Page:Tithes, a paper read at the Diocesan Conference at Rochester, May 31, 1883.djvu/15

 I have suggested, so as to keep them clearly before this meeting.

1. Tithe to be a fixed, not a fluctuating sum—£100 money for £100 tithe. The advantages of this are, that we get rid of a fluctuating tithe rent charge, high, possibly, as of late, in bad times, leading thereby to agitation arising out of what one writer calls the "demoralization of money embarrassment;" giving also the clergy a fixed, not an uncertain income, and, as I hope, tending to abolish remissions of tithe. Objection as to seven years being too long an average, and that as to returns being unfairly taken, would disappear.

2. Tithe payable by landlord, not tenant, removing thereby the ground of irritation which the present system creates between clergy and their parishioners. This can be obtained even if No. 1 should not.

3. Facilities of redemption based on a calculation of the averages taken since the Tithe Commutation Act, or by taking £100 as a fixed value, deduction being made for poor rate and expenses of collection.

4. Readjustment on different lands in a parish according to their altered value.

And now of extraordinary tithe. What is there in a name? In this case, we must admit, a great deal, and allow that to this it owes a good deal of its factitious importance. The absolute failure last year in many places of both the hop and fruit crop has given fresh impetus to the discussion of the question. I proceed to enquire (1) how did it arise? (2) how has it worked? and (3) how can it be fairly dealt with? There can be no question that it was introduced at the request of the land-owners themselves, with the concurrence in most cases of the tithe-payer. The original intention of the Tithe Commutation Act was to include the tithes of hops, fruit, gardens, &c., in the ordinary tithe. The land-owner, however, considering that the time might come when special produce such as hops might not be cultivated, and unwilling to saddle his estate in perpetuity with the charge, pressed upon, and eventually induced the Commissioners to adopt, the system which has since been known as extraordinary tithe. It is right to emphasize this fact at starting, and to show that if the tithe-payer