The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-02 00:00:00

HOLYHEAD HARBOUR.

In answer to a question from Lord MONTEAGLE,
The Duke of WELLINGTON said the question of
facilitating the communication between this country and
Ireland had been under the consideration of the Go-
vernment, and they had determined to continue that
communication by means of Holyhead. With regard to
granting money for this purpose, the Government had
postponed their decision until after the railway to Holy-
head, which was now before Parliament, had been dis-
posed of.
The Earl FITZWILLIAM thought a Commission
ought to be appointed to inquire as to what points o the
country required railway, and what parts did not ; and
that no other railways ought to be sanctioned, except
those approved by such Commission.
The Duke of WELLINGTON said he thought the
appointment of such a Commisiion would be like shut-
ting a stable door when the steed was stolen.—(Laughter.)
Lord BROUGHAM thought such a commission was
necessary for the purpose of protecting individuals.
The house of Earl Grey for instance in Northumber-
land had been greatly injured by a railway passing
close under it, and it was but poor consolation to that
Noble Earl, after being driven from his house to be
told, that he must yield to public convenience.
After a few words from the Marquis of LANS-
DOWNE.

The Earl of FITZ WILLIAM gave notice that he
would move the appointment of such a commission on
Tuesday next.
(LEFT SITTING.)

TITHES.
REPORT OF THE TITHE COMMISSIONERS FOR
ENGLAND AND WALES.
TO THE RIGHT HON. SIR J. R. G. GRAHAM, BART.

Tithe Commission Office, April 2, 1844.
Sir,—lt is our dnty to report to you the progress of the
commutation of tithes in England and Wales to the close of
the year 1843.
We have received notices that voluntary proceedings have
commenced in 9,555 tithe districts ; of these notices 45 were
received during the year 1843.
We have received 6,877 agreements, and confirmed 6,492 ;
of these, 183 have been received, and 281 confirmed, during
the year 1843.
3,871 notices for making awards have been issued, of which
836 were issued during the year 1843.
We have received 2,681 drafts of compulsory awards, and
confirmed 2,172 ; of these 675 have been received, and 559
confirmed, during the year 1843.
We have received 7,525 apportionments, and confirmed
6,881 ; of these 1,074 have been received, and 1,186 con-
firmed, during the year 1843.
In 8,664 tithe districts, as will be seen from the above
statement, the rent-charges to be hereafter paid have been
finally established by confirmed agreements or confirmed
awards.

We have in our possession voluntary agreements and drafts
of awards, as yet unconfirmed, which will include 894 addi-
tional tithe districts ; and make a total, when completed, of
9,558 districts in which the tithes are commuted.
We have to repeat the assurance which we have happily
been able to give in every report, that the whole process
of commutation is proceeding tranquilly and harmoniously.
The district of South Wales may appear to form an ex •
ception.
As far, however, as we can judge from our own correspon-
dence, and our other means of information, very little discon-
tent has existed between the real parties to the commuta-
tion, that is, the landowners and titheowners.

The occupying tenantry, however, have found grounds of
complaint, in many cases not unreasonable ; they are called
on to pay rent-charges, the majority of which have been
agreed to by their landlords, though a smaller portion have
been awarded by us. Those rent-charges are very peculiarly
low, and on the average do not greatly exceed one-tenth of
the rent, or of the net value, instead of amounting to one-
tenth of the gross value of the produce.
Still, low as they are, these rent-charges somewhat exceed
the compositions which the tenants calculated on paying
when they hired their farms and fixed their terms with the
landlord. _ _ _

------
The task of apportioning still goes on more slowly than it
was calculated it would do when the Commutation Act
passed ; but it continues to be effected, as it has all along
been, with much less difficulty and irritation than it was
supposed would accompany it.
Much of the work which remains for us to do begins to
assume a character which makes it advisable to draw your
attention to some of its peculiarities and difficulties.
In many parishes in which the great bulk of the tithes
have been commuted on inclosure or otherwise, farm, or dis-
trict moduses have been left, which in the present state of the
law it will become our duty to convert into rent-charges, and
we must, partially at least, map and apportion on the ends
subject to them.
The expenses of such apportionment to the landowners
will first be extravagant, when compared with the amount of
the sum apportioned, and then the expenses of collecting
will make the rent-charge valueless to the titheowner.
It seems to us that in these cases a permission to redeem
these payments for money, and thus to avoid the expenses
both of apportionment and collection, would be advantage-
ous, and indeed is requisite to protect both parties.
The managers of Queen Anne's Bounty are willing, we be-
lieve, to receive the redemption money ; and if they are di-
, rected to apply it, as they do augmentation moneys, it may
partially and gradually be invested in land if that seems de-
sirable for the titheowner. The operation of such a measure
might perhaps usefully be somewhat extended.
In many cases of vicarial tithe, the individual payments
are so minute as to convert the collection of them into a loss.
We have even been requested to strike a mass of them out
of rent-charges, because, as the titheowner will be taxed upon
the gross amount of them, and be certain not to receive
them, the nominally giving them to him is substantially
mulcting them.
The redemption of such small payments would clearly be
a boon to the titheowner, and as the liability to them is often
felt to be a disagreeable incumbrance by the owners of pro-
perty, the power of redeeming them would be, in a very many
cases, also considered a boon.
The state of the law, as modified by 2 and 3 William IV.,
c. 100, commonly called Lord Tendenden's Act, impedes our
progress, and, unless cleared up, threatens to protract the
close of our labours. In some hundreds of cases, and, indeed,
in an indefinite number, we cannot give decisions as to the
contested rights of parties with any confidence that those
decisions are correct.

