Gents Mag 1831 part 1 p.3

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	Gentleman's Magazine 1831 part 1 p.3
tithes
	Tithes Jan. 1. Mr. URBAN, I HAVE read with regret in No.XI of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, which has rather an extensive circulation, two articles on the subject of TITHES. The first purporting to be "On the History of Tithes;" and the second, "On the Commutation of Tithes," headed by the title of the Bill introduced by his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury; both of which are filled with misrepresentations, disingenuous arguments, and groundless conclusions, and are calculated to excite a feeling of hostility in the breast of laymen against the Established Clergy. You would oblige one who is perfectly disinterested, by inserting this Letter, containing an impartial epitome of the History of Tithes, &c. Allow me, in the first place, to bring forward a few proofs, from the fore-named articles, of the truth of my assertions. The former writer acknowledges, that charters are extant, by which different proprietors granted Tithes, &c. to the Clergy; that canons relating to Tithes are found in records long before any regular statute was enacted. His words are, "In England as well as abroad, canonical regulations on this subject existed before any regular statutes, a circumstance which is of itself sufficient to explain the fact, that even the earliest of these statutes speak of Tithes, not as a new exaction, to which the people were strangers, but as one which they were previously well acquainted." He is also compelled by Ethelwolf's statute, which he presents, as he says, in full length in a note (but he takes one part from Ingulph, and the other from Matthew of Westminster,) to acknowledge that it "confers on the clergy a full and inalienable gift of Tithes of all England, to be held by them in their own right for ever;" and that the right of Tithes is amply provided for, at and after the Conquest. Though he has acknowledged all this, and asserted that in cases of doubt "there still remains one sure and invariable principle to guide our researches - the principle of human nature," he so far forgets himself as to combat what he had before allowed, viz. the private endowments of individuals, in these words: "Had such endowments in reality been made, the Clergy would neither have urged Ethelwolf to pass this grant; nor would the Barons have sanctioned a gift on his part, of what they themselves had already bestowed." Such is this writer's opinion of the principle of human nature, that he concludes that men will feel no anxiety to have property secured to them by statute; and that it is unlikely that the Barons would allow Ethelwolf to convey and secure to the Clergy what they had already given them; but that they would doubtless very coolly suffer him to give away one tenth of their property without the slightest opposition!! And mark, Sir, the logic of this learned writer, as the Editor is pleased to style him; because there are private charters extant, by which individual proprietors gave tithes, &c. to the Clergy; because "canons relating to Tithes are found in the records before any regular statute was enacted;" because Ethelwolf conferred the Tithes on the Clergy, "to be held by them in their own right for ever;" because the right of Tithes was amply provided for at the Conquest; because each of our Kings on his accession to the throne solemnly swears this oath, and binds and obliges himself
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