COMMUTATION OF TITHES IN ENGLAND.
One of the leading measures of the session, as regarded England, was for the commutation of tithes; a measure which was brought forward for the relief of the dissenters. The ministerial plan for the commutation of tithes was brought before the house of commons by Lord John Russell on the 9th of February. The subject, he said, consisted of two parts: namely, the principles on which the commutation should be made, and the machinery by which it was to be carried into execution. The machinery, he confessed, would be borrowed from Sir Robert Peel’s bill of last year. There would be a central board of commissioners, consisting of three persons, for the purpose of arranging the question of commutation; and this board would have power to appoint assistant-commissioners to a certain extent, and in certain cases, in the same manner as the poor-law commissioners. His lordship admitted that the selection of the principle on which the commutation should proceed was a subject attended with much difficulty. In the plan government proposed, their object had been to produce as little disturbance as possible in existing interests, not to diminish violently or excessively the income now enjoyed by the tithe-owners, and to produce some uniformity in the mode of calculating and valuing tithe throughout England and Wales. As in the bill of last year, any landowner would be allowed to agree with the tithe-owner for a commutation of his tithe; and having made such an agreement, he would stand to the tenant in the relation not only of landlord, but likewise of tithe-owner. He also proposed that it should be competent for the possessor or possessors of one-fourth of the value of the tithe to call a meeting of the owners of land in the parish, at which parties might be represented as they now were under the poor-law act. When three-fourths in value of the owners of tithe agreed with three-fourths in value of the owners of land, they would have power to make an agreement binding on the whole parish, if no person appealed against it within a certain period. If any person appealed, it should still be binding against those who did not appeal. The parties appealing would be compelled to appear before the assistant-commissioners, who, on hearing their statements, would make an award, which award, on the ratification of the central board, would become binding on the parish. If, at the end of a certain period, he would say six months, no such agreement were made between the tithe-owners and the tithe-payers, it would be competent for any landowner, or any tithe-owner, to ask the commissioners to make such a general award on the tithes of the parish. When such a demand was made, an assistant-commissioner would be authorised to examine what had been the amount of tithes, and what had been the expense of collecting the tithes for the last seven years; he would then declare the amount of tithes so paid for the last seven years, and that amount would be represented by a certain quantity of wheat, barley, and oats. If any person should appeal against this declaration, on the ground that the amount fixed for the tithes on the composition did not fairly represent their value, the assistant-commissioner would make an estimate of the value of the tithes for the seven years previous, and ascertain the actual gross value of them for that period. If it should appear that the sum of tithes taken in any parish during a period of seven years exceeded seventy-five per cent, of the gross value, then it would be competent to the commissioners to determine that the commutation should amount to seventy-five per cent. of the gross value, and no more, and they would reduce the sum accordingly; if, on the contrary, it appeared that the amount taken was less than sixty per cent, of the gross value of the tithe, the commissioners would be authorised to raise the sum to sixty per cent., and to declare that that should be the amount of the future charge. If the sum paid was between these two limits, it should be competent to the commissioners to make such an award as they thought the circumstances and the justice of the case required. In some cases tithes had been taken to such an extent as ought not to form the basis of a permanent charge; and, on the other hand, there were instances, as had been satisfactorily established by undoubted evidence, of clergymen who did not receive more than forty or fifty per cent, of the amount to which they were entitled. It appeared just to interfere in these cases; and he thought it right to fix a sum to be taken hereafter, which should not exceed or fall below a certain amount, in proportion to the gross value of the tithe. It was open for consideration, whether sixty or seventy-five pounds were the proper minimum and maximum: he referred to these sums only as illustrating the principle. In certain cases, however, a special regulation would be required, as tithes on hops, orchards, and gardens, on which the tithes were extremely high. He proposed giving the commissioners the power of taking certain hop districts, in order to ascertain the average tithe of the last seven years, and fix the amount in future. They would also have the power of declaring what the tithe of any particular land or property should be, supposing hop