Lord Russell rejected Lord Althorp’s plan which related to the establishment of a proportion between tithe and rent. He adopted the machinery and some other parts of Sir Robert Peel’s Bill. The principles contained in Lord Russell’s Bill were that the landowner or tenant might agree with the tithe-owner _to commute the tithe_, whether paid by modus or composition or otherwise, _into a corn-rent payable in money and permanent in quantity, but fluctuating yearly in value_, so that in future any improved value given to land would not increase the amount of the rent-charge. The corns were to be wheat, oats, and barley. The base of calculation was to be the average tithe paid for the seven years previous to Christmas, 1835. The arrangement was to be voluntary up to the 1st October, 1838, then compulsory. The Bill was at first but tentative, and was materially changed in its progress through the House. The Commutation Act made a great change. The tithes were no longer to be paid on the produce or _increase_ of the land, as stated in the Mosaic Law, upon which law the payment of tithes in the Christian Church was founded. Before the passing of the Act, the tithe-owner had to sue the tithe-payer for arrears, but after the Act was passed, he had the power to distrain on the land for arrears, and the Act further empowers the tithe-owner to go on any other land belonging to the same landowner which may be in the same parish to recover the arrears of rent-charge, should the land from which the tithe was due be unable to satisfy his claim and costs. The tithe-owner has a prior claim to the landlord’s. The following statement will serve as an illustration of Lord Russell’s Act. A money payment was fixed by the Tithe Commissioners on an average of seven years’ payment of tithes. Let this be £100; the third of which, or £33 6_s._ 8_d._, is for wheat, a similar sum for barley, and oats. The average prices of the three corns per bushel for the seven years’ previous to 1835 was—for wheat, 7_s._ 0¼_d._; for barley, 3_s._ 11½_d._; for oats, 2_s._ 9_d._ The tithe-payer has to pay in respect of his £100 rent-charge the price of 94·95 bushels of wheat, 168·42 bushels of barley, and 242·42 bushels of oats. Early in January of every year a duly authorized advertisement is inserted in the _London Gazette_ by order of the Comptroller of Corn, stating the average prices of wheat, barley, and oats for the seven years then next preceding. The serious objection to this plan is that the average prices of the three cereals are calculated on the prices sold to the millers, which included the cost of freight of one or more middlemen, instead of calculating on the prices sold by the farmers. This false system enhances the value of the rent-charge. Supposing that for any year, say 1885, wheat was advertised in the _London Gazette_ at 5_s._ 1¾_d._ per bushel; barley, 3_s._ 11¾_d._; oats, 2_s._ 8¾_d._, what has the tithe-owner to receive for £100 tithe-rent charge?