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Yea, now He comes, as summer sunset mild,

And Peace, 'mid parting storms and clouds of even, Hath look'd from her calm hermitage, and smil'd:

This is no time for sign in rended heaven.

There is a time when lowering sky

And clouds shall speak His coming nigh;

When rended heav'ns, stars falling, mountains torn,
Shall usher in the wheels of the eternal morn.

THE VOYAGE OF LIFE.

OUR spirit is a boat at sea,
Bound to a far-off land;

God's grace the favouring breeze must be,
The helm in Reason's hand:

Our thoughts, with opposite weights that strain,
Truth's perfect balance to maintain,

Must be a faithful crew, to trim
The boat, and bear it safe to HIM.

THE WATCHMAN OF THE CITY.

WHY wakes the spirit of the worldly wise
To "keep this city," which "abideth not"
In safety and repose, order and peace,
And in contentment with all visible things,
By means of its own knitting? What shall all
Such working profit, if the Lord avert
His providential eye, and care withhold?

AN IMAGE.

SWEET sleep of death! how starkly dost thou lie
In that pale face,-a counterfeit repose!
Seems thy mysterious chain two different worlds
(And O how different worlds!) to bind in one?
As if the spirit that had pass'd away
Began a natural slumber, and in dreams
Put on its vesture of immortal things,
Deeming no change. O thou Eternal Word,
So train thy loving spirits, that in death
Unutterable peace may seal their brow
And be no false remembrancer of hope
To those whose aching hearts their loss deplore!

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HYMNS FROM BUNSEN'S COLLECTION.-HYMN FOR LENT.

"He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me."-Matt. x. £8.

AFTER me! Christ our champion spake,

After me, Christians all,
Deny yourselves, the world forsake,
Follow my voice and call;
Take up your cross, your burden bear,
Follow my footsteps everywhere.

I am the light; who comes to me
May not entangled lie

In darkness, but my follower be,
In living holily.

I am the way; I well can shew
How man through life may safest go.

My heart is full of humbleness,
And love for all mankind;
My mouth o'erflows with gentleness;
My thought, and soul, and mind,
With every power of every limb,
Is given to God, serves only him.

I know the secrets of man's heart,
What to avoid I teach,
And how to cleanse the inmost part,
The soul that prompteth speech.
I am the Rock, on which to cling,
Your souls to heaven's gate I bring.

Are ye in trouble? I am there,
Still present at your side;
I make your path, I toil, I fight,

Your guardian and your guide :
Fainthearted he who cries "No more,"
When he can trace his Lord before.

Who thinketh here to find his life
Will lose it, save by me;

Who seemeth here to lose, will there
In God a gainer be:

His cross who will not with me bear
Shall not my heavenly treasure share.

Body and soul let us then go

Where our loved Lord hath gone,

And with good heart, through pain and woe,
Press on as he hath done:

Who shrinks nor strives as Christ hath striven

Wears not the eternal crown of heaven.

MARTIN LUTHER.

CORRESPONDENCE.

The Editor begs to remind his readers that he is not responsible for the opinions
of his Correspondents.

AN EXPOSITION OF THE LAW ON RATING LANDS AND TITHES UNDER THE NEW PAROCHIAL ASSESSMENT ACT.

SIR,-The clergy are much obliged to Mr. Joddrell for his perseverance in obtaining the judgment of the Court of King's Bench on the law of rating lands and tithes. His case was five times before the quarter sessions at Huntingdon, and four times before the King's Bench. Every chicanery was resorted to, to frustrate the ends of justice, and to weary him out; but, strong in the soundness of his cause, he persevered till he obtained that able judgment of the court which now rules and decides the law of rating.

The parishioners of Yelling were rated on the bona fide amount of the rack-rent paid to the landlords, or were worth to let. Mr. Joddrell was rated on £368, the full amount of his tithe composition, £450, minus £82 for rates. Mr. Joddrell complained of the inequality, that while the farmers were only rated on the landlord's profit on the farm, and did not take in the tenant's profit thereon, he was rated to his full profits, taking in both the landlord and tenant's profit, which was unjust. Upon these grounds he appealed against the rate, and shewed, that, for him and his parishioners to be rated in just ratio, they must either be rated higher, and take in the landlord and tenant's profit, or he must be rated proportionably lower.

The court having heard the arguments of counsel on the case, Mr. Justice Park delivered the judgment of the court in Michaelmas Term, 1830; as may be found in Barnewalls and Adolphus' Reports, vol, i. 403; and also a verbatim copy thereof in the "British Magazine" for March, 1832. The Judge said

"In the case of land, the rateable value is the amount of the annual average profit or value of the land, after every outgoing is paid, and every proper allowance made; not, however, including the interest of capital, for that is a part of the profit." "The second objection was, that the farmer's share of profit ought to have been rated; or, which is the same thing, that the appellant should have been rated proportionably less; and that objection should, in our opinion, have prevailed. Of the whole of the annual profits, or value of land, a part belongs to the landlord in the shape of rent, and part to the tenant; and whenever a rate is according to the rackrent (the usual and most convenient mode) it is in effect a rate on a PART of the profit only. It must therefore, in the next place, be ascertained what proportion the rent bears to the total annual profit or value; and that will shew in what proportion all other property ought to be rated. If, for instance, the rent is one half, or twothirds of the total annual profit, or value of land, the rate on all other property should be on a half or two-thirds of its annual value. In this case it is clear that there was a share of profit received by the tenant, upon which there has been no rate; and, in that respect, the farmers were assessed in a less proportion of the true annual profit, or value, than the appellant. The sessions were therefore wrong in disallowing this objection; and they ought to ascertain the ratio which the rent of land bears to its average annual profit, or value, and assess the appellant for his tithe rent in the same ratio.

