would never have been called upon to defray the whole of the expences attending it. And as the benefit of these exchanges seems more particularly to apply to" voluntary agreements," it furnishes another proof how eager the great actors in this tragedy are fearful every moment of being hissed off the stage-to hasten the catastrophe, drop the curtain, and regale their wearied spirits after the pantomimics of the night.

CLAUSE XXXII-XXXIII.

Appointment of Valuers by Land-owners.—Valuers to apportion the Rent-charge according to principles agreed on by Land-owners, or having regard to produce and quality of Lands.-Moduses and Exemptions to be respected.

Mr. White, in his note to the first of these Clauses, observes, "It was suggested during the discussions upon the Bill, that if the land-owners and tithe-owners agreed without the intervention of valuers, the delay and expence consequent on the appointment might be saved; but as the minority in the parish, who are not parties to the agreement, are still bound by it, it is essential that some competent valuers should be chosen who can determine or give evidence of the propriety of the apportionment, and of the fidelity of the map or plan to be annexed to the latter." Now these valuers can hardly fail of being in the interests of the great land-holders, by whom they have been chosen in the present instance, and from whom their future hopes and expectations must arise. They will, therefore, in all likelihood, no more heed the concerns of "the minority of the parish" than of the incumbent. These concerns of the poorer parishioners are far more likely to be consulted by their rector or vicar, than by any valuer; and, therefore,

the more numerous the cases the better where the land and tithe-owners agree 66 without the intervention of valuers," who, let them be employed where, when, and how they will-I speak of them as a body-are no friends to either the clergyman or the little farmer. Our agricultural writers are nearly of the same hostile description, and have done the church much harm, in the way of evil report, by their crude remarks and unfounded aspersions. We are ill enough off with our vicarages as it is; but let these land and tithe valuers come among us, and at our invitation, and they will presently improve their own condition instead of ameliorating ours. Happy is the clergyman who can manage his temporal affairs without them; happy those temporal affairs if they have never been stained by their interference, or injured by their help.

These valuers are " to apportion the rent-charge according to principles agreed on by the landowners." In fact, these apportionments will, in most cases, be pretty well prepared to the valuers' hands. Their difficulty will be to ascertain those " moduses and exemptions" which, we are told, must "be respected, so that in each case the several lands shall have the full benefit of them."

This is all mighty well. But where do we find this document of whig liberality and justice equally peremptory that the clergy shall have the full benefit of all the acts of roguery committed, time out of mind, against them, in the originating, the nourishing, the consolidating these compositions, real, prescriptive, and customary payments? Where do we find the least symptom of such requisite and retributive justice? My Lord John and his compeers blow a loud trumpet, with a "let the Philistines hear” in the one case, but-frigidior glacie-are silent as the grave in the other. If this law wishes to take advantage of our mercy, or our ignorance, or our

poverty, here is the full spreading field for it; but if its design be to heal past wrongs, and to make honesty triumphant over reiterated acts of knavery, it will restore to the church every right out of which it has been swindled, by letting that wild cat out of the bag which these great land-holders have hitherto so carefully kept in.

In a note to the latter of these clauses it is said, "the land-owners can also, if they please, relieve the poorer tithe-payers, by ascertaining the amount of the tithes payable by them, and add them to the gross amount of tithes; as also the Easter offerings, mortuaries, and surplice fees, under a special provision to that effect, if they see fit, such a power being reserved in clause xc. The few pounds paid for this kind of tithes, though important to the poorer clergy, whose income often depends on these tithes, and often giving rise to unpleasant disputes, would not be felt, when thus apportioned over the whole parish." This suggestion is certainly very benevolent, but why did not. the whig originators of this Bill, those fast friends to the people and to the poor, why did they not provide for this suggested kindness by a compulsory clause to that purpose? Why did they abandon these poor cottagers to so precarious a chance of relief, when they might so easily have insured it to them? Why meanly content themselves with thus, perhaps, authorizing "the solicitor for the Bill" to throw out incidentally the hint, when, with so warm applause from all parties, they might have enforced the practice?

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The truth is, they cared as little about these poor cottagers as about the poor vicars, loud as they have been in their praise of the operative clergy," and the burthen will therefore probably be left, as it always has, upon ourselves. shall still be called upon for an almost total for giveness of those dues, which, properly included

We

in the rent-charge, might have left them entirely exonerated in their little occupations, and have remunerated their benefactors for all their past kindnesses. Who would not have rejoiced to have done the church and the poor this amiable, this lowly service? But we are doomed, it seems, to be charitable above our measure to the end of the chapter. Who will may put the bread into the mouths of these distressed suppliants for them; for them that, in the past election, have just been sucking the brains of these very people, whom, after deluding in the shamefullest manner, they thus neglect and despise.

When Mr. White remarks, that "the few pounds thus paid would not be felt, if apportioned over the whole parish," he does not exactly know the beatings of a whig farmer's pulse. He would certainly, so far as a tithe bargain is concerned, give a "cup of cold water," if he could get a stoop of good wine in return; but to give and get nothing by it, is a way of doing business over the left shoulder he is not very partial to. If the poor man's cow be put into the parish rent-charge, he may look to receive his muck, and perhaps his vote into the bargain; and a vote for the whigs, in seditious times like the present, becomes doubled in importance.

As to our Easter offerings and surplice fees, they do well to leave them untouched. Everything of inferior value they have no wish to deprive us of. We generally make little of these, nor, where we can afford it, do we perhaps wish to make much. Easter offerings, if we consider them with some writers as a compensation for personal tithe, ought to be valuable; but in the country they sink down to almost nothing; and, in some parishes, evaporate into an annual present of eggs and bacon to the parish clerk-a mode of settling this tithe more, probably, to his mind than any other that could be devised by the wisest legislators in existence.

But what, it may be asked, would you bag all the cows, pigs, and poultry of your poor cottagers, and put them in the rent-charge at the sole expence of the land-owner?-To be sure I would.—It is a hard case, if, where you bestow twenty shillings as a free gift, they cannot afford to throw one solitary sixpence out of it-if, where the opulent land-owner, clause after clause, is favoured at the expence of the poor parson, he cannot, in return, bring up his heart to such a scurvy bit of charity as this. O what a star-chamber Act have we to deal with, where almost every provision is a provision of unkindness, and where the few opportunities that offer of doing a little service to those whom they affect most to pity, they either leave to a doubtful benevolence, or hypocritically turn their backs upon!

CLAUSE XXXVI.

After 1st of October, 1838, Commissioners may ascertain total value of Tithes in any Parísh in which no previous Agreement made.—To refrain from acting if notice given of intention to make Agreement.

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This clause, my fellow-sufferers, is the beginning of the dreaded " compulsory award." I have been at some loss to discover the reason for the exceeding great patience of the Act on this occasion. It seems altogether unwilling to interfere with the land and tithe-owners, if they can at all come to terms, and, by a "voluntary agreement," render these compulsory awards unnecessary. This carries with it, I confess, the appearance of courtesy, of friendliness, of extreme friendliness. Still I am in doubt whether we shall not find a "snake in the grass" before the business is over. I will give you my thoughts of the moment on the subject, and if they happen, in any degree, to chime in with your staider deliberation, they may perhaps outlive the moment.