§ Mr. Walterpresented a Petition from a considerable number of owners and occupiers of land in the County of Berks. The petitioners said, that they had presumed to address the House, in consequence of their understanding it to be the intention of his Majesty's Ministers to introduce a Bill for effecting certain changes in the Tithe-laws. They complained that the demand of one-tenth part of the gross produce of the land by those who contribute nothing towards its production, is at variance with the dictates of reason and the principles of justice, and most oppressive in cases that frequently occur, when the value of the whole crop will not pay the expense of raising it. The petitioners, therefore, earnestly prayed that the subject of tithes might be taken into serious consideration, and that tithes might be permanently commuted, on the basis of supposing the tithe owner the tenth joint proprietor of the soil. But anxiously as they desired a change in the existing Tithe-laws, oppressive and unjust as they considered them, they would nevertheless prefer their continuance to the enactment of any other measure that would have the effect of exempting the holders of tithe property from bearing their just portion of all parochial and other assessments, thereby severing their interests from those of the rest of the community. It was not necessary for him on that occasion to say how far he might be disposed to go with the petitioners in the system which they would wish to have adopted for effecting the commutation of tithes; but he thought it necessary to state, that the petitioners were persons of high character and respectability, some of 256 them being Magistrates of the county. With respect to this tithe question, he could not help remarking that the clergy were not the only persons immediately affected by it as tithe-owners. The origin and objects of tithe property were, at least so far as lay impropriations were concerned, greatly mistaken. The original possessors of such property, before the reign of Henry 8th, were always chargeable with the finding of fit and proper priests to perform parochial duties in those parishes from which the tithes were reaped, and with the maintenance and remuneration of such priests. He feared, however, that lay impropriators, whether individuals or corporations, did not at present adequately maintain the vicars of those parishes of which they enjoyed the tithes. Such impropriators, in far too many instances, had slunk out of the duties to the discharge of which that property was in ancient times, and ought at all times to be, amenable. He said, therefore, that all vicarages so situated, had an immediate and most equitable claim to augmentation, for a restitution of that property of which they had been deprived, and for a full remuneration to the clerical incumbents according to the circumstances of the present times. Let the lay impropriator enjoy the remainder, which was all to which he had a legal or reasonable title; and, by this just process, the funds for the necessary support of the clergy would be increased, where they were now inadequate; and the additional advantage would likewise follow, that a portion would be spent in the very parishes from whence the tithes were reaped, and not the whole expended by a lay impropriator in some distant county. He hoped that the whole question would be adjusted in a manner satisfactory to the clergy, and beneficial to the country at large.
§ Petition laid on the Table.