"The last objection was, that the appellant ought to have had the land tax, ecclesiastical dues, and the expenses of providing for the duties of incumbency, deducted. "As to the land-tax, that is always in practice paid in the first instance by tenants; and whether it is to be deducted or not in this case, must depend upon the answer to a previous question, whether the tenants in the parish deduct it from the rents specified or not. If they do, the landlord pays it in effect out of the rent he receives; and the appellant, to be on the same footing, must do the same. In that case, it must not be deducted in making the rate on him. But if the tenants pay the specified rents, and the land-tax besides, then they have, in effect, not been rated upon that portion of the annual profit, or value, with which the land-tax is paid, but upon a part of the residue only, after deducting the land-tax. Upon this supposition, the appellant must also be rated in a proportionate part of his profit, after deducting the land-tax.

"The ecclesiastical dues, which would include tenths, synodals, &c., ought to be allowed, because they are payable by the appellant in respect of his rectory; and the profits of the rectory constitute the only fund out of which they can be paid; but the expenses of providing for the duties of incumbency ought not to be deducted, because those duties are personal, and ought to be performed personally by the incumbent. The last objection, therefore, ought to prevail in part.

"The case must, for these reasons, be sent back to the sessions, who must amend the rate, acting as nearly in conformity to the principle here laid down as their means of investigation will admit."

Accordingly, the case was taken back to the sessions; and it was proved by three eminent land surveyors, who entered into minute calculations of profits and outgoings on farms, that the following was the correct ratio for Mr. Joddrell to be rated for his tithe composition:

The amount of tithe composition per annum
Deduct one-fourth for rates, tenths, procurations, synodals, &c.

...

But as the tenants are only rated on the landlord's rent, or profit,' and not on the tenant's profit also-that is, about one half, to which they were at this time liable to be rated at-therefore the tithe composition, to preserve proportion, must be rated at half price also-viz.

£450 0 0 112 10 0

337 10 0

168 15 0

It is generally held, that the value of the produce of a farm should amount to three rents-viz., one for the landlord, one for the tenant, and one for the expenses of cultivation. And the court, in this case of Mr. Joddrell's, laid down the principles, that lands were liable to be rated for the full produce of the farm, minus the outgoing expenses in cultivation; and that tithes were to be rated in proportion, whether that was on the full rateable produce, or only at about half thereof— viz., the landlord's rent.

This continued the law till the new parochial assessment act passed, on August 19th, 1836, and which came into operation at Michaelmas 1837. By this act it was directed, that lands and hereditaments should be rated on the net rent, minus repairs and insurance. When the bill was before the House of Lords, Lord Ellenborough, and other lords, seeing the terms proposed would alter the principles laid down by the Court of King's Bench in the case of Rex . Joddrell, which they held to be a sound judgment, and the settled law of rating, they argued, that as lands were now proposed to be rated on the net rent only, and left out produce and profits-that is, about one half, as heretofore liable-therefore tithes ought to preserve VOL. XIII.-April, 1838. 3 E

their proportionate liability, and be rated at half also. And to accomplish this a proviso was introduced at the end of the first clause, enacting, "That nothing herein contained shall be construed to alter or affect the principles, or different relative liabilities, (if any,) according to which different kinds of hereditaments are now by law rateable.” The Poor Law Commissioners were entrusted to see this act carried into effect. And they having had numerous inquiries for the right interpretation of this proviso, and in what proportion tithe composition ought to be rated with lands, issued a circular on that subject with others, dated September 19, 1837, of which the following is a copy of that part relating to the rating of tithes :

"As respects the relative proportion in which lands and tithes are to be rated, it is to be observed, that this question has, previously to the Parochial Assessments Act, been frequently the subject of legal controversy; and it is understood that the proviso at the end of the first section of the Parochial Assessments Act is intended to preserve to the tithe owner the benefit of the decision in the case of the King v. Joddrell, (1 B. & A. 403.)

"That case decides that any profit accruing to the occupiers of land, after payment of rent and necessary outgoings, beyond that which would repay the expense of cultivating lands, and which would compensate for the farmer's trouble, and labour, and superintendence, ought to be included in the assessment; and that when (as might be done before the passing of the assessments act) a profit so accruing to the occupier was omitted in the rate, a proportionate remission should be made to the tithe owner in rating the tithes.

"The Parochial Assessment Act, however, which prescribes the rent which might reasonably be expected to be obtained to be the criterion for estimating rateable hereditaments generally, appears generally to exclude, in the making of the estimate, the consideration of such an occupier's profit as is referred to in the case.

"But if, after the estimate is made of rateable hereditaments, (including the tithe according to the Parochial Assessments Act,) there should appear to be a profit accruing to the occupier of the kind described in the case, as that profit will not be rated under the Parochial Assessments Act, the tithe owner would appear to be entitled to a deduction proportionate to that profit."

The Poor Law Commissioners, in their first circular respecting the new rates, dated June 22, 1837, said, "They did not deem themselves competent to enter into any detailed explanation of either the legal or practical effects of this proviso." And their attempt at explanation, given in their second circular, of September 19, indicates they were then not much improved either in their legal or practical knowledge of the subject. Their exposition is vague and general; it does not give the farmers in the country that practical information, by example, which they require; and hence all that contention that now prevails from one end of England to the other. Besides, they hold out in this circular that the farmers are entitled to allowance in the rate "for their trouble, and labour, and superintendence," which is not warranted by the judgment of the court in the case of Joddrell. The judge said nothing about compensation to the farmer. for his labour, and trouble, and superintendence. But as he said clergymen were not to be allowed any deductions for their labours and duties, it is only reasonable to infer, that what is law for the one should be law for the other. Indeed, if this door was opened, we should want commissioners to go round to fix the worth of each farmer's labour, and trouble, and superintendence!

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