The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-11 00:00:00

don. They piously contend for religion as well as
for their own goods and chattels. Tithes should be
abolished (say they), that the ministers of religion
tnay receive more certain stipends; secondly, tithes
are a judaical support of " a hireling ministry,"
ill calculated, by rendering " the wages" more
certain than " the work performed," to secure
a succession of diligent and exemplary teachers.
The harassed agriculturist, though happy in his State
religion whilst war prices and a depreciated currency
enabled him to pay for it, now denounces the esta-
blishment, and bitterly complaims of the grievous
charge of, an endowed Clergy, entirely irresponsible
to the payers, and generally appointed without even
the semblance of a popular choice. Thus the sys-
tem is working. Its end is prophesied in profane
history and in the principles of human action. North,
South, East, and Wrest, in all the country papers,
we observe the various classes of society turning
" Swing" on the Church Establishment. Its the
West Briton of the 31st ult., we find a report of a
most novel and ill-timed claim for fish-tithe, in the
parish of Pane, near Penzance. A tithe-limiting
bailiff came to serve writs against the poor fishermen,
when the women mobbed, him, tore his clothes off.
his back, and finally, well belaboured him for his rnas-
ter's extortionary law proceedings. The fishermen ul-
timately resolved to resist the feloniousattempt to rob
them of a tenth of their hazardous and hard-earned
labour, not to go to law, but to oppose the Church
with physical force. They prepared and posted a
placard as follows :—" It is better to die titan to
starve. No Tithes ; we will die first, one arid all."
We cited from the Gloucester Journal the resolutions
of a large agricultural parish against tithes. It seems
that the mania spreads in that country like the rot
among sheep in low grounds. This week we
find advertised, in the same paper, meetings and re-
solutions of two other large and populous parishes.
In the parish of Winterbourne, containing 2,000 in-
habitants, the following is the official report of a vestry
meeting :
" Trrnes.—Parish of Winterbourne, county of Glou-
cester.—At a General Vestry Meeting, held at the work-
house, the 22d day of September, 1830, called by the
Churchwarden, by a notice read in the parish church,
on Sunday, the 19th December, to consider the propriety
of petitioning Parliament to abolish or alter the Tithe
Laws, the following resolutions were unanimously agreed
to ; Mr. Thomas Lawrence, Churchwarden, in the Chair;
Present—Forty persons, comprising all the largest farmers
of the parish, and (except the tenants of the Clergyman)
almost all other considerable occupiers of land.
" Ist.—lt being the judgment of the meeting, that
tithe is not property, but merely a tax upon property ;
and believing that the objects for which this tax was ori-
ginally instituted, viz.—religious instruction and the relief
of the poor—are not only nut now promoted by it, but, on
the contrary, injured ; they consider that to enforce its
payment is oppressive, unjust, and essentially opposed to
that civil and religious liberty, to which every man is en-
titled under the Christian dispensation.
" Resolved,—That petitions in accordance with the
foregoing sentiments be addressed, by this parish, to both
Houses of Parliament, praying them to repeal the Tithe
Laws.
" 2illy.—Resolved, That Mr. Thomas Lawrence and
Mr. Philip Debell Tuckett be appointed to prepare the
petitions for signature, in accordance with the foregoing
resolution ; aed that they request Lord King to present
and support the petition to the House of Lords, and Joseph
Hume, Esq. that to the House of COMMOIIS.
" 3dly.—Resolved, that the proceedings of this meet-
ing be advertised once in the Fur mer's Journal, and once
in each of the Bristol, Bath, and Gloucester Newspapers;
and that the parish officers be directed to pay the cost of
the same, on account of the parish, as also that of the
petitions.
" 4thly.—Resolved, that the thanks of this meeting be
presented to Mr. Thomas Lawrence, for his able conduct
in the chair.
(Signed, in and on behalf of the meeting, by)
" THOMAS LAWRENCE."
In the parish of Iron-Acton, containing a popu-
lation of 1,200, almost exclusively agricultural,
Christmas Eve was ushered in with the following
unanimous expression of the parish opinion :
" At a numerous and highly respectable meeting of the
inhabitants of the parish of Iron-Acton, in the county
of Gloucester, convened by the Churchwardens, for the
purpose of petitioning Parliament relative to the subject
of Tithes, and held at the White Hart inn, on the 22d
Dec. 1830, the following resolutions were passed unani-
mously, and a petition, of which the following is a copy,
was signed by every person present :
" l st.—lt is the opinion of this meeting that Tithes are a
direct and most oppressive tax on the community, and
especially en the agricultural interest, and the cause of
much of the distress now so severely felt. It is also
the opinion that the cause of religion, instead of being
promoted, is thereby much injured, through the endless
animosity inseparable from the collison of the interests of
the ministers and parishioners. We therefore agree that
a petition, embodying these sentiments, be prepared for
presentation to both Houses of Parliament.
" 2d.—That the following petition having been agreed
upon, George Gibbs, Alfred Tucket, and Thos. Williams,
are requested to give every facility for procuring signatures
;o the same.
" 3d.—That Lord King be requested to present the peti-
on to the House of Lords, and Joseph Hume, Esq. to

