Excerpt from Remarks on the Government Bill for the Commutation of Tithe
The difficulties, which have hitherto introduced much heat and perplexity into discussions on this subject, are at the present moment somewhat lessened, by the very general assent of all who take an active part in such discussions to three propositions. First - That a commutation is desirable. Secondly - That the future payments, in lieu of tithe, shall be applied to the same purposes and paid to the same persons as the present tithe. And, thirdly - That the first step in the process shall be to transfer the liability to those future payments, from the tenant to the land-owner.
The being able to take these propositions for granted, besides saving much time and trouble, will bring before us at once the parties whose interests are to be consulted, and, as far as possible, reconciled. Those parties are, - the government, as representing the whole population and all the national interests, - the land-owners, - and the tithe-owners. It will be well to examine the distinct interests and objects of each in a commutation, before we proceed to examine measures, which are to clash as little as may be with any, and to advance, as far as possible, all of them.
The objects of the government may be assumed to be, the setting the capital and industry of the country completely free to extract the greatest possible amount of produce in the best manner from the soil, and the removing, at the same time, any obstacles created by the actual mode of collecting their revenues, to the efficiency of the labours of the religious instructors of the people.
The land-owners are affected by the measure in a direct and pressing manner. They have not only a common interest with the rest of the community in the successful progress of cultivation, but have, besides, a personal and immediate pecuniary interest in all measures tending to promote the liberal outlay of the farmer"s capital. Wherever more capital is employed in agriculture generally, the surplus profits such capital yields, on the better classes of land, become rent on the expiration of existing leases: the continual application of fresh capital to the land, therefore, and the improvements of agricultural power and skill consequent on such application, are the sources of a gradual advance in the revenues of the land-owners, during the growth and strengthening of national industry; an advance wholly independent of any rise of prices, and indeed quite consistent with a fall in prices.
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