HC Deb 20 December 1830 vol 1 cc1355-6
O'Gorman Mahon

presented a Petition from the parish of Cloudegad, in the county of Clare, with reference to tithes and church-rates. These rates were considered to be one of the principal causes of the disturbances in England—and innumerable petitions were presented from its various districts, complaining of them. The English petitions were all from Protestants; and he certainly thought, that petitions complaining of the exaction of church-rates and tithes, for the support of Protestant churches and parsons, coming from the Catholics of Ireland, should meet with attention. The petitioners stated, that in their parish there was no Protestant church, no Protestant clergyman, and no Protestant inhabitants, and that, not with standing, tithes and church-rates were as regularly enforced as if the whole parish was composed of Protestants.

Sir R. Inglis

reminded the hon. Member that tithes were paid exclusively by the land, and if the Church did not receive them, a sum equal to them would go to the landlord, and the people would not be benefited by the abolition of tithes.

Mr. Hume

could not allow the observation to pass, that the landlord was the only person affected by the tithe-system, without notice. The manner in which the tithes were collected was productive of more evil than the hon. Member appeared to be aware of. No kind of tax was so productive of inconvenience to individuals, and the community generally, as tithes and the system of levying them; and he, therefore, hoped that some measure would be adopted, without delay, to effect a beneficial alteration in the system.

O'Gorman Mahon, though he wished not to treat wish levity what fell from the hon. member for Oxford, could not avoid noticing that, that hon. Member seemed to think that the land produced wealth without labour, and accordingly, in his estimation, the people and their just complaints passed for nothing. It was not the land, but the people, who complained that they had to pay tithes to a Protestant Church, though there was not a Protestant in the parish.

Petition to lie on the Table.