The Sun.
London, England, 1838-09-14 00:00:00

THE REPEAL OF THE ENGLISH TITHE BILL

TO TN& PAROCHIAL CLERGY OF YORKSHIRIi.
" Their device is only how to put out whom God will exalt."
Ps. lxii. 4.
Men and Fellow Servants—l some weeks ago ventured
confideutly to throw myself upon your good faith- and under-
under-
standing, favourably to account for my beseeching you, as
trustees hired for this very purpose, to stand true to the rights
of the Churches and parishes committed to you, and so much
the more as there is increase of scandalous apostacies and
plausible concessions in high places. For whatever good may
have resulted from the humble (and as some contemptuously
say, the vain) efforts of so weak a vessel as myself, God be
praised : not caring one farthing for the evil report of doing
what I feel to be my duty to do, all I appropriate (and in this
I rejoice) is the encouragement to persevere; and, thank God,
I find too much of this to keep it all to myself; and, there-
fore, having long wished to make y partners of my joy, I now determine to avail myself of thecu liberality of the Editor
of the York Chronicle to call your attentive perusal to two
letters, No. V. and VI. of a series in the Brighton Gazette,
which has been of late sent to me, with assurance that the
cause of ;veal is by no means either hopeless or unpopular in
Sussex.
" Hopeless !" Why did you ever think it so ! 0 ye o f
little faith then l Bear with me in my folly : ye compel me
to boast a little. Have I not told you from the beginning
" This law can never stand ?"
" Unpopular !" Who but liars ever said that the repeal
of the wiched Act was so anywhere? But time shall prove all
thip.4s.
I will only trespass further at present to invite union
among ourselves ; and whenever any of you, few or many,
poor or rich, are disposed to form an Association at York, in
order to bring the rights of the question openly, publicly,
without mistake or compromise, before the working classes of
this kingdom, you may make the best use of me
though we begin in a small room you can ; and
, yet if we o not uickly
fill the largest landlord in the world
with conviction that ours is
the popular cause, and that tithes are the heritage of the people
as well as the Lord's, we will at least find out some means of
provoking inquiry and discussion on the point ; and this only
do I desire, that truth and justice may prevail.
I will send the other letter next week. No. V. shows how
the rule of the landlords in changing the tithe-law is only to put out whom God will exalt. No. VI. brings before the
public an exception in the person of Mr. Aldridge—a known gentle..
man well by name to all who knew Sussex,
and the
Lord reward t • im, if he does not now turn his back upon the
working classes on his estate ; for there are they for whose re_
demption :tithes are chiefly ordained, and against whom in
all ages yet to come the greatest wrong is consummated by the
andwithon our
one side
heart
:
impropriation of tithes.
right
Brethren, be very courageous;
phalanx,
h avo s; w
come, then, let us form a close .
and one voice defy
v
might when might defies the truth.
with you, by God's help,
Believe me, Parochial
.g,
to the end—the restoration ,of tithes to the local purposes
E. DUNCOMBE.
in which the Lord has blessed and sanctifieth their use.
Newton Kyme, Tadcaster, Aug. 13, 1838.
__

Now, when the Lord's heritage and the landlords'
estates come to clash, as they do in the case of the
tithes, we know from the Corn-laws how utterly un-
scrupulous the landlords will be as to the property
which is devoted, according to Mr. DUNCOMBE, to
the redemption of the working classes. Already the
priesthood, fearing the landlords, find it necessary to
fall back on the people ; they are courting popularity.
If therefore we can sharpen the landlords' cupidity to•
seize the Lord's heritage—that is, the Divine right of
the priests to share the landlords' estates, and doom

the land to partial barrenness—we shall surely drive
all the priesthood over to the cause of the people. If
we can get rid of the Corn-laws, we shall have the
whole Hierarchy returning to the very primitive prac-
tices of the Church—defending popular rights,
appealing to the masses for support, and becoming
the advocates of Universal Suffrage. We consider it,
therefore, of some importance that we should illustrate
the presumed effect of the abolition of the Corn-laws,
particularly as the Committee of the Working Classes
have referred to the subject with doubt, and to that
we shall now devote a few observations.

