ann NEHER

“

[3 346]

the fruits of the ground are ſubjed to tithe, and ſo to be accounted rent in the va- luation of tithes 3; for as orchards produce no fruits that are ſubjects either of par- ſonage or vicarage tithes, the rent due by the tenant for an orchard is not to be computed in the valuing of the tithe. <« 2d/y, Where the proprietor draws annual profits from the ſale of ſubje&s which are more properly part of the land than of the fruits, ſuch profits are not con- ſidered as rent in the valuation of the tithe, becauſe tithes are a proportion of the fruits only. Thus neither lead-ore brought up from a ſhaft, nor ſtones dug out of a quarry, nor clay out of a pit for making brick or earthen ware, are titheable, becauſe they cannot with any propriety be called Iruits.=-A moſs is deemed to be Pars fundi; and, of courſe, is not a titheable ſubject. « 3dly, The expence of culture, though heavier than ordinary, if it be ännual, ought not to be deduted from the rent. No dedudion is therefore to be allowed on account of dung, though the tenant ſhould purchaſe it at a high price from the inhabitants of a neighbouring village; for no rent can be produced without the ex- pence of ſervants, cattle, manure, utenßſils, farm-houſes,&. And as the tack- duty payable by tenants is, upon the account of this expence, made leſs than it otherwiſe would be(which was without doubt in the eye of the legiſlature when they fixed the rate of tithe to a fifth part of the.rent), the dedudting of that ex- pence alſo, in the valuation of the tithe, would be in effe&X to deduce it twice, to the diſadvantage of the titular. « 4/hly, Where the proprietor has improved or raiſed his rent, the improved or new rent, if it had not been impoſed more than ſeven years before bringing the ation of valuation, was not reckoned in the computation of rent by the older praQice; probably from the uncertainty, whether the lands would continue able to bear that addition: but, by later decifions, ſuch part of it is accounted rent as the commiſlioners of tithes, from the circumſtances of the caſe, judge equitable. Where the improved rent was made at an uncommon expence, on lands which would otherwiſe have produced little or no rent(e. g- by draining a lake), the proprietor was allowed a reaſonable abatement on that account, though the drained grounds ſhould appear to be truly worth the rent that the proprietor had put on them, in his leaſe to the tenant. Grounds gained from the ſea, by expenſive walls or fences, are not ſubje& to the leaſt proportion of tithe.--Mill-rent muſt be alſo deduded from the rental, becauſe the profits ariing from the mills are merely in- duſtrial, and ſo not titheable. « The general rule in which all the others relative to this head muſt centre, 15, That where the lands are in the manurance of the proprietor, the tithe is a fifth of that rent which they are truly worth, and might have paid, had they been rented to a tenant; and when they are aCually let, it is a fifth of the rent which they now pay, and may pay in all time coming, in conſideration of the fruits. « For carrying the decrees-arbitral, in all their branches, into full execution under the authority of a proper court, a commiſſion was at the ſame time appointed by 1633, with power to the commiſlioners to value and ſell tithes, and to name ſub- commiſſioners for valuing them over all the pariſhes and preſbyteries of the king- dom; to receive reports from the ſub-commiſlioners that had been fir named by s the