LOCAL RATE 
 
 IN 
 
 ENGLAND 
 
 EDWIN -CAN NAN
 
 STUDIES IN ECONOMICS AND TOLITICAL SCIENCE. 
 
 No. 1 in the series of monograph* by writers connected with 
 the London School of Economics and Political Science. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF LOCAL RATES 
 IN ENGLAND
 
 THE 
 
 HISTORY OF LOCAL RATES 
 IN ENGLAND 
 
 IN RELATION TO THE PROPER DISTRIBUTION 
 OF THE BURDEN OF TAXATION 
 
 EDWIN CANNAN, M.A.. LLP. 
 
 prokf.ssor ok poi.rnc.vL economy in tiik 
 
 UNIVERSITY OK LONDON. 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 ICDCH KNLAROED. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 P. S. KING & SON, 
 
 ORCHARD HOUSE, 
 
 WESTMINSTER. 
 
 1912.
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The whole of the first edition of this book, published 
 in 1896, with a few corrections and the omission of 
 the last five pages, reappears in the first five chapters 
 of the present edition. To the original title, " The 
 History of Local Hates in England," I have now added 
 the words, "in relation to the proper distribution of the 
 burden of taxation," to indicate the particular limita- 
 tion of the scope of the work which I have always had 
 in my mind. 
 
 The purpose of the five original chapters and of the 
 lectures founded on them which were delivered at the 
 London School of Economics at the end of 1895, soon 
 after the foundation of that institution, was to explain 
 why and how local taxation in England came to be 
 confined to immovable property. 
 
 After that was settled in 1840, efforts soon began 
 to be made to shift some of the expenses borne by 
 local rates on to national funds. The powerful 
 agrarian interest, smarting under the loss of Protec- 
 tion, supported these efforts, and a struggle between 
 those who are regarded as predominantly local rate- 
 payers and those who are regarded as predominantly 
 national taxpayers set in, and has continued to our 
 own time. In the sixth chapter I have endeavoured 
 to give a sketch of the results of this struggle which 
 shall be accurate and sufficient without being over- 
 loaded with detail. This is an extraordinarily difficult
 
 vi Preface 
 
 task. There are probably not a dozen persons in 
 England who could pass an examination on the prin- 
 ciples which determine the distribution between the 
 various localities of the proceeds of the national taxes 
 allocated to them by the Local Government Act, 
 1888, and the Acts which have followed it ; there are 
 probably several thousand practical local administra- 
 tors who believe that if the cost of paying and clothing 
 the local police force is increased, the locality will 
 recover half the cost from the imperial exchequer 
 which has not been true ever since 1888. 
 
 In the first edition I scarcely discussed the merits 
 of the system of rating, and indeed rather rashly 
 expressed the opinion that the inferences to be drawn 
 from the history were obvious. As it turned out, 
 many readers drew inferences which seem to me 
 neither obvious nor correct. In particular, some of 
 them appeared to draw the astonishing conclusion 
 that a system which grew up, as the phrase is, " of 
 itself," that is, was established by the practice of 
 thousands of communities, and their experience 
 through several centuries, must necessarily be bad, 
 and ought forthwith to be abolished in favour of some 
 fanciful modernised "restoration" of the primitive 
 arrangements which it gradually displaced. I have 
 therefore, in the seventh chapter, tried to answer the 
 question whether the existing system fits in with our 
 ideas of justice, and in the eighth chapter I have 
 discussed at greater length its advantages from an 
 economic point of view. I fear that some readers 
 will be shocked to find that I can speak as favourably 
 as I do of an institution which causes so much grumb- 
 ling. I would ask them to remember that it is
 
 Preface 
 
 vn 
 
 impossible to make omelettes without breaking eggs. 
 No single tax ever raised as much money as local 
 rates do in this country at the present time, and 
 though the grumbling is great in the aggregate, it is 
 probably less per pound sterling raised than the 
 grumbling against any other tax, except perhaps 
 some few which are well-concealed from their ultimate 
 payers by being administered in small doses wrapped 
 up in prices. It should be remembered too that a 
 grumble about rates is for the most part merely a 
 compendious method of complaining of the extrava- 
 gance and mismanagement of the particular local 
 authority whose operations the grumbler has oppor- 
 tunities for watching closely. The spirit of partisan- 
 ship in which national politics are almost always 
 discussed, joined with the alternation of power 
 between the two parties, prevents the national taxes 
 from being treated, in the same easy manner, as a 
 measure of the incompetence of the national 
 government. 
 
 Members of local councils often speak as if there was 
 a general demand for a transference of expense from 
 local rates to national taxes. It is only natural that 
 they should do so, the magnitude of the rates being 
 the measure of their own unpopularity ; the strange 
 thing is that politicians should be apparently so ready 
 to l>elieve them. Many an assembly of ratepayers 
 which would pass with acclamation a simple resolution 
 in favour of the relief of rates would melt away in 
 depression if this resolution were coupled with another 
 stating exactly the new taxation which would in fact 
 be caused by the necessity of providing for the relief. 
 Local councils themselves might hesitate in putting
 
 viii Preface 
 
 forward demands for relief if they realised that 
 increase of taxes is not the only probable consequence 
 of an immediate relief of rates. The English people 
 are said to have bought their liberties chiefly through 
 the municipalities but if the demand for a transfer- 
 ence of expense from the localities to the State is 
 successful, they are likely to sell them again, and to 
 sell them for a mess of pottage. It is true that the 
 Government offices, with perhaps one or two excep- 
 tions, are sufficiently intelligent to distrust their own 
 capacity to administer the whole of England in detail, 
 and honest enough not to wish to do what they know 
 they will do badly. But unsought powers may be 
 thrust upon them by politicians who despair of moving 
 local councils in what they believe to be the proper 
 direction either by their arguments or their votes. 
 The unofficial bureaucrat is abroad in the land, 
 bringing before men's eyes glowing pictures of a 
 country governed by experts who will create efficiency 
 in every branch of national life regardless of expense. 
 The New Chadwickianity which is being preached is not 
 founded on a crude system of centralisation involving 
 the disappearance of the organs of local self-govern- 
 ment, nor on coercion enforced by reluctant law courts. 
 It leaves all the old forms intact and proposes to 
 lay no rude hands on the persons of recalcitrant 
 councillors. It is founded on the ingenious expedient 
 of inducing the nation to allow itself to be taxed to 
 supply funds which are to be redistributed between 
 the various localities according to general regulations 
 laid down by parliament, one of which is that the 
 locality must satisfy the inspectors of some Govern- 
 ment department that the service in respect of which
 
 Preface ix 
 
 the grant is made is " efficient." By this expedient 
 the citizen delivers himself bound hand and foot into 
 the custody of the official expert, who is able, by 
 declining to regard the service as efficient, to compel 
 him to raise more money in rates under penalty of 
 " losing the grant." It is seldom that we meet an 
 expert who does not think that more money ought to 
 be spent in his own particular department : the local 
 authority or the individual ratepayer who hopes for 
 a reduction of rates from " efficiency grants " is only 
 to be likened to the proverbial donkey induced to 
 proceed by a wisp of hay hung in front of his nose. 
 
 " What matter," some will say, " if rates and taxes 
 increase, provided efficiency is obtained ? " Of course 
 if efficiency is to be judged simply by amount expended, 
 this plan of giving control of the purse to experts in 
 each department is an excellent one. But if it is to 
 be measured by more reasonable standards, we may 
 well doubt. The means of the community are limited, 
 and a certain proportion between the different kinds 
 of expense, both public and private, must be observed 
 in order to make these limited means go as far as 
 possible. There is nothing in the scheme to provide 
 for this requirement, and if we suppose the difficulty 
 to be got over by the establishment of real parlia- 
 mentary control of expenditure, we have still to prove 
 that the rule of the experts will be beneficent in each 
 of the departments taken separately. 
 
