THE TITHE BILL
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Many will regret that The Spectator (hitherto a source of " sweetness and light " on the tithe problem) erroneously regards the dead Bill as " a compromise " (and, implicdly, a fair one).
Nothing could be further from the fact. The Bill was but a clumsy device to load the dice in favour of the Church. For an illusory consideration it sought to clothe a feudal ecclesiastical tax with those solemn legal sanctions which attend normal and just debts—which full sanctions the law has denied to tithe down the ages.
Every lawyer saw through the trick ; and, greatly to its honour, the House of Lords (despite the Bishops) on a division cast a one-third minority vote against the Bill. This, and rising public anger at the spectacle of Christian shepherds so urgently raiding the flock, killed it stone dead ; and have justly brought tithe to its trial. But not merely tithe. The right of one privileged and predatory Church, sole of Churches, to exact a due for duties which it no longer discharges, but which the taxpayer (including the tithe- payer, who pays twice over) now bears, stands also at the Bar ; and if much else ultimately goes down with tithe, the Church will have only herself to blame.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Previous page
