LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE TITHES BILL.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—The vacancy in Car narvonshire happens at an opportune moment, for it will show the Government what the Welsh people really think of their Tithes Bill. So far as I am able to judge, if the Bill becomes law, instead of putting an end to the tithe question, it will stamp out Conservatism in Wales. For the Conservatives there consist in the main of small landlords and small freeholders—men who are Conservatives by reason of their blind hatred of Free-trade—and these are the very men whom the Tithes Bill will most estrange. The small landlords know well enough that they cannot add tithe to rent without making rent more odious than it is, and running the risk of losing their tenants into the bargain. And the small freeholders, most of whom detest tithe on conscientious as well as on financial grounds, naturally feel aggrieved that a debt of the kind is to rank for the future with an ordinary debt, and to be recovered by a similar process. One word in conclusion. Not only do I myself pay tithe to various clergymen, from whom I obtain certain services, but I pay it also to two noble lords and a wealthy squire, from whom I obtain none. Now, if tithe be public property, to be controlled by the State, and perhaps resumed by it at no distant date, is that portion of such property which has no duties attached to it, and which. has been wrongfully diverted into private pockets, to escape altogether the notice of Parliament am, Sir, &c.,
The Lyth, Ellesmere, March 22nd. ARTHUR T. JEBB.
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