Spence contends that their number certainly is not more than 500,000, probably not more than 300,000. Now 413,000 are fed with wheat imported, and the import of oats feeds a great number of other manufacturers, who must consequently be working for home consumption. We do not, therefore, only feed ourselves, but we cloath and supply you with a large portion of your necessary fabrics; where is this transmutation of British corn into manufactures for exportation? If it be a transmutation, it is transmuting the corn brought from Prussia and Poland by foreign commerce: you are so unable to feed us, that you do not feed yourselves without our assistance. Our demand for the products of grass is so great, that if you supply it we must go to others for corn, not only to feed ourselves, but a large portion of those who manufacture for your necessary consumption. Thus might the class employed on foreign supply retort on Mr. Spence.

The principal consumption of well paid manufacturers, so far as the landed interest is concerned, is in the products of grass land.

Beer is an article of consequence; but of corn imported barley is but a trifle.

If we are to lose our foreign trade we should look for compensation, not in transferred consumption, but in raising at home the commodities hitherto imported: corn to the amount of four millions sterling: 40 or 50,000 tons of hemp and flax, and a long list of other articles, the production of which would create a great and new circulation, however inferior it might be in amount to what we had lost.

An observation might be made here in reply, but so obvious and superficial, that I trest it would not be urged by the gen Jeman whose performance excited these remarks, It may, however, be said that if the manufacturers working for export be fed with foreign corn, stop the trade and the consump tion of English corn will at least remain the same, or, rather be increased by the amount of the reduced consumption of half a million of amply fed workmen turned into parish paupers: and something of this sort would be the case, were it a question of mouths only, and not of income. But, Sir, you well know that all these combinations and contrasts depend, not on numbers but on income, that is, on consumption. Forty milForty millions sterling in exported fabrics, are £80 per head per annum to 500,000 persons employed to produce them. Deduct the very small proportion of materials in a really raw state, and the large remainder will, when reckoned to every man, woman, and child,

form an income (above £300 a year to a family of five) in which the consumption of corn will make but a paltry amount: at a quarter of wheat per head, or 5 quarters, it will be under £20 in above £300*.

But I must confess, Sir, that I want faith, in the power of Buonaparté to hedge in the cuckoo, as stopping trade has been called→→ nor, do I believe, that were America to join him, our trade would suffer in any degree that would necessitate us to make an inglorious or dangerous peace. If those manufacturers who have been consumers, not of our own, but of foreign corn, should become clamourous for peace, they will take the sure means to render a safe one impossible; and were they to be listened to by government in the conclusion of it, we should have far more reason to deprecate and condemn the commercial system, than ever the writings of Mr. Spence are likely to produce. Whatever the evils resulting from a loss of trade may prove-we must manfully resolve to bear them: but let not the people be deceived into the expectation that they would be light they would be heavy enough; and disappointed hope ought not to be added to the burthen.

:

It would take too much time to expatiate on the folly and madness of that policy, which has during 26 years given to foreigners so much of the benefit from our manufactures and commerce, while our own land remains waste in space sufficient to produce ten times as much and restricting the immediate benefit to the products of grass Could we have imported milk and butter and mutton, our legislative system would doubtless have been equally exerted in giving to Germany and Poland that supply also, of our markets. A system so full of absurdity, and gross stupidity, that I cannot attribute the constant prosperity of this kingdom, in spite of such endeavours to counteract it, to any cause but the overflowing bounties of Divine Providence, which in favour of this happy country seems employed, not only in the diffusion of direct good; but to extract it even from the very evils brought on us by our own blind errors, and misconduct. If such a series of blessings as we have expe rienced, hath no effect in turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, we have as much cause for fear as hitherto for thanksgiving.

I intended to have troubled you with some remarks, on the third great maxim of

* I accept throughout this paper Mr. Spence's data-but it might easily be shewn that they demand much revision.

Vindex, Letter 4th. SIR,- -The security of property is so absolutely essential to the possession and maintenance of a free constitution, that, without it, civil liberty and popular rights would be idle phantoms, existing only in name. A government, that could dispose of the property of its subjects at pleasure, would have no difficulty in establishing itself independent of every species of control. Authority, without the means of supporting it, is dangerous only to the possessor; and a constitution, that withholds the dominion over these means from the executive power, best provides for the employment of them in the promotion of public objects and national interests. It is to the spirited res stance made, at all times, by our ancestors, against the arbitrary attempts of government to invade the security of private property, that we are indebted for that system of civil rights and political freedom, which is so justly the pride of this country, and so universally the envy of the other nations of Europe. Nay, the most essential part of our present constitution, the great council of the nation, originated with the Saxons, whose property in their possessions was absolute and allodial, vested wholly in themselves, and thoroughly independant of the paramount rights of any superior. The Normans modified the right by an alteration of the tenure. They secured to the individual his possessions, but subjected them to the operation of paramount rights and feudal conditions; yet, the property still remained, though in a qualified shape, guaranteed from invasion in any quarter, and creating that spirit of independance, which, after many struggles and various success, has at length terminated in the establishment of the wisest system of civil government and municipal law, that ever existed in any nation. The security of property, therefore, is not more essential to private happiness than to public rights, and the principle of its legal inviolability, which

