Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/376

366 to the clergy, than any other in the kingdom, yet the minister can demand no more than his tenth; and where the corn much exceeds the small tithes, as, except in some districts, I am told it always does, he is at the mercy of every stubborn farmer, especially of those, whose sect as well as interests, incline them to opposition. However, I take it that your people bent for America, do not show the best side of their prudence, in making this, one part of their complaint: yet they are so far wise, as not to make the payment of tithes a scruple of conscience, which is too gross for any protestant dissenter, except a quaker, to pretend. But do your people indeed think, that if tithes were abolished, or delivered into the hands of the landlord, after the blessed manner in the Scotch spiritual economy, the tenant would sit easier in his rent under the same person, who must be lord of the soil and of the tithe together?

I am ready enough to grant, that the oppression of landlords, the utter ruin of trade, with its necessary consequences, the want of money, half the revenues of the kingdom spent abroad, the continued dearth of three years, and the strong delusion in your people by false allurement from America, may be the chief motives of their eagerness after such an expedition. But, there is likewise another temptation, which is not of inconsiderable weight; which is, their itch of living in a country where their sect is predominant, and where their eyes and consciences will not be offended by the stumbling block of ceremonies, habits, and spiritual titles. But I was surprised to find that those calamities, whereof we are innocent, have been sufficient to drive many families out