Lord John Russell, when introducing the Tithe Commutation Bill, said these words: “The income of the clergy will now flow from the landlord and not from the farmer, and the clergyman will be relieved from an alternative that too often exists, either of making personal enemies by pressing his demand, or of injuring himself by abandoning it.” His lordship, in his “Recollections and Suggestions,” makes the following statement: “All the evils of the tithe system were the subject of fair compromise and permanent settlement by the Act of 1836. Three Commissioners, two of whom were appointed by the Crown and one by the Archbishop of Canterbury, were empowered, after examination, to proceed by certain fixed rules to a final adjudication. In about seven years this process was completed, and a work from which Pitt had shrunk was accomplished.” In reading this statement one may smile at the “permanent settlement.” Ever since 1836 there has been a continuous struggle going on down to 1886 on the subject of “Extraordinary tithe-rent charge.” CHAPTER XIX. _TITHES OF CHURCH IN WALES._ As the Church of England in Wales is becoming one of the burning political questions of the day, I shall give a sketch of the value and appropriation of the tithe-rent charge of Wales, including the parishes in Monmouth and Salop, which are in Welsh dioceses. The figures are taken from the official Tithe Commutation Return of 1887. -----------------------+-------+---------+------+--------+-------+-------- | | | St. | St. | | Per- |Bangor.|Llandaff.|Asaph.|David’s.|Total. |centage. +-------+---------+------+--------+-------+-------- | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | Clerical Appropriators | 9,559| 12,297 |31,047| 26,831 | 79,734| 26·9 Parochial Incumbents | 27,939| 31,306 |42,618| 47,307 |149,170| 50·4 Lay Impropriators | 5,941| 9,748 |21,732| 23,389 | 60,810| 20·5 Schools, Colleges, etc.| 2,378| 273 | 1,736| 2,164 | 6,551| 2·2 +-------+---------+------+--------+-------+-------- | 45,817| 53,624 |97,133|100,488 |296,265| 100·0 -----------------------+-------+---------+------+--------+-------+-------- By the operations of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, when Parliament vested in them the tithe-rent charges of all the archbishops, bishops, chapters, etc., a large quantity of rent-charges was annexed to benefices. The following table indicates the ownerships in 1890:—