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by it was not to be complied with, by showing the comparative value of this portion of land with that of the tythes of the whole. Land taken in lieu of tythes, as Mr. Middleton very well knows, must be much more than the tenth of the whole land; because the tithes are the tenth of the produce of the whole, and this produce muft make three rents or three and a half. But Mr. Middleton chose to fupprefs all this, in order to throw a cenfure upon the Clergy. Yet his very fuppreffion refutes his cenfure. Had the part demanded been too great for the whole he would have shown this at once, and proved the unreasonableness by the vastness of the demand, comparatively with the quantity of land defigned to be inclosed and the quantity of tythes in

tended to be given up. But then he must have proved, and founded his reproach upon realities; whereas he chose the easier way to proceed without proof, and to reproach without realities affigned. And he has thus fhown himself to every difcerning eye, once more a shuffler in arguing, once more a traitor to his own purposes.

"For about 794 years after Chrift," adds Mr. Middleton, venturing in his rafhnefs into the region of antiquarianifm, and hobbling on the rotten crutches of authority, "tythes had no establishment in this island; and then only over a small part of it, till about the year 854, when they were extended to the rest of England." For this he refers to Burn, as Burn refers to Prideaux, and both of them are merely blind guides. To prove they are fuch, I fhall produce only one paffage from our ancient records; and this will be fufficient of itself. Boniface Archbishop of Mentz in Germany, but a native of our own ifland, who was born fo early as the year 670, testifies TYTHES to have been paid by the English in his time. "Lac, et lanam ovium," he cries in a language that I ought to tranflate for the fake of Mr. Middleton, but if I did I should throw away my labour, I fear, as it would produce no conviction (I think) upon a mind like Mr. Middleton's, and as I muft after all fubjoin the original words, "Chrifti oblationibus cotidianis ac DECIMIS Fidelium, fufcipiunt." This he fays in an epiftle to Cuthbert Archbishop of Canterbury, indirectly blaming him for fome disorders among the Clergy in England, who received their tythes but forgot their duty. Tythes were paid, undoubtedly, from the firft eftablishment of Chriftianity in the island. The nations of Chriftendom, indeed, all embraced the Chriftian religion, all reverenced the Chriftian Clergy, and all made the Chriftian provifion for them. They all paid tythes. And not a fingle nation of profelytes appears upon the face of the earth, but what acknowledged the allocation to be the antient establishment of God, and received the appointment as a part of Christianity. (Whitaker's Hift. of Manchefter, 11. Quarto. xi. 2. PP. 438, 439-431).

I have fet the origin of tythes in this juft light, not for the fake of fuch men as Mr. Middleton, as I love not to break a fly upon a wheel, but for the fake of the Prideauxes who pronounce without knowledge, and of the Burns who repeat without examination. But I must speedily difmifs Mr. Middleton, to confole himself for my chastisement of him in the foothing flatteries of the Monthly Reviewer; flatteries

NO. XXIII. VOL. VI.

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equally

equally without argument, without reason, as his own affertions them. felves. Mr. Middleton thus proceeds to prate and to prate against tithes, without once reflecting that all his prate would be equally judicious against rents, against rates, against taxes. The land-tax fhould be particularly reprobated by him in this ridiculous ftrain of invective, as being an impoft bearing very hard upon the land, as though laid on the fhoulders of the owner, yet fure to defcend upon those of the tenant, and as ready to crush the latter under its enormous weight. But the fact is, and Mr. Middleton must have known it, that the land, which had formerly no tax, had always a tithe and a rent to pay; that to take away the tithe in part or in whole would be only to enhance the rent; and that under rent, tithe, or tax, rifing one upon the back of the other, agriculture is not difcouraged, and the farming tenants are rifing into opulence all over the kingdom.

