THE PROBLEM OF TITHE
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sta,The letter in your issue of 4th inst., from Mr. W. J. Rowland, is of great general interest and raises questions which lie beyond the immediate point of my letter. We are, so to speak, " barking up different trees." My object Is to get the Church of England dissociated from certain disorders connected with tithe, and for much the same reason I would be glad to see her dissociated from mining royalties and more glad still to see (what I do not see at present) that she was determined to dissociate herself from slum ground rents as distinctly as she has from slum rents proper.
Her release from all entanglements of the kind would be of untold benefit to her work ; and, in a special degree as regards tithe, it would do much to secure a less exacerbated atmo- sphere for discussion. But I agree with Mr. Rowlands that to extricate the Church from participation in a difficulty is not to solve the difficulty itself. A settlement, so-called, like the 1925 Act, which permits these scenes to run their course, clearly calls for reconsideration in the interest of all concerned. The point on which Mr. Rowland's letter 'does not convince me is this. Assuming (as I can scarcely call on him to do) that a detachment of the Church from these difficulties would be an improvement on the present position I am still of opinion that such a transaction as I propose would not present any insuperable complications.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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