26 JUNE 1852, Page 12

Sra—It is much to be lamented that Colonel Torrena should

have pe- rilled his well-earned reputation as a political economist by writing on a subject which involves a knowledge of law, a, branch of study with which neither he himself nor any one else could reasonably suppose him acquainted. You have justly observed that Mr. Coal is supposed to work his machinery without any building to cover it, or he could not escape the poor-rate. But, in addition to that difficulty, if the Colonel will read the case of the King versus the Birmingham Gas Company, which is given in the sixth volume of "Adolphus and Ellis's Reports," he will find the Court of King's Bench unanimously declaring that buildings must be rated according to their value as augmented by the machinery which they contain, whether that machinery is or is not attached to the building itself. So that the gallant Colonel's parallel fails at every point.

Again, with regard to tithes, his law fails him to an extent even more re- markable. Tithe is not a tax. Taxation implies a subtraction from the property of the taxpayer, a taking from him something that was his. Now the tithe has never belonged to the landlord, since the day when his prede- cessor, a thousand years ago, made it away by a solemn gift. Nor, in truth, has the squire of the present day any more right to consider the tithe, which his ancestor, when he bought the estate a hundred years ago, never paid for, a tax or burden upon him, than the rector has to consider the nine-tenths which the squire keeps for himself as a tax on his benefice. It is true that formerly the mode by which the division of profit was made between the parties did operate incidentally to create an impost on the squire or his tenant,—not commensurate, however, with the tithe, but forming some fraction of it, varying in magnitude according to circumatLicea,—because, as the titheowner was entitled to a tenth of the gross produce, he obtained for himself a proportion of the return made by the capital expended on the land. This result became more and more important with every improvement in cultivation, and had become a substantial grievance : first to the cultiva- tor, by taxing his capital unjustly, and secondly to the public, by throwing a serious impediment in the way of liberal farming, and of its consequence augmented produce.

But now that grievance is entirely.removed as regards all future applica- tion of capital. Tithe no longer exists : it is commuted, under the act of 1836 (6 and 7 Wil. IT. cap. 71) into a money-payment in the majority of cases, and in the remainder into a grant of land, which is held by the rector or vicar as he formerly held his glebe, 1. e. as a landowner for the term of his benefice. It is true that such money-payment varies according to the price of corn taken on an average of the last seven years before the particu- lar payment becomes due ; but no improvements in cultivation will increase the value of his benefice, as on the other hand no deterioration will diminish it. The valuation made pursuant to the act settled for ever the quantity of titheable matter on which the commutation proceeds, and the benefice thence- forward can fluctuate only from the rise or fall in the price of that same titheable matter.

Hence it is quite clear, first, that the whole of the tithe never at any time ought to have been spoken of as a grievance to the landowner ; and second, that since the Commutation Act came into operationmit is not less absurd for the squire to speak of tithe, or rather the commutaMn-money for tithe, as a burden which ought to be removed by a change in the law, than it would be for him to ask to be relieved by act of Parliament from the payment of his mother's jointure his sisters' portions, or his own mortgages. On the contrary, the ultimate effect of the Tithe Commutation Act will bo to increase the fraction of the property belonging to the landowner, and de- crease that which belongs to the benefice for it is in the nature of the im- provements which we see in action to diminish cost of production, while the amount of produce is at the same time increased ; and thus the rector will certainly grow poorer, while the more important element in the change, namely, increasing iroduction, will work in favour of the squire, and make him rich.

Colonel Thompson pointed out this defect in the Commutation Bill while it was before Parliament ; but as neither the good Colonel nor pos- terity had at that time a seat in the House, his reclamation were dis- regarded.

When, however, burdens come to be equalized, let that point not be for- gotten.

I am sorry to say one word in depreciation of anything proceeding from the acute mind of the gallant and good-tempered author of " Tracts on Finance and Trade "; but what he says will be used against us as an admis- sion made by one of our partisans, and I for one cannot permit him to admit us, as we say in Westminster Hall, out of court, when we have a per- fect case.