Page:Tithes, a paper read at the Diocesan Conference at Rochester, May 31, 1883.djvu/9

 question, refers the origin of parochial tithes, upon the authority of Selden, to the year 1215, from which time, that writer tells us, there has been a recognized obligation to pay them, not to some religious object, such as had existed long before, but a specific allotment of them to the parochial incumbent, and he goes on to say:—"We may accordingly assert that for many centuries the owners of the soil have had no legal right to that part of the rent which formerly was the equivalent of tithes in kind and now of tithe rent-charge. They are not really taken from the landowner. They are a reserved rent, which has never belonged either to him or to those from whom he derived those possessions. The only landowners who could with any plausibility say that they lost by tithe-rent-charge are those who can show that they have inherited their estates by unbroken succession from a date earlier than 1215. The title of the tithe owner is older than that of the landowner. The latter has received his property subject to the claim." We may, therefore, at starting, brush away the cobwebs which, either from ignorance or party agitation, have gathered round the question, and acknowledge at once, that as far as ordinary tithe goes, it is in no sense a hardship upon labourer, tenant-farmer, or even landowner; it is a prior charge upon the land, like the land-tax; a charge subject to which the owner holds his land; in assessing the saleable value of land it is taken into account; in the letting of land it is practically so much rent to be deducted before it comes into the owner's hand, a reserved rent which diminishes pro tanto the actual rent that would otherwise be paid. Our inquiry, therefore, will be limited to the incidence of it, not to its nature; and with a view to this inquiry, it will be best to notice in order the objections that are urged in the present day, and the changes proposed.

I.—It is generally suggested, and the idea finds favour with the Agricultural Commissioners, who recommend it in their report, that the ordinary tithe shall be paid by the landlord, and not by the tenant. This may sound like an important change, but in fact it is merely taking money out of one pocket instead of the other. What