The success of these, and like cases, stimulated a vicar of Bat tersea to draw the tithes of that parish in kind, which was continued for two or three years, during which time nothing was more common than to meet his carts in the streets, retailing his tithes, with a person in each, vociferating, "come buy my asparagus!—oh rare cauliflowers!" &c. &c.

A few instances equally oppressive with these, have happened in every county in England; and the necessary consequence is, that they have severally put a stop to some expensive, but promising im provement. Every matter of this kind becomes a subject of general conversation among farmers, and of course prevents their making the like attempts. In short, an act of parliament to prohibit the improvement of land by any considerable expenditure, would not more effectually do it than the tithe-laws.

Had tithes never been established, happy would it have been for this country, and still more so for the clergy. They are a powerful cause of many quitting the church, and of creating and supporting sectaries: they are the never ending source of ill-will, quarrelling, and litigation, and are, unquestionably, one great cause of the cont nuance of so much common and uncultivated land in these kingdoms. Within the narrow limits of my own knowlege, several premeditated bills of inclosure have been given up, rather than the land should be subjected to yield tithes in kind, after the great expence of the act, the commission, the survey, the making of new roads, the building of bridges, the fencing, and erecting new buildings, and cultivating the land, should be incurred.

A meeting was lately held, for the purpose of considering an ap plication to parliament for inclosing the commons above Pinner, in this county. It did not suit the rector to attend the meeting; he therefore sent his proposal in a letter, which was, that a particular part of the commons, containing 300 acres, should be allotted to him in one piece, inclosed with a ditch, bank, and park paling, and maintained in good repair for ever, at the expence of the other persons who had a right of common. As such an unreasonable request could not be complied with, it of course defeated the intended application, and the land still continues in common.

For about 794 years after Chrift, tithe had no establishment in this Island; and then, only over a small part of it, till about the year 854, when they were extended to the rest of England. The occasiont of their being given, is a powerful reason against their continuance. It was at a time, too, of great superstition and very gross ignorance; and tithes are continued to these days, by a barbarous policy which sets an insurmountable obstruction in the way of every great improvement, and lays an intolerable burden on the most vir

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The practical Mr. Boys, in his excellent Report of the county of Kent, says, nothing can be devised, that would so much set improvements afloat, as a commutation for tithe."-J. M.'

For the occasion of their being taken from the laity of this realm, and given to the clergy, see Burn's Ecclesiastical Law: title, Tithes.'

tuoit

tuous and valuable class in society, to which half the property in these kingdoms contributes nothing. The operation of this tax is, to keep down or reduce the produce of the earth to much less in quantity than it would otherwise be, and of course to increase the price, and promote our dependance for bread on the importation of corn from foreign countries, which could with case be raised at home.

Tithes create grievous heart-burnings on account of their partial operation, and which is visible in most parts of this county, by a very great number of the most wealthy persons living in expensive houses, or carrying on the largest manufactories, and who pay to the clergyman nothing, or at the most, only a few shillings a year, as a composition in lieu of the tithe of a garden. But mark the reverse. The smaller farmers are a very numerous class in society, supporting their families by the utmost exertion of their industry: many of them are unable to keep the wolf from the door, although themselves, their wives and children, would think it an indulgence, could they afford to fill their stomachs with the coarsest fare. Yet will the tithe-laws not fail to compel such miserable, but valuable beings, to pay a sixth, a fifth, or even a fourth, of the rental value of their land; and in some cases, more than the rent. Thus the poor farmer pays to the clergyman from 10l. to upwards of 100l. a year, while his wealthy neighbour does not pay so many shillings.

Every possible argument in favour of tithes upon land, in exclu sion of houses and other property, is insupportable. Why tax the land to build churches? Does the land go to them? Is it benefited by them? There is not, nor can there be, any connexion whatever between the land and the church. Religion, in a word, is a mere personal concern, and of course, every possible expence relative to it, ought to be defrayed by a personal tax, without reference to any particular species of property. A greater absurdity can hardly be found, than to tax land, houses, money, stock in trade, merchandize, shipping, &c. for the support of the church. Land has certainly no more analogy than shipping, to the church, yet no one ever thought of taxing shipping for the support of it. Neither, I repeat, ought land to be assessable for that purpose.'

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As to the mode of employing and extending relief to the Parɔ Mr. M.'s opinion is in unison with our own; and we congratulate the children of Indigence on having so intelligent an advocate, who wisely and humanely has respect to their comfort, virtue, and importance as members of the community.-Gentlemen who have taken the lead in the management of the Poor have commonly been disposed to congregate hem. In order more cheaply to feed and more effectually to govern them, they have collected them from their huts and cottages into large workhouses and houses of industry: but the expectations of the projectors of these institutions have rarely been gratified. We have already hinted our ideas on this subject; and our inquiries

* Several additional cases of oppression may be seen in the Annals of Agriculture vol, xxi. p. 438, &c.'

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and examinations tend to confirm them. Of heavy poor-rates, and profligate poor, we shall ever have to complain, unless we change our system. We should not think of improving the morals of one of the lower members of the community by forcing him from his cottage, to take shelter with his brethren in penury in a huge work-house; nor suppose that they can be less burdensome in a mass, than separate in their respective lowly dwellings. Is an army, is a navy, fed as cheaply as the individuals who compose it can feed themselves? This, however, is not the first consideration. When the poor cease to act for themselves, and to have a home of their own, they lose their little independence and activity of mind. They have no interest in any thing around them, and in course are deprived of the ordinary motives to patriotism, loyalty, and virtue. If the sum that is injudiciously expended in this country, according to the present system, were laid out in the erection of cottages, in allowing assistance to the necessitous poor at their own homes, and in training them to decency and virtue ;-if the rich would take them under their care and protection, (every parish, according to its number, being divided into small classes for this purpose,) instead of abandoning them to careless overseers and hard-hearted farmers of work-houses; we are confident that the good effect would be soon apparent. We could say much more on this subject: but we will only add a part of Mr. Middleton's observations, as agreeing with onr own sentiments:

Lodging and diet in the work-houses, in every instance, are superior to what the industrious labourer can provide for his family. It is obvious that this must have an influence over their minds, and be come most injurious to the interests of society. It holds out encou ragement to prefer the work-house to labour; and, by filling the poor-houses with improper inhabitants, it reduces the amount of industry.

