§ Amendments reported (according to Order).
§ THE EARL OF POWISsaid, he considered the clergy were hardly dealt with in being changed at once from a septennial to a triennial average. Pharoah's lean kine only ate up an equal number of fat ones, representing seven good years, but the noble Marquess made three bad years eat up four good ones. It would have been fairer to make the average be taken first on six, then on five, then on four, and finally on three years, dropping only one year at a time. The seven years' system had been adopted for the benefit of the tithe-payers.
§ THE PRIME MINISTER AND SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (The Marquess of SALISBURY)said, that in the event of the exhaustion of the soil within a certain radius of the seaports of America and the consequent increase in the railway charges upon American wheat, causing wheat to rise 118 in price in this country, the titheowners would gain by having a triennial tithe average rather than a septennial average.
§ Further Amendments made; and Bill to be read 3a To-morrow.