has been consecrated by the example and practice of so many ages, was never, at any period, so well understood or so scrupulously acted upon, as at present. Reposing under the shelter of equal daw, the meanest subject is protected in his possessions, which cannot be wrested from him, even by the legislature, without a full and adequate equivalent. The same salutary influence of legislative justice and legal protection, which guards the property of the individual from violation, spreads a shield over the property of the public, or of public bodies. The property of the clergy, any more than that of the laity, cannot, consistently with this principle, be approached, except under the sanction of an act of the legislature, and for a just compensation. The right of the clergy to their tythes is of common law foundation, and conséquently not to be affected, so far as the present possessors are concerned, in any other manner, than as any private property of an individual, which may be required for a public use, that is, upon a fair estimate of its value and an adequate equivalent. It is quite another question, how far it may or may not be desirable, to continue the compensation to the successors of the present incumbents, who have a property in possession in the revenues of their benefices. To indemnify the latter would be but an act of justice; to continue the equivalent, in the same proportions, to the former, must be a question to be determined by considerations of expediency. Upon the score of right, the clergy of Ireland have as good a title to their tythes, as the land proprietors have to their estates. But this right vests, absolutely, in the present incumbents alone. As no clergyman can look upon himself, as heir or successor to any benefice, during the incumbency of the present possessor, no one can complain, if the legislature, in its justice and wisdom, should regulate the succession, in a manner most likely to promote the general interests of the church establishment. But it may be said, that, though no individuals have a vested right to the succession, the right is at all times vested in the whole body of the clergy, and that, therefore, any equivalent, which might be given to the present incumbent, ought to be continued to his successor, because he must be one of that body, in which the right at all times, resides. In admitting the aggregate right, it is not necessary, that we should subscribe to the individual advantage. If the title be in the whole body, and not in the single person, who may be appointed to succeed, it would follow, that the benefit of the suc

cession ought to be extended, as much as possible, amongst the members of the aggregate body. When a benefice of two or three thousand pounds per annum falls in, there can be no doubt, that a person, emineatly qualitied, could be procured, to undertake the duty, with a revenue of five or seven hundred pounds per annum; and there can be as little question, that the re

mainder of the revenue of such benefice could be most advantageously employed, in adding to the amount of the small livings under one hundred pounds per annum. This, however, is not a subject to be discussed here, where the object is an inquiry into the operation and effect of tythes, in Ireland, and to ascertain the amount of popular grievance, that arises from that cause. In this investigation, the consideration of the subject naturally divides itself into three distinct points of view, in which it will be necessary to regard the question of tythes; 1st. the intrinsic oppression of tythes from their partial operation; 2dly. the aggravated oppression of tythes from the vexatious mode of collecting them and the exactions of proctors and tythe farmers; and 3dly. the grievous consequences, that result to the nation from their inequality of pressure, and the discouragement of agriculture, that is the consequence. But, before I proceed to examine either of these heads, I must anticipate an objection, which may be made, namely, that the property in tythes has been inalienably vested in the church, and is, therefore, not within the operation of that right, which the legislature constantly exercises, of disposing of the property of any individual, which may be necessary to the service of the state, upon giving a fair equivalent. Tythes are, in reality, a public property, assigned by the legislature to a particular body, as a remuneration for the performance of certain public services. The same authority, that conferred the property, has the power of regulating or altering the services to be performed; and it would be absurd to suppose, that it had not an equal control over the terms of remuneration. In fact, the parliament of Ireland, by abolishing tythes of agistment, first by an ar bitrary vote of the house of commons, and lastly by the act of union, has clearly shewn, that the clergymen hold their property, in tythes, subject to the discretion and regulation of the legislature.-In order to form any adequate idea of the severity of tythes, under the first point of view, in which I propose to look at their operation, it will be necessary to consider them in relation to justice and to expediency; that is, as to

