144 Two-PENNY TRASH; 1ST DECEMBER, 1830. no other remedy; and, gentlemen, that you will resolve to apply this remedy, and leave the landlord and parson and tax-gatherer to get what they can of the remainder is the urgent advice of Your Friend, And most obedient servant, MR. COBBETT'S PUBLICATIONS. THE HISTORY OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION. Thinking that this work, which has been translated into, and published in, all the languages, and in all the nations ot Europe, and in the republics of North and South America, deserved to be put into a fine book, I published about two years ago a large edition in TWO ROYAL OCTAVO VOLUMES, the paper and print very fine and costly, with marginal references, or abstracts, and with a copious and complete index, making a really fine library book, sold at one pound eleven and six-pence, instead of the eight shillings, for which the small duodecimo edition in two volumes was and is sold. I was out in my estimate: I did not consider that the quantity of piety and justice and sense was not always in a direct proportion to the length of purse; and that while the cheap edition was, as it is, continually in great demand, the dear edition remained on hand, or at least went off mnch more slowly than things must move to be agreeable to my taste. I have, therefore, resolved to quicken the motion of this edition by selling THESE TWO ROYAL OCTAVO VOLUMES AT TEN SHILLINGS, only two shillings more than the price of the duodecimo volumes, making to myself a solemn promise never to publish a dear book again. These books, like my other books, may be had of all booksellers in town and country. ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN. This work is now completed, in fourteen numbers, price sixpence each. They make a very handsome volume, the print and paper being very good. Those gentlemen who have not got their sets complete are notified, that they may complete them by application at my shop, or to any bookseller in town or country; but the sooner they do this the better; for there will soon be no broken sets, and then their completion cannot take place. The sets may now be had complete, in boards, price 5s. A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GENERAL LAFAYETTE. Translated from the French by JAMES P. COBBETT. Just published, price ls. TOUR IN ITALY.-Just published, price 4s. 6d., extra boards, cloth backs, JOURNAL OF A TOUR IN ITALY, and also in part of FRANCE and SWITZERLAND; the route being from Paris, through Lyons, to Marseilles, and, thence, to Nice, Genoa, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Naples, and Mount Vesuvius; and by Rome, Terni, Perugia, Arezzo, Florence, Bologna, Ferrara, Padua, Venice, Verona, Milan, over the Alps by Mount St. Bernard, Geneva, and the Jura, back into France: the space of time being, from October 1828 to September 1829. Containing a description of the country, of the principal cities and their most striking curiosities; of the climate, soil, agriculture, horticulture, and products; of the prices of provisions and labour; and of the dresses and conditions of the people; and also some account of the laws and customs, civil and religious, and of the morals and demeanour of the inhabitants, in the several States. By JAMES P. COBBETT. Mills, Jowett, and Mills, Bolt Court, Fleet Street. LABOURERS OF ENGLAND; On the measures which ought to be adopted with regard to the Tithes, and with regard to the other property, commonly called Church-Property. MY FRIENDS, Kensington, 26th December, 1830. I PERCEIVE that there is a PARSON at a parish in Norfolk, who has been endeavouring to persuade the labourers that he is their friend, and that the farmers are their enemies. He has circulated, in a hand-bill, the following statement. Others of the parsons have published handbills, calling upon you to believe, that the tithes are good things for you. But let me desire you to read the handbill of the Norfolk-parson. It is in the following words : LONDON: Published by the Author, 11, Bolt-court, Fleet-street; and sold by all Booksellers. H "To the Poor Inhabitants of Surlingham.