The doubts of the Committee all hinge on the fact
that the present Corn-laws date from 1815, and that
prior to that period, when corn might be freely im-
ported into England, no such disastrous effect to the
Church Establishment, as we now presume to antici-
pate from the abolition of those laws, actually oc-
curred. It is inferred, therefore, that now to return to
the same free trade in corn would not have any
such effect. But those who state the doubt, overlook
or forget the previous condition of Europe. The tithe
system was only abolished in France at the beginning
of the Revolution ; and about the same period some
of the States of Germany began to get rid of it. At
present through the greater portion of the Continent,
and particularly of that part of it which would supply
us with corn, the tithe system no longer exists, or in
such an attenuated form, that it has little or no in-
fluence on the price of corn there grown. But,
from the commencement of the French Revolu-
tion, till 1815, the whole of Europe was devas-
tated by war, and it was at that period only that
the tithe-free corn of Europe came first into com-
petition with the tithe-burdened corn of England.
That competition was not allowed to continue, and, to
keep out of England the tithe-free corn of Europe and
the tithe-free corn of America, the Corn-laws were
enacted. Thus the condition of a free competition in
our market of tithe-burdened home-grown corn, and
tithe-free corn from all parts of the world, has never
existed ; and what happened therefore prior to 1815,
is no guide whatever, even to infer what would happen
were the Corn-laws to be abolished in 1838.

What:we suppose would be the result is this. Corn
is a perishable article ; and it is well known that a
very small quantity more than the required supply
suffices, at all times, to beat down the markets very
considerably. When the seasons consequently are
good, and the crops abundant, that corn which
is grown at the least expence—(not as the eco-
nomists say, as a general rule, the corn which
is grown at the greatest expence)—deterrnines
the price of the market. Those who contend for the
contrary overlook another most important fact, namely
that the great majority of the cultivators of the soil
are debtors, by the necessities of their condition, before
they can gather in the harvest, and consequently they
are like orange merchants, with a cargo that will not
keep beyond a few days, obliged to send their grain to
market and sell it for what they can get. With a
complete' free trade in corn, then, we should always
have comparatively an abundance ; and that rule which
now only applies to favourable seasons—or rather a
constant approximation to it—would, with the, pre-
sent ingenuity and skill of man, be the general
rule for some time to come, or till population
completely overtook the possible supply which
could be raised or obtained from all the
world. But if corn grown at the least cost
would, with a free trade, determine, as we contend it
would, the price of corn in our markets, it is clear that
the landlords could not then levy one penny of the
tithe tax on the consumer, as they at present levy the
whole of it on the price of their corn. Thus, if the
Corn-laws ,were now abolished—and this the
cunning landlords practically feel—the whole
burden of the tithes, and so far the whole
burden of the Episcopal Establishment would be
thrown on their estates. Then would come a severe
conflict between the landlords and the clergy, one
contending for their estates, and the other for the
" Lord's heritage;" and that such a conflict would
overthrow both these idle classes, and make both the
humble supplicants to the now outraged and suffering'
industrious classes, we hold to be as clearly demon-
strated as anything can be which has never had
existence. Could Universal Suffrage do more
for the people ? The Committee of the Work-
ing Classes, however, though anxious to make
laws, are, it is obvious, not aware of the bear-
ings of this very important question, and they would do
better, in our humble judgment, to study it than to
divert the attention of the people from the present
opportunity of getting rid of the Corn-laws, to the
vain pursuit of re-modelling the House of Commons.

" It is not unworthy of observation," says the Man-
chester Guardian," that, whilst Air. OASTLER urges
the Tories to arm to resist the New Poor-law, Mr.
VINCENT, and other worthies of the same school,
urge the Radicals to arm in order to procure Univer-
sal Suffrage; and Mr. Thom A s ATTWOOD, in a
recent missive to one of the London Papers, advises
a recourse to means of the same kind with the view
of obtaining a depreciated currency. Amongst Tories,
Radicals, and currency-doctors, we seem to be in a
hopeful way." To this must be added the Guardian's
own agitation, in which we and many others share, and
which seems about as extensive and formidable as any
in the lot, though arming is not recommended to pro-
cure the abolitio❑ of the Corn-laws. Society is in
fact now a struggling mass of conflicting opinions.
The hubbub of great mental strife prevails, and the
words of each party are not without meaning. Our
differences are not about such questions as once
amused the schoolmen and the monks. We are not
agitated to decide how many angels could dance on
the point of a needle, or what are the real forms of
things. Such petty disputes as those between the
Homoousion's and the Hom oiousion' s, have no charms
for us ; our differences are large, substantial, distinct,
and glaring. They touch the dearest interests of
men, and go to the very foundations of political
society. The prevalent diseases are of the heart of
States as of individuals.

