TO THE READER.

THERE needs no argument to prove the importance of the

System and Law of Tithing to the Public. The general body of the clergy, some thousand lay impropriators, nu→ merous lessees of tithes and other Church property, all possessors of land, and titheable matter are deeply interested in the subject and most of them are occasionally advised and directed by Law Agents or Counsel in their conduct, management of, or contribution to this singular species of property.

Ir is in nature, that a fund, supposed to constitute a tenth of the national revenue, should in its circulation produce contrariant impressions upon the generality of those, who pay, and those, who receive it. Multifarious must be the objections to the institution generally and particularly: all the ordinary emotions of the human mind, which attend the acquisition and deprivation of property, all the relative sensations upon the contribution of the profits and labour of the many to the ease and support of single individuals, the reluctance of internal dissent and conscientious scruple to external and costly submission, will unceasingly operate in producing difficulties to the system, to the collection, to the mode, to the quantum, to the proportion, to the times of payment, to the claim, to the title, to the application, to the spirit, to the principle, to the effect.

(vi)

Be it the blessing or be it the curse of the present day, that every thing is to be discussed, and nothing taken upon credit, yet it is an unequivocal test of the wisdom and policy of human laws, that having withstood the silent lapse and turbulent revolution of ages, they acquire light, vigour, and efficiency from investigation. The mind is feeble or corrupt, that checks discussion. Veritas nil veretur, nisi abscondi. Mystery and compulsion are avowed enemies to truth.

The code, which dreads the light, betrays a mortal symptom. I have endeavoured to let in all the light I was able upon the theory and the practice of this institution, from the conviction, that nothing could be so detrimental to the public, as the continuance of ignorance or misrepresentation of any part of it. Of all objects of legislation, this primarily calls for full and fair discussion: the clergy, who receive their general subsistence from the institution, are the most learned body of the nation; the lay impropriators are amongst those, who have generally received from the clergy the best of education, and the profession of the law supposes the habit of lecture, consultation, and reasoning. To meet the researches, satisfy the doubts, and clear the difficulties of each of these classes of readers, it has been the aim of the author to leave no part of the subject unattended to. The book is intended for those of every class, who command not the means or opportunity of resorting to the numerous authorities, which may be required to form a satisfactory and conclusive judgment upon any one great point or head of tithing. Few, very few even of the profession, are furnished with a library which can answer a full search into any one given question upon tithes : an embarrassment, little likely to be removed from the daily encreasing number and price of legal publications,

The end of the work is to explain the nature of civil establishments of religion, of tithes, and other ecclesiastical revenues in this country; when first instituted, and how they have in process of time been altered, modified, and brought into their present form: and by what means, in what courts, and with what probable risk or success claims to tithes and exemptions may be pursued or resisted. What may appear pleonasm to one class of readers, may be found satisfactory to another, and necessary for a third. It has been therefore considered as a duty by the author, to offer nothing upon the strength of his own opinion: but to give his authorities so fully, as to supersede the necessity of resorting to the original books, which the generality of his readers must necessarily want. In his desire that every subject should be fully and clearly understood by the parties interested, he has presumed it would be satisfactory to many to be able to have recourse to some elementary explanation of the different courts, and proceedings in tithe causes : so far at least, as to fit their minds to the thorough understanding of the reports of tithe cases, which are written by lawyers, for gentlemen of their own profession, and from the lecture of which the parties interested may be enabled to form competent ideas of the embarrassments, costs, trouble and uncertainty of tithe suits, ere they engage in them. The whole statute law of tithes, which is collected in the Appendix, is necessary for those, who have not by them the Statutes at Large, and not inconvenient for those, who have. The forms of different processes and precedents, which make the rest of the Appendix, will be useful to the practising lawyer in every department, and instructive to those, who may wish to know, but have not the means of resorting to the books, which might explain and disclose the nature of proceedings, in which they may be engaged,

up

The author disclaims all intention of entering into any polemical discussion of speculative opinions; he has endeavoured to argue from admitted assumptions, and draw conclusions conformable to the existing laws. He hopes for indulgence in case of any unintentional failure in his 'attempt.

314

last line but one of note, after the word but insert the court will allow such, articles to the.

442 17 for at read as.

464 38 omit the before other.