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Untitled Article
to strike the balance of talent and judgment ?—we can but look to tbeir reasons , and form an opinion for ourselves . ' I must not think of occupying your pages by a statement of the reasoning which lias satisfied my mind . It is manifest that our decision of the question chiefly depends on our view of the circumstances which regulate price . Does not the produce of land , in every thickly-peopled country , in consequence of the limited quantity of good land within a convenient distance , and to a much greater degree in our own country , in consequence of corn-laws , sell at a monopoly price , which is considerably and permanently elevated above the average cost of production ? It is said this price is the cost of production ( the necessary expenditure , with the usual profits ) on the poorest
land , which is obliged to be cultivated in order to obtain the required supply ; but it is answered—land of a certain quality is brought into cultivation ( or , which is the same thing , additional produce is obtained from better land by additional expenditure , producing a proportionably less return than the previous expenditure ) , because corn sells at a price which will allow of this being done with advantage . The high price of corn , which is as much as men will give for it rather than do without it , is the cause of inferior land being cultivated , or additional capital-being employed on land—not the consequence of this more costly cultivation . Now it is evident that the landlord alone can permanently profit by the monopoly price . The tenant must be content with the return of his expenditure , together with such profits as the degree of competition amongst his class , and the customs of the society to which he belongs , render usual .
In Ireland a population too great for the present capital of the country causing great numbers , to have no prospect of employment but what agriculture affords , creates a competition for the land , which obliges the tenant to be content with almost as little as will support life . * This wretched state of things is the consequence not of tithe , taxes , or exaction of any kind , but of too great competition in a particular employment . Of course , as price is independent of these circumstances , the landlord ( together with the larger tenants , called middlemen , where there are such , ) gets all the difference between the whole produce and the necessary expenditure with the miserable subsistence which
the tenant is obliged , by competition , to accept . The question , who pays the tithe , is the question , who would be benefited by their abolition . "Would the prices of produce fall ? No ; for the demand and supply remain the same . The buyers are willing to give so much , rather than not have what is offered ; the sellers try how much they can get , and find this to be the limit . Would rents rise ? Yes ! for the competition for land will not allow tenants to retain , when present leases expire , more than the usual profit on the capital they employ , and the surplus above this constitutes rent . The landlord , then , must be , as it appears to me , the real gainer : of course he is now the loser by tithes being paid ; and so he ought to be ; for it was the ancient proprietors who gave the tithes , meaning to give them for ever ; and every purchaser gives a Jess price for his estate in consideration of tithes . The question , then , for the nation is , —whether the landowners , who by means of corn-laws have so long unjustly increased their own gains at the public expense , are to receive in addition a present of an immense national property , to which they have no equitable claim , and which may , if well employed , so greatly relieve all classes of the community ? 4
1 advance these opinions , Sir , as my present sincere convictions , with gTeat deference to your judgment , and only wishing to be assisted to see the truth if I am in error . I know that your feelings are of the same kind , and I shall be glad to receive information from you or from others ; but the importance of the subject will , I hope , justify my taking this notice of your note . As for the case of incumbents , I cannot help still regarding it as that of a contract for life , except in cases of gross misconduct ; and as the individual is led often to enter into pecuniary engagements founded on the belief of his having a certain income for life , I hardly think that justice could be done in reducing him ; yet I think I should not greatly quarrel with your notions of what justice and humanity require . * The Author of the Review of Dr . Hincks ' s Pam p hlet on Tithes . '
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* £ 88 Correspondence .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1832, page 288, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1810/page/72/
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