Tithes Once More!
A few days since a scene presented itself in this town, which carried back our
thoughts to the olden times of memorable
Rathcormack.
The bayonet flashed once more before our eyes — the withering volley strewed
our countrymen — and the widow’s wail again over her murdered son rung in our
ears. The scene to which we allude, was the sale of property of a respected
townsman — Joseph Benjamin Grubb, Esq., a
member of the Society of Friends — under an execution at the suit of a
clerical claimant of this odious tax. Too sagacious to be deluded by a change
of name, Mr. Grubb felt the same conscientious
objections to the payment of the tithe rent charge which he was wont to
entertain with regard to tithes; and according to the usage of his sect,
allowed his carriage, together with a horse, harness,
&c., to be
sold at a price far below their value, rather than violate his principles in
regard to this tax. Let not his countrymen, either, be deceived. The baneful
tithe system is neither dead nor sleeping, and it is time they should open
their eyes to the real nature of the relief which our legislators pretend they
have afforded in regard to it. We are told that twenty-five per
cent. has been taken off — away with such
sophistry! By an ill-disguised bribe to that amount, an attempt has been made
to purchase the submission of the Irish people to the residue of an impost, to
the whole of which they, on principle, object. It was not for a
paltry pecuniary saving that such arduous — often, alas! bloody struggles were
made by them. In the memorable language of
the great Doctor Doyle,
“their hatred of tithes will be as lasting as their love of
justice.” We cannot conclude without expressing our surprise at what appears
to us to be a singular piece of inconsistency on the part of a great portion
of the members of the Society of Friends in this country, in relation to the
tithe impost. Entertaining, as all the members of that body allege they do,
conscientious objections to the payment of this tax, they, nevertheless, with
but few exceptions, refuse to join in the constitutional efforts of their
countrymen for its abolition, and seem to think that, by adopting a system of
passive resistance (as they term it) — in other words, by allowing their goods
to be distrained, and sold for one-half of their actual value, whilst the
tithe claimant is not a farthing’s worth the worse off, their scruples ought
to be completely lulled. If our Quaker friends think it wrong to put their
hands into their pockets, and deliver thereout to the tithe claimant the
amount of his demand, by what manner of reasoning do they reconcile to
themselves the quietly allowing him to put in his own hand and help himself,
for to this their system of “passive resistance” virtually amounts.
―Tipperary Free Press