their aggravated pressure upon a small part of the surface of the country, and as to the policy of leaving the particular classes, which, at present, bear most of the burthen," still liable to such an incumbrance. The origin of tythes lies in those remote ages, when the produce of agriculture constituted the principal, if not the only, source of national income. The provision, therefore, for a national clergy could not otherwise have been procured, than by subjecting the profits of land to some charge for their support. As rents were then paid in kind, so also were tythes. Such was the origin of the establishment. Possibly the example of the jewish institution might have influenced our ancestors, in regulating the rate of this charge; and, though the divine right was never dreamed of, as is abundantly manifest from the silence of the gospel, the practice of the primitive church, and the glaring difference between the jewish and christian establishments, it is yet natural to suppose, that the proportion was adopted from the institutions of that nation. Thus did tythes originate. From the circumstances of the times and the rate of contribution, imposed upon the only source of income then known, we may collect, that tythes were, in their first institution, intended to be a provision for the ministers of a national religion, proportioned to the respectability of their si-: tuations and to the extent and importance. of the benefits, to be derived to society from their professional exertions and instruction, and that they were intended equally and inpartially to affect all property. As every individual in the community participated in the services of the clergy, so none could reasonably object to contribute their full and fair proportion to their support. The individual, who contributed, was amply requited in the pastoral attentions and spiritual edification of the order he supported. This was all fair and just; both parties were: punctual, and both were satisfied. The consideration followed the value, which of course must have preceded the consideration. The clergyman received, without deduction, the portion allotted to him by the state, and the layman was easily reconciled to a sacrifice of a small portion of bis temporal effects, to reward the services of those, whose duty it was to watch over his eternal interests. But how different must the case be in a country, where the great mass of the population is of a different persuasion.. from the clergy, for whose support tythes are levied; in which, neither the whole of the property, nor the whole produce of the land, is subjected to the charge; in which,

those who enjoy the advantage of the services of the clergy, contribute but a very small portion of the public provision for the establishment, whilst the greatest portion of the burthen bears altogether upon the poorer classes, who never derive any benefit at all from the establishment? Here consideration must be raised as the value sinks. The spirit of monopoly and the dæmon of bigotry may, and must, often go hand in hand, and unite to persecute, as well as to collect. The individual, who is assessed, looks upon it as a severity, to be compelled to contribute, what produces him no correspondent advantage. His ingenuity is exerted to evade, his prejudices instigate him to defeat the claim, and every effort of fraud, artifice, and intimidation will, almost naturally, be essayed to render the charge upon himself light, and to the clergyman unproductive. Mutual interest, the only sure basis of reciprocal integrity in transactions, that regard property, cannot mediate, and the person, who is constrained to pay for what he does not, cannot, or will hot, receive, easily persuades himself of the propriety of endeavouring to reduce the consideration to the standard of the value. The clergyman procures his stipend without satisfaction, and it is given with reluctance. The people loudly murmur, whilst their turbulence and often outrageous conduct, become a source of general apprehension and universal complaint. All parties are discontented, and the hopeless evil, that generates this extremity of dissatisfaction, and undermines the peace, good temper, and virtue of society, grows too inveterate to yield, but to the wisdom of legislative interference. This short sketch will be sufficient to convey some idea of the state of Ireland, as to tythes and the oppression, arising from the intrinsic defects of the present system. The abolition of tythes of agistment has narrowed their operation, from extending over the whole surface of the country, to that limited portion of it, which is wrought with much labour and heavy expence, in the various processes of agriculture, I mean tillage. The necessity of indemnifying themselves for the defi ciency of revenue, created by the exemp tion of pasture and feeding grounds from the operation of tythes, has constrained the clergy to raise their rates, upon the small portion of land, that remains subject to their charges, infinitely higher, than it would otherwise be desirable, or perhaps prudent, for them to attempt. And, as the rates are, always regulated by the value of the particular crop, and potatoes yield a more pro

The

fitable return than any other species of culture, potatoes are consequently estimated higher in the clergyman's book of rates, than any other crop. Thus the average charge for tythes of potatoes is fifteen shillings per acre, for wheat thirteen, barley, thirteen, bere thirteen, oats eight, and meadow land five. These charges sometimes vary considerably in different districts, but the variation is, as often above, as below, the averages here stated. Barley, for instance, and potatoes are often charged one guinea, and one guinea and a half, in particular places, per acre. Such local exorbitance, however, is only to be incidentally noticed. The object of this paper is not to exaggerate grievances, but to collect undeniable data, and make them the foundation of general and indisputable results. various averages above stated will give one general average of eleven shillings per acre. The amount of revenue of the Irish church establishment has usually been estimated at half a million annually; but without imputing any sinister motives to those, who estimate it at that sum, and who take infinite pains to represent the Irish clergy, as in a state of comparative poverty, I must be allowed to carry my estimate of the annual amount of tythes much higher. I believe it. to be little short of one million, but I shall take it, for the sake of avoiding all possibility of cavil, at eight hundred and twenty thou sand pounds. Now by applying my general average charge per acre to this sum, that is, by dividing this sum by eleven shillings, we shall find that the whole number of acres, liable to the charge, does not exceed fifteen hundred thousand, five hundred thousand of which are cultivated by the labouring poor, which, at fifteen shillings per acre, pay to the establishment three hundred and seventy thousand pounds, being nearly one half of its whole revenue. There is but one other datum necessary, towards a clear conception of this question, in relation to the justice of the case.

