§ Lord Wynfordbrought in a Bill to provide for a Composition for Tithes due to Lay Impropriators, which he considered as a proper, if not necessary, appendage to the bill brought in by the most reverend Prelate (the Archbishop of Canterbury), for providing for Compositions of Tithes due to the Church. His Lordship stated, that, by a statute of Edward 3rd, it had been provided, that 3 where lands were naturally so sterile as to yield no tithes, and where such lands should be improved, so as to yield a tithe-able produce, they should not be liable to the payment of tithes till the expiration of seven years from the time of their being so improved. The construction put by the Courts on this Statute had not given all the advantages to the cultivator which the Legislature intended, and, therefore, he had introduced clauses into the Bill, by which lands, brought in from the sea, or otherwise, so completely sterile as to yield no titheable produce, should not be liable to pay tithes in consequence of their improvement; that lands producing some titheable produce should, when improved by irrigation or otherwise, be liable to pay no more tithes than they had paid in their unimproved state; and also, that lands to be cultivated by spade cultivation, under a bill brought in by a noble Duke (Richmond), should not, in consequence of that mode of cultivation, be liable to pay more tithes than they did before. This last provision he considered as of great importance; for he was convinced, from what he had himself observed, that there was no better mode of encouraging industry, sobriety, and other virtues, among the poor, than by giving them small parcels of ground to cultivate for their own benefit.
Lord Teynhamthanked the noble and learned Lord for the introduction of this Bill, and suggested, that it would be advantageous to introduce into the Bill some provision relative to tithes payable on the cultivation of hops.
§ Lord Wynfordobserved, that he was not sufficiently acquainted with the cultivation of hops, to enable him to introduce any special provision on that subject, but that, if the noble Lord himself would propose a clause applicable to the cultivation of hops, it would meet with all proper attention.
§ Bill read a first time.