On the motion to go into Committee on the Tithe
Bill on Thursday, Mr. Stevenson moved an instruction to the Com- mittee empowering them to provide an equitable revision of tithes in accordance with the altered conditions of agricul- ture, and he especially insisted on the need of a revision of corn averages. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach replied that Mr. Stevenson's speech appeared to contain vestiges of an intention not merely to suggest remedies for certain specially hard cases, but so to revise the tithe as to raise it when the values had risen, as well as to lower it when they had fallen. It needed no special instruction to enable the Committee to alleviate the pressure of the tithe in certain specially hard cases, and if there were a strong wish in the House to substitute three years' corn averages for the present seven years' averages, that, too, might be done in Committee ; but Mr. Stevenson's instruction seemed intended to open the sluice-gates to floods of change. After a smart skirmish the Closure was carried by a majority of 41 (238 to 197), and subsequently the instruction was negatived by a majority of 43 (240 to 197). -
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