cultivation to be abandoned; and it was provided that in cases where land should be brought into hop cultivation anew, it should be subject to an additional payment of fifteen shillings an acre on account of tithe. As regarded orchards and gardens, he had not been able to settle a particular provision on the subject, although he admitted lands thus cultivated were particularly circumstanced. The tithe thus commuted, Lord John Russell continued, would become a rent-charge, payable by the landowner according to the value of grain: thus—the average prices for seven years of wheat, barley, and oats would be published at certain periods by the comptroller of corn returns; this publication would take place every year, and the payment of rent-charge made in lieu of tithe would be varied accordingly. The prices of three different kinds of grain were taken, for the purpose of ascertaining the value and amount of the charge, so that if an individual were chargeable with £300 for tithe, one-third would be estimated by the price of wheat, one-third by that of barley, and the remaining third by the price of oats, which would be giving each a fair proportion in the gross amount. Finally, the intended bill did not deal, his lordship said, with the question of redemption of the rent-charge; that was an important and difficult subject, and would require to be dealt with in a separate measure after the commutations should have been made, and the charge ascertained. Sir Robert Peel said that he would not object to the measure being introduced, since he thought himself entitled to say that it was taken in great part from his bill of last year. The whole of its machinery was, in fact, adopted, and to a certain extent likewise, its principle of voluntary commutation. The bill passed the second reading on the 22nd of February without any division, although various objections were stated, both as to its principles and details; the former being chiefly directed against the compulsory nature of the commutation. When the bill went into committee, ministers made several alterations in its provisions. Thus the period during which voluntary commutations might be entered into was extended from six months to twelve; and the clauses under which a single landholder might compel a commutation in regard to his own property, while there was none for the rest of the parish, were given up; it was now proposed that a fixed proportion of the landowners should have power to enter into a voluntary agreement, which, after a certain time, should become binding on the whole parish. A great deal of hostility, however, was still expressed against the measure, and that even among the ordinary supporters of government. Mr. Hume maintained that no good bill could be enacted till the corn-laws were repealed, since they had given land and its produce an artificial value; and as their repeal was anticipated, this measure would inflict great injury on the landowners, unless the value of the tithe was fixed much lower than was done by the bill. Great opposition was also manifested to the maximum and minimum of seventy-five and sixty pounds, and fixing them merely by the average of the preceding seven years, but the clause was retained. On the bringing up of the report, however, government proposed a modification of the clause, to the effect that the commissioners, on receiving a representation that the sum paid was not a fair composition, should ascertain the gross value of the tithe, and should have power to raise or diminish the sum to be paid in future, but not beyond one-fifth of the sum paid during the preceding seven years. Some amendments of minor importance were moved subsequently, but were rejected; and the bill having gone up to the lords, was read a second time without opposition, and was passed on the 22nd, both sides of the house approving of its general principles. The Archbishop of Canterbury said, he thought the bill would be very beneficial in its effects, relieving the land from the pressure of tithes, and doing justice to the clergy, and as little liable to objection as any measure that could be framed on a subject so difficult and so complicated. With respect to those lands which might be brought into cultivation as agriculture improved, and for which the bill made no provision, he agreed that to give the clergy a tithe on such land would be to prevent the general object of the bill—the expenditure of capital on the land; but when waste lands were enclosed and brought into profitable cultivation, he could see no reason why such steps should not be taken in favour of the clergy as were usual in other cases, and why a portion of the land should not be given to them. His grace accordingly moved, in the committee, an amendment to the effect, that when waste or common lands should be enclosed, the commissioners should assign a certain portion of the land to the tithe-owner instead of his tithe. This was objected to on both sides of the house, and the amendment was negatived without a division. The bill passed, and the few alterations which had been made in the lords were agreed to with one exception. The peers had agreed to an amendment giving tithe on cows fed in stalls and sheds. This was rejected; and the lords, when the bill returned to them, did not insist upon its retention.