Yet the cuckoo goes on with the fame dull note, till he becomes hoarse with the exertion, and cracks his voice with his efforts. "Every poffible argument in favour of tythes upon land,” he exclaims in a rage at laft," in exclufion of houfes and other property, "is infupportable." Thus all ty the is to be fwept away from land, by the gigantic arm of this violent Draw canfir. Every "argument" for tything land, even every "poffible" argument for it, is "infupportable" in itfelf; unless "houfes and other property" are tythed too. There is a ty the upon "other property" befide land, which had always been accustomed to be paid, and which was fanctioned by an exprefs law, the 2d and 3d of Edward VI. cap. 13. the tythe of perfonal gains; but it was found fo difficult to be collected as the payers came to lofe fight of principle, that it is now abandoned entirely. There is yet, however, a tythe upon houses" in London and fome other towns, of which Mr. Middleton feems to be wholly ignorant. But fuch a tythe as this is fuitable only to towns, because there is no land to be tythed; and, as the towns can bear no proportion to the lands of the kingdom, land muft ftill be tythed in general or no provifion be made for the ministerie of religion. Yet why tax the land to build churches," he perfifts in exclaiming when he has forgotten his note entirely, and means not "building" but endow ing churches. "Why" then "tax the land for endowing churches?" Why tax" houfes," why tax " other property?" Such questions are the very impertinence of folly. Yet he continues the impertinence with the folly. "Does the land go to them ?" What this question means, I pretend not to understand. "Is it benefitted by them?" 'Here we fee a faint glimmer of a meaning. But in the fame strain, in order to expofe it more thoroughly, let me afk, "Why tax the land to raise money for the King, does the land go to the King, is it benefitted by the King ?" Yet the grin of folly is fo broad here, that no imitation can diftort the face into worfe than it wears. "There is not, nor can there be, any connexion whatever between the land and the church." In fuch a ftyle is Mr. Middleton raving, from a mad'man's fancy of fome neceffary congruity exifting between the "object that is taxed and the object that receives the tax,

Yet

he

he is applauded for all his ravings, by his brother of the Monthly Review.

Nancifcetur enim pretium nomenque poetæ,

Si tribus Antichris caput infanabile nunquam
Tonfori Licino commiferit.

is

"Religion, in a word," as he perfifts in ufing many words, a mere perfonal concern, and of courfe every poffible expence relative to it ought to be defrayed by a perfonal tax, without reference to any particular fpecies of property." This is the very bathos of French atheifm, to which Mr. Middleton has been long tending, and in which he is fairly plunged at laft. Thofe renegadoes from Christianity, thofe defiers of their God, faid, exactly with Mr. Middleton, that "religion is a mere perfonal concern ;" and then added, with a confiftency which Mr. Middleton dares not yet avow, that therefore thofe, who chose to have any perfonal concern with it, must pay perfonally for it. Such, undoubtedly, would be the refult among the ir-religious, the profligate, the atheistical of every nation, if the State did not for its own fecurity, as well as in reverence to motives infinitely higher ftill, take care to keep up a formal establishment for religious offices, and to make a proper provifion for the officiators in them. By what kind of tax this provifion is to be made, even God himfelf has pointed out in his œconomy for the Jewish priesthood; and all the nations of Christendom have adopted his economy for the Chriftian. They have have tythed the land generally, becaufe the produce of the land is moft neceffary to the fupport of man, is therefore moft permanent in its continuance, and is moft eafy to be collected by the Clergyman. But for thefe very reasons, such ravers as Mr. Middleton and the Reviewer condemn the tythe, and in the eczentricity of their ravings produce metaphyfical reafons, to show there is no congruity between religion and land, between land and a church, and (as they should have added) between a person and a Priest. For Mr. Middleton, who would just now have had the ty the a merely perfonal one for the Prieft, now finds, in the violence of his paroxyfm, that even this would be abfurd. Indeed " a greater abfurdity can hardly he found," he now tells us, determining to out-herod Herod himfelf" than to tax land, houfes" which he wanted above to be tythed with land, "money" which would certainly be a perfonal tax, "ftock in trade" which would equally be a personal tax," merchan dize" which would be equally perfonal, "fhipping" which as private property would be equally perfonal with all, &c. for the fupport of the church." Thus nothing is to be taxed for the fupport of religion, not perfonalty, not houfes, not land, becaufe land, houfes, and per fonalty have no metaphyfical relation to religion

— ego læus,

Qui purgo bilem fub verni temporis horam !
Non alius faceret meliora poemata.

Mr. Middleton, in fact, had fixed his mind upon the improvement

of agriculture. This object he had contemplated with so much fondnefs and fancy, that it became at laft the only predominating one of his mind. The idea gradually ufurped upon his mental powers, and erected a tyranny there on the ruin of them all. This tyranny was fo abfolute in his knight-errantery over his reafon, that he fallied forth to encounter windmills for giants, and now appears before us with his Sancho-Panca attending in the Monthly Review. Tithes were his windmills and his giants. Thofe he refolved to encounter, though he broke through all the fences of property to do fo; fences, indeed, fet up with Chriftianity itself in this and every state; fences, therefore, more ancient than those of any other property in the State; even facred in themselves; and requifite to be kept up if we mean to keep up Chriftianity itself; though he muft have known, if he ever. thought at all, that the tythes, when loft to the Clergyman, would be found by the land-owner, and increase the rent; though he must also have seen, unlefs he is ftone-blind, that the lands freed from tythes are not one iota, one atom better cultivated than the lands which pay tythe; are even cultivated worse than these, as laical tythes are always fet at a dearer rate than clerical, and lands tithe-free always pay more in rent than they would have paid for tithe.

