The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-07 00:00:00

THE TREATY OF PEACE.

Mr. E. DENISON brought up the report on the
address to the Crown relative to the Treaty of Peace,
which was read and agreed to. It was also agreed that
the address should be presented by the whole house,
when her Majesty's pleasure had been ascertained
thereon.

TITHE COMMUTATION RENT-CHARGE BILL.
On the motion for the second reading of this bill,
,Mr. R. PHILLI MORE called on the house to sup-
port this bill, to remedy an unintentional error com-
mitted by the Legislature with reference to the assess-
ment of tithes. The Tithe Commutation Act had
changed the tithes into an hereditament or rent charge,
and these hereditaments were subject to a more exces-
sive assessment to the poor rates than any other heredi-
taments, and he called on the house to alter the assess-
ment, and instead of estimating it en its actual income
to do so on its annual value. By the Tithe Commu-
tation Act the incomes of the clergy had been re-
duced in many instances at least two-thirds from what
they received when paid by tithes. The repeal of the
corn laws had had the effect of further depreciating the
income of the clergy by at least 10 per cent., and on the
whole, their incomes by these changes bad been reduced
40 per cent. The poor rates and the new rates in the
rural districts were eating up most of the small livings
of the country ; and although so much was said about
the large incomes of the livings in England, he assured
the house that they averaged nearly a hundred a-year
more in Scotland than they did in England. The Tithe
Commutation Act had produced in its workings
practical injustice on the ti-he owners which had gone
on gradually increasing. He no doubt would he told
that the clergy had the right of appeal against excessive
rating, but that they did not exercise it. That was true,
and the reason they did not appeal was that it was a
legal mockery, the remedy being costly, uncertain, and
odious. If adopted by a clergyman it bad the effect of
placing him in hostility with those with whom he ought to
live on friendly terms, and rather than do it, the clergy
as a body submitted to the injustice. The tithe com-
mutation rent charge had been fixed on the principle of
giving an unimprovable hereditament to the Church, on
the calculation of the rates then in existence ; and as he
read the law and justice of the case, that compact had
been practically violated in two ways. First, by im-
posing now taxes on the clergy since the passing of the
Tithe Commutation Act ; and, secondly, by imposing on
unimprovable property rates for the purposes of improve-
ment, and it was contrary to the whole theory and prin-
ciple of taxation to enforce it. The question was
how this was to be remedied ; and two modes
presented themselves—first, a new law to cause an
assessment to be properly made, and the other, the
scheme of the Government, proposed in 1850, but aban-
doned, probably from the Government finding them-
selves unable to carry it, from the feeling of the coun-
try being against centralisation, and of the parochial
system being disturbed. He could not expect to carry
a measure for a new assessment of the country, and the
only mode he could adopt to remedy the evils complained
of, by throwing a little compensation into the scale, by
allowing certain deductions, not now permitted by the
law, but which were admitted in some counties whilst
not in others, and by that means he proposed practi-
cally to adjust the balance. He proposed that the as-
sessment should bo on the annual income only, al-
lowing addition to the present deductions, the lanti tax,
curate's stipend where one was kept, and the sum
a clergyman paid towards Queen Anne's bounty.
By the third clause he proposed to make an
alteration in the schedule relative to the gross
and rateable value of the rent charge, and prevent the
evils that had arisen from the rateable value of the rent
charge having been returned for the gross amount. The
fourth clause provided that the rent charge should not be
taxed with the payments of rates and taxes) imposed
by law after the commutation of the tithes, but if ob-
jected to by the Government he w uld not press it, be-
cause he did not consider it essential to the bill. The
honourable and learned gentleman then went through
the other details of the bill, remarking that by
one of the claims he proposed to make it
compulsory on the justice, before they allowed the
rate, to ascertain that it was properly made ; and by
another, that all the assessments should be open to
general inspection.
Lord A. HERVEY seconded the motion.
Mr. BO UVERIE admitted the principle of the bill,
and said there could be no doubt that the working of
the present system of assessment to the poor rates had
resulted in the injustice and inequalities complained of,
but he objected to the remedy proposed by the hon. and
learned member for Tavistock. The Parochial
Assessment Act introduced no new principle. (Hear,
hear) An attempt" was made in the House of Lords
by the Archbishop of Canterbury, at the time of the
passing of that act, to exclude tithes from its operation,
but the house successfully resisted it, and parliament
decided not to make any difference between
rating tithes and mating tee land to the poor.
(Hear, hear.) Then came the Tithe Commutation Act,
under which the present hardships were said
to have arisen, and in considering this question they must
not be led away by their feelings for the sufferings of the
clergy. The commuted rent charge was 4,050,0001.,
of which the parochial clergy, to whom the injustice
applied, received 2,410,0001., the remainder, 1,639,000 e,
belonging to clerical and lay in proprietary schools and
colleges. The remedy proposed. by deducting from the
gross amount the land tax, a curate's stipend and Qusep.
Ann's bounty was abstractedly admissible, but the
remedy, in his opinion, would not meet the grievance,