 Doubtless expert opinion is exceedingly valuable, and 
 nothing can be more desirable than that the national 
 government should maintain an adequate force of 
 inspectors, drawn from various classes and trained in 
 various institutions, and that these inspectors should
 
 x Preface 
 
 be constantly advising and criticising local elected 
 authorities both privately and in particular reports 
 published in the locality concerned as well as in 
 general reports which appear in bulky blue books 
 inaccessible to the ordinary citizen. From my own 
 experience of ten years service on the council of a 
 small county-borough, ending in 1908, I feel sure that 
 the activity of the national government might be 
 greatly extended in this direction with immense 
 advantage. But the same experience convinces me 
 that the more the inspectors and the departments 
 represented by them have to rely on argument and 
 persuasion, and the less they have absolute'power of 
 control the better is the work likely to be performed. 
 Perhaps I may be allowed to give an example of the 
 kind of dispute which often occurs between local 
 authorities and the experts in Whitehall who write in 
 the name of bogus " Boards." During the last great 
 epidemic of smallpox it was recognised that the disease 
 was gradually creeping from the seat of government 
 towards our county-borough and we desired to pre- 
 pare for the onslaught. We proposed to take down 
 an already existing iron building which was in an 
 unsuitable situation and put it, with an entirely new 
 one, in an isolated place to which no objection could 
 possibly be taken. The expenditure was obviously 
 capital expenditure, and therefore in the ordinary 
 course the council applied to the Local Government 
 Board for leave to borrow the sum required, spreading 
 repayment over a few years. The official who for this 
 purpose personified the Board, however, being an 
 expert in building, did not think wood and iron good 
 enough for smallpox patients ; the iron would rust in
 
 Preface xi 
 
 time, and the wood might catch lire, and then the 
 patients would have to be carried out and tents 
 hurriedly erected for them ; he would sanction nothing 
 but brick or stone. Fortunately, the central control 
 here was weak. The council already had the land 
 (though it was acquired for another purpose) and 
 the expenditure proposed only amounted to about 
 twopence in the pound ; some slight risks of illegality 
 were run, and the buildings were put up promptly. 
 Before they had been finished a week the first case 
 of smallpox occurred, and they were soon well- 
 occupied. They have neither rusted away nor been 
 burnt. If the expert had possessed real control, a 
 brick building would have been finished about six 
 months after the outbreak was entirely over unless, 
 of course, the absence of any buildings had caused it 
 to last much longer than it did. Since then the whole 
 number of cases of smallpox has amounted, I think, 
 to about a twentieth of those which occurred during 
 the outbreak, so that the brick buildings, costing 
 several times as much as the iron, would up to now 
 have done less than a twentieth of the work done 
 by the iron buildings. That is the measure of the 
 efficiency which would have been secured in this 
 instance by central control, and the instance is by no 
 means exceptional. The universal desire of the expert 
 to have the best possible article regardless of time 
 and cost does not lead to prudent conduct. No one 
 of experience and common sense in private life places 
 the control of his expenditure in any single depart- 
 ment in the hands of the expert in that department. 
 He hears what the expert has to say, and then decides 
 for himself.
 
 xii Preface 
 
 The advocates of the so-called " efficiency grant " 
 system rely largely on the experience furnished by 
 the old grant of a proportion of the cost of county 
 and borough police forces pronounced " efficient " by 
 Home Office inspectors. Though the grant itself was 
 discontinued after 1888, the Home Office retains the 
 power of causing an equivalent deduction to be made 
 from the probate or estate duty grant if the police 
 are found inefficient, so that the central control given 
 by the old grant is still preserved. The whole pro- 
 gress effected in the last sixty years in the efficiency 
 of the county and borough police forces is attributed 
 to the working of this central control by grant. No 
 attention is drawn to the facts that the Metropolitan 
 Police, managed directly by the State with a rigid 
 parliamentary limit of total expenditure, is also 
 admired, and that the Corporation of the City of 
 London, which, with fine independence, never 
 demanded a share of the police grant with its accom- 
 paniment of central control, manages to maintain 
 what is usually described as the finest police force in 
 the world. Members of "Watch Committees must 
 smile at the idyllic picture of the annual inspection 
 drawn by the Minority on the recent Poor Law 
 Commission. The inspector can see whether buttons 
 are missing from tunics and whether the account- 
 books look in good order; he can even smell the 
 station cells. But he is not likely to know much 
 about the real efficiency of the force. It is true that 
 even in recent years scandals in some of the greatest 
 towns of the kingdom have occasionally led to a threat 
 that the pecuniary penalty which the Home Office 
 commands would be enforced, but this has happened
 
 Preface xiii 
 
 when the scandal had already been unearthed by local 
 public spirit, and when publicity was all that was 
 required to cause it to be speedily abated. 
 
 The Home Office yoke has been light, partly, per- 
 haps, because it cannot graduate the penalty accord- 
 ing to the supposed offence, but must exact the full 
 fine of half the cost of pay and clothing or nothing. 
 A much stronger and more important example of the 
 so-called " efficiency " grant is to be found in the 
 financial arrangements providing for education. Here 
 there is no question of giving or withholding the whole 
 of the State's contribution ; the grants are made piece- 
 meal, so that one portion can be withdrawn when the 
 'inspector is dissatisfied with one detail and another 
 when he is dissatisfied with another. This makes the 
 control far more powerful, and the power it gives has 
 been ruthlessly exercised. According to the theory 
 which I am criticising, education ought to be the best 
 of all our services, and it ought to be better in Eng- 
 land than anywhere else in the world. It is not usually 
 regarded as such. Capable local administrators may 
 well think twice before accepting an apparent relief 
 of local rates which is likely to be coupled with an 
 extension to other departments of a control like that 
 wielded by the inspectors and secretaries who exercise 
 the powers of the Board of Education. 
 
 I have not thought it necessary to follow the current 
 fashion of appending a bibliography or even a list of 
 authorities. The footnotes are sufficient to put the 
 reader on the track of further information when he 
 requires it. But it may perhaps be useful to say here 
 that Dr. J. Watson Grice's recent work, National and 
 Local Finance, contains a fuller history of the subject
 
 xiv Preface 
 
 of my sixth chapter and a valuable account of the 
 corresponding relations between the State and the 
 localities in France, Belgium and Prussia. It is to 
 be hoped Dr. Grice's example will be followed by 
 other inquirers, so that we may soon have better 
 knowledge than at present of the public administra- 
 tion of foreign countries. This might, at any rate, 
 shake the absurd self-satisfaction which makes us 
 pride ourselves that we are not, like the unfortunate 
 peoples of continental Europe, governed by a bureau- 
 cracy. A few months ago a distinguished continental 
 professor, who had been commissioned by his govern- 
 ment to inquire into local taxation abroad, assured me 
 that he, like others, had been brought up in the belief 
 that England was the home of local self-government, 
 but that he found that we enjoyed less of it than any 
 of the countries he knew. 
 
 EDWIN CANNAN. 
 
 London School of Economics and Political Science. 
 January, 1912.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Ancient Non-Statutory Kates to 1601 . . i 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Miscellaneous Statutory Rates to 1640 . 27 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 Poor-Law Rates to 160 i 54 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 The Poor-Rate since 1601 .... 78 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Assimilation' of other Rates to the Poor- 
 
 Ratk 102 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 The Local Ratepayer against the National 
 
 Taxpayer 152 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 The Equity of Local Rates . . . 159 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The Economy of Local Rates. . . . 173 
 
 INDEX 211
 
 HISTOEY OF LOCAL RATES 
 IN ENGLAND 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ANCIENT NON-STATUTORY RATES TO l6oi 
 
 Laborious students whose investigations have in- 
 terested scarcely any one but themselves have been 
 known to seek comfort in the assertion that truth 
 is valuable for its own sake. I do not believe that 
 this is the case. A great deal that- is true is not 
 worth knowing. The most inveterate bore is often 
 the most truthful of men. All history should, I think, 
 have some practical aim. Some moral, some lesson 
 or guidance, should be afforded by it. Even if this is 
 not true of all history, it is surely true with regard to 
 economic history. It would be absurd to study a 
 subject so dry, not to say so odious, as local rates 
 except with a view to practical aims. We do not 
 study such subjects from a love of truth in the 
 abstract or to while away a wet Sunday afternoon, 
 but because there are practical controversies about 
 them, and we hope that we may learn something 
 which may be of assistance in these controversies. 
 Recognising this frankly, I have tried to collect to- 
 gether in this and the next four chapters those facts 
 only which explain the origin and progress of the 
 
 A
 
 2 History of Local Rates 
 
 most characteristic feature of the English system of 
 local taxation the fact that it is levied on occupiers 
 in proportion to the annual value of the immovable 
 property they occupy. The sixth chapter deals 
 with the effort of those who thought themselves 
 peculiarly interested in local rates so to arrange 
 the relations of local and national finance that local 
 rates should bear as little and national taxes as much 
 of public expenses as possible. In the seventh and 
 eighth chapters I discuss the merits of the system 
 as it now exists. 
 
 Almost all the money raised by English local taxa- 
 tion at present is raised either by means of the poor- 
 rate or by means of other rates which, though they 
 have names of their own, are in reality nothing but 
 additions to the poor-rate. It is consequently natural 
 for the legal mind, which never goes behind a statute, 
 to explain the fact that occupiers are rated in respect 
 of certain property by a simple reference to the act 
 of 1 60 1, on which the poor-rate is based to this day. 
 In June 1894 the deputy-chairman, of the London 
 County Council, in examination before the House 
 of Lords Committee on Betterment, ventured to 
 suggest that the reason people are rated on property 
 is " because it is the best criterion of the measure of 
 the ease with which a person can bear rating." Lord 
 Salisbury remarked that this was " rather a formidable 
 doctrine to lay down," whereupon the present Lord 
 Chancellor said, " The reason you are rated is because 
 the act of Elizabeth says you shall be." 1 But, first, 
 
 1 Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Town 
 Improvements [Betterment), No. 292 of 1894, Minutes of Evidence, 
 Questions 201 1-14.
 