Under such circumstances what say our doctors—
what are our leading Journals and statesmen doing ?
The latter are out shooting, paving and receiving visits,
ducking in the sea—perhaps, to gather strength for
another sham campaign in Parliament, which like
the naval battles of the middle of last century are
all at long balls. They waste a great deal of
powder and shot, producing a great deal of smoke
and noise, but achieve nothing, not even, according to
the common notion, clearing the atmosphere of the
lowering and threatening storms. Our present race of
politicians are not equal to the fly on the wheel, for
they neither set it in motion nor can they boast of the
dust they kick up. And what are the former doing,
the great leaders and guiding organs of opinion. See
the Times—why, the Thunderer, the great OlymPian
JOVE of the Press, is, according to his own boast, be-
come, as he happily defined a Tory, a poor duck-
legged drummer, always behind the regiment. His
thunder is not louder than the sound of a cracked
drum beat by a tired infant's arm, and has not more
influence than that would have in Staying the march
of an army. Vain is the hope of turning men from
these mighty objects, and stilling the fierce desires of
the human heart by a few well balanced phrases. The
Times waddles on in its best and most polished graces ;
it beats its reveilles and its retreats with the most
skilful hand ; but all writing about the danger of

Greece, or the blockade of Mexico, the bad behaviour
of Mr. O'CONNELL, or the danger which threatens
some popular notions, are only feeble strokes on a
cracked drum, while the great interests of the Corn-laws,
and Universal Suffrage, and the Established Church,
and the growing and growling hostility between the
land and the titheowners, and the general danger to
the legal right of property, fill the hearts of the
people. True indeed to its old incendiary character,
it nourishes a little pet pauper sedition of its own, by
patting Mr. OASTLER on the back, and at the same
time expects, like one of the poorest spooneys of the
day, to rally all minds under the old orthodox stan-
dards of Church and State, peerage and hierarchy,
monopoly and restriction, plunder and hypocrisy, by
beating on its cracked drum, day after day, a solemn
and well measured tattoo about the geology of the ig-
norant Israelites. If there be anything, at this time
of political confusion, more ludicrous and contemptible
than that of our statesmen amusing themselves by
shooting partridges, or counting the waves on Deal
beach, it is the great Thunderer endeavouring to lead
public attention to the detention of a ship and he r
cargo, or to the internal dissensions of an almost un-
known State, and away from the danger with which the
present conflict of opinions, when all prescription is
upset, and all political principles are cast loose, threa-
tens our vast and varied society.

We have received so many communications on the
subject of the few remarks which we made upon the
Ministerial career of Mr. POULETT THOMSON, that
we are in some sort driven to enter at greater length
than we at first intended into the official merits of
the Right Hon. the President of the Board of Trade.
Some of the Right Hon. Gentleman's too officious
friends fancy, no doubt, that they cause us some un-
easiness by jogging our memory on the score of his
Parliamentary services. It would be surprising, in-
deed, if, in the course of some twelve years of a Par-
liamentary, and eight of an official life, a gentleman of
some influence, and setting out with a declaration
that his political principles were strictly in ac-
cordance with those of the Honourable Mem-
ber for Kilkenny, could be pointed at as hav-
ing done nothing more useful to the country than
the receiving of a salary, and the assisting at a Cabi-
net Council. Mr. POULETT THOMSON, it will be
remembered, entered Parliament in 1826 as the pro-
tege and disciple of Mr. HUME, who introduced him
to the electors of Dover, and up to the date of his ap-
pointment to the Vice-Presidency of the Board of
Trade, under Lord GREY, he acquitted himself to the
satisfaction of the Liberal party. As he had signa-
lized himself by his denunciations of all restrictions
upon trade, his appointment to the Vice-Presidency of
the Board was hailed as the commencement of a new
political era by the Liberal Journals throughout the
country. It was a wonderful advance in the practical
administration of Government to replace the race of
ignorant lordly drones, who for centuries mono-
polized the chief seats at the Board of Trade,
by such practically experienced men as the " young
Baltic merchant," then one of the brightest luminaries
in the galaxy of politico-economical science. From
Vice-President of the Board of Trade, under Lord
GREY, he was made President under Lord MEL-
BOURNE ; and then it was expected that one of his
earliest boons to the country would be a Trade Bill so
comprehensive as to render the very Board of which
he is the head an useless, and therefore unne-
cessary, establishment to the kingdom. Has he done
so ? Has he fulfilled a single expectation formed by
the Liberal party throughout England upon his ap-
pointment to office ? Are his principles now in per-
fect accordance with those professed by Mr. HUME
in 1826 ? While a Member of the Opposition he was
loud in his denunciations of the Baltic Timber duties.
Has lie in his Ministerial capacity brought forward a
Bill to abolish them, and thus add to the stability of
our navy ? He was all for the Ballot while perched
on an Opposition Bench, but as a Minister he was no-
where to be found when the question was last before
the House. His attention to business has been often
referred to as a rare excellence. We admire industry
in a Minister, but mere drudgery is not statesmanship.
An hour of labour from some men, is worth a week's
plodding on the part of others. We care little for
how busy he may have been—we ask, what has he
(lone ? Has he even proceeded the length of purifying
and reforming the constitution of the very Board of
which he is President ?—a Board which EDMUND
BURKE—a Whig, and nothing more—proposed
more than half a century ago to abolish altogether.
Perhaps some of our over-attentive correspondents
would be glad to be reminded of that Statesmen's
opinion of the utility of that branch of the
public service under the immediate controul of
the Right Honourable tho Member for Manches-
ter, and for their convenience, no less than their edifi-
cation, we shall quote it. The Reformers of Manches-
ter, as well as the mercantile world generally, are left
to judge how much of the following description of the
constitution and labours of the Board of Trade in