The whole surface of Ireland is estimated at fifteen millions of acres. The following results then follow obviously. One tenth of the superficial contents of Ireland bears the whole weight of the tythe establish ment; one third of that proportion, being one thirtieth of the whole, is charged with nearly one half of the whole tythe establishment; that proportion of the population, which has no property, is compelled to pay to clergymen, from whom they derive no advantage, nearly one half of their whole provision, levied off one thirtieth of the surface of Ireland, whilst the remainder of the poptilation of that country, possessing the

whole of the property in it, contribute little more than the other half of the provision for their own clergy, from twenty-nine thirtieths of the superficial contents of the country. Is it necessary to add another observation to prove the iniquity of such a state of things? Would it not be an insult to a man of common sense, to attempt to give a direction to his feelings or his indignation, by any remarks, calculated to impress the expediency of some modification? This statement speaks for itself, and requires not farther comment or illustration.-I come now to consider the grievances, arising from the vexatious manner, in which tythes are collected in Ireland, first premising, that, in general, these vexations are not imputable to the clergy, for, if the real fact were known, it would appear, that, so far from gaining, they lose by most of those transactions, which constitute the oppressions, of which so many and so just complaints are made. The clergyman cannot manage his own concerns in tythes, because, in the event of litigation, he cannot be a witness in his own cause, and a direct interference, in such worldly transactions, would be derogatory from the character and sanctity of his official functions. He is, therefore, both from feeling and from necessity,obliged to employ agents to manage his business, and it is, not unfrequently, the fault of his parishioners, by their harrassing opposition to his interests, that he withdraws himself altogether from any concern with them, and lets the tythes of his benefice to a tythe farmer. When a clergyman does not resort to this course, he employs an agent, who is called a proctor, to superintend the administration of his temporal concerns in the parish, in the collection of tythes and the adjustment of a composition for them. The proctor is usually allowed ten per cent. by his employer, upon the gross income of the parish. If this were all, there would be no just ground of complaint. Bat the proctor, not content with this allowance, levies an infinitely larger income from the parishioners, under the head of fees. To give a clear view of this point, it will be necessary to state, briefly, the manner, in which the business of the composition for tythes is conducted. In the spring of the year, the proctor and his assistants make a tour of the parish, in order to estimate, by inspection, the growing hopes of the husbandman's toil. The value, they set upon each particular crop, is set down in a book, the black register of their extortions; and the entries in this book govern their conduct, when they come to regulate the composition in

each particular case. Before the harvestris gathered in, a meeting of the parishioners is summoned to attend the proctor, and often the clergyman, for the purpose of tyth letting. Each individual agrees to a com position for his own tythes, and, as a year's time is generally given for the payment, he passes a promissory note for the amount, first paying the proctor his fees. It should be observed, however, that, when the owner of the crop refuses to agree to the composition demanded, his tythes are sold to another person. There is no such practice, as setting out the tythe for the clergyman to draw it. If two or three, in a parish, were to give notice to that effect, it would be considered a conspiracy against the clergyman, and ample damages would be recover-able. The fees of the proctor, to which he can have no legal right, he being the servant of the parson and sufficiently paid by his employer, amount to ten per cent. nominally upon the composition, but infinitely exceed that sum by means of his fraud and exactions. Every sum, under ten shillings, compounded for tythe, he charges as ten; and every sum, over ten and under twenty, he charges as twenty, so that by rating all the intermediate sums, as the decimals next above them, and imposing a fee upon each, as for such decimal, he levies an exorbitant average of direct and compound per cen-. tage, of not less than twenty per cent. upon the whole amount of the compositon. The tythe farmer also following up the principle, upon which he rents a parish, disposes of the tythes to the highest bidder. In his train are valuers, bidders, canters and process servers, and the whole tribe of popular pests. The proctor strips, but the tythe farmer scourges his victims. Should the owner of the crop be disposed to compound for his tythes, at any reasonable rate, a bidder is at hand to enhance the price; should he hesitate to raise his proposal to the advanced offer, a canter steps in, and intercepts the natural claim which the cultivator has, to become the purchaser of the fruits of his own industry. So that, whether compounding or not compounding, between the bidders puffing, the canters unprincipled interference, and the exorbitance of the tythe farmer, the husbandman is sure to be the sacrifice. Whenever a parish is let, by the clergyman, to a tythe farmer, he uniformly reserves the whole income, which he antecedently derived from it, deducting only the allowance of ten per cent. usually given to proctors. In a parish, so circumstanced, the profits of the tythe farmer arise principally from the plunder of the people. The