-I have re"ceived from some of the farmers in Surlingham, a notice "to gather my tithes in kind, or else to agree to take in "future just what they shall please to offer. I cannot "submit to such an unjust demand, and therefore I am "compelled, in self-defence, to gather my tithes from this "time; and I hereby make it known to you, that on and "after Monday, the 20th of December, it is my intention to "distribute as a gift, amongst the poor and deserving "families, all the eggs, milk, pigs, poultry, and fruit, "which shall in future belong to me as the small tithes "arising upon the several occupations of Messrs. Samuel "Barnes, Gibbs Murrell, R. G. Rudd, John Gent, Robert "High, John Newman, sen., John Newman, jun., James "Smith, and Thomas Middleton. I was sorry, for the sake "of the poor, that some of you met at the Ferry-house in an unlawful manner, and there did hinder the payment "of my tithes; but I have no doubt that you were misled "into that dangerous conduct, and made tools of by "others to serve their own selfish purposes; for I cannot "believe any of the poor in Surlingham are my enemies, "to whom, whether in sickness or health, I have always "tried to be a friend. "W. COLLETT, "Rector and Vicar of Surlingham. "Dec. 11, 1830." I dare say, that the "poor inhabitants of Surlingham" understood all this very well! I dare say, that they saw, that such a trick was to be despised; that they asked how the parson never came to make such an offer before; but would they not ask also, why he did not give them some of the calves, lambs, wool, potatoes, turnips and corn, as well as the milk, eggs, pigs, and fruit? In short, they would see, because they must see, that this was a work of spite, and not of charity. But it is not this pitiful part of the tithes that I want to see taken away from the parsons and bishops: I want to see the whole taken away: the tithes, the church-lands, and all other property held by the clergy in virtue of their clerical functions and offices. I want to see it all taken away by LAW. It was given to them by law; it is held by law; and it may be taken away by law: that which the law has given, the law may take away; otherwise we should be living in a strange state of things. Such an important measure is, however, not to be adopted without regard to the justice and necessity of it. Such a measure would take 'property from a great number of persons; it would make many low who are now high; it would compel to labour for their bread many who now do nothing and yet live in luxury; it would compel many who now ride in coaches, not only to walk on foot, but to work in company with those whom they seem to look upon as made for their pleasure and sport. Yet, such a measure ought not to be adopted in a hasty manner; due consideration ought to be had in the case; it ought, before adopted, to be proved to be just and necessary; and, as I am decidedly for the measure, and would cause it to be adopted, if I had the power, I look upon myself as bound to show that it is just and necessary. Legal I know it must be allowed to be; but that which is legal may not always be just. Some have denied that it would be legal; and, therefore, the legality shall be proved first. 1 Now, my friends, I have to show you, first, that it is legal, that it is agreeable with the laws of our country, to take this property from the parsons by Act of Parliament, 2, I have to show you, that it is just to do it. 3. I have to show you, that the measure is necessary to the prosperity, peace, and safety of the nation. And, my friends, if I prove all these to you, it will be your bounden duty to lend your aid in causing this measure to be adopted; and to be active and zealous too, in lending that aid; for, as you will by-and-by see, it is, after all, the labouring-people who suffer most from the tithes, and who, in fact, pay the whole of them in the end. FIRST, then, to show you that it is agreeable to the laws of the country to take away the tithes and other property, commonly called church-property, I have only to state to you what has been done, in this respect, in former times. I shall have, further on, to speak of the origin and the intention and the former application of tithes, when I come to the justice of my proposition: at present I shall speak merely of the legality of the thing. We know that when a law has been passed by king and parliament, that which is ordered, or allowed, by such law, is legal in the technical sense of the word. If a nest of villains were bloody enough to pass a law to put men to death for refusing to live upon potatoes; or to cause the breasts of the young women to be cut off; or to cause them to be disqualified for breeding; or to have their bodies exposed to public view, to be poked and groped about and chopped to pieces, and then to be flung to the dogs, as the carcass of Jezabel was: if laws like these were to be passed, all the world would say, that they were no laws at all, and, of course, that they ought not to be regarded as precedents. But very different is the case here, as I am now about to prove. The whole of this property, parsons' tithes, lay-tithes, college and bishops' estates, originally were held in trust by the CATHOLIC CLERGY, for certain public purposes, of which I shall speak under the next head. But, in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Elizabeth, and James I., all these tithes and other property, both in England and Ireland, were, by Acts of Parliament, taken away from the Catholic clergy, and given, some to Protestant parsons, |