Our own legal assistants are divided in opinion, and we are
told that this division of opinion extends even to the superior
Courts ; at any rate, no decision of those Courts on the cases
now before them has been obtained.

We are lea to hope that some distinct decision may be
given before the close of this year ; if this is not the case,
we may be driven to request the assistance of the Legislature.
Whatever the law may turn out to be, those cases will
many of them be obstinately litigated, and if our dealing
with them is much longer postponed, the delays of issues
and new trials, and of the apportionments which must follow
them, may postpone what would otherwise be the term of our
labours. _ _ _

In the case of parishes containing open fields, where the
tithes have been commuted and the rent-charges apportioned
before inclosure, the re-apportionment of those rent-charges
on the inclosed lands newly appropriated to individuals is
always desirable, and, indeed, almost indispensable.
We have no power to sanction this at present.
We think such a power might conveniently be given us.
The exercise of a similar power, after the close of our com-
mission, may be provided for by an Act, which, for that and
other purposes, it will be necessary to pass before the tithe
commission ceases to exist.

In a number of parishes, heretofore inclosed by Act of Par-
liament, we have reason to believe that the provisions for
extinguishing tithe have been in some cases wrongly, in
others imperfectly, carried out.
If tithe litigation and tithe are to cease with the commis-
sion, some provision must be made for correcting the errors
or completing the deficiencies of these inclosure transactions.
Some of the railroads, one of the most extensive in particu-
lar, that is the Great Western, refuse to pay the rent-charges
apportioned on the lands over which they pass.
It is illegal to seize and carry away the rail, so that the
titheowner's remedy by distress is nugatory, unless there is
a station in his district.

His remaining remedy is to take possession of the ground
over which the road passes ; but as it is illegal fur him to
stop up a public way, his possession is useless to him, unless
he resorts to the doubtful benefit of a suit in equity, to compel
an account of the profits made on the portion of railroad in
his legal possession.
We think that the owner of the rent-charge should not
be driven to this experiment, but that whenever a rent-
charge is clearly due from the railroad company it should be
recoverable by distress on the property of the company, on
whatever part of the line found.
This would not increase the legal liability of the com-
pany.
They might still, by replevin or otherwise, dispute the
legality of the rent-charge ; only, when they did not so dis-
pute it, they would be compelled to pay the owners of rent-
' charges in districts where there is no station, and where those
owners have no other remedy than a suit in equity.—We
have the honour to be, Sir, your faithful and obedient ser-
vants, _WILLIAM BLAMIRE,
T. W. BULLER,
RICHARD JONES.

THE TEN lIOURS' BILL.
To the Right Honourable and Hoourable the Members
of the House of Commons, the following Statement
of Facts is respectfully submitted by the Deputation
of the Master-manufacturers and Millowners in the
county of Lancaster:—
We, the undersigned, forming a deputation from the
Associated Master-manufacturers of the county of
Lancaster, having taken advantage of the Easter recess
to institute inquiries into the condition of the operatives
in all the cotton-mills of the district, and having
obtained minute returns, each of which is authenti-
cated by the signature of the owner of the mill, beg leave
respectively to submit the results to your consideration.
It will be convenient to classify these results under
several heads, and to arrange them in the order usually
adopted by those who have 'made the most serious im-
putations on factory labour.
DISTANCES TRAVELLED BY SPINNERS AND PIER
On this subject returns have been obtainedfErOCM3s.77
firms, of which 308 spin to 705_,_40 from 70s. to nos.,
and 29 from 110 s. upwards ; all cases the calculation
has been made from actually counting the number of

steps and measuring the distances. The following is the
result :

308 mills, spinning up to 70, give an aggregate of
2,761 miles 808 yards, or an average for each operative
of 8 miles 735 yards.

40 mills, spinning from 70 to 110, give an aggregate
of 319 miles 1,571 yards, and an average of 7 miles 1,755
yards for each operative.

.
29 mills, spurning from 110 upwards, give an aggre-
gate of 201 miles 1,002 yards, and an average of 6 miles
1,673 yards. The general average from the whole is
8 miles 1,246 yards, which, it will be seen, is a little
under the average given by Mr. Henry Ashworth, whose
calculations were based upon the length of the yarn spun.
It will be interesting to compare the process by which
this result was obtained with the actual counting and
measurement of steps. Taking the extreme case of 28
hanks of yarn produced by a spindle in a week, the
length of yarn will be 13i miles ; but, as each carriage
traverses forwards to spin and backwards to wind up, we
have 27 miles for each mu'.e, and 54 miles for a pair of
mules in a week, which, divided by six, the number of
working days, gives an average of nine miles per day.
This calculation refers solely to the spinner ; but the
piecer, who has to traverse diagonally between the
frames, would have to go a greater distance if a thread
broke at every stretch ; but this is notoriously not
the case.

AGES AND SEXES OF FACTORY OPERATIVES.
Under this head we have returns from 412 firms,
314 of which are assessed in the annual sum of 179,767/.
to the poor's-rate, authenticated by the signatures of the
proprietors. The total number of per Sons employed
in these mills is 116,281, of whom 95,642 are able to
read. They are thus classified in per centum pro-
portions :