 Non-Statutory Rates to i Co i 3 
 
 as the witness did not fail to point out, there must 
 have been reasons for the act of Elizabeth; and, 
 secondly, the act does not, as a matter of fact, say 
 you shall be rated in the way you are rated. It says 
 that the money required for poor relief in each parish 
 shall be raised "by taxation of every inhabitant, 
 parson, vicar, or other, and of every occupier of lands, 
 houses, tithes impropriate, propriations of tithes, coal- 
 mines, or saleable underwoods." x This surely is far 
 from being a correct and adequate description of our 
 present poor-rate. It is incorrect, because by no 
 means every inhabitant, whether parson, vicar, or 
 other, is taxed. It is inadequate, because occupiers of 
 lands, houses, tithes, coal-mines, and saleable under- 
 woods, are taxed on a peculiar and minutely regulated 
 basis the annual value of the thing occupied 
 whereas the words of the act say nothing about the 
 basis of the taxation, and would by themselves cover 
 an income-tax, a poll-tax, and many other taxes. 
 The reference to the act of 1601 thus takes us a very 
 little way. We want to know how and why that act 
 came to say what it does say, how and why its words 
 have come to be interpreted in the way they are 
 interpreted, and how and why all other rates have 
 been swallowed up by the particular rate established 
 under it. 
 
 A preliminary question has to bo answered. What 
 is a rate ? A kind of tax, no doubt ; but what kind ? 
 From the phrase "rates and taxes," and the common 
 grumble, " It isn't the taxes, it's the rates that I 
 
 1 The words have been misquoted in Butt, Poor-Laws, ist edition, 
 and perhaps elsevfticrc (see Cowper, Reports, p. 559), "other" being 
 inserted before "occupier," and the sense thus greatly altered.
 
 n/ 
 
 4 History of Local Rates 
 
 complain of," it Avould be tempting to conclude that 
 " rates " is merely another name for local taxes. 
 Doubtless, "rates" are now practically synonymous 
 with local taxes in England. But this is a mere 
 accident. If a man has nothing but ducks, his 
 poultry and his ducks are the same thing, but it does 
 not follow that poultry is merely another name for 
 ducks. It is only a few years since the London coal- 
 duty was abolished, and that was certainly a local tax 
 which no one would call a rate. In other countries 
 local taxes not of the nature of rates flourish exten- 
 sively. The real difficulty is not to find a local tax 
 which is not a rate, but to find any tax which is not 
 local. A New York State tax is local in relation to 
 the United States, and so is a Prussian national tax in 
 relation to the German Empire. A true imperialist 
 would regard the insular imposts which we call " im- 
 perial taxes" as local ; and if British and New Zealand 
 taxes are local, there seems no reason why German 
 and Austrian imperial taxes should not be looked 
 upon as local. Moreover, while it is easy for a tax to 
 be local without being a rate, it is at least logically 
 conceivable for a rate to be world-wide. 
 
 The real difference between a rate and a tax which 
 is not a rate appears to he entirely in the manner 
 in which the financial problem of raising money is 
 approached. In the case of a tax, the taxing authority 
 decides that individuals shall make particular pay- 
 ments on particular occasions, and the aggregate sum 
 it receives depends on how much these payments add 
 up to. In the case of a rate, the taxing authority 
 decides how much money it wants in the aggregate, 
 and this amount is raised by apportioning the pay-
 
 Non-Statutory Rates to 1601 5 
 
 ment of it between the various ratepayers in ac- 
 cordance with some definite standard made for the 
 occasion or already in existence. Thus, in the case 
 of a tax the procedure is by way of addition, and in 
 the case of a rate by way of division ; in the case of a 
 tax the taxing authority hopes it will get a certain 
 sum, in the case of a rate it knows that it will get it. 
 All our national taxes would be turned into rates if 
 Parliament merely decided that so many millions 
 were to be raised from beer, so many from death- 
 duties, so many from income-tax, and so on, and left 
 it to the Treasury to impose the rates necessary in 
 order to raise the sums prescribed. 
 
 In these days the yield of a tax can generally be 
 estimated with such accuracy that the distinction is 
 not of practical importance. It can make no differ- 
 ence whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer says, 
 " An income-tax of 8d. will produce so many millions, 
 which is what we require," or "We want so many 
 millions, and that will necessitate an income-tax of 
 8cL" But when all estimates of the yield of taxation 
 were wild guesswork, and taxes had an extraordinary 
 capacity for falling far below the estimates, the differ- 
 ence between the two methods was of the greatest 
 moment. In the case of a large area like that of the 
 whole country, it would evidently be impracticable to 
 adopt the rate method by apportioning the payment 
 of a lump sum among all the taxpayers. But in the 
 case of an area small enough for the taxpayers to be 
 known to the taxing authority and each other, and to 
 feel a common interest in raising the sum required, 
 the rate is the simplest and most obvious method 
 of meeting common expenses that can possibly be
 
 6 History of Local Rates 
 
 conceived. If, then, we were to argue on eighteenth- 
 century principles, from an " original state of things " 
 in which independent men began to combine in 
 society, we should probably be inclined to place the 
 origin of local rates, either in money or services, 
 almost as early as the institution of civil government. 
 To do this, however, would be a mistake. Many 
 of the most expensive institutions now maintained 
 by local rates had no existence in the Middle Ages. 
 Even the fifteenth-century citizen had not to provide 
 for compulsory education, purification of sewage, street 
 lamps, or police in the sense in which we now use 
 the word. There were always roads, of course, but 
 what were those roads like ? Those who have con- 
 tended that English roads were good in the Middle 
 Ages must, I think, have done so without much per- 
 sonal acquaintance with the roads of to-day. You 
 may travel many thousand miles and not find the 
 smallest thing to suggest that the road was what we 
 should consider tolerable centuries ago, and yet you 
 will see vast quantities of evidence to show that it 
 was thoroughly bad in fact, not what a townsman 
 would now call a road at all. For ninety-nine miles 
 out of a hundred it must have been what rustics now 
 call a " soft " or " green " road, in contradistinction to 
 the " hard " or metalled road of the modern highway 
 authority. 1 It keeps along the hillside regardless of 
 gradient, because some embanking and draining would 
 have been necessary on the flat land. It is sinuous 
 
 1 Ploughing up the highway was an offence known to the law. In 
 1286 the commonalty of Cambridge were charged with ploughing 
 up the highway to Hinton marsh. C. H. Cooper, Annals of Cam- 
 bridge, JS42, vol. i. p. 61.
 
 Non- Statutory Rates to 1601 7 
 
 owing to the effort to avoid every soft place; and 
 where the adjacent landowners have observed the 
 eighth commandment, it is excessively wide between 
 the hedges, because on a " green " road the traffic is 
 constantly endeavouring to find a place where previous 
 passengers have not destroyed the surface. Every 
 improvement obviously dates from the turnpike days. 
 If we wish to picture an English road in the Middle 
 Ages, we should think of what we now call a mere 
 "track" across an open heath, or imagine a wide, 
 little-used country road, with the narrow metalled 
 strip in the middle entirely removed. 
 
 The cost of public works was to some extent 
 defrayed by the benevolence of private individuals 
 and religious houses. Testators bequeathed property 
 for building or maintaining bridges, as in the case 
 of the Bridge House estates of the city of London. 
 Fraternities of philanthropists existed for the special 
 purpose of making the ways easier and safer for 
 travellers; the causeway out of Abingdon across the 
 flood-land of the Thames still attests their activity. 
 The preamble of an act of 1554 (1 Mar., st. 3, c. 6) 
 tells us not only that the road between Gloucester 
 and Bristol, one of the most important cross-roads 
 in the kingdom, had so fallen into decay that many 
 passengers had lost their lives on it, but also that 
 it has been formerly "well repaired by the devo- 
 tion of divers good people." 
 
 The remainder of what we regard as the expenses 
 of local government, so far as they existed, wero 
 borne on the broad back of the "feudal system." 
 Consider the first general highway act, which was 
 passed as late as 1555 (2 & 3 P. & M., c. 8), remember-
 
 8 History of Local Rates 
 
 ing that it is to be looked on as an attempt to secure 
 and extend what was regarded as the best custom, 
 rather than as an extravagant innovation. It orders 
 the constables and churchwardens to call together the 
 parishioners once a year, and elect two honest persons 
 to be surveyors or orderers of the works for amend- 
 ment of the highways in their parish leading to any 
 market town. The constables and churchwardens are 
 to appoint four days for the amending of the high- 
 ways, and " shall openly, in the church the next Sun- 
 day after Easter, give knowledge of the same four days, 
 and upon the said days the parochians shall endea- 
 vour themselves to the amending of the said ways, and 
 shall be chargeable thereunto as followeth : that is to 
 say, every person for every plough land in tillage or 
 pasture that he or she shall occupy in the same 
 parish, and every other person keeping there a draught 
 or plough, shall find and send, at every day and place 
 to be appointed for the amending of the ways in that 
 parish as is aforesaid, one wain or cart, furnished after 
 the custom of the country with oxen, horses, or other 
 cattle, and all other necessaries meet to carry things 
 convenient for that purpose, and also two able men 
 with the same, upon pain of every draught making 
 default i os. ; and every other householder, and also 
 every cottager and labourer of that parish able to 
 labour and being no hired servant by the year, shall, 
 by themselves or one sufficient labourer for every 
 of them, upon every of the said four days, work and 
 travail in the amendment of the said highways, upon 
 pain of every person making default to lose for 
 every day 1 2d. ; and if the carriages of the parish or 
 any of them shall not be thought needful by the
 
 Non-Statutoi*y Rates to 1601 9 
 
 supervisors to be occupied on any of the said days, 
 that then every person that should have sent any 
 such carriage shall send to the said work for every 
 carriage so spared two able men, there to labour for 
 that day, upon pain to lose for every man not so sent 
 to the said work I2d. And every person and car- 
 riage aforesaid shall have and bring with them such 
 shovels, spades, picks, mattocks, and other tools and 
 instruments as they do make their own ditches and 
 fences withal, and such as be necessary for their said 
 work : and all the persons and carriages shall do and 
 keep their work as they shall be appointed by the said 
 supervisors or one of them, eight hours of every the 
 said days, unless they shall be otherwise licensed by 
 the said supervisors or one of them." 
 
