ircumstance in this Bill, is, that of turning the tithe of
flax and hemp into what the lawyers call a _Modus_, or a certain sum in
lieu of a tenth part of the product. And by this practice of claiming a
_Modus_ in many parishes by ancient custom, the Clergy in both kingdoms
have been almost incredible sufferers. Thus, in the present case, the
tithe of a tolerable acre of flax, which by a medium is worth twelve
shillings, is by the present Bill reduced to four shillings. Neither is
this the worst part in a _Modus_; every determinate sum must in process
of time sink from a fourth to a four-and-twentieth part, or a great deal
lower, by that necessary fall attending the value of money, which is now
at least nine tenths lower all over Europe than it was four hundred
years ago, by a gradual decline; and even a third part at least within
our own memories, in purchasing almost everything required for the
necessities or conveniencies of life; as any gentleman can attest, who
hath kept house for twenty years past. And this will equally affect poor
countries as well as rich. For, although, I look upon it as an
impossibility that this kingdom should ever thrive under its present
disadvantages, which without a miracle must still increase; yet, when
the whole cash of the nation shall sink to fifty thousand pounds; we
must in all our traffic abroad, either of import or export, go by the
general rate at which money is valued in those countries that enjoy the
common privileges of human kind. For this reason, no corporation, (if
the Clergy may presume to call themselves one) should by any means grant
away their properties in perpetuity upon any consideration whatsoever;
Which is a rock that many corporations have split upon, to their great
impoverishment, and sometimes to their utter undoing. Because they are
supposed to subsist for ever; and because no determination of money is
of any certain perpetual intrinsic value. This is known enough in
England, where estates let for ever, some hundred years ago, by several
ancient noble families, do not at this present pay their posterity a
twentieth part of what they are now worth at an easy rate.

A tax affecting one part of a nation, which already bears its full share
in all parliamentary impositions, cannot possibly be just, except it be
inflicted as a punishment upon that body of men which is taxed, for some
great demerit or danger to the public apprehended from those upon whom
it is laid: Th