§ MR. JASPER MORE (Shropshire, Ludlow)I beg to ask the Attorney General for Ireland, with respect to the I & 2 Vict., c. 109, intituled "An Act to abolish to Compositions for Tithes in Ireland and to substitute Rent-Charge in lieu thereof," whether the 32nd section, which makes tithe rent-charge variable every seven years when the average price of corn for the seven years preceding the application, as advertised in the Dublin Gazette, varied by 1.10th from the original standard, is still operative in the case of lay tithes; and whether applications to vary the amount of lay tithes at the end of the septennial period, in accordance with the fall in the price of corn aforesaid, have been made this year in Ireland and have been allowed?
§ *MR. MADDENThe section referred to is still in force, and the tithe rent-charge is still liable to revision. I am informed that several applications to vary the amount of lay tithes have been made under the section.
§ MR. S. LEIGHTON (Shropshire, Oswestry)Is it true that no remission has been made this year to the tithe-payers on account of agricultural depression?
§ *MR. MADDENThe question on the Paper relates to lay tithes. The Ecclesiastical tithes are vested in the Land Commissioners, and no periodical revision is possible.