the House of Commons,
" 4th.-.-That die proceedings of this meeting, with a
copy of the petition, he published in two of the Bristol
Papers, the Gloucester Journal, and the Bat/i and Chel-
tenham Gazette. •
" TO THE LORDS SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL IN
PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLED.

" THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE UNDER.
SIGNED INHABITANTS OF THE PARISH OF
IRON-ACTON, IN THE COUNTY OF GLOUCES.
TER,:AGREED UPON AT A MEETING CONVENED
BY THE CHURCHWARDENS, AND HELD THERE
ON THE 220 OF DECEMBER, 1930 ;
" SHOWE'III,-That reason convinces your petitioners,
that to give a tenth of the produce of a parish, contain •
ing, perhaps, several square miles, to one man, though he
have a family, and to leave but the remaining nine-tenths
for the support of all the rest of the population, though
consisting of many thousands, is to make an unfair and
unreasonable distribution of the fruits of the eat th. TS at
your petitioners find, from undoubted history, that such a
distribution was not intended in the first institution of
tithes ; but, on the contrary, that they were given in this
country to the clergy, in trust, for the support of the poor,
and for the building and repairing places of worship, and
on conditions, that they should instruct the people in the
Catholic teligion, perform masses, and say prayers for the
souls of the donors and their ancestors, and hospitably en-
tertain vrangers and travellers ; and that for the perform-
ative of these trusts and conditions, they were allowed out
of the tithes a maintenance, food, and raiment, but were
not allowed to marry, or to bequeath or accumulate pri-
vate property. Your petitioners also find, that in process
of time another set of men gained possession of the
tithes, who performed none of the trusts and conditions
for the performance of which they were originally given,
but who, on the contrary, married wives, begot children,
aecttn4ated private property, bequeathed it to whom they
would, ceased to use hospitality, and left the poor desti-
tute. In consequence of this, the poor have been, since
that time, maintained by a tax, levied for the purpose, on
houses and lands, the churches repaired by another tax,
and pe:v ones built by grants out of the taxes raised by the
Govt.rnment, to tirie great impoverishment pf your petition-
ers and their fellow-cotuitt'ymen. That r,,percpnep has
fully established your petitioners in the belief that tithes
are injurious to agriculture, and prejudicial to the repu•
tation, zeal, and efficiency of the church that receives them.
Your petitioners, therefore, humbly pray your Lordships
to take the tithe-system into your serious consideration,
Vi'„t ;1..2 hope, that as the poor are now other vise pro-
vided f,er,'4.o clerg;,, may be so by their respective
congregations, yoir Lertlsripe in your wisdom, de-
vise a method for its total abolitioa, 4na yisart7K,,itiorprs,
us in duty bound, will ever pray."
We have inserted these extraordinary dccuments
at length, because they will become historical re-
cor4 of the precursors of political changes ; and be-'
cause it is that the Government should be
'truly infortPedrof the revoiu;-,ioniYed opinions of the
people. \Ye' Could 'fill a whole Morning Chronicle
wjth fi irar
,details from the 'English country news-1
. „ ,
papers y Weistim,ep are pot behitull their
English neighbours in siancii;ivep,ess tp this bifipg
evil. The annual value of the real property of land
in the county of Glamorgan, in 1815, was 334,1021.
The total annual charge of high way, county, church,
and. poor rates, in 1827, was 49,8101. ; or Three
Aillinv exclusive of tithe ! The hun-
dred of Cowbridge, lit that eNuty, contains a po-
pulation, by the last census, of 5,894 persons. Of
this grass number, 619 families were employed in
agriculture ; 220 in trade, manufactures, and other