In those parishes with which I am acquainted, the annual ex, pence of each pauper is about fifteen guineas; a stout healthy labourer in husbandry, with a wife and three children, earns only thirty for the support of five persons,

The earnings of the inhabitants of work-houses, on an average of the whole of this county, do not amount to eight shillings per head per annum; which taken from the former sum, leaves fifteen pounds seven shillings, or near six shillings a week, as the expence of supporting each pauper. This is a profuse expenditure of parish money, as two-thirds of the whole number of persons would support themselves out of the house, on being allowed only two shillings a week each*.

If it be true, that two-thirds of the number can be supported for two shillings a week, in their own houses, the whole might, in that case, be maintained for half the expence incurred under the present system.-7. M.'

Mr.

Mr. M. farther observes that every institution which tends to make the poor depend on any other support than their own industry, does them great disservice, and is highly injurious to society, by diminishing the quantity of labour which annually produces consumable goods, -the only wealth of à

nation.'

This is a very serious consideration; and one which completely exposes the impropriety of the present system :-but we must not extend our remarks here, and shall quit the sub ject with the following curious matter of fact: I have known (says Mr. M.) two families, consisting together of thirteen. persons, brought to the work-house, and maintained by the parish at an expence of two hundred pounds a year, owing to an imprudent collector of taxes having distrained about twenty shillings on each family.' p. 70.

Mr. Middleton is not more averse from shutting up the poor in large work-houses, than he is strenuous for an universal Inclosure of all our waste lands*. He expects much from this measure, when generally adopted, with regard to the salubrity of the country, its increased productiveness and population, and the improved morals of the poor. Sometimes, he is romantic, as when he supposes that our agricultural improvements may be carried to such a pitch that every acre shall support its man;' or that the population of the country shall equal its number of acres. Inclosing is become very fashionable; and, if prosecuted to a certain extent, it promises great national advantages: but the benefit of inclosures, as an universal principle, appears to be over-rated; or, to speak more properly, is not fairly and accurately appreciated. Mr. M. is strenuous for having all the wastes, commons, and downs of the kingdom inclosed; and in several instances he states the superior value of land after inclosure, but he gives no insight into the expences of an inclosing bill, and all the subsequent charges of commissioners, agents, solicitors, &c. Under the head of Stanwell Inclosure, we are informed that the commissioners were empowered to sell, and that the landsold produced twenty-one pounds per acre: but he does not state the number of acres thus sold, by which we could ascertain the general expence. We mention this not to discourage the system of inclosing in general, but to hint to all

*He remarks, (p. 456,) that we have 22 millions of acres of land called commons; and surely some of these commons ought to be brought into a state of aration, if, according to Mr. M.'s account, p. 481, our annual consumption of corn exceeds our growth by 694,163 quarters, and if we require 503,046 acres to be brought into eultivation before we can raise our own supplies.

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who have such a measure in contemplation, that they should "sit down and count the cost," lest they be seduced under the prospect of wonderful advantages to spend 25s. in order to get a guinea. It is easy to propose that bogs shall be drained, downs inclosed with wide hedge-rows, and heaths and commons pared, burnt, and fitted for a rotation of arable crops: but is the nation capable, with its present population, of such an undertaking; or can it spare so great a capital as this would require ? In time, and by degrees, great things may be done: but the agricultural speculator ought to be informed that nearly the value of the fee-simple of the land is sometimes expended, before it can be brought into a tolerable state of cul

tivation.

Inclosing schemes are not unfrequently mere jobbs. Under the plea of national benefit, commissioners, solicitors, and surveyors, contrive to lay parishes under heavy contributions. Considerable portions of land are assigned to pay expences; and the individuals, for whose benefit the measure is said to be undertaken, are often miserably disappointed,-Parishes should be allowed to inclose on certain conditions, without the necessity of a particular application to parliament; and inclosures should be made with a due attention to public utility, to the interests of the poor, and to the conservation of the public roads not allowing plantations to be made too near them.

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In many instances, salubrity will be promoted by inclosures; especially when accompanied with drainage to carry off redundant and stagnant water; yet may it not admit of a doubt whether an universal inclosure of the kingdom, and subdivision of it into small fields by hedge-rows, would not tend to increase the humidity of the atmosphere? Is not the island now subject to an excess of moisture; and are not some open spaces necessary to be left to counteract that tendency? We suggest this as a hint in the form of a question let it not be taken for more than it is worth: but it should be considered that, whatever may increase the danger of wet seasons, and wet harvests, should be cautiously avoided.

After these cursory observations, we shall proceed to exhibit Mr. M.'s view of the subject; to which, for the most part, we can cordially subscribe.

The disadvantages of commons to the public in their present state, Mr. M. considers as far outweighing the advantages. Their produce he estimates at only four shillings per acre. Their benefit to the poor man is more specious than solid;

Certainly not at present. duces a scarcity of money.'

War (as Mr. M. says, p. 458) prowhile