DEVONSHIRE LANDOWNERS' ASSAULT ON TITHES.
THE disinterested piety and mild apostolical demeanour for which the Bishop of EXETER is so remarkable, have failed to render the claims of the Church palatable to the insubordinate laity of his di- ocese. The tithe-payers of Devonshire seem determined to strip the Clergy of the better part of the worldly goods secured to them by the existing laws ; and to reduce them to time deplorable necessity of relying, like their Nonconforming brethren, upon the affection and liberality of their respective congregations for their main sup- port. Matters seem rapidly approaching to this crisis. At a meeting, last week, of upwards of three thousand owners and occu- piers of land in Devonshire, a petition to the Legislature was adopted, in which a tithe of the net rent, instead of a tithe of the gross produce of the laud, was declared to be all that the Clergy had a claim to, and all that the landowners and their tenants world pay. In vain did the Members for the County fight the their reterences : they rather irritated than convinced the • assembly; and seriously damaged their own popularity, s. they were not able to peefeern the least service to the objects of their defence.
.pit it diselayed at the Exeter niretieg was indeed formi- In Devonshire the hard; iii,mall larvied propvietors is very sus. To all such, the reduction of payments to the Clergy . they propose must be a matter of moment; and the state of th: egricultural interest througinett the kingthnn is likely etatugh to cause their example to find many imitators. Should this be the case, the tobliery of the monasteties will he perfiwneel over e gain, for the benefit of the landoweers. We say for the benefit of the landowners; because, notwithstanding the assertions so confidently put forth by the Anti-Tithe speakers at the meeting at Exeter and elsewhere, it is plain that the immediate and principal advan- tage will be on their side. If the tithe eta farm is 501. per annum at ns. per acre, what a mockery it is to assert, that when it is re-
duced to 2e. On acre, or 201. pee amn the dillisrence will not go into the landlord's pelset ! °her parties may derive an indirect advantage front the reduction, but the rent-receiver will derive by fur the most.
If the eunditien of the great landed proprietors and their tenantry is correctly described in the Report of the Agricultural Committee of last session, it is so desperate, that we should not be at all surprised at an &diem on their parts to establish the principle of commutation laid down at the Devonshire meeting. Should their sense el' justice give way to the pressure of their necessities, we know net what power there is in the country to control them. The other casses of the community might exclaim against the iniquity of the proceeding, but \Se questhit whether they would do at it more. The Dissenters would some of them be gainers by t spoliation of the Church, and would wit be troubled with conemactious feelings on the occasion. The dwellevs in cities, who suffer little from tithes, would not have much interest in protectieg the Church; mid would perhaps be induced to enter into a kind of compromise: they might say to the landowner, "Take the Tithes, awl abo:ish the Corn-laws."
In this view of the matter, the situation of the Clergy is perilous. 'We would advise them to take with thatikfulness whatever Earl GREY can secure fur them next sessime Had the affair been settled last session, it would have been on better terms for them than can now be reasonably expected. It is arousing to observe the zeal with which certain High Chuedunen attack the Dissenters at the present time, and pretend to betieve that the principal danger to the Estaldiehment arises from their machinations. All that the Dissenters have done or plotted since the reestablishment of Episcopacy in the land, is as nothing when weighed in the balance against the performances of the Devonshire Squirearchy and Yeomanry, who lire under the immediate odour of Dr. PHILLPOT.i. sanctity. The polemical journalists and pamphleteers should direct their weapons of wrath against the ungrateful children who lie width' the bosom of their mother Church : they are 1hr more dangerous enemies than those who openly revile the abomination of the surplice and reject her labours of love.
Previous page
