§ Mr. Blamire moved for leave to bring in a Bill to amend an Act passed in the last Session of Parliament, intituled "an Act for shortening the time required in claims of modus decimandi, or exemption from a discharge of tithes." He was induced to bring forward his Motion by an anxious desire to allay the irritation which the recent prosecutions of the clergy under the Tithe Modus Act had generated; and which would be a serious obstacle to the introduction, next Session as he trusted, of a general measure for the abolition of the tithe system in its present form altogether. At that late hour he would only observe, that his Bill was not intended to at all interfere with Lord Tenterden's Act in its general operation; and was only meant to suspend the workings of a particular 710 provision of that Act till the end of next Session, before which period Ministers and the House would have full time for considering and bringing the tithe question to a satisfactory issue. He proposed, that all the prosecutions which his measure would suspend, should, at the end of the next Session, be placed in precisely the same situation they were at present.
§ Lord Althorpbegged leave to remind the House of the circumstances which had led to the present Motion, it should be remembered, that Lord Tenterden introduced a Bill into the House of Lords for limiting the modus of tithes at sixty years; that is, that when tithes were possessed for sixty years in any district without ejectment, that that modus should constitute a right by prescription. That Bill came down from the Lords to the Commons. It contained a clause which gave the clergy three years of grace, within which they might set aside any moduses which were wrong That clause was considered by the House as highly objectionable for reasons then stated, and which experience had unfortunately shown to be too valid; and accordingly an Amendment for striking it out of the Bill was carried; the Bill, thus amended, was sent back to the Lords, who, however, after some discussion, carried an Amendment upon the Commons' Amendment, to the effect of shortening the period of grace within which the clergy might set aside a modus to one year. It was under this provision that the prosecutions against which the hon. Member's Bill was directed were undertaken. He regretted, that they were so. He must say he was, when he considered the state of public feeling throughout the country in reference to the expenses of the Church Establishment, surprised that any members of that establishment could be induced to institute a series of actions which must, in his (Lord Althorp's) opinion, tend to affect the very existence of the establishment itself. As an honest friend of the Church, he viewed these prosecutions with the greatest possible regret. But the question was, how they should best meet the difficulties of the case. It was to be considered, that an Act of Parliament certainly authorised these prosecutions, and that many of them might be founded on just grounds, that is on a good modus right; so that he should feel great unwillingness to agree to an ex post facto law for undoing what had 711 been done under a former Act of Parliament. If the question were put to him, "Will you agree to a Bill for doing away altogether with the legitimate consequences of Lord Tenterden's Act of last Session?" he should undoubtedly feel great difficulty in giving a satisfactory answer. Fortunately, however, the form and scope of his hon. friend's Motion relieved him from much of this difficulty, for his hon. friend only proposed, that the prosecutions should be suspended till the next Session, with the hope, that in the mean time some general measure of Tithe Reform would have received the sanction of Parliament. He, therefore, felt that the best course he could pursue was, not to object to his hon. friend's Motion, not thereby pledging himself to sanction its provisions.
§ Leave was given. Bill brought in and read a first time.