SOME

REASONS

AGAINST

The BILL for fettling the Tythe of HEMP, FLAX, &c. by a MODUS.

T

HE Clergy did little expect to have any Caufe of Complaint against the present House of Commons; who, in the last Seffions, were pleased to throw out a Bill fent them from the Lords, which that Reverend Body apprehended would be very injurious to them, if it paffed into a Law; and who, in the prefent Seffions, defeated the Arts and Endeavours of Schifmaticks to repeal the Sacramental Teft.

For, although it hath been allowed on all Hands, that the former of those Bills might, by its neceffary Confequences, be very difpleafing to the Lay Gentlemen of the Kingdom, for many Reasons purely fecular; and, that this last Attempt for repealing the Teft, VOL. VIII.

K

did

did much more affect, at prefent, the temporal Intereft than the fpiritual; yet the whole Body of the lower Clergy have, upon both thofe Occafions, expreffed equal Gratitude to that honourable House, for their Justice and Steadiness, as if the Clergy alone were to receive the Benefit.

It must needs be, therefore, a great Addition to the Clergy's Grief, that fuch an Affembly, as the prefent House of Commons, should now, with an Expedition more than ufual, agree to a Bill for encouraging the Linen Manufacture, with a Clause, whereby the Church is to lose two Parts in three, of the legal Tythe in Flax and Hemp.

Some Reasons why the Clergy think such a Law will be a great Hardfhip upon them, are, I conceive, these that follow. I fhall venture to enumerate them with all Deference due to that honourable Affembly.

;

FIRST: The Clergy fuppofe, that they have not, by any Fault or Demerit, incurred the Displeasure of the Nation's Reprefentatives neither can the declared Loyalty of the present Set, from the higheft Prelate to the lowest Vicar, be in the leaft difputed; because, there are hardly ten Clergymen, through the whole Kingdom, for more than nineteen Years paft, who have not been either preferred entirely upon Account of their declared Affection to the Hanover Line; or higher promoted, as the due Reward of the fame Merit.

There

There is not a Landlord in the whole Kingdom, refiding fome Part of the Year at his Country Seat, who is not, in his own Confcience, fully convinced, that the Tythes of his Minifter have gradually funk, for fome Years past, one Third, or at least one Fourth, of their former Value, exclufive of all Nonfolvencies.

The Payment of Tythes in this Kingdom, is fubject to fo many Frauds, Brangles, and other Difficulties, not only from Papists and Diffenters, but even from those who profess themselves Proteftants; that by the Expence, the Trouble, and Vexation of collecting or bargaining for them, they are, of all other Rents, the most precarious, uncertain, and ill paid.

The Landlords, in moft Parishes, expect, as a Compliment, that they fhall pay little more than half the Value of their Tythes for the Lands they hold in their own Hands, which often confift of large Domains; and, it is the Minister's Intereft to make them eafy upon that Article, when he confidereth, what Influence those Gentlemen have upon their Tenants.

The Clergy cannot but think it extremely fevere, that, in a Bill for encouraging the Linen Manufacture, they alone must be the Suf ferers, who can leaft afford it: If, as I am told, there be a Tax of three thousand Pounds a Year, paid by the Publick, for a further Encouragement to the faid Manufacture, are not K 2

the

the Clergy equal Sharers in the Charge with the rest of their Fellow Subjects? What fatisfactory Reason can be therefore given, why they alone fhould bear the whole additional Weight, unless it will be alledged, that their Property is not upon an equal Foot with the Property of other Men? They acquire their own small Pittance, by at least as honeft Means as their Neighbours the Landlords possess their Eftates; and have been always fuppofed, except in rebellious or fanatical Times, to have as good a Title; for no Families now in being, can fhew a more ancient. Indeed, if it be true, that fome Perfons (I hope they were not many) were feen to laugh when the Rights of the Clergy were mentioned; in this Cafe, an Opinion may poffibly be foon advanced, that they have no Right at all. And this is likely enough to gain Ground, in Proportion as the Contempt of all Religion shall increase, which is already in a very forward Way.

It is faid, there will be alfo added in this Bill, a Claufe for diminishing the Tythe of Hops, in order to cultivate that useful Plant among us; and here, likewise, the Load is to lie entirely on the Shoulders of the Clergy, while the Landlords reap all the Benefit. It will not be easy to foresee where fuch Proceedings are like to ftop; or whether, by the fame Authority, in civil Times, a Parliament may not as justly challenge the fame Power, in reducing all Things tytheable, not below the

tenth

tenth Part of the Product (which is, and ever will be, the Clergy's equitable Right) but from a tenth Part to the fixtieth or eightieth, and from thence to nothing.

I have heard it granted by fkilful Persons, that the Practice of taxing the Clergy by Parliament, without their own Confent, is a new Thing, not much above the Date of seventy Years; before which Period, in Times of Peace, they always taxed themselves.

But

Things are extremely altered at prefent: It is not now fufficient to tax them in common with their Fellow Subjects, without impofing an additional Tax upon them, from which, or from any Thing equivalent, all their Fellow Subjects are exempt; and this in a Country profeffing Christianity.

The greatest Part of the Clergy throughout this Kingdom, have been ftripped of their Glebes by the Confufion of Times, by Violence, Fraud, Oppreffion, and other unlawful Means; all which Glebes are now in the Hands of the Laity: So that they now are generally forced to lie at the Mercy of Landlords, for a fmall Piece of Ground in their Parishes, at a moft exorbitant Rent, and ufually for a fhort Term of Years, whereon to build an House, and enable them to refide; yet, in spite of these Disadvantages, I am a Witness, that they are generally more conftant Refidents than their Brethren in England; where the meanest Vicar hath a convenient Dwelling, with a Barn,