factory guarantees, has been found, at the same time, to produce those works at a cost which leaves no place in the market for contraband wares.

To have been commissioned by Your Majesty to carry into effect Your pious purpose of promoting, among all classes of Your subjects, in this part of the United Kingdom, the unrestrained circulation of the Oracles of Truth, by the removal of every obstacle that stood in the way of that circulation, the Board cannot but feel to be a flattering mark of Your Royal confidence. They further feel, that to make every effort of which they are capable to prove themselves worthy of this confidence, is a duty which they owe to themselves, to Your Majesty, and to the Supreme Majesty of Heaven and Earth. In the anxiety evinced by Your Majesty for the universal diffusion among Your subjects of the Word of the living God, they recognise a most gratifying and impressive proof of Your profound interest in the welfare of Your people, and a pledge, equally sure and precious, for the continued stability and dignity of your august Throne. That Throne, it is their happiness to know, is already deeply and firmly founded in the hearts of an admiring and grateful Nation, and they rejoice to believe that it must be founded yet more and more immoveably, as, through the fulfilment of Your Majesty's devout wishes, the Nation, in all its orders, shall become exalted by righteousness-by learning from the Word of Truth, under the teaching of the Spirit of Truth, to fear God and honour the Queen. To be called upon to contribute to a consummation so fervently to be desired, by keeping watch over the purity, and by promoting the wider circulation of the Sacred Oracles, is a privilege which is indeed worthy of being coveted; and for the faithful improvement of which, the Board are most deeply sensible that no care can be too assiduous. They beg to assure Your Majesty, that to such an improvement of it as shall redound to the glory of Your Majesty's auspicious reign, by fulfilling, in behalf of your people, the fervent aspirations of your Christian benevolence, their best and most anxious efforts will not cease to be directed.

AND. RUTHERFURD.
J. MONCREIFF.

ALEXANDER L. SIMPSON.
ROBERT GORDON.

DANIEL DEWAR.

GEORGE ROSS.

JAMES ROBERTSON.

April 1850.

TITHE COMMISSION.

REPORT of the TITHE COMMISSIONERS TO HER MAJESTY'S SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT.

SIR,

Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty.

Tithe Commission Office, 31st July 1850.

It is our duty to report to you the progress of the Commutation of Tithes in England and Wales to the close of the year 1849.

We have received notices that voluntary proceedings have commenced in 9,633 tithe districts; of these notices one was received during the year 1849. We have received 7,068 agreements, and confirmed 6,776; of these six have been received and nine confirmed during the year 1849.

6,753 notices for making awards have been issued, of which 134 were issued during the year 1849.

We have received 5,356 drafts of compulsory awards, and confirmed 5,042; of these 203 have been received, and 330 have been confirmed, during the year

1849.

We have received 11,104 apportionments, and confirmed 10,883; and of these 449 have been received, and 498 confirmed during the year 1849.

In 11,818 tithe districts, as will be seen from the above statement, the rentcharges to be hereafter paid have been finally established by confirmed agreements or confirmed awards.

We have in our possession agreements and drafts of awards as yet unconfirmed, which will include 606 additional tithe districts, and make a total, when completed, of 12,424 districts in which the tithes will have been commuted.

507 altered apportionments were made by the Tithe Commissioners up to the 31st of December 1849, of which 377 were confirmed.

At that date exchanges of glebe lands were effected in 298 places, and 41 such exchanges were in progress.

At the close of 1849 we had confirmed 10,927 distinct mergers of tithes. These operations have brought us within sight of the close of our labours. The Tithe Act will expire at the end of the next session of Parliament; by that time we have reason to believe that all the rent-charges will be fixed, and that of the apportionments only a fragmentary portion will remain unfinished, most of them for small sums which the parties will probably ultimately redeem. The progress of these redemptions, however, we find slow and difficult, partly from the inertness of the parties, partly from the obstinacy of a few persons who refuse to redeem their own small rent-charge, and continue to expose the remaining payers to the expense of maps and apportionments.

Patience and diligence will, probably, accomplish the completion of most of these redemptions; some modified compulsion may ultimately be necessary for the remainder.

Obstinate litigation will, probably, prolong the completion of a few commutations till after the expiration of the Commission. They will be very few. When the purposes for which the Tithe Commission was instituted are substantially completed, there will remain a certain amount of business connected with the mass of commutations, which we feel it our duty to point out, because it must be provided for.

Of this a part will exist permanently, a part will be temporary.

The temporary will be the sales of tithe barns and farm buildings rendered useless by the commutation, the defining and setting out glebes where their precise position and boundaries are unknown.

The taxation of the bills of valuers and agents, and the giving legal authority and power to collect them.

But some powers will be wanted of a more permanent nature.

These will relate

1st. To the custody and use of the apportionments and maps; of deeds, correspondence, and minutes of evidence, which together already amount to between 40,000 and 50,000 deeds and documents, counting as only one the files of papers and correspondence which relate to each separate tithe district.

In the case of transfers of property by death or sales, these documents are already very constantly consulted by attorneys and agents.

2ndly. These permanent powers will relate to re-apportionments on the division of estates.

3rdly. To mergers when lands and rent-charges now held separately may come into the same hands.

4thly. To exchanges of rent-charges for lands intended to form glebes. 5thly. To the creation of extraordinary charges for hops, market gardens, and orchards in new districts.

6thly. To the future redemption of small rent-charges.

We submit these facts to you, Sir, because, before the close of the next session of the Legislature, Her Majesty's Government will probably think it advisable to take into consideration the most efficient mode of providing in future for the public business here pointed out.