Gents Mag 1831 part 1 p.4

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	Gentleman's Magazine 1831 part 1 p.4 to observe the laws, customs, and franchises granted to the Clergy;" therefore "the main conclusion to be drawn from the preceding statements is, that the civil right of Tithes emanated originally and alone from the ancient Legislature of the Nation!! This point being established, the title of the existing Legislature to alter, to modify, or to annul this right, whenever circumstances or the general wellfare of the country demands such a measure cannot be denied!!!" This writer has a wonderful system of logic; for, with about two or three syllogisms, he would square the circle, reverse Kepler's law, and Newton's theorems, and make each of the planets dance a hornpipe. The writer of the second article commences by asserting that the revenues of the Church of England, "though ample, are not excessive." He afterwards enters into a very partial examination of the origin of Tithes; in which he eulogizes Selden, so far as his testimony favours his favourite hypothesis, viz. that Government gave the Tithes to the Clergy, and therefore may "take them away," or "justly secularize them;" by styling him "the learned and ingenious John Selden," the "profound Antiquary, who, with great learning, traces the origin and progress of Tithes from the earliest times." But when this learned and ingenious John Selden states that originally the Tithes "were gifts of the laity conveyed by grants and charters to the different Churches by their patrons and founders," he immediately exclaims, "the whole hypothesis, however, is opposed to historical fact, and to the known history of the Tithes!!" This opposed to historical fact! when Hume says, "and the nobility preferring the security and sloth of the cloister to the tumult and glory of war, valued themsleves chiefly on endowing monasteries;" when King John, in a letter to Pope Innocent, claims the right of his Barons, &c. to found Churches within their seignories by the custom of the realm; and when the writer of the first article acknowledges, that charters are extant by which the nobility gave Tithes to the Clergy prior to any regular statute. This opposed to the known history of the Tithes! when this very writer, a few pages before, has said that Tithes were demanded on pain of excommunication, nearly 300 years before the first law was enacted. But, after all this partial and disengenuous reasoning, he is compelled to conclude thus: "On whatever pretence then a right to the tenth part of the produce of the country was at first obtained, and however unwise the laws may be held to be which confirmed the claim, the right of the property is now in the Church as an incorporated body, and by laws as valid and as ancient as those which any property in this country is inherited or possessed." Notwithstanding this conclusion, he proceeds to rail against the Tithes as "an impost upon property," an "impost of the worst kind," as "a tax grievous and offensive in its nature," &c.!! - How an impost or tax, if such well-secured property? Again, a great want of candour may be observed in his arguments to show the effect of Tithes on agriculture. "It used to be (he writes), and still is over a great part of the country, a common calculation, that one third part of the whole produce of the land is paid as rent; one third as expenses; and that one third is left to the farmer for profit, the risk of his stock, and the expenses of his own maintenance. Now a tax (adds he) equal to a tenth part of the whole produce, would in such a case be a tax equal to thirty per cent. on the portion which remains to the farmer." Thus he insinuates that the Tithes are taken from a farmer's profit; when every one who reflects at all, knows that they are taken from the part which would go to the landlord. As a well-informed country gentleman has observed, "The farmers are the only persons who generally complain on this head; but if they are wise, they will never wish for the abolition of Tithes; for what they now contingently get from the moderation of the Clergy, the landlords would immediately put into their own pockets; and the farmers, burdened with increased rents, rates, and taxes, would feel how indiscreet were their former complaints." Lastly, after starting the purport of the Archbishop's Bill, which is, that an Archbishop or Bishop, as a guardian of the Church property, shall name one commissioner, and the parishioners another, to fix a rate of composition for 21 years, to be regulated every seven years, by the
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