which cannot at rhis day be had, from
destruction and loss of deeds and writings ; and from
the infinite division and suislivision of property and
changes of ownership which have taken place since
that Reign. If original tithe deeds exist any where,
they cannot be with every proprietor, and it is next to
, impossible to find them out. In this case it is the
object of the bill to mole usage and repo tr.tion evidence,
• till the contrary shall be damn on ar e Flrt of the Church.
Lay impropriators are also considered us: ecclesiastics
witli respect to tithes, and the same rules of evidence
are applied to them, for which the.e can be no good
season given, as tithes in their hands are the same as
all filer temporal inheritances, were grants and deeds
. though lost and destroyed, are presumed from
And enjoyment Another object of the bill is to provide
- a similar remedy as to them. Another flagrant act of
injustice is, that of setting aside ancient compositions,
agreements and exchanges, made snbsequent to the
Eliz. between the church and lendowuers, aod
even when they have been sanctioned by deerees in
- Chancery, and acquiesced it flir ores before the ypir
170, when Lord Chancellor Northin;ton, deptattog
from the example of his predecessors, thought lit to set
... ,them ;;side. For one, instate advert te the particular