 I think every one will agree that all this reads a 
 great deal more like an account of the feudal services 
 of tenants on a manor than a description of a highway 
 rate. There is no attempt to make the amount of 
 service rendered vary with the varying requirements 
 of different seasons and different districts. It is true 
 that the lawyers held that, if the labour prescribed by 
 the act was not sufficient to keep the roads in repair, 
 the parishioners ought to give more labour ; x but this 
 was a legal counsel of perfection of no practical im- 
 portance. The whole system was so alien to the 
 system of rating that the " statute labour," as it was 
 called, never developed into a rate. It lingered on to 
 the present century, 2 alongside of turnpikes and rates. 
 
 Bridges too, which were much more expensive 
 works in comparison with roads than they are now, 
 
 1 See Dalton, Country Justice, ed. of 1742, p. 115. 
 * Till the passing of the act 5 4 6 W. IV., c. 5a
 
 to History of Local Rates 
 
 were generally maintained by obligations of a feudal 
 character, particular bridges being burdens on par- 
 ticular lands. 1 
 
 Thus it comes about that the importance of local 
 rates is not so ancient a matter as we might be 
 tempted to expect on general considerations. I doubt 
 if any very clear and important cases of local rates 
 are likely to be found earlier than the thirteenth 
 century. 
 
 Plenty of such cases, however, existed in the middle 
 of that century. The customs of Romney Marsh, 
 which then were at any rate old enough to be described 
 as " ancient and approved," required certain services 
 from the men of the marsh which are marked by the 
 distinguishing characteristics of a local rate. In 1250, 
 we read, some dispute occurred between the twenty- 
 four jurats of Romney Marsh and certain men of the 
 marsh, who were bound to repair the sea-walls and 
 watercourses according to the quantity of their lands 
 and tenements. Sir Henry de Bathe, the justiciar, 
 was appointed to hear and determine the contentions 
 which had arisen, and issued an ordinance from which, 
 as Coke says, not only other parts in Kent but all 
 England received light and direction. 2 
 
 According to this ordinance, " By the whole com- 
 monalty of the same marsh twelve lawful men may 
 be chosen, to wit, six of the fee of the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, and six of the barony, which, being sworn, 
 
 1 Lands so liable sometimes formed the basis of a kind of corpo- 
 ration. The "lands contributory to Rochester Bridge," for example, 
 had two wardens, twelve assistants, and a commonalty. See 18 Eliz., 
 c. 17, and 27 Eliz., c. 25. 
 
 2 Sir William Dugdale, History of Embanking and Draining of 
 Divers Fens and Marshes, 1662, pp. 17-19 : Coke, Inst. iv. c. 62, p. 276.
 
 Non-Statutory Rates to 1 60 1 11 
 
 shall measure the Avails new and old, and those which 
 ought to be new erected. And the same measuring 
 should be done by one and the same perch, to wit, of 
 twenty foots. And afterwards the same jurors upon 
 their oaths also by the same perch shall measure by 
 acres all the lands and tenements which are subject 
 to danger within the same marsh : which measurings 
 being done, the twenty-four by the commonalty first 
 elected and sworn, having respect to the quantity of 
 the walls, lands, and tenements which are subject to 
 peril, by their oath shall ordain how much appertaineth 
 to every one to uphold and repair the same walls. So 
 that for the portion of acres of lands lying subject to 
 danger there be assigned to every one his portion of 
 perches by certain bounds." x If any man neglected 
 to repair the portion assigned to him, the common 
 bailiff might do the work, and charge him with double 
 the cost. Where land was held in common by 
 partners, a portion of sea-wall was to be assigned to 
 these partners in common. No suggestion is made 
 that the quality or value of the acres as well as their 
 number ought to be taken into account, but an ordi- 
 nance Issued by Lovetot and Apulderfield in 1287, 
 extending the laws of Romney Marsh westwards into 
 Sussex, speaks of the walls being apportioned among 
 individuals according to the extent and value of their 
 acres (jaxta portionem acrarum suarum et valorem 
 eamindem)} I do not think that the mere fact that 
 the sea-walls themselves, instead of the money cost of 
 maintaining them, were apportioned among the men of 
 the marsh ought to prevent us from regarding this as 
 
 1 The Charier of Romney Marsh, Latin and English, 1OS6, p. 12. 
 
 2 Ibid., pp. 49, 50.
 
 1 2 History of Local Rates 
 
 an early sewers rate; and in any case before 1359 the 
 practice of each man maintaining a particular portion of 
 the defences seems to have been superseded by a system 
 of money rates. A commission was issued in that year 
 to the king's well-beloved and trusty Thomas Ludlow, 
 Robert Belknap, and Thomas Culpeper, in consequence 
 of complaints made by the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 who was lord of a portion of the marsh. This alleges, 
 without any apparent justification, that the ordinance 
 of Henry de Bathe provided for the election of a bailiff 
 " to levy the assessments " (ad scotta assessa levandvm) 
 for the repair of the defences. 1 
 
 In 1256, ^"20 19s. 2d. was levied from the county 
 of Chester for the repair of Chester Bridge, " because 
 the King had ascertained from the book of the Ex- 
 chequer called Domesday that the men of the county 
 were bound to repair the bridge." 2 According to the 
 passage in Domesday referred to, but not quoted, a 
 man was to be sent from every hide to repair the city 
 wall and bridge, 3 so that we see here an old feudal 
 obligation transformed into a county rate. There is 
 nothing to show whether the .20 19s. 2d. was appor- 
 tioned according to hides or in some other way. 4 
 
 1 The Charter of Romney Marsh, pp. 55-57. 
 
 2 Madox, Firma Burgi, 1726, p. 89. 
 
 8 "Ad murum civitatis et pontem reaedificandos de unaquaque 
 hida comitatus unum hominem venire propositus edicebat. Cujus 
 homo non veniebat dominus ejus XL solidos emendabat regi et 
 comitL Hsec forisfactura extra firmam erat." 
 
 4 In 1287-8 an agreement was made between the barons, knights, 
 and free tenants of the county and the mayor and city of Chester, 
 by which the latter grant that they will repair a part of the bridge. 
 "The expense thereof is also to be shared by all the town and 
 foreinsec lands which, being comprehended in the book called 
 Domesday in the Treasury of London, within the 52 hides reckoned
 
 Non-Statutory Rates to 1601 13 
 
 From 1334 onwards the fifteenths and tenths were 
 levied as local rates. They were originally, of course, 
 a national tax on movables, at the rate of one-tenth 
 of the capital value in the cities and boroughs and 
 lands belonging to ancient demesne, and one-fifteenth 
 from the rest of the country. But after 1334 it 
 became a settled principle that each Parliamentary 
 grant of a fifteenth and tenth should be subject to 
 the condition that the tax should be levied like 
 the last, and not otherwise. 1 This was intended, or 
 at any rate understood, to mean that the total sum 
 collected should remain exactly the same, and be 
 apportioned in exactly the same way between county 
 and county, town and town, and even parish and 
 parish. As the relative wealth of the different dis- 
 tricts changed, the tax of course ceased to be collected 
 at a uniform rate over the kingdom, and consequently 
 
 within the city of Chester, shall be found liable to pay tax. The 
 county is burdened with the rest of the bridge." Ormcrod and 
 Helsby, History of Cheshire, 2nd edit., 1882, vol. iii. p. 891. 
 
 1 See Stubbs, Constitutional History, vol. ii., 282, p. 599, lib. 
 edit., and of the authorities there quoted, especially Brady, Treatise 
 0/ Cities and Boroughs, 1690, p. 39. The grant of 1344 was in these 
 terms : "And the said commons do grant to him for the same cause 
 upon a certain form, ii Quinzimes of the Commonalty and ii Dismes 
 of the Cities and Boroughs, to be levied in manner as the last 
 Quinzime granted to him was levied, and not in other manner " 
 (Statutes of the Realm, 18 Edw. III., stat. 2, c. 1). Similarly, in 
 1357 : "The said commons have granted to our sovereign lord the 
 King a quinzime yearly to be levied and gathered in the manner as 
 the last quinzime granted to the King was levied" (ib., 31 Edw. III., 
 st. 1, c. 13) ; and two centuries and a half later, in 1623-4 : " Three 
 whole fifteens and tenths shall be paid, taken, and levied of the 
 movable goods, chattels, and other things usual to such fifteens 
 and tenths to be contributory and chargeable within the shires, 
 cities, boroughs, towns, and other places of this your Majesty's 
 realm, in manner and foini aforetime used" (ib., 21 Jac. I., c. 33).
 