I have faid all this upon the subject of tythe, because I wish to repress that petulance of folly, that conceitedness of ignorance, which is leading us ftep by step along the down-hill road of the French Revolution, and will certainly (if not checked in time) precipitate us into all the unfathomable abyss of French miferies. We fee the fame fteps now taken, as were taken by the Middletons of France. We fee the fame measures now purfued, as were pursued by the Reviewers or Pamphleteers of France. And, if we are not upon our guard against both, we deserve to suffer all the horrible calamities that France has been for fo many years fuffering. I have here contributed my aid, in dashing m gauntlet against the face of men, reviewers or landfurveyors, who are naturally infignificant in themfelves, who appear peculiarly infignificant when oppofed firmly, and who can never become formidable but from our negligence or our cowardice.

April 7, 1800.

RUMON.

ART. XLI. Carmen Seculare for the Year 1800. By Henry James Pye. Poet Laureat. 4to. Wright.

IT has often been our fate to expose the baneful doctrines and infidious machinations of the Jacobin Reviewers. We conceive it our duty also, as guardians of literature, to defend genius from perfecution. The Critical Review of last month has attacked the refpectable and learned author of the work before us with great afperity, but as he has the honour of enjoying a poft under a Monarchical form of government it is eafy to account for the fplenetic hoftility of a Jacobin Critic. The Reviewer begins his remarks upon Mr. Pye's Ode, with an observation that at once fhews the eloven foot of malignant democracy. He obferves that Annual

Odes

Odes" are fecured by their brevity and their infignificance from public criticism.” But why muft they neceffarily be brief or infignificant? It is furely in the power of genius to expand the subject, and to treat that fubject in fuch a way as to render it interest. ing and important. This truth would, we doubt not, be readily acknowledged if an Annual Ode were dedicated to the Genius of Democracy. Though the critic acknowledges that the poet "more deferves to be pitied for labouring at fuch task-work than to be cenfured if it should be poorly performed;" yet the composition before him cannot escape the rancour of his condemnation. One difcovery, however, the critic makes of which we leave him to the full credit: he fagaciously obferves, that an "everlasting marble monument cannot be made of "brick and mortar." But to the Ode. The Critical Reviewers' first objection is to the image of "the Stream of Time," and no wonder, for his own labours are never likely to float along that ftream, but to fink into the gulph of oblivion. The next objection is to the use of the word and, instead of the article the

Inceffant down the stream of time,
And days, and
years, and ages

roll.

This objection is so trifling that we shall permit him to enjoy the benefit of it. The four first stanzas of the Ode our critic reduces to common-place. But though there may be nothing very novel in those stanzas, yet they are truths interefting to mankind, and they are expreffed with poetical energy. To the fifth stanza the critic writes an explanatory note, and is doubtful whether "the Royal Maid and Elfin Knight" are the UNA and ST. GEORGE of SPENCER, though the following ftanza, confining the fcene to Britain, fully removes all doubt upon the subject. The feventh, eighth, and ninth ftanzas, according to our critic, "lead to nothing," though he confeffes in the next fentence he fhall fail down "the ftream of time with fewer interruptions." Surely, then, he must have been interrupted by fomething. The truth is, that the ftanzas which he treats as wholly infignificant touch upon the progreffive glory of Britain, and pay a fuitable compliment to our prefent virtuous Monarch, predicting future fcenes of glory, with an allufion to Gallic fhame. Confidering the nature of these stanzas it is fome mark of liberality in our critic to deem them nothing, for, being an Apostle of Jacobinifm, we might rather expect that he would either have pronounced them abfolute nonfenfe, or have ftigmatized them as marks of Court-fycophancy, and a mean devotion to a crazy old Conftitution, far beneath the glorious edifice" raifed by the Revolutionary Regicides of France. The following stanzas to the fifteenth, our critic paffes over with frigid indifference, because they recount the victories of Britain over France and her Allies, and the fuppreffion of the rebellion in Scotland, juft obferving, that line and divine rhyme well. It was not to be expected that he would dwell with any fatisfaction on fuch topics, and, therefore, we excufe his torpid brevity. Wonderful to fay he pronounces the

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fifteenth

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