The Sun.
London, England, 1830-01-21 00:00:00

to merit better bishoprics by voting as they are
directed, which they seldom- fail to do. . .
. . Which thing put me in mind
of an answer the Lord Carteret made some
time since to Bishop Hare, who, when
he complained of the hard words that Lord
had given some of the Bishops in a speech in
the House of Lords, put him in mind that his
Lordship might one day be a Minister of State
himself, and might then want the Bishops' votes.
This Lord replied, If I want you, I know how
to have you ;' the meaning of which words are
easily understood without a comment." With
respect to " the strong attachment of the people
to their Church," that means merely the strong
attachment of the Church of England people to
their Chinch, but it does not disprove what is
every day alleged, that the number of people hav-
ing such attachment has long been decreasing.—
This at least is the natural inference to be drawn
from the great change which has taken place in
the relative numbers of Dissenters and Church-
men. In the Memoirs of Sir John Dalrymple,
there is an enumeration of the Dissenters and
Papists throughout England at the Revolution,
and the amount does not materially vary from
that stated by Bishop Sherlock some time be-
fore. The Dissenters and Catholics were never
at that time estimated as more than a twentieth
part of the population. At present the Dis
seaters are generally estimated as being to the
rest of the population as about two to one.—
There are upwards of 1,200 Dissenting Chapels
in Yorkshire alone. The attachment of the
people who belong to the Church may be very
fervid, but we can hardly suppose the attachment
of the Dissenters to be very fervid to the Church.
This comes of- using terms such as people to a
fraction of the people ; and with respect even to
that fraction, the proximity of a Dissenting Cha-
pel would often be found too hard a trial for their
attachment. But we wish to waive all arguments
calculated to weigh only with one class. Church-
going people and Dissenters are both equally in-
terested in a settlement of tithes. We meet,
therefore, our Contemporary on his own ground.
" Turning (he says) from the Church to the
people, we would ask, is it not the extreme of
folly to raise a cry against tithes, the abolition
of which to-morrow would only destroy a parti-
cular class by whose expenditure you profit ;
and would destroy it, merely in order to make
good the deficiency of taxes, failing by the
gross mismanagement of public affiiirs, or to
provide new funds to be squandered in idle
experiinents ? 'Whatever, indeed is now sup-
plied to the revenue from new resources
is, in fact, a subsidy to the economists—a
contribution to enable them to perpetuate their
ruinous domination. In destroying the Church,
too, an ally to the popular interests will be de-
stroyed—a natural ally, and almost the only one
from which the body of the people can reasonably
look for their restoration. If community of
danger ought to be a bond of union, as it is in
;pct the best, the landed interest, at least, are
concerned deeply to support the Church against
the attack made upon it." Now the question is
not at present the abolition of Tithes, but their
commutation. The nation may at any time, no
doubt, come to any determination respecting
tithes, whether they are or are not commuted.
But at present it is proposed to do nothing more
than fix the amount of a tax, which, so long as
it fluctuates, is peculiarly injurious to the coun-
try. Nothing so easy as to ascertain the amount
of tithe in any parish on an average of years ;
and nothing so easy, having once fixed it, as to
declare it a permanent burden on the land, either
of so much money or so much gain. It is the
uncertainty and fluctuation of this tax which
reader it at one time detrimental to the land-
owners, and at another to consumers. While
the corn Monopoly is operative, the tax presses
on consumers. But when foreign corn comes
into competition with our own, the burden falls
on the landowner. From the prospect which
Ireland opens up to us, many persons think that
for some time we shall be obliged to compete
with foreigners by exporting food ; in which case
the landowners will be exclusively exposed to
the pressure of the burden. It never was in-
tended that tithe should be more than a tenth
part of the produce of land cultivated in the
simplest manner ; and in Italy, to this day, no
latids pay tithe but the lands in cultivation from
time immemorial, forming. but a small part of
every parish. Land brought into cultivation by the
application of capital is never tithed. Arthur
'Young, when in Italy, paid particular attention
to this subject. Thus he says, vol. ii. sec. 3, of
Tithe tied Church Lands.—" Piedmont—
Throughout this Principality tithe is an object of
no account. I made enquiries concerning it
every where : the greatest part of the lands pay
none ; and upon the rest it is so light, as not to
amount to more than from a twentieth to a
fiftieth of the produce." Milanese—At Moz-
eatta the tithes, as everywhere else, arc so low
as to be no object ; grain pays, but not on all
land ; it is confined to the lands anciently in
culture ; for even the ancestors of these people
were much too wise to allow the Church to tax
efiern in such a spirit as to take tithes of new
improvements. Never did such a measure enter
their heads or hearts ! The titheable hinds are
small districts ; .ere near to the villages that have
been in cultivation many centuries ; and in some
of these tithe is not taken on all sorts of corn ;
only on those sorts anciently cultivated. The
varieties in this respect are many; but on what-
ever it is taken it never exceeds a sixteenth,
usually from one..seventeenth to one-twentieth."
,‘ At Codogno, and through most of the Lodi-
Zell, tithe is so very inconsiderable that it is not
worth mentioning. Ecclesiastical State.
Tithes ore so low throughout all the Bolognese
that I couid get no satisfactory isecount of the
very small paysnents that are yet the& to the
Church ; every one assured me that they were
next to nothing." B.efore the French Revo-
lution there was nothing in assy part of Europe
at all resembling the Tithe System :of England;
and in Italy, even under the nose of the Pope,
the burden was hardly felt. ii All I conversed
with in Italy (says Mr. Young), on the subject
of tithes, expressed amazement at the tithes we
are subject to." But, confining ourselves to
England., it is quite clear that if any impropria-
tor were at present to offer his property for sale,
he could only expect to be paid a certa;n num-
ber of years' purchase on the tithes received by
hint on an average of years. Let, then, a com-
mission be Appointed to estimate the tithes, and.
in the case of impropriators, pay them by means
of a loan, which Government could easily ob-
tain on the security of the tithes so fixed. With
respect to the Church and CorpolatiPns, the
question is easy. There can be no ground of
complaint, if the amount of the tithe is at once
made a fixed charge on the land, of so much
_money or produce. The agriculturists will then
be at liberty to speculate on the improvement of
laud, by the application of capital, without
having to dread being ruined by the demand of
time titheholder—a serious drawback, in case 01