The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-05 00:00:00

THE VICAR OF PRESTON AND

AND HIS TITHES.

A few weeks ago, Mr. Woodhouse, clerk, agent to
the Vicar, sent in a bill, demanding from Mr. Livesey the
sum of six shillings and a penny, for potatoes and other
small tithes. Mr. Livesey objected to this demand
in money, and wrote to the Vicar, stating, that if he had
any legal demand, he might send, and he should be paid
in kind.

The following is a copy of the note :
Sir,—Understanding that you arc making claim for

tithe upon :potatoes, this is to state that we are now get-
ting them up; and if you have any legal demand upon the
same, you may send for them, and they will be ready for
you. Yours, itc. J. LIVE SEY.

The following day, Mr. Woodhouse presented him-
self in Mr. Livesey's garden, and asked where the
potatoes were, as he was come for them. One part was
" hogged," and others were loose in different places. He
was shown the whole, when he observed, " How
shall I know how many there are ?" Mr. Livesey an-
swered, " You can consult the gardener—he will state
the quantity, and if you are not satisfied with his state-
ment, you can make your own calculation ; and if you
take even more than your due, I shall not complain : I
am not within a few potatoes." The clerk then began
to demur, and said, that the law required that all the
potatoes should be put into-ten heaps, and the Vicar
would take the tenth ; and unless this was complied
with, he would not take them. Mr. Livesey replied,
that he saw no reason why he (the clerk) should stickle
about a matter of form ; if he got the quantity legally
due, he ought to be satisfied ; and as there were plenty
of potatoes loose, Mr. Livesey refused to break open
the " hogg," to comply with so vexatious a demand.
Mr. Woodhouse then left the premises. He, however,
took the liberty of calling again the next day, not for
the purpose of taking away his share of the potatoes,
but to present a new bill, considerably augmented in
amount. The first demand, as stated, was 6s. Id. ; but
on the second day, the sum had increased to 155.! The
following is a copy of the bill, signed by the Vicar's own
hand. It was clear, therefore, that his Reverence had
been consulted, and that he had signed and sanctioned
an advance of 150 per cent.:—
Mr. Joseph Livesey.
Dr. to the Vicar of Preston
For the undermentioned tithes :

A. R. P. £ 9. d.
o 10 0
0 3 0
__ __ -- 0 1 6
-- __ -- 0 0 6

Potatoes.. —
Apples
Cabbage
Gooseberries and currants

£0 15 0
You are hereby required to pay the above sum to my
agent, Mr. Thomas Woodhouse, No. 6, St. John's-place.
And you will take notice, that, unless the same be paid
upon this demand, you will be proceeded against according
to the statutes " for the more easy recovering of small
tithes."

(Signed) ROGER CARUS WILSON.
Preston, September 2, 1839.
Among other extraordinary items, it will be seen,
that a charge is made for currants ; while the fact is,
that Mr. Livesey had not a pint of currants in the
whole of his garden. It may here be remarked, that
there is no great appearance of justice in a demand
which admits of being Gs. Id. or 15s. If the latter sum
were correct, would any person who had given an equi-
valent reduce it to the former ; and if 6s. Id. consti-
tuted the just claim, by what rule of right could 15s.
be demanded ?
The payment not being made, shortly after Mr. Live-
SOY was served with a summons to appear on the Sa-
turdav,- the day usually chosen for this business. proba-
bly on account of the paucity of spectators. Next fol-
lowed au order made by the Magistrates, with an addi-
tional 10s. for expenses ; and next an execution, under
which two constables entered Mr. Livesey's shop and took
three cheeses and forty volumes of the Moral Reformer.
These will be sold in a day or two, by public auction,
along with other articles taken from another person
under a similar process.—Preston Observer.

No GENTLEMAN.—" You mustn't smoke
here, sir," said a Captain of a north river-steam-boat, to
a man who was smoking among th 3 ladies on the quar-
ter-deck. " Mustn't—he !—why not ?" replied he,
opening his capacious mouth, and allowing the smoke
lazily to escape. Didn't you see the sign—' all gen-
tlemen are requested not to smoke abaft the epginer
" Bless your soul that don't mean me—l'm flat 4 gen-
tleinan—nct a bit of it. You can't make a gentleman
of me any how you fix it." So saying, he smoked away,
and took the responsibility.—. American Paper.