 14 History of Local Rates 
 
 came to possess the one essential characteristic of 
 local taxation, diversity of rate as between place and 
 place. The duty of the collectors in each parish was 
 simply to apportion a fixed sum among the inhabi- 
 tants, which is precisely the function of those who 
 assess local rates. An inhabitant disproportionately 
 assessed could go to the courts and demand redress 
 on exactly the same grounds as those on which a 
 modern ratepayer relies when he appeals against his 
 assessment to the poor-rate. Madox quotes the case 
 of one Johanna, widow of John Nicole, of Guildford, 
 against the sub-collectors of that town. She appeared 
 before the Barons of the Exchequer, by John of Holt, 
 her attorney, and said for the King and herself, that, 
 whereas the town of Guildford was assessed to the 
 tenth at 15 2s. iod., and that sum ought to be pro- 
 portionately assessed among the men of the town 
 according to the quantity of their goods, without 
 favouring any one, and although the aforesaid Johanna 
 paid the proportion rightly due from her, which 
 amounted to 20s. if she was assessed like the other 
 men of the town, to the aforesaid sub-collectors on the 
 30th of April, the aforesaid sub-collectors assessed the 
 said Johanna to 40s. beyond the aforesaid 20s., in 
 order to favour the other men of the town. The sub- 
 collectors answered that the said Johanna was assessed 
 just as the other men of the town were assessed, and 
 the case went to a jury to decide the facts. 1 This 
 happened in 1354. 
 
 Church rates Avere well established by the beginning 
 of the fourteenth century. John of Athon, a canonist 
 who wrote about the year 1 340, sa} T s in his notes to 
 
 1 Madox, Firrm Burgi, pp. 281, 282.
 
 Non-Statutory Rates to 1601 15 
 
 the Constitutions of Otho and Ottobuoni : " Every 
 parishioner is bound to repair the church according 
 to the portion of land which he possesses in the 
 parish, and in proportion to the number of animals 
 he keeps and feeds there." 1 A constitution issued 
 by John Stratford, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 
 1 342, ordains that " as well the religious as all others 
 that now have, or shall hereafter have, possessions, 
 lands, or revenues which are not of the glebe of the 
 churches to be repaired, or of the endowments that 
 belong to them, in any parishes whatsoever of our 
 province, whether they dwell in the said parishes or 
 elsewhere, shall be obliged to pay with the other 
 parishioners toward all the charges which are either 
 of common right or by custom incumbent on the 
 parishioners for the repair of the church and the orna- 
 ments belonging thereto, according to the quantity of 
 the possessions and revenues which they have in the 
 said parishes, as often as there shall be need for the 
 same." 2 Enforcement of church rates belonged to 
 the ecclesiastical authorities and courts, but they were 
 none the less compulsory for that, and on one ground 
 or another they occasionally came under the cognis- 
 ance of the secular courts. An important case of this 
 kind is recorded in 1370. A parish meeting had 
 decided to raise 10 to repair the roof of a certain 
 parish church. One of the parishioners objected to a 
 distraint for 9s. which had been levied on him, upon 
 
 1 " Credo tamen contra sc. quod unusquisque parocliianus tencatur 
 ad hoc juxta portionem glebaj seu terra; quara possidet intra ipsam 
 parochiam et juxta numerum aninialiurn qua) nutrit ibidem." 
 Lyndwood, CwiMitutioncs Leyatince 1). Othonii it D. Othoboni, cardina- 
 Hum cum profundis annotationd/Vi .JnluinnU dc Athoiia, 1679, p. 113. 
 
 2 Lyndwood, Provincial e hu Cvntitutioncs Anglia, 1679, p. 255.
 
 1 6 History of Local Rates 
 
 the grounds that the collection should only be en- 
 forced by the ordinary, and that he had not assented 
 to the rate. The collectors of the rate pleaded custom 
 which had always existed time out of mind. Kirton, 
 one of the judges, remarked, "There is a custom 
 through the whole country which the laws call by- 
 law, that is, by assent of neighbours to levy a sum to 
 make a bridge, a causeway, or a sea-wall, and by their 
 assent to assess each neighbour at a sum certain, for 
 which they may distrain. And also if commoners 
 have common rights in a place, they can by assent 
 ordain that they shall not exercise the right in a 
 certain parcel of land before a certain time, and if 
 they do that they shall be distrained." In both cases, 
 he thought, the assent of those who were present at a 
 properly summoned meeting bound those who were 
 absent. His colleague, Finchden, said, " If this ordi- 
 nance concern a thing which would be to the common 
 hurt, that is, for a bridge, to make a causeway or sea- 
 wall, you are right ; but if it be for their particular 
 profit, as in your case of the common, no man will be 
 bound but those who assent." In this case the ;io 
 was raised by an assessment of 6d. in respect of each 
 carucate of land, id. in respect of each head of cattle, 
 and the same in respect of every ten sheep. 1 The 
 canonist Lyndwood, writing about 1430, says that the 
 quantity of a man's possessions and revenues should 
 be estimated for rating purposes by their value. 2 
 With our modern notions of the separate province 
 
 1 Tear Book (ed. 1679), Edward III., anno xliv., p. 19. Part of 
 the translation of Kirton's opinion is from Chief Justice Tindal in 
 Phillimore, Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, 1842, vol. ii. p. 388 A. 
 
 2 "Quae considerari debent secundum valorem reditus." Provin- 
 dale, p. 255.
 
 Non-Statutory Rates to 1601 17 
 
 of imperial and local government, we find it strange 
 to read of town fortifications paid for out of local 
 funds, but this was the regular rule, and when other 
 sources of income did not suffice, a rate could be 
 raised for this purpose. There exists a royal letter of 
 1378 ordering that the walls of Chichester shall be 
 repaired, and that " all persons whatsoever, religious or 
 secular, who now have, or in future shall have, lands, 
 tenements, and revenues or merchandise within the 
 city or its liberty," shall contribute to the cost 
 " according to their ability and possessions, privileged 
 persons, the sick, and mendicant poor excepted." 
 Similar letters were sent to other towns. 1 
 
 The purposes for which a corporate town in the four- 
 teenth or fifteenth century required money were indeed 
 almost as multifarious as they are to-day, for though 
 we have multiplied our wants, we have also relegated 
 some expenses to the state, and others to private 
 enterprise or benevolence. In many cases, no doubt, 
 the corporate revenues and profits sufficed to defray 
 all expenses. Even at the present day they are often 
 sufficient to make it unnecessary to levy a borough rate, 
 though no borough is rich enough to do without a rate 
 for the expenses of its Council acting as urban sanitary 
 authority. But at any rate in the poorer boroughs 
 resort to local taxation was often necessary. In early 
 times equal poll-taxes seem to have been levied. The 
 London riot in 1 196, of which William FitzOsbcrt was 
 regarded as the instigator, is said to have been a revolt 
 
 1 Rymer, Fadera, li. iv. 52, and 49, 59 : 0. vii. 185. As late as 
 1607 the inhabitants of Southampton had "a long time at their 
 own cost and charge upheld and maintained the walls thereof, 
 with many towers, turrets, bulwarks, great ordinances, powder, and 
 other defensive artillery " (Statutes of the Ikalm, 4 Jac. I., c. 10). 
 
 B
 
 1 8 History of Local Rates 
 
 of the poorer citizens against such a tax. 1 Poll-taxes in 
 which persons were taxed according to their rank are 
 found at a very much later period. At Ipswich in 
 145 1 every portman was to pay 3s. 4d., every burgess 
 is. 8d., and every foreigner is. ; and in the next year 
 every portman was taxed is. 8d., and every burgess is. 2 
 But by the fifteenth century, at any rate, the money 
 for defraying the common burdens was, as Madox says, 
 usually raised by an apportionment made amongst the 
 townsmen according to each man's ability and sub- 
 stance. 3 There is no town, so far as I know, of which 
 we have better records during this period than Ips- 
 wich. Here are some entries in Bacon's Annals relat- 
 ing to the proceedings of the governing body of the 
 town with regard to rates from 1452 to 1488 : 
 
 Oct. 1 3, 1452. Every burgess of this town shall pay 
 J of a 15 th for certain affairs of this town, and collec- 
 tors specially named. 
 
 Jan. 21, 1454. Accompt shall be made before 
 auditors assigned of the money received for the suits 
 between this town and that of Bury St. Edmunds and 
 the prior of Ely. 
 
 May 17. Six collectors named to assess all the 
 inhabitants of this town at quinzieme for the suit 
 aforesaid. 
 
 Jan. 7, 1455. Every burgess of this town shall pay 
 I of a quinzieme towards the suits between this town 
 
 1 Stubbs, Constitutional History, vol. i. 161, p. 657, lib. ed. 
 
 2 The Annals of Ipswich : the Laws, Customs, and Government of the 
 same, collected out of the Records, Books, and Writings of that Town, by 
 Nathaniel Bacon, serving as Recorder and Town Clerk in that Toton, 
 anno dom. 1654. Edited by W. H. Kichardson, 1884. 
 
