The Extraordinary Tithe-Rent Charge.

On one important point, Lord Russell had deviated from its leading principle in the second reading of the Bill. A deputation of Middlesex market-gardeners waited upon him after the Bill was introduced, who pointed out that they had expended a large amount of capital on improvements of their market-gardens during the past seven years, and that if they were to pay a rent-charge on the average of these seven years, they would continue liable to a very heavy charge, while the owners of arable land or common land in their neighbourhood, paying very low tithe composition, would come into competition with them and thus ruin them. This argument had actually influenced his lordship even against his own will, and so he introduced an extraordinary rent-charge, calculated on each acre, in addition to the ordinary rent-charge on hop grounds, orchards, and market-gardens, brought into new cultivation. In introducing this Bill, and before the Middlesex market-gardeners influenced him, Lord Russell used these remarkable words: “Whatever might be done with orchards and gardens now existing, he felt considerable difficulty in rendering land that might be converted into orchards or gardens in future, liable to increased tithes. Orchards were a precarious and uncertain description of property, and frequently did not bear in certain years; and in respect of garden lands, if the Legislature allowed the question to be opened again from time to time, it would give rise to incessant disputes.”[288]

Although he thus modified his views in the second reading, yet he was thoroughly opposed to the principle. And his prophetic words stated above, were fully realized in the subsequent amendment Acts which were absolutely necessary as regards the modification of extraordinary rent-charges. No extraordinary charge was to be made the first year for new cultivations, and only one-half of the charge for the second year, but the full charge was to be made in the third year. In thus deviating from the principle of his Bill, he made the following remark: “Tithes on extremely valuable crops, such as hops, orchards, and market-gardens, could not be allowed to enter into an average for a general commutation.” From the passing of the Act in 1836, up to the present time, this extraordinary rent-charge has been a fruitful source of discontent, because it is a tax on capital and labour, against which the principle of the Commutation Act was framed.

It kept almost stationary the cultivation of hops and market-gardens, instead of extending them. The hop proprietors were at the time in favour of the petition of the market-gardeners. When lands would go out of cultivation of hops, or of orchards, or of market-gardens, then they would be subject only to the ordinary rent-charge. But all new cultivations were to pay the extraordinary rent-charge, which in some cases reached as high as 30s. per acre. When this amount was added to the ordinary charge, the whole profit was absorbed, especially since the hop growers have now to compete with foreign countries, which pay no tithes nor duty on hops imported into this country.

It may be said that the duty on hops, having been repealed since 1862, the reduction of about £4 5s. per acre must have benefited the hop growers. The fact is, that the landlords and not the tenants mainly derived the profits from the reduction. Before 1836, there were 56,300 acres of hops cultivated; in 1880 there were 66,703 acres.

The Market-Gardens Act of 1873 was passed on account of a burst of popular indignation against the conduct of the Vicar of Gulval, in Cornwall, who endeavoured to enforce the payment of an extraordinary tithe-rent charge of 1s. 6d. per acre on 213 acres brought into new cultivation. It was enacted that the provisions relating to the extraordinary charge on market-gardens, newly cultivated as such, should only apply to parishes where such charge was distinguished at the time of commutation.

In 1839 (2 & 3 Vict. c. lxii. s. 27) an Act was passed in a quiet manner which placed orchards as regards the extraordinary tithe-rent charge on the same footing as the Act of 1873 (36 & 37 Vict. c. xlii.) placed the market-gardens. The Acts of 1839 and 1873 admit that extraordinary rent-charges are wrong in principle, and that those on hops should have been abolished.