EVENING EDITION

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

rum THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
From the Globe.)
We have had Church and close Corporations,
Church and Cumberland, and are now to have Church
and Corn-laws! Well, if the name of the Church is
to be coupled with every abuse and nuisance, it is no
fault of ours. The Church has to thank, her soi-
disant sole friends for the compliment. " Let any one,"
says the Evening organ of the Church carnally and
Corn-law militant, " compare the latest declarations of
Lords Lansdowne and Melbourne upon the subject of
the Church and the Corn Laws, with the writin of all
their newspapers upon these topics, and then doubt, if
he can, that these declarations are advisedly designed
to deceive and to betray." We shall not follow the
example of conpling the Church and the Corn-laws.
Leaving the former, therefore, out of question at pre-
sent, we shall confine ourselves to a few remarks
on the imputation regarding the latter. If we
were to'd that Sir Robert Peel's and Sir James
Graham's declarations on the Corn-laws were " ad-
visedly designed to deceive and betray" we should not
be surprised to hear it. Those declarations were
most studiously put in a shape merely negative
of the opportuneness of entering on the question
in the manner proposed. Let not the advocates of re-
striction for a moment flatter themselves they have sure
friends in the Right Hon. Baronets of 'l'amworth and
Netherby. The opinions which the Sir James Graham
of ten years back published on Corn and Currency
remain unretracted by the Sir James Graham of the
present day ; and we defy the latter much heavier
Baronet to answer the sound arguments of his Netherby
predecessor on the former subject. Every yeai of sub-
sequent experience has only confirmed them. The Sir
James Graham of 18.29 assured the farmers that no
Legislation could screw up the price of corn above the
naluralavera:;e which would befixed by home production,
as it had been throughoutthe last century. The author of
" Influences of the Corn-laws" has completed the /af.e
Sir J. Graham's work by showing that, while Corn-laws
are quite powerless to raise our average prices, they P.re
fitally powerful to create the most ruinous fluctua'..ions
—at one period encouraging, by high prices prf.duced
by scarcity, an extended breadth of cultivVtion—at
another plunging the farming interest in all Ode distress
consequent upon over production, and 'ruinously low
prices. Those who suffer perhaps mcst from these
vicissitudes are precisely the agriculturists for whose
imaginary benefit they are incurred. They suffer all the
depreciation in their capital—all the waste and embar-
rassment—which enormous fluctuations and ill-calcu-
lated production create. But fluctuations must be
enormous—production must be ill calculated—soasons
of (much exaggerated) profits from scarcity prices Mai
be followed by seasons of loss and waste from over abund-
ance—so long as artificial lees counteract the natural
laws of commerce, which tend to equalise the supply of
commodities in constant demand. It is this compP.rative
equality and stability, not lowness of price---that is
equally desirable for the farming interest ur, for every
other.

(From the Courier.)
Although far from concurring in the tenour of the ani-
madversions directed against the East India Company,
with its usual ability, by the 211o;.iiing Herald, we need
not at present overlay the Cb;.nese question with the
consideration of what is entirely extraneous, so far as
the point really at issue, 1;or it is not an affair of spo-
liation committed upon 'che India Company, but upon
British merchants ; and assuming even that the whole
of the opium seized was the produce of lands held
direct from the Company, and sold by them
to the exporters, which, however, does not appear,
it no more follows that the subsequent loss, by seizure
abroad, can be fairly pleaded for compensation against
the vendors, than, to put at. extreme but analogous case,
the dealer in French brandy at Calais or Dunkirk could
he called upon for indemnity by. the smuggler—his
customer—because of seizure and confiscation, in the
Channel or oa shore, by revenue officers. The Com-
pany have no power to interfere with the free action of
the exporter, and to bind him down against carrying the
drug, either to Turkey, where it is tolerated, or to
China, where its use is interdicted. They are not in the
capacity of custodes either for the morals or the fiscal
laws of the Chinese. Opium itself is not necessarily
more noxious than alcohol or prussic acid, and not more
immediately destructive than either, even when
used in excess. Yet we do not see fitting to forbid the
wholesale exhibition of the one in drain shops, and the
sale of the other for manufacturing purposes, because
wretched people are found to commit suicide with the
acid, or shorten life with the spirit. Opium is not th.s.'
exclusive product of the Indies, nor of tie lands heft
in immediate proprietorship by the Company ; and it
would be just as arbitrary and unjust, as really
unavailing, to prohibit it's cultivation in their own
territorial hoiding, and in their Sovereign charac-
ter to denounce. it. in the whole of the immense
realms subject, directly and indirectly, to their do-
minion, as it would be to abolish distillation here,
because corn and sugar were abused by the ex-
' traction and rectification of gin and rum. As the
Company are invested with no control over the opera-
tions of the trader, so neither can they be held responsible
for acts beyond their jurisdiction.
(From the Standard.)
Some months have passed since we presented, in
an extract from the British and Foreign-Review, the
history of the expulsion of the Protestant inhabitants
of the Zillerthal, and of the reception of the
emigrants by the good King of Prussia. A cor-
respondent, whose letter appears in the Standard of
this day, offers a suggestion which we humbly re-
commend to our readers for their adoption ; namely,
an address to the pious and benevolent Sovereigns,
who has hospitably taken our persecuted brethren
under his protection, thanking hint ter this mani-
festation of his zeal for the Protestant religion.
Such an address, if the opportunity shall be afforded,
will receive the signature of millions in the United
Kingdom ; and its example will, questionless, be
followed through the whole of Protestant Europe.
The King of Prussia is now in the very front of the
battle for the Protestant faith. And, alas! that we
must say it, he stands almost alone among the Princes
of Christendom. He is fighting the good fight
nobly, and he is entitled to every tribute of gratitude
—every voice of encouragement in the power of
Protestants to give. Next to the satisfaction of
his own generous heart, and the approbation of his
own conscience, he must receive the testimony of the
Protestants of the United Kingdom as the most precious
meed of his services—more eminently preci'aus, be-
cause its effect must be to give encourager.aent to the
Protestants of Europe generally, and in the same
proportion to deter the Romanist Status from a repe-
tition of their persecutions. The King will remember,
Inca eem to forget, that
what some of our country
there is " a universal Protestant cause," the antagonist
of the universal Romanist conspiracy, and that Great
Britain and Prussia have before now vindicated that
cause in glorious alliance.