PLUNDER OF TIIE CHURCH.
MR. DUNCOMBE, we hope, will persevere in his motion for "copies of all the Parliamentary Surveys of Church-lands, made in 1646, and deposited by Parliament in the library of manuscripts at Lambeth Palace. The documents in question are now as useless to the public as if they were written in Chaldaic; but if they were intelligibly printed by order of the House of Commons, we are informed that they would illustrate some rather ancient and some more recent dabbling and jobbing in Church-lands, of which people in general and our Representatives in particular have little suspicion. It is pretty notorious, that in some way, known to few but accomplices in and gainers by such transactions, large fortunes and noble houses have been erected on property almost clandestinely, and we dare say in many instances illegally, trans- ferred from the church to laymen. We do not of course allude to the violent and wholesale spoliation of HENRY the Eighth, but to such transactions as the following, stated by a knowing corre- spondent of the Morning Chronicle.
"In the year 1768, the Duke of Grafton was Minister-1 mean the man whose memory and character have been preserved by Junius. Dr. Richard Brown was at the same time Prebend of the stall of Tottenhall, in the cathe- dral church of St. Paul's ; and in the right of such was entitled to the fee and inheritance of the prebendal manor and lordship of Tottenhall, in the county of Middlesex, and in divers lands, Ike. thereunto belonging, subject to a pre. bendal lease, which he had a short time before, on a receipt of a large fine, re- newed to the representatives of the then late Duke of Grafton, for a term of three lives, at the nominal rent of 46/. per annum.
" The estate commences at St. Giles's Pound, extends some distance on the north side of Oxford Street. and in other directions embraces a large part of St. Pancras parish, Kentish Town, aud up to Highgate; including coppices, woods, and in lying beside Highgate, of great extent, and from its situa- tion equal In value to any laud round the metropolis. Very considerable bilildinge were at that time erected upon it; the ground was in great re- quest for building on, and could then be disposed of in leases at a considerable rate per foot. "Dr. Brown having pocketed the emolument attending the renewal of the lease, and there being little chance of any further advantage to him from the estate, entered into the views of Mr. Charles Fitzroy, the proprietor of the lease (to whom it had been bequeathed as a patrimony. by his father, the late Duke of Grafton); and these two, in conjunction, petitioned fur, and obtained, by the influence of Mr.Fitzroy's brother, the Minister, an Act of Parliament, which, front the .25th of March 1768, divested the estate, with all its rights, privileges, and emoluments, out of 11w prebendary, and conveyed the fee-simple entire and without reserve to Mr. Charles Fitzroy and his heirs fur ever. The Act states it to be ' with the consent of Itichaid Lord Bishop of London, and the privity of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's.
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" A fair estimation may be made of the value of the land, by Mrs. Fitzroy's settlement of 400/. a year heir sufficiently secured on only twenty-three acres, and the estate consists of some thousands, "The full equivalent and compensation given to the Church, is a rent-charge on the estote of 000/. per annum ; which, as 46/. of it was receivable under the lease, makes the amount given for the fee-simple i4/. per annum ; and this was stated to be 'a much greater revenue than could possibly arise to the successors in the prebend, either by fines on the renewal of leases, or by any other means whatever.' " The possession of this estate in twelve years ( dou, eaused;Mr Fitzroy 's exaltation to the Peerage, by the title of Lord Southainini ; by which name the estate is now known. "fottenhall ' is kept out of vie w, and this Church plunder is probably all the title possesses. Upon a moderate calculation of all the advantages obtained by this act of Parliament, Mr. Fitzroy and his family have received from the estate upwards of £1,500,000 The 'fell equivaknt,' which has been paid to the Church, amounts to 17,784 Total of which the Church has been plundered up to. this tithe —4:4482,216" Does anybody believe that this was a solitary transaction ?— that other property of the Church was not made away with by similar conspiracies of ministers of state and divines ; legal sanc- tion being given to the frauds by corrupt, idle, and ignorant Par- liaments? Depend upon it that this is only a sample—a brick of the Babel ; and that copies of the Parliamentary Surveys in Lam- beth Palace would set people upon tracing out the metamorphoses of other church lands to lay. By the way, the Honourable Mr. FITZROY, brother to Lard SOUTHAMPTON, is, we observe, the Tory candidate for Lewes. Perhaps he may have the discretion to be silent on the subject of the plunder of the Church; but if he should indulge in the usual slang of his party, let Mr. COOPER of Lewes, or some other reso- lute Reformer, ask for a history of the Southampton estate, begin- ning at St. Gdes's Pound and stretching up to Highgate.
The objection to Mr. DUNCOMBE'S motion is that the copies will cost a good deal of money : but this cannot be honestly urged by men who have supported that enormous succession of jobs the Record Commissions, at an expense of half a million to the coun- try. Incorrect transcripts of musty, useless trumpery, have cost the country scores of thousands per annum ; and now are we to be told, when it is proposed to publish very curious and valuable elccuments, having direct reference to the legislation of the day and to subjects universally and immediately interesting, that the expense is what the nation cannot afford ? This apology for con- cealing disagreeable facts, ought not to serve the turn of those who offer it. The House of Commons should insist upon having the Lambeth Surveys on its table, in a convenient and useful form.
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