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Untitled Article
tinguished statesmen . Let the revenues of the church , it is said , ? be participated with the Catholics ; let the church of the many enjoy the benefit as well as the church of the few , arid all subject of complaint will be removed . Against this plan Dr . Hincks most earnestly protests , and we agree with him , though not precisely on the same grounds . Hie appears to be chiefly influenced
by his horror of the Roman Catholic religion . We are more impressed with the absurdity of a government , in fulfilment of the alleged duty of supporting the cause of religion , supporting at the same time several opposing systems of religion , the friends of each one of which regard all the others as dangerous and pernicious—so that , in the opinion of all the parties , what is given udth one hand , is counteracting the good effect of what is given with the other ; and the gross injustice of selecting two or three
sects for public . patronage , whilst all other religionists are excluded . We hope , too , that the Catholics have formed juster views of their own interests than to allow of any dependence of their clergy on the state . The next question is , when the church should lose its revenues . Dr . Hincks , we think justly , maintains the rights of present incumbents . There are few who would think of any thing so monstrous as their entire deprivation , and we think it evident , that even the taking away of a part of what they enjoy would be gross injustice .
The church revenues are a national property—the tithes as much so as the lands ; they having been parted with for ever by the landlords in very early times , and all transfers of property for ages having been made with reference to their existence as a permanent charge . It is the will of the nation , expressed in Parliament , which has appropriated these national funds to the support of the Protestant church , and prescribed the terms on which individuals should hold the share allotted to them . Every such individual has received from the nation an office , in some
cases we may say a sinecure—but that makes no difference in the argument- —for life . The nation has entered into a contract with him—an unwise one if you please—but' still a contract , and cannot break that contract without real injustice . Every incumbent has a life interest , and ought to be secured against plunder . Nor is what he enjoys taken unjustly from others . The nation has not acquired the tithe property without giving value for it . It has
acquired and has long held that property . A landlord receives his estates subject to this charge , and has no more right to what has been customarily paid as tithe , than we have to the remainder of his rents . That the tithe really falls upon the landlord , not upon the tenant , or the consumer , and that rents must rise if tithe were abolished , so as to make the landlord the real gainer , is demonstrable * . The clergyman does not claim from his
parish-\ * . The Editor dissents from his correspondent's view of this subject . Tithe is a tap which , like other taxes , falls upon the consumer , un 4 , like other taxe 0 > may bfc
Untitled Article
202 The Irfsh Tilhe QOestioii .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1832, page 202, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1808/page/58/
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