§ MR. R. FARQUHARSON (Aberdeenshire, W.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether, when the Tithes Bill, now before the House, becomes law, the plate, pictures, and furniture, and personal effects of a landowner will be liable to be distrained 1524 upon for tithes; and whether, if such is the case, he will be willing to introduce into the Bill a clause providing that nothing but agricultural produce shall be subject to distraint for tithe?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Sir M. HICKS BEACH, Bristol, W.)The question can only relate to tithe rent-charge due from an occupying owner. The Bill now before the House makes no alteration in the law as to the goods which are liable to distraint for tithe rent-charge, and I do not propose to make any alteration in that law. I cannot give an authoritative exposition of what the law is; but I may say that, if the owner of the land liable to tithe rent-charge were fortunate enough to be possessed of plate and pictures, and he was distrained on for tithe rent-charge, they might be in considerable danger.