In 1886 an Act was passed (49 & 50 Vict. c. liv.) in the preamble of which it is stated that the extraordinary rent-charge levied under previous Acts, is an impediment to agriculture, and therefore the Act should have been limited, and power given to redeem the same. It is enacted that after the passing of this Act, no extraordinary charge shall be made or levied under the Tithe Commutation Acts on any hop ground, orchard, fruit plantation, or market-garden newly cultivated as such. The Land Commissioners are authorized to fix the capital value of the extraordinary charge payable on each farm or parcel of land at the date of the passing of the Act. The third section indicates the manner in which the capital value is to be ascertained. Such land is to be charged with the payment of an annual rent-charge equal to four per centum on the capitalized value of the extraordinary charge, in lieu of the extraordinary charge. This rent-charge shall be payable half-yearly on the days on which the extraordinary charge was made payable. Arrears of rent-charge are to be recovered in one of the High Courts of Justice, or a County Court, “or in the same way that rent charge in lieu of ordinary tithe is recoverable, and subject to like conditions, or by entry upon and perception of the rents and profits of the land subject to such rent-charge.” The rent-charge is not to be subject to any parochial, county or other rate, charge, or assessment. The rent-charge may be redeemed by the owner or other person interested in any land, subject to an extraordinary charge or rent-charge substituted therefor. The redemption money is to be paid to the Governors of Queen Anne’s Bounty, to be applied for the benefit of the incumbent, if the owner be the incumbent of a benefice. Provision is made for the redemption of the rent-charge in other cases of ownership. If the tenant had contracted, before the passing of the Act, to pay the extraordinary rent-charge to the owner, he shall do so no longer, but pay to his landlord during his tenancy the rent-charge substituted for the extraordinary charge. The landlord is then made liable for the payment of the rent-charge to the owner, notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary which the tenant had made with his landlord. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners are empowered to adjust the fixed charges made before the passing of the Act, on the income of benefices in receipt of extraordinary tithes in favour of other benefices, or of district churches or chapelries within the parishes of which the incumbents are in receipt of extraordinary tithes.

Lord John Russell, when introducing the Tithe Commutation Bill, said these words: “The income of the clergy will now flow from the landlord and not from the farmer, and the clergyman will be relieved from an alternative that too often exists, either of making personal enemies by pressing his demand, or of injuring himself by abandoning it.” His lordship, in his “Recollections and Suggestions,” makes the following statement: “All the evils of the tithe system were the subject of fair compromise and permanent settlement by the Act of 1836. Three Commissioners, two of whom were appointed by the Crown and one by the Archbishop of Canterbury, were empowered, after examination, to proceed by certain fixed rules to a final adjudication. In about seven years this process was completed, and a work from which Pitt had shrunk was accomplished.”

In reading this statement one may smile at the “permanent settlement.” Ever since 1836 there has been a continuous struggle going on down to 1886 on the subject of “Extraordinary tithe-rent charge.”

CHAPTER XIX.
TITHES OF CHURCH IN WALES.

As the Church of England in Wales is becoming one of the burning political questions of the day, I shall give a sketch of the value and appropriation of the tithe-rent charge of Wales, including the parishes in Monmouth and Salop, which are in Welsh dioceses. The figures are taken from the official Tithe Commutation Return of 1887.

Bangor.Llandaff.St. Asaph.St. David’s.Total.Percentage.
£££££
Clerical Appropriators9,55912,29731,04726,83179,73426·9
Parochial Incumbents27,93931,30642,61847,307149,17050·4
Lay Impropriators5,9419,74821,73223,38960,81020·5
Schools, Colleges, etc.2,3782731,7362,1646,5512·2
45,81753,62497,133100,488296,265100·0

By the operations of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, when Parliament vested in them the tithe-rent charges of all the archbishops, bishops, chapters, etc., a large quantity of rent-charges was annexed to benefices. The following table indicates the ownerships in 1890:—

Bangor.Llandaff.St. Asaph.St. David’s.Total.Percentage.
£££££
Ecclesiastical Commissioners2,1628,34714,11818,67443,30114·6
Parochial Incumbents35,78135,37658,49956,939186,59563·0
Lay Impropriators4,9699,64620,56521,97857,15819·3
Schools, Colleges, etc.1,2892551,7362,1005,3801·8
Chapters1,6162,2153,8311·3
45,81753,62497,133100,488296,265100·0

It is important to state who were the clerical appropriators, schools, colleges, etc., in receipt of tithes in 1836. As regards the lay impropriators, it would entail enormous work to get their names. The Tithe Commissioners have their names in each apportionment. But in very many cases the property has, since 1836, changed hands, either by sale, wills, etc.

The endowments of the Welsh bishops and Cathedral churches were taken from the parochial tithes. This meant spiritual destitution in such Welsh parishes. The Norman conquerors seized and held the Welsh episcopal and Cathedral endowments; then the bishops and chapters seized the parochial tithes, and at the time of the Reformation, the Crown annexed additional parochial tithes in augmentation of episcopal and capitular incomes. These tithes were not, as in England, monastic, but were actually taken from the parish clergy by virtue of the Crown’s prerogative as head of the Church.