 his lands subject
to certain charges, which are antecedent to any profits that may remain
to him after they are discharged.

The land-tax, the county-rates, the tithe, are all on the same level;
so are the jointures, annuities, and interest of money borrowed. Of
course the landlord would gladly throw them all upon the tenant if
he could, and does throw upon him all he can. In permitting him to
follow this course, you tempt the tenant to cry out, “Away with this
payment, and away with that!” and you tempt the landlord to cry, “Amen!
So be it, as long as my rent is assured me!” Worried by the annual
recurrence of _extra_ payments, for which he has to provide at all
sorts of inconvenient times, the tenant is ready enough to demand
relief from these burdens, never reflecting that he is playing the
landlord’s game, directly or indirectly robbing somebody else to enrich
the owner of the soil. “Down with the rates!” means “Throw them upon
the Consolidated Fund and let the taxpayer relieve the landlord.” “Down
with the jointures!” would mean “Rob the dowagers and let the landlord
be the richer for the pillage.” “Down with the mortgage interest!”
would mean “Up with the debtor at the expense of the creditor;” and
“Down with the tithe!” would mean the extinction of the parson, but
with the gain of not a shilling ultimately to the tenant, though with
a very considerable gain to the owner of the land. It must be, and it
is, demoralizing to allow the payment of the tithe to be regarded as
an _extra_ with which the tenant is chargeable. The obligation to pay
the tithe is a condition antecedent to the _owner_ of the soil enjoying
the very possession of his land. The tithe is a _rent-charge_ upon
the land, exactly as an annuity or jointure is--or, if you choose to
call it a tax because the term tax is an odious word, and therefore
serviceable when you want to make those you hate odious--it is a
landlord’s _tax_, and no tenant should be allowed to pay it without
having the right under all 