Every recital or statement in any such certificate, or Chap. VII. in any sealed copy thereof, is made evidence of the matters recited therein (9 & 10 Vict. c. 73, s. 12).

By sect. 6 of 9 & 10 Vict. c. 73 it is provided that, if in any case consideration money is paid to the wrong person, the land which was charged with the rent-charge shall be charged with the payment of the consideration money to the person rightly entitled, as if it were unpaid purchase-money; and the owner of the land is given the same remedies against the person to whom the consideration money has been wrongfully paid as a purchaser would have.

The statute 48 & 49 Vict. c. 32 extends to the case of any corn-rent, rent-charge, or money payment, payable out of or charged on any land in lieu of tithes by an Act of Parliament, all the above powers and provisions for redemption, with the following additions and exceptions:

1. Every application to redeem is to be accompanied with a certified copy or extract from the Act, and from the award made in pursuance thereof, signed by the person or persons having the custody of the Act and award (if any), showing the amount of the corn-rent, rent-charge, or money payment proposed to be redeemed.

2. It must also be accompanied with such evidence or proof of the payment of the corn-rent, rent-charge, or money payment, and such particulars of the land liable thereto as the commissioners think fit.

3. If the corn-rent, rent-charge, or money payment has been varied by any order of justices in quarter

Chap. VII. sessions, a certified copy of the last of such orders, signed by the person or persons having the custody of the order, or some other satisfactory evidence of the variation must also accompany the application. In any case of variation by order of justices, the redemption money is to be calculated on the varied amount.

4. Copies of the certificates of redemption are to be sealed by the commissioners, and deposited with such persons as the commissioners may in each case determine.

CHAPTER VIII.

REMEDIES OF THE TITHE OWNER.

In considering this subject a fact should be remembered which is very often lost sight of, viz., that tithes were a charge upon the land, or rather upon its produce; if there was no produce there could be no tithes. Though the Commutation Acts have to a certain extent altered this, and have, as we have seen, substituted for the tithe of the actual produce a sum certain, varying only from year to year with the price of corn, yet this sum was originally calculated on the actual produce of the land in respect of which it is payable, and was a charge upon the land, not upon any person as owner thereof. At the present time there is a great outcry as to the so-called "anomalous" remedies given to the tithe-owner, and a desire, in certain quarters, to substitute for them a right to recover tithe rent-charge from the owner of the land as a simple contract debt, i. e., to substitute a remedy against the person for a remedy against the land. A true appreciation of the nature of tithe rent-charge, as above explained, will show that this is nothing more nor less than a confiscation of the property of the landlord, unless some equivalent concession, e. g., a reduction of so much per cent. in the amount of the rent-charge, is made to him. An example will make this plain :A., living and owning land in parish B., also owns a farm in parish C., in respect of which a rent-charge of

Ch. VIII. 107. is payable. Owing to bad times this farm will not pay to cultivate, and he has it on his hands, unlet and uncultivated. There being no produce, under the old law, of course, there would be no tithe payable; under the present law, the rent-charge of 107., or the sum representing it according to corn averages, would be payable; but this would not hurt A., as the remedy by distress would be ineffectual, there being nothing on the land on which to distrain, and it would ex hypothesi not pay the tithe owner to take possession of the land and cultivate or let it. How different would be the position under the proposed new legislation! A. would then not only be saddled with his unprofitable farm, but would further have to pay the 107. (or sum representing the same) in respect of the imaginary produce thereof, or would be liable to an action as for an ordinary debt, which might be recovered by distress on his land in parish B. Practically, a clear confiscation of 107. from him for the benefit of the tithe owner: a result no doubt very gratifying to tithe owners generally, and not entirely out of character with other recent legislation.

This is not, however, intended as a political treatise, and we will, therefore, at once proceed to consider the present remedies of the tithe owner. These are:

1. Distress.

A tithe owner levying a distress must observe the following conditions:

(1) The rent-charge must be twenty-one days in arrear (sect. 81 of the principal Act).

(2) Ten days' notice in writing must have been ch. VIII: given to, or left at the usual or last known residence, or have been sent by post in a registered letter to the office or usual place of abode of the tenant in possession of the lands in respect of which the rent-charge is in arrear (sect. 81 of the principal Act and sect. 30 of 23 & 24 Vict. c. 93), or if no person can be found on the lands, then the notice may be posted in some conspicuous place on the land (sect. 17 of 5 & 6 Vict. c. 54).

Every person entitled to distrain may charge 2s. 6d. for each notice issued by him in accordance with the provisions of the Acts, and may add the amount to and recover it as part of the arrears of rentcharge (sect. 29 of 23 & 24 Vict. c. 93).

(3) No distress can be levied for more than two years' arrears (sect. 81 of the principal Act). (4) The distress can be taken

(i) Upon the lands liable to the payment (sect. 81);

or

(ii) On any part of the lands so liable1 (ibid.); or

1 Here the distinction between a rent-charge in gross and one apportioned on separate closes of land becomes very important. Suppose A owns a farm, all in one parish, containing six closes, B, C, D, E, F, G, and sells close B to H; if the rent-charge is apportioned in gross, e. g., £10 on the whole farm, the tithe owner may distrain for any arrear of any part of the tithe rent-charge on any lands in the parish owned and occupied by A, and also on any lands in the parish owned and occupied by H; but if the rent-charge is apportioned, e. g., £2 on B, £1 on C, £1 on D, and so on, then the lands of A cannot be distrained upon for arrears of rent-charge on B, nor the lands of H in respect of the rent-charges on C, D, E, F, or G.

S.

F