On Thursday Mr. Long introduced the Clerical Tithe Bill in
a ten minutes' speech. The Bill makes a clerical tithe owner liable, in future, to pay rates only on half the tithe- rent charge, or its equivalent. The other half will be claimed by the local rate-collector at Somerset House, and paid to him by the Inland Revenue Commissioners from the Local Taxation Account. This will of course diminish the amount paid to local bodies, but the diminution will not be felt owing to the automatic increase of that fund. The paying of half the rates on tithe will only require £87,000, and this year there was an increase of £143,197 under the head of the License and Probate Grant. The second reading of the Bill was vehemently opposed by Sir Henry Campbell-Banner man. He did not deny the poverty of the English clergy, but he asked why the rich members of the Church of England should not make good the deficiencies in their incomes, as the Church of Scotland had done in like case, instead of coming to Parliament for help. Besides, he was not aware that just now there was "such an overweening universal confidence in all the clergy of England that a proposal of this kind will be particularly opportune." In fact; a plea of (1) they are very poor ; (2) somebody else ought to relieve them; (3) they don't deserve it. In the end the second reading was carried by a majority of 78,-247 to 169. We have stated above our regret that the Government are making another nibble at the question of rural rating instead of boldly tackling the whole subject, but per as and on its merits the present Bill is a just one.
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