House of Lords, proposes these enactments, which seem to me to be in the main worthy of support. 1. That the owner of lands shall be liable for the tithe as between himself and his tenant, and out of this the parties cannot contract themselves. 2. The tithe-owner is to have a right of personal action against the land-owner without losing the remedy of distress. This is rather a large provision, and will require modifying, because it not only allows him to resort to the land to satisfy his claim, but to the whole fortune of the land-owner. 3. A deduction of 3 per cent, to be allowed on payment within one month. (I see no good reason for this clause.) 4. The tithe rent charge to be fixed at a given sum and not to vary; corn averages no longer to be required.[1] Mr. Stanley Leighton's Bill, the "Tithe Rent Charge Recovery Act," enables a tenant to recover from the landlord the tithe rent charge he has paid, and makes void all covenants to a contrary effect. Both Bills are set out on the last page but one of the Report of the Law and Parliamentary Committee of this Conference.
Another point which arises incidentally, and is worth attention, is this—whether, supposing we have got rid of corn-averages, and have established the tithe as a fixed sum, some steps might not be taken to remedy the inequality of its incidence. Without proposing to tithe land such as the woodland in the Weald, which is not subject to tithe, most persons must be aware how very unequally tithe often presses in a parish, some of the best lands, if grass or valuable building land, being very lightly charged, while poor arable land of old standing which now may have gone out of cultivation has a heavy charge upon it. I have in my mind, amongst other instances, that of a poor hill farm (acreage about 500), the rent of which is £200, and the tithe in two parishes about £90; or again, another where it amounts to nearly 5s. an acre, the letting value being about 7s. 6d. per acre. There are difficulties in the change; but I think they might equitably be made, confining the alteration within the limits of the parish, and letting the tithe follow altered values as the Land Tax does now, basing it upon the Parochial or Income Tax Assessment. Before I say a few words upon the extraordinary tithe, may I briefly sum up the altera-
- ↑ Since this was written, Earl Stanhope's Bill has been rejected.