1780, the date of Mr. BURKE'S celebrated speech on
Financial Reform, is applicable to the operation of the
same Board in 1838, under the Radical Presidency of
POULETT TIIOMSON

" There is, Sir, another office which was not long since
closely connected with this of the American Secretary ; but
has been lately separated from it for the very same purpose
for which it had been conjoined ; I mean the sole purpose of
all the separations and all the conjunctions that have been
lately made—a job. I speak, Sir, of the Board of Trade and
Plantations. This Board is a sort of temperate bed of influ-
ence ; a sort of gently ripening hot-house, where eight
Members of Parliament receive salaries of 1,000/. a-year, for
a certain given time, in order to mature, at a proper season, II
claim of 2,000/., granted for doing less, and on the credit of
having toiled so long in that inferior, laborious department.
" I have known that Board, off and on, for a great number
of years. Both of its pretended objects have been much the
object of my study. I can assure the House, and I hope they
will not think that I risk my little credit lightly, that, without
meaning to convey the least reflection upon any one of its
Members, past or present, it is a Board which, if not mischie-
vous, is of no use at all.
" You will be convinced, Sir, that I am not mistaken, if
you reflect how generally it is true, that commerce, the prin.
cipal object of that office, flourishes most when it
ni
d
s left
itsto
neces-
sities
it-
self. Interest, the great guide of commerce, is not a blind
one. It is very well able to find its own way ; a
are its best laws. But if it were possible, in the nature
of things, that the young should direct the old, and the in-
experienced instruct the knowing; if a Board in the State
was the best tutor for the counting-house ;if the desk
ought to read lectures to the anvil, and the pen to usurp,
the place of the shuttle--yet, in any matter of regula-
tion, we know that Board must act with as little autho-
rity as skill. The prerogative of the Crown is utterly in-
adequate to the object ; because all regulations are, in their
nature, restrictive of some liberty. In the reign, indeed, of
Charles 1., the Council, or Committees of Council, were
never a moment unoccupied with the affairs of trade. But
even where they had nu ill intention (which was sometimes
the case), trade and manufacture suffered infinitely from their
injudicious tamperings. But since that period, whenever re-
gulation is wanting (for I do not deny that sometimes it may
be wanting), Parliament constantly sits ; and Parliament alone
is competent to such regulation. We waist no instruction from
Boards of Trade, or from any other Board ; and God forbid
we should give the least attention to their Reports. Parlia-
mentary inquiry is the only mode of obtaining Parliamentary
information. There is more real knowledge to be obtained,
by attending the detail of business in the Committees above
stairs, than ever did come, or ever will come, from any Board
in this kingdom, or from all of them together. An assiduous
Member cf Parliament will not be tke worse instructed there,
for not being paid 1,0001. a-year for learning his lesson."
" This Board, Sir, has had both its original formation, and
its regeneration, in a job. In a job it was conceived, and in a
job its mother brought it forth. It made one among those
showy and specious impositions, which one of the experiment-
making administrations of Charles 11. held out to delude the
people, and to be substituted in place of the real service
which they might expect from a Parliament annually sitting.
It was intended, also, to corrupt that body whenever it should
be permitted to sit. It was projected in the year 1668, and it
continued in a tottering and ricketty childhood for about four
or five years; for it died in the year 1673, a babe of as little
hopes as ever swelled the bills of mortality, in the article of