(ii.) The principle of the Tithe Commutation Acts (1836-186o) is to make permanent and general the system which had been only partial or temporary (in most cases), and to substitute a corn rent (known as a tithe rent charge), permanent in quantity and payable in money, but fluctuating in value, for all tithes, whether payable under a modus or composition or not, which may have heretofore belonged either to ecclesiastical or lay persons (Philli more, Eccles. Law, ii. 1160. Commissioners (now the board of agriculture) are appointed to execute the acts; a rent charge on all lands liable to tithes at the time of the passing of the first act is substituted for those tithes, of which the gross amount is ascertained either by voluntary parochial agreement, or, failing that, by compulsory award confirmed by the commissioners ; and the value of the tithes is fixed in the latter case by their average value in the particular parish during the seven years preceding Christmas 1835, without deduction for parochial or county and other rates, charges and assessments falling on tithes, the rent charge being liable to all the charges to which tithes were liable. The rent charge is apportioned on all the lands liable in the parish, and such apportionment may be altered or a new one made; and the value of the rent charge is fixed at the value (at the time of confirmation of the apportionment) of the number of imperial bushels and decimal parts of bushels of wheat, barley and oats as the same would have purchased at the prices so ascertained by the advertisement (of prices of corn) to be published immediately after the passing of the act 6 and 7 Will. IV. c. 71, in case one third part of such rent charge had been invested in the purchase of wheat, one-third part in the purchase of barley, and the remaining third part in the purchase of oats; and the respective quantities of wheat, barley, and oats so ascertained shall be stated in the draft of every apportionment. The price at which the conversion from money into corn is to be made at the time of confirmation of such apportionment, according to the provisions of the said act, are 7s. old. for a bushel of wheat, 3s. II d. for a bushel of barley, and 2S. 9d. for a bushel of oats (7 Will. IV. and I Vict. c. 69) ; the average price of the bushel of each grain is now computed by substituting for the "advertisement" above the statement of the septennial average price of the imperial bushel of British corn made under the Corn Returns Act, 1882; and thus the value of the statutory amount of corn is now fixed for each year at the beginning thereof at the average price of the three components of corn for the previous seven years.
The method of recovering rent charge under the Commutation Acts was distraint where the rent charge is in arrear for 21 days after the half-yearly days of payment, and entry and possession with power of letting if it is in arrear for 4o days. This power of distress and entry extends to all lands occupied by the occupier of the land whose tithe is in arrear as owner or under the same landlord; but no action lies against the owner or occupier of the land personally. If a tenant quits leaving tithe unpaid, the land
lord may pay it and recover it from him. The tithe-owner cannot recover damages from the tithe-payer for not cultivating the land. Special provision is made for the recovery of the rent charge in railway lands.
The act of 1891 shifted the responsibility from the occupier to the landowner by making the latter solely responsible. The landowner became liable to pay the rent charge in spite of any contract to the contrary between him and the occupier; the rent charge if in arrear for three months is recoverable by an order of the county court, whatever its amount may be; if the land is occupied by the owner, the order is executed by the same means as those prescribed in the Tithe Acts ; but if it is not, then by a receiver being appointed for the rents and profits of the land. Appeal lies to the High Court on points of law; and a remission of rent charge may be claimed when its amount exceeds two thirds of the annual value of the land. The act does not apply to the particular kinds of rent charges mentioned above.
The Tithe Acts do not apply to the city of London, which has always had its own peculiar customary payment regulated by episcopal constitutions of 13 Hen. III. and 13 Ric. II. and statutes of Henry VIII. confirming a decree of the privy council, under which the rate of tithes was fixed at Old. for every los. rent, and at 2S. 9d. for every 20S. rent of houses, shops and the like by the year. Provision was made by statute after the fire of London for certain annual tithes to be paid in parishes whose churches had been destroyed. Parliament in 1936 passed an act for the extinction of tithes.