power of taking certain hop
districts, in order to ascertain the average tithe of the last seven
years, and fix the amount in future. They would also have the power of
declaring what the tithe of any particular land or property should be,
supposing hop cultivation to be abandoned; and it was provided that in
cases where land should be brought into hop cultivation anew, it should
be subject to an additional payment of fifteen shillings an acre on
account of tithe. As regarded orchards and gardens, he had not been able
to settle a particular provision on the subject, although he admitted
lands thus cultivated were particularly circumstanced. The tithe thus
commuted, Lord John Russell continued, would become a rent-charge,
payable by the landowner according to the value of grain: thus--the
average prices for seven years of wheat, barley, and oats would be
published at certain periods by the comptroller of corn returns; this
publication would take place every year, and the payment of rent-charge
made in lieu of tithe would be varied accordingly. The prices of three
different kinds of grain were taken, for the purpose of ascertaining the
value and amount of the charge, so that if an individual were chargeable
with L300 for tithe, one-third would be estimated by the price of wheat,
one-third by that of barley, and the remaining third by the price of
oats, which would be giving each a fair proportion in the gross amount.
Finally, the intended bill did not deal, his lordship said, with the
question of redemption of the rent-charge; that was an important and
difficult subject, and would require to be dealt with in a separate
measure after the commutations should have been made, and the charge
ascertained. Sir Robert Peel said that he would not object to the
measure being introduced, since he thought himself entitled to say that
it was taken in great part from his bill of last year. The whole of its
machinery was, in fact, adopted, and to a certain extent likewise, its
principle of voluntary commutation. The bill passed the second
reading on the 22nd of February without any division, although various
objections were stated, both as to its principles and details; the
former being chiefly directed against the compulsory nature of the
commutation. When the bill went into committee, ministers made several
alterations in its provisions. Thus the period during which voluntary
commutations might be entered into was extended from six mont