 3 Firma Burgi, p. 280.
 
 Non-Statutory Rates to 1601 19 
 
 and the town of Bury, and every foreign burgess shall 
 also pay thereto. 
 
 April 1 1. The collectors of money of certain parti- 
 cular parishes in Ipswich for the suit with Bury have 
 a day set to bring in their accounts. 
 
 March 10, 1458. The burgesses of this town shall 
 pay of a 15 th for the suit with the prior of Ely, and 
 collectors are appointed. 
 
 May 5. All burgesses refusing to pay their part of 
 the said assessment shall be disfranchised. 
 
 Oct. 2. Collectors for \ of a 15th granted for the 
 suit with the prior of Ely. 
 
 Dec. 14. Collectors made for J of a 15 th for the 
 charges of a suit wherein John Geete was condemned 
 against Gregory Lanham, and for other urgencies of 
 the town. 
 
 Oct. 4, 1459. A sum of money assessed upon parti- 
 cular persons named for the maintaining of the suit 
 [with the king]. 
 
 Dec. 30, 1472. Auditors appointed and collectors 
 of the contributions of the several parishes for the 
 repair of the common quay. 
 
 March 7, 1485. Assessors named for the charges 
 for renewing the town charter, and the Serjeants arc 
 ordered to levy the same. 
 
 June 26, i486. Assessors named for a sum of money 
 for the king's entertainment at his next coming. 
 
 March 13, 1487. Ten assessors named for 50 marks 
 pro regardo Domini Regis when it shall be demanded. 
 
 Jan. 8, 1488. An assessment shall be made for the 
 town charter renewing, and assessors and collectors 
 mentioned and named in every parish. 
 
 May 3c. An assessment shall be made for a 10th
 
 20 History of Local Rates 
 
 and 15 th for the king, and assessors and collectors 
 nominated in each parish. 
 
 We need scarcely go further to convince ourselves 
 of the frequency of rates in Ipswich before the era of 
 the poor-rate. Several of the later entries, however, 
 are worth quoting for various reasons. In 1495 occurs 
 an excellent example of the use of the fifteenth and 
 tenth for purely local purposes. " Assessors and col- 
 lectors in each parish for a moiety of a tenth and a 
 fifteenth for the repair of the new mill, the whole sum 
 being 18 4s. 6d." The practice, which reminds us 
 of the modern French centimes additionels, was not 
 confined to Ipswich. It prevailed in London at least 
 as late as 1587. 1 In 1538 Ipswich levied a distinctly 
 sanitary rate. Bacon's entry is : " Constables assigned 
 to several wards to remove nuisances, and to levy 
 money to pay carts for their carriage of the filth 
 away." In 1 545 we get a little more light as to the 
 principle followed in assessing the rates. Every port- 
 man was to pay 10s., and every one of the four-and- 
 twenty, 5 s. ; " and every of the commons shall be 
 rated according to their substance by two honest 
 persons within their parish." No doubts as to the 
 
 1 See Orders appointed to be executed in the City of London for setting 
 Rogues and Idle Persons to Work, and for Relief of the Poor, 1587, re- 
 printed 1793 : " 57- F r the provision of the said stock to the 
 accomplishment of the said good works, there may be granted by 
 the body of this city two fifteens, to be assessed and levied in usual 
 manner, whereof the one to be paid as speedily as may be, the other 
 one at the end of six months." In 16 14 Ipswich used the subsidy 
 in the same way as the fifteenths. A benevolence of ^"200 was to be 
 rated by the subsidy, "and if the same fall short," says Bacon's 
 entry, " it shall be rated upon the better sort of the inhabitants to 
 make up the sum."
 
 Non-Statutoi*y Rates to 1601 21 
 
 legal powers of the governing body to impose rates 
 seem to have been felt till 1549. In that year 
 assessors were appointed " to assess the burgesses and 
 inhabitants " to pay " scott and lott for the town debts. 
 And the bailiffs shall assess the assessors. Provided 
 if the order be found contrary to the king's laws, the 
 same shall be void." The doubts must have been set 
 at rest, as the order was confirmed in the next year, 
 and the precedent was followed in 1558. In 1592 
 there was rating for a preacher's wages, and in 1597 
 the burgesses' salary was rated on the inhabitants. 
 In those days ratepayers appear to have been expected 
 not only to pay, but to refrain from grumbling, for we 
 find that, on 4th December 1 573, " Richard Golty, one 
 of the burgesses of this town, being allotted to the 
 sum of 40s., did upon the 10 of October, in the 
 presence of two persons of credit, say that the scott 
 and lott rated on him was done against reason, con- 
 science, charity, and honesty; and being convicted 
 thereof, he was fined 5, and ordered to pay the 
 said 40s." 
 
 It would have been a miracle if Tudor legislation 
 had succeeded in creating a rate altogether unaffected 
 by the uninterrupted rating practice of three centuries. 
 To understand our present system, based upon the act 
 of 1 60 1, it is therefore necessary to know something 
 about the principles on which these early non-statutory 
 rates were apportioned. 
 
 The sewers-rate of Romney Marsh presents no diffi- 
 culty. It was clearly governed by the principle that 
 each person whose property was benefited should pay 
 a proportion governed by the acreage, and afterwards 
 the value, of that property, in comparison with tho
 
 22 History of Local Rates 
 
 whole of the property benefited. But if we look at 
 the other rates through modern spectacles, the prin- 
 ciple on which they are based is not very evident. 
 The cloud Avhich obstructs our vision will disappear, 
 however, if we once abandon the pernicious modern 
 habit of asking what was ratable. It is never things, 
 but always persons, that pay rates and taxes, and in 
 the fourteenth or even the sixteenth century the 
 metaphor which attributes payment to the thing in 
 respect of which the person is taxed had not taken 
 possession of the ordinary mind as it has now. In 
 the simplest form of rating there is nothing in the 
 nature of an assessment or valuation list made up by 
 a modern assessment committee. The total sum to 
 be raised is apportioned directly upon the contributors 
 as the assessors think fit or the common agreement 
 decides. It seems quite clear that in the fourteenth 
 and fifteenth century the accepted view was that each 
 inhabitant should pay according to his ability or 
 substance, 1 for in those days ability and substance 
 meant much the same thing: the man who has a 
 large income without having a large capital is a pro- 
 duct of modern civilisation. Something in the nature 
 of a valuation list soon sprang up, not because there 
 was as yet any idea that the things of which a man's 
 substance consists ought to be rated, but because the 
 assessors wanted some kind of guide as to the relative 
 ability or substance of the ratepayers. In a purely 
 
 1 In Latin, "juxta facilitates." See the letter to Chichester, 
 quoted above, p. 17, and another in Rymer, Feedera, R. vol. iii. Part i. 
 p. 57, A.D. 1345, giving directions for the reassessment of Tamworth 
 to the fifteenth after a fire: "Vobis mandamus quod omnes et 
 singulos homines dicta? villse juxta facultates suas quas modo 
 habent de novo taxari."
 
 Non-Statutory Rates to 1601 23 
 
 agricultural community, where every person of ability 
 to pay is a farmer, nothing can be more natural than 
 that the assessors, in forming their estimate of relative 
 ability, should consider the number and quality of the 
 acres cultivated by each, and perhaps also the number 
 of sheep and cattle pastured. In a town, an equally 
 obvious guide as to the substance of the inhabitants 
 is afforded by the size or value of the houses occupied. 1 
 When this has once become the settled custom, it is 
 supposed by a natural confusion of mind that the 
 acres and the houses are taxed, and any attempts to 
 carry out the original principle of rating according to 
 ability derived from every source are strenuously re- 
 sisted by the parties interested. The owner of lands 
 or houses which he has let for a rent objects to being 
 rated in accordance with his whole substance, on the 
 ground that the rates on his lands and houses have 
 
 1 Even the fifteenths and tenths, which were in their origin 
 fractions of movable property only, seem to have been assessed 
 in accordance with the annual value of tenements occupied before 
 they ceased to be granted. The language of Parliament is vague. 
 In 1562-3 (by 5 Eliz., c. 31), for example, it grants "two whole 
 XV" and X th " to be payd, taken, and levied of the movable 
 goods, catalles, and other things usual to such XV ne * and X th " to bo 
 contributory and chargeable." Scattered allusions show that the 
 " other things" had long included property occupied. We find, for 
 example, in 1377-8, the revocation of a writ which exonerated the 
 chancellor and scholars of Cambridge University from tenths and 
 fifteenths in respect of their tenements, possessions, and books 
 (Cooper, Annals of Cambridge, 1842, vol. i. p. 116). In 1385 the ex- 
 emption was re-established, tenements, schools, and books being 
 mentioned {ibid., p. 129, cf. p. 197). Orders of the city of London 
 issued in 1587 ( 58; see above, p. 2on.) speak of foreigners being 
 contributory to the fifteenths "by the rate of their houses." In a 
 church-rate case heard in 161 1, the court talked of " a rate imposed 
 according to the value of the land, and that in the nature of a 
 fifteen" (Bulstrode, Hearts, i. 20).
 
 24 History of Local Rates 
 
 already been paid by his tenants. 1 The tradesman, 
 the money-lender, and the salaried servant or official 
 decline to pay their full proportion, on the ground, as 
 they say, that it has never been the custom to rate 
 stock-in-trade, money, or salaries. On the other hand, 
 by way of compensation, whether it acquiesces will- 
 ingly in these contentions or not, the taxing authority 
 insists on having rates in respect of all the lands and 
 houses within its jurisdiction from the occupiers, 
 whether the ability or substance of those occupiers is 
 indicated by the value of their occupations or not, and 
 whether they are resident inhabitants or not. 
 
 The whole process may be seen going on in Coke's 
 report of the famous case of Jeffrey, which came 
 before the King's Bench in 1589. 
 
 The church of Hailsham was out of repair, and it 
 was estimated that the cost of repairing it would be 
 not less than yo. The churchwardens "for the 
 time being, anno domini 1589 and two years before, 
 with the assent of the greater part of the parishioners 
 of the said parish, juxta quantitatem et qualitatem 
 possessionum et reddituum infra dictam parochiam 
 existentiv/m according to the quantity and quality 
 of the possessions and revenues within the said parish 
 determined and agreed to make a taxation for the 
 repair of the said church." Notice of the parish 
 meeting was given in the church and proclaimed in 
 the market, and on the appointed day " the church- 
 wardens and the greater part of the parishioners of 
 Hailsham who were there met together, made a tax, 
 
 1 Lord Mansfield said in 1776, "The landlord is never assessed 
 for his rent, because that would be a double assessment, as his lessee 
 has paid before " (Cowper, Reports, p. 453).
 
 Non-Statutory Rates to 1601 25 
 
 scil., of every acre of marsh land 46!., and of every acre 
 of arable land 2d., to be paid by the occupiers of them 
 in Hailsham ; " and " all the said tax of the said town 
 did not exceed the sum of 50." Now one William 
 Jeffrey, gentleman, who resided, not in Hailsham, but 
 in Chiddingley, some miles away, both owned and 
 occupied 30 acres of the marsh land and 100 acres of 
 the arable land so rated. He objected to pay his 
 26s. 8d., on the ground that he was not a parishioner 
 of Hailsham. Suffering defeat on 'this point before 
 the spiritual court, he invoked the civil, but met with 
 no better success. After taking the opinion of the 
 ecclesiastical lawyers, the court decided that he was a 
 parishioner and liable to be rated. " It was answered 
 and resolved, first, that although the house wherein 
 Jeffrey dwelt be in another parish, yet forasmuch as 
 he had lands in the parish of Hailsham in his proper 
 possession and manurance, he is in law parochianus 
 de Haylesharn. For the place where he lies, sleeps, 
 or eats, doth not make him a parishioner only; but 
 also, forasmuch as he manures lands in Hailsham, 
 and by that is resident upon it, that makes him a 
 parishioner of Hailsham also as to this purpose. If," 
 continued the court and here no doubt is the crucial 
 point " in this case Jeffrey should not be charged to 
 the reparation of the church of Hailsham for those 
 lands which he himself occupies there, no person 
 would be charged for them, upon which great incon- 
 venience would ensue; for one who inhabits in the 
 next town may occupy the greatest part of the lands 
 in another town, and so churches in these days will 
 come to ruin." One of Jeffrey's complaints was that 
 the churchwardens had said that ho "occupied or
 
 26 History of Local Rates 
 
 received rent " for the 1 30 acres, whereas it would, he 
 alleged, " be against law and reason, and against the 
 common experience of all England," that he should 
 be rated if he had let the land. In response to this 
 complaint, the court, which had not then the horror 
 of giving unnecessary decisions it now feels, resolved 
 that " when there is a farmer of the same lands, the 
 lessor who receives rent for them shall not be charged 
 for them in respect of his rent, because there is an 
 inhabitant and parishioner who may be charged, and 
 the receipt of the rent doth not make the lessor a 
 parishioner." While thus throwing over the old 
 principle in favour of the new and more convenient 
 practice, the court was still willing to do lip-service 
 to the old principle, for it observed, " In this case the 
 charge is on the person, and not on the land, but is 
 on the person in respect of the land, for the more 
 equality and indifferency." 
 
 Coke was counsel in this case himself, and he says 
 at the end of his report, " Note, reader, this is a good 
 case to many purposes, and therefore well observe the 
 consequences of it." x 
 
 1 Reports, Pt. v. pp. 67, 68.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS STATUTORY RATES TO 164O 
 
 The unsophisticated mind, which cherishes the delu- 
 sion that our financial institutions have been created 
 by politicians instead of by the force of circumstances, 
 would naturally suppose that as soon as we come to 
 rates imposed or regulated by statute, we should find 
 no difficulty in discovering how rates were assessed 
 and upon whom they were laid. This expectation 
 would be disappointed. The early statutes take a 
 great deal for granted, and are often least explicit 
 just at the point where we most desire information. 
 
 The first of them is the sewers act of 1427 (6 
 Hen. VI., c. 5), which authorised the king to appoint 
 commissions to supervise works for sea defence 
 wherever they might be required. Within their 
 several jurisdictions the commissioners were to be 
 empowered to inquire by wjiose default damages had 
 arisen, and " who doth hold lands and tenements, or 
 hath any common of pasture or fishing in those parts, 
 or else in any wise have or may have the defence, 
 profit, and safeguard as well in peril nigh as from 
 the same far off, by the said walls, ditches, gutters, 
 sewers, bridges, causeys, and weirs, and also hurt or 
 commodity by the same trenches, and there to dis- 
 train all them for the quantity of their lands and 
 tenements, either by the number of acres or by their 
 pl< Highlands, for the rate of the portion of their
 
 28 History of Local Rates 
 
 tenure, or for the quantity of their common of pasture 
 or fishing, together with the bailiffs of liberties and 
 other places ... to repair the said walls, ditches," 
 and so on, " so that no tenants of lands or tenements, 
 nor any having common of pasture or fishing, rich or 
 poor, nor other of what condition, station, or dignity 
 which have or may have defence, commodity, and 
 safeguard by the said walls," and all the other things, 
 " or else any hurt by the said trenches, whether they 
 be within liberties or without, shall in any wise be 
 spared in this." Necessary and convenient statutes 
 and ordinances might be made by the commissioners 
 according to the laws and customs of Romney Marsh, 
 and they were to hear and determine all complaints 
 according to the law and custom of England and the 
 custom of Romney Marsh. 
 
 After being renewed several times, this act was 
 superseded by the 23rd of Henry VIII, c. 5 (15 3 1-2), 
 which authorises the commissioners to inquire " who 
 hath or holdeth any lands or tenements or com- 
 mon of pasture or profit of fishing, or hath or may 
 have any hurt, loss, or disadvantage, as well near 
 to the said dangers, lets, and impediments, as in- 
 habiting or dwelling thereabouts by the said walls 
 . . . and all those persons and every of them to 
 assess, charge, distrain, and punish as well within the 
 metes and bounds of old time accustomed as else- 
 where within our realm of England after the quantity 
 of their lands, tenements, and rents by the number 
 of acres and perches after the rate of every person's 
 portion, tenure, or profit, or after the quantity of 
 their common of pasture or profit of fishing or other 
 commodities there." If the tax on any lands, tene-
 
 Miscellaneous Statutory Bates to 1640 29 
 
 ments, or hereditaments was not forthcoming, the 
 commissioners might " decree and ordain " them from 
 their owners. Crown land was to be subject to the 
 same laws as all other land. 1 
 
 It is evident that the general principle of the early- 
 sewers rates or taxes for sea defence was that they 
 should be levied in respect of all kinds of property 
 liable to danger, in proportions determined by the 
 extent or value of that property. But the ordinances 
 and statutes certainly do not make it very clear to the 
 modern mind from whom the taxes were to be levied 
 when the owner and the occupier or tenant were dif- 
 ferent persons. On this point we may take the opinion 
 of Mr. Serjeant Callis, who delivered lectures on the 
 Statute of Sewers (23 Hen. VIII., c. 5), at Gray's 
 Jnn, in August 1622. As he was for many years a 
 commissioner of sewers in his native county of Lin- 
 colnshire, he must have been acquainted with the 
 practice as well as the strict law of the matter. He 
 says that we must " distinguish and make a difference 
 between annual repairs in ordinary things and extra- 
 ordinary repairs. For to furnish the defence with petty 
 reparations, they shall be laid only upon the lessee for 
 years or for life ; but if a new wall, bank, or goat or 
 sewer, be to be built new and erected, or if the ancient 
 defences be decayed in the main timber, or in the 
 principal' parts thereof, here as well the lessor as the 
 lessee .shall be put to the charge, for these things be not 
 ordinary and annual charges, but do reach from the 
 beginning of the lease to the top of the inheritance. 
 
 1 Before this time the king had often voluntarily contributed his 
 thare, recognising that the sea would not res{>ect his lands any 
 more than that of his subjects. See Dugdale, Embanking, pp. 88-90.
 
 30 History of Local Rates 
 
 As for petty reparations, they are by intendment 
 to continue but for a short time, which are likely to 
 be spent during the term and lease; but these new 
 defences are apparently done to save the inheritance." 
 He quotes as analogous the case of landlord's and 
 tenant's repairs to a house, and concludes that "in 
 petty annual and ordinary repairs the lessee alone 
 shall do the same ; but where the same wants in great 
 timber or when a new defence is to be built, they shall 
 both be at the charge." The fact is that the commis- 
 sioners had a very wide discretion, and could, in 
 Callis's words, apportion the tax " as in justice, dis- 
 cretion, and true judgment is requisite." x 
 
 Just before the Statute of Sewers comes the Statute 
 of Bridges (22 Hen. VIII., c. 5), passed in 15 30-1, 
 because, as the preamble says, " in many parts of this 
 realm it cannot be known and proved what hundred, 
 riding, wapentake, city, borough, town, or parish, nor 
 what person certain or body politic, ought of right " 
 to repair bridges which had fallen into decay. It is 
 easy to believe that a good stone bridge would often 
 outlast the memory of the oldest inhabitant, especially 
 when he had an interest in forgetting. For a remedy 
 the act provides that in all cases where it is doubtful 
 on whom the obligation to repair a bridge lies, " the 
 said bridges, if they be without city or town corporate, 
 shall be made by the inhabitants of the shire or riding 
 in which the said bridge decayed shall happen to be ; 
 and if it be within any city or town corporate, then 
 by the inhabitants of every such city or town corpo- 
 rate." It then gives the justices of the counties and 
 
 1 Reading on the Statute of Savers, 1647, pp. no, III ; 2nd edit., 
 pp. 141-143-
 
 Miscellaneous Statutory Rates to 1 640 3 1 
 
 towns power and authority to call before them the 
 constables, or else " two of the most honest inhabi- 
 tants," of every town or parish within the area charge- 
 able, and with their assent " to tax and set every 
 inhabitant in any such city, town, or parish within 
 the limits of their commissions and authorities to 
 such reasonable aid and sum of money as they shall 
 think by their discretions convenient and sufficient 
 for the repairing, rectifying, and amendment of such 
 bridges." After this taxation has been settled, the 
 justices are to " cause the names and sums of every 
 particular person so by them taxed to be written in a 
 roll indented." The act is extremely minute on many 
 points of detail which seem unimportant to us, but it 
 does not tell us who the " inhabitants " were, nor on 
 what principle the justices were to proceed in appor- 
 tioning the tax among them. Coke, in his Institutes, 
 says that the word "inhabitant" does not include 
 servants and such-like persons who have nothing upon 
 which distraint could be levied, and that it does in- 
 clude a non-resident who has lands or tenements in 
 his own possession and manurance within the area of 
 liability. Such a non-resident, he adds, "is an in- 
 habitant both where his person dwelleth and where 
 he hath lands or tenements in his own possession 
 within the statute." 1 His opinion as to the ratability 
 of non-resident occupiers is founded on Jeffrey's case, 
 not on anything in the act itself, nor on any legal 
 decision under it. He also remarks that the taxation 
 cannot be set on the hundreds, parishes, and towns in 
 lump sums, but must be assessed on individual in- 
 habitants. This is doubtless the true meaning of the 
 
 1 Institute*, ii. p. 702.
 
 3 2 History of Local Rates 
 
 act, but all the same the practice was to rate the areas 
 in lump sums, and leave them to apportion these 
 sums among the inhabitants as they thought fit. 1 
 
 An act of a local character (23 Eliz., c. 11), passed 
 just fifty years later, shows that in taxing and setting 
 each inhabitant to a reasonable aid the justices were 
 expected to follow well-known precedents. A dispute 
 had broken out between Cardiff and Glamorgan about 
 the duty of repairing the bridge at Cardiff. " Such 
 doubts and ambiguities," the preamble of the act says, 
 were discovered "touching certain words and sen- 
 tences " in the Statute of Bridges, " that more money 
 was like to be spent in the determining and explain- 
 ing of the same than haply might have sufficed to 
 have re-edified the said bridge." To put an end to 
 this unhappy state of affairs, Parliament declared that 
 of right the building of the bridge belonged to the 
 town without all doubt or controversy, but at the 
 same time it ordered the county to bear five-sixths 
 and the town only one-sixth of the cost, in considera- 
 tion of " the poor estate of the said town of Cardiff, and 
 the inability thereof to perform so great a charge." 
 To avoid any "doubts and ambiguities" as to the 
 method of raising the contributions of the town and 
 the county, it went on to enact that the justices in 
 the county and the mayor and bailiffs in the town 
 were "to rate and assess the county aforesaid, with 
 the several hundreds, and every town corporate, 
 parish, village, and hamlet within the same, and every 
 inhabitant and dweller within every and any of them, 
 
 1 See, for a Norfolk example in the first half of the seventeenth 
 century, Bodleian MS., Tanner, 311, f. 257. The practice seems to 
 have been first legalised in 1702 by 1 Ann., c. 12.
 
 Miscellaneous Statutory Rates to 1640 33 
 
 to such reasonable sum and sums of money as to 
 them shall be thought meet and convenient, in due 
 and proportionable manner, according as rates, tasks, 
 and tallages have been before this time used to be 
 there rated and levied, or as near thereunto as they 
 can." If we suppose, as we reasonably may, that this 
 provision was intended to declare the meaning of the 
 Statute of Bridges rather than to alter or add to it, 
 we may infer that in 1580 good authorities were of 
 opinion that the taxation under that statute should 
 be apportioned as rates, tasks, and tallages had usually 
 been apportioned. Thus the statute, instead of clearing 
 anything up, merely throws us back on pre-existing 
 custom. 
 
 Close upon the Statute of Bridges follows an act 
 for building county jails (23 Hen. VIII., c. 2), passed 
 in 1 53 1-2. This authorised the justices of twenty- 
 five of the counties to call together the high con- 
 stables, tithing-men, or borough-holders, of every 
 hundred, lathe, or wapentake of the shire, and by 
 their assents, agreements, and discretion, tax and set 
 every resident in the shire having land, tenements, 
 rents, or annuities of estate of inheritance or for time 
 of life to the clear yearly value of 40s. or above, or 
 being worth in movable substance the clear value of 
 .20 or above. Here is one bright spot in the midst 
 of obscurity. The persons to be taxed owners of pro- 
 perty real and personal, " resident," not " inhabiting," 
 in the shire are plainly specified, and it is clearly 
 implied that they are to be taxed in proportion to 
 the value of the income derived from their property, 
 movables being assumed to produce an income of 
 10 per cent, on their capital value. 
 

 
 34 History of Local Rates 
 
 The statute next in order, passed in the follow- 
 ing year (24 Hen. VIII., c. 10), leaves everything 
 undetermined. It enacts that the tenants and in- 
 habitants of every parish, township, hamlet, borough, 
 or village with more than nine inhabited houses, shall, 
 "at their own proper costs, charges, and expenses, 
 provide, make, or cause to be made one net " for the 
 destruction of choughs, crows, and rooks, which " do 
 daily breed and increase " throughout the realm, and 
 " do yearly destroy, devour, and consume a wonderful 
 and marvellous great quantity of corn and grain of 
 all kinds," besides causing a " marvellous destruction 
 and decay of the covertures of thatched houses, barns, 
 ricks, stacks, and other such-like." 
 
 Three years later we find an act (27 Hen. VIII., 
 c - 63, 1535-6) regulating the government of Calais, 
 and providing for its representation in Parliament. 
 This prescribes that the necessary 2s. a day for the 
 wages of the burgesses in Parliament shall be " levied 
 in such manner of form as within other cities and 
 boroughs within this realm is used and accustomed." 
 The same reference to well-established custom is 
 found in the act of 1543-4 (35 Hen. VIII., c. 11), 
 making provision for the payment of the represen- 
 tatives of Wales. The sheriffs of the twelve Welsh 
 counties and Monmouthshire are to gather and levy 
 the fees of the knights of the shire from "the in- 
 habitants of the said twelve shires, and of the said 
 county of Monmouth, which ought to pay the same." 
 The boroughs which did not send burgesses of their 
 own to Parliament were grouped for electoral purposes 
 with the county town, and so, in order to provide for 
 the wages of the burgesses in Parliament, the justices
 
 Miscellaneous Statutory Rates to 1640 35 
 
 were to " lot and tax every city, borough, and town," 
 and the "rates so rated and taxed in gross" were 
 to be " again rated and taxed on the inhabitants of 
 every of the said cities and boroughs by four or six 
 discreet and substantial burgesses of every the said 
 cities and boroughs in Wales thereunto named and 
 assigned by the mayor, bailiffs, or other head officers 
 of the said cities, towns, and boroughs for the time 
 being." 
 
 An act of 1 545 " for the marshes besides Greenwich " 
 (37 Hen. VIII., c. 11) says that most of the owners 
 of the said marshes pay " a rate for an acre " towards 
 the repairing of the banks which protect the land 
 from the tide, "yet some owners thereof be which 
 have not nor will not pay anