Lord Kingstated, that he had some Petitions to present, praying for a Commutation of Tithes. He had presented several petitions to the same effect without saying anything upon the subject, from a belief that the Clergy of the Church themselves were disposed to propose some measure for effecting a commutation. But when a noble and learned Lord (Tenterden) —a friend of the Church — brought forward a Bill, one object of which was to limit the time for contesting moduses, and thus putting an end to a fertile source of vexation and oppression, a right reverend Prelate, the Bishop of Bristol, took the alarm, and proposed that a notice of sixty years should be given to incumbents to enable them to consider about contesting their claims. But if matters went on as they had done for sixty years, there would probably be no Church property at the end of that period to legislate about, and, the Bill would so far be perfectly useless. So true it was, as Lord Clarendon said, that of all those who were able to write and read, the clergy were the most ignorant, and took the narrowest view of things. The Petition he had to present was from the Hundred of Newcastle, in the County of Glamorgan, praying for a Commutation of Tithes.
The Bishop of Bristolobserved, that the observations of the noble Baron proceeded from mistake, for he had not opposed the Bill in question, but only suggested that, as incumbents were often very negligent in enforcing their rights, and disinclined to have disputes concerning them, for various reasons, a period of three years was a great deal too short a time to be allowed before the prescription began to run; and in this the noble and learned Lord on the Woolsack appeared, to a certain extent, to concur with him.
Lord Kingsaid, in consequence of what had fallen from the right reverend Prelate, he would move, that there be laid before this House a return of the number of suits on account of tithes commenced in the Courts of Chancery and Exchequer, and in the Courts of Common-law, during the last forty years. This would show whether incumbents had been backward or not in asserting their claims to tithes, or in their efforts to set aside moduses or compositions. —Motion agreed to.