BARREN LAND BILL.

MR. GRATTAN MOVES THE BILL FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF BARREN LAND.

March 10. 1788.

MR. GRATTAN had on a former day presented three bills to ascertain the tithe of rape; to encourage the improvement of barren land, by exempting from tithe for seven years any that should be reclaimed; also, a bill to ascertain the tithe of flax in the province of Munster. These bills were received, and read a first time. On this day, when the order for the House to go into a committee to ascertain the tithe of rape was read, the Attorneygeneral (Mr. Fitzgibbon) opposed the motion.

Mr. GRATTAN said: He thought the present occasion as fit as any that could offer, to consider the merits of the three bills together, and to decide on what was proper to be done.

The right honourable gentleman had objected to the bill for ascertaining the tithe of rape as an unnecessary bill, because rape was cultivated in order to reclaim and bring in barren lands; and a bill was expected to pass, to exempt all reclaimed lands from every kind of tithe for the first seven years. He said, he rather thought the right honourable gentleman mistaken; rape, he believed, was often cultivated in good land; as the bill would only exempt the produce of newly-reclaimed land from tithe, it would so far fall short of his intention. He had known where one guinea an acre tithe had been charged for rape; he could not suppose that any man would have the conscience to charge this for newlyreclaimed, or for barren land; he had been informed, that four pounds an acre had been charged for tithe; he did not know the fact himself, but he had offered to produce at the bar the person who had been so charged; sixteen pounds for four acres of rape. He understood, that rape was become a very considerable object of exportation; not less than 30,000/ worth had been exported in the last year; a premium was given to encourage its growth; but no premium could operate to any effect, while counteracted by such enormous tithe as he had stated.

As to what the right honourable gentleman had said, respecting the bill for ascertaining the tithe of flax in Munster, he agreed with him, that the bill was exceptional, but the exception to it was, that it did not abolish the tithe of flax altogether; for surely nothing could be more absurd than to tax the staple manufacture of the country. He had shown that

flax in Munster was charged with a tithe of twelve shillings an acre, whereas, in England, though it is not the staple of the country, five shillings is the tithe allowed. He desired to ask gentlemen, did they think that England would lay any imposition at all upon flax were it the staple of the country? They must confess she would not. She has proved it by exempting madder, which she considered as an article auxiliary to her staple. In a word, he was of opinion, that every thing essential to the manufactures of the country should be tithe-free, and that the legislature should make the church full compensation in money; to encourage the materials of manufacture with premiums in one hand, and to depress them by a demand for tithes in the other, was most grossly absurd. He would, therefore, whenever the question came fairly before the House, propose to abolish all tithe on flax, and to make the clergy compensation in money. At the same time he must observe, that he could not have supposed any body of men would resist a bill giving so high a tithe as five shillings an acre on flax in Munster.

As to what the right honourable gentleman had said, with respect to a danger which might arise from the bill, he could see no cause for such fear. The bill, at the same time that it secured to the clergy a tithe of five shillings per acre on flax in Munster, did also secure for ever to the north its present modus. It was to be recited in the preamble of the bill;"That whereas the linen manufacture had flourished where flax was exempted from tithe, or where a moderate modus had been established." If the House would assent to this preamble, they would then recognize the principle, that manufactures should, as far as possible, be disencumbered of taxation, and he was convinced every gentleman would, in private, allow the justice of this principle. He could not see why any reasons of delicacy should prevent them from declaring it. He knew it was supposed, that though the bill should pass that House, it might be lost in another place; that consideration should never deter the Commons from doing their duty. Let the Commons pass such bills as they deemed advantageous to the country, and throw the odium of rejecting them upon others.

There were three bills now in contemplation; if the House would pass but one of them, he should consider it a benefit; but he would consider the benefit much greater if the House would pass them all.

The question was then put, that the Speaker do leave the chair, which was negatived.

The House then went into a committee for the improvement of

barren lands. The Attorney-general said, his right. honourable friend, in bringing forward this measure, had conferred very great advantages both on the clergy and laity, and was, in his opinion, well entitled to the thanks of every friend to Ireland, and, as one, he took the liberty of returning him his very hearty thanks.

The committee then went into the several clauses of the bill, which was so modelled as to exempt for seven years from tithes all such barren lands as should be thereafter reclaimed and cultivated.

The committee reported progress; and the bill was finally passed into a law.

ON this

HEARTH-MONEY TAX.

March 15. 1788.

day Mr. Conolly proposed certain resolutions, the object of which was to procure a return of all houses paying hearth-money, the value of which are not greater than 30s. per annum on the full improved rent, and inhabited by persons who have not lands, goods, or chattels, to the value of 51.

Mr. O'Neill seconded the motion. It was opposed by Mr. Bushe, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir John Parnell), and Mr. Burgh (Accountant-general). They objected to the difficulty and uncertainty of obtaining a true account, and the danger of holding out to the people the idea that the tax could be dispensed with. The resolutions were supported by Mr. Forbes and Mr. Grattan, who said,

That if gentlemen were agreed in the principle, they would not differ about the mode. There was no doubt that such an order could be framed as to give the House. satisfactory knowledge of such persons as come within his right honourable friend's description of poverty; and a knowledge also of the amount of their usual payment, that we might know the sum to be compensated to the state; the hearth-money acts had admitted the poverty of the peasant to be ascertainable, for they gave exemptions to a description of persons who had but four pounds, as certified by the magistrate. Why not send out an order, requiring the collectors to make a return of the poor within his right honourable friend's motion; such return to be certified by a magistrate? Why not proceed on the plan of the act which is already in existence, but whose exemption, from a change in the value of money, have lost the extent which the act was originally intended for? In fact, his right honourable friend's motion does nothing more than lay the foundation of extending, or rather reviving the humane pro

visions in one clause of the hearth-money act; and his right honourable friend was perfectly proper in moving his resolutions now; because the return should be made early the next session, before we go into the committee of ways and means, where a compensation to the state, founded on such a return, should naturally be made..

The motion, therefore, of his right honourable friend was seasonable and practicable; but the cause of opposition to his motion was an opposition to his principle. The ministry, he said, do not choose to relax any part of the hearth-money to ease the peasantry. In this I am sure they are wrong. I am convinced, that the man who has but five pounds in the world, and pays thirty shillings for his house, ought not to pay hearth-money; the strongest argument for his relief is the bare statement of his condition. What benefit does the state confer on such a man, that it should have a right to tax him? In what property do your laws protect such a man; a man who has no property; who has nothing, except that labour which he gives the state? He gives you his labour, and you give him a share in your taxes. What my right honourable friend has laid down, is the true principle of government, and ought to be the rule of yours, that the poor of such a description as he states, ought not to be taxed; that men who receive no benefit from the state, ought not to share in its burden; they should be exonerated on the most extensive principle; the peasantry of Ireland, when they are quiet, ought to be nursed, not taxed; their growth will make you ample amends for every exemption you afford them.

A right honourable gentleman on the floor has said, that hearth-money is the only tax the peasant pays, and therefore he thinks it is not necessary to abolish that tax; but I think it is necessary to abolish that tax, as far as relates to the peasantry, and for the very reason, because it is the only tax the peasantry pay; that is, because they are so extremely poor, so very wretched, that they cannot afford to consume in any great degree the articles which are taxed in this country; a country where almost every thing is taxed; where soap, candles, and tobacco are taxed. The wretchedness of their diving, and the misery of their consumption, is the reason why they scarcely pay any tax but the hearth-money, and is likewise a reason why they should not even pay hearth

money.

I laugh at the idea that we cannot make a compensation to the state, and still more at the supposition that the Crown has an interest in continuing this tax on the lower orders of the people, as if the Crown had not an interest in placing its sup

port on ways and means the most humane and respectable. For the sake of the Crown, as well as of the peasantry, I should wish this tax were taken off, in order to give relief to the one, and a more creditable revenue to the other.

The question being put, the resolutions were negatived without a division.

TITHES.

MR. GRATTAN MOVES CERTAIN RESOLUTIONS REGARDING TITHES.

April 14, 1788.

ON this day, Mr. GRATTAN brought forward his motion respecting tithes. He spoke as follows:

Sir, I submit to you certain great principles as propositions to the church. To stand the foundation of future bills; to stand the sentiments of the Commons; and to be (if these sentiments are resisted by a right reverend bench), our acquittal and justification to the public.

The first resolution relates to barren land," Resolved, that it would greatly encourage the improvement of barren lands in Ireland, if said lands, for a certain time after being reclaimed, were exempt from the payment of tithes."

This is a maxim of politics, and requires nothing more for its adoption on the part of the church, but the exercise of Christian charity and common sense. This is the law of England, and true in the wilds of America, as well as in England; a principle which barbarity and civilization equally proclaim.

This does not ask any thing from the clergy except the use of their understanding; that they will restrain an unseasonable appetite, postpone a premature voracity. That they will on this occasion indulge themselves in a sagacity superior to that of the fowls of the air, who devour the seed, and equal to the wisdom of the hind, who waits for the harvest. Have mercy on the infant labours of mankind, respect the plough, and, instead of dogging its paces as a constable would a felon, imitate the barbarous, but, in this instance, more civilized Persian monarch, who began his reign by taking the plough in his royal hand, and did homage to that patient instrument which feeds mankind.

To say that the bill in question enriched the community at the expence of the clergy, was but a poor and uncharitable