The very difficult question of the rating of tithe-rent charge
was raised by a deputation of clergymen who waited upon the Archbishop of Canterbury on Monday last. They drew his attention to the extreme distress often caused by the pressure of rates upon the incomes of the clergy,—incomes already terribly reduced by agricultural depression and other causes. A clergyman told the Archbishop that his out- goings for rates alone, exclusive of Land-tax and Income-tax, amounted to 21 per cent. of his official income, and he mentioned an incumbent of his acquaintance who was unable to keep a servant, and another who had to groom his own pony. But to prove that the rural clergy are often in dire distress is not to prove that tithe ought to be relieved from rates because agricultural land was relieved. The object of the Rating Act was to do something to prevent a special industry being greatly overtaxed, not to relieve hard cases in general. In our opinion, the distress of the rural clergy had better be treated quite separately and apart from any relief to the industry of agriculture. Our own remedy would be to treat the rectors and vicars as the Archbishops and Bishops were treated fifty years ago,—i.e., let their tithes, glebes, and other property be handed over to Commissioners, and fixed salaries be paid them without deduction. Commissioners would get the clergy their full legal rights, which individual incumbents often fail to obtain.
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