d been that under the composition-acts, the tithe had been valued
too high, and the payers determined to pay no tithe, and had even failed
to attend the commissions by whom the composition had been struck.
Effect was now given to this objection by the insertion of a provision
conferring a power of appeal against the valuation of the amount of
tithe-composition in certain cases and under certain restrictions. All
the concessions made, however, failed to conciliate the Irish members.
What was required by them was, a legislative declaration to the effect
that the tithe should be diverted from Protestant religious purposes.
On the 23rd of June, Mr. O'Connell moved as an instruction to the
committee, "that after any funds which should be raised in Ireland
in lieu of tithes had been so appropriated as to provide suitably,
considering vested interests and spiritual wants, for the Protestants of
the established church of Ireland, the surplus which remained should be
appropriated to purposes of public utility." This motion was seconded
by Mr. Hume, and it led to another long debate, in which all the usual
topics were again urged on both sides. This resolution, however, was
lost by a majority of three hundred and sixty to ninety, and on the 30th
of June the order of the day was moved for going into committee. This
step was prefaced by the announcement of new and extensive alterations
in the bill. It was now proposed to offer an inducement to the
imposition of voluntary rent charges, by exacting that, in any case
where the owner of the first perpetual estate in the land should be
willing to subject his estate to a rent-charge in lieu of land-tax, and
should declare his intention to that effect before the 1st of November,
1836, the land-tax should then cease, and his property should become
liable to a rent-charge, which should be a sum equal to the interest at
three and a half per cent, on the amount of the land-tax multiplied by
four-fifths of the number of years' purchase which the land might be
fairly worth. Mr. Littleton said he thought that the landowners should
be subject to no greater interest than three and a half per cent, on
the amount of the land-tax thus determined by the proportion of years'
purchase of the land, but that the difference between the amount of
the rent-charge and the amount of the land-tax should not be less than
twenty per cent, or more than forty per cent, on the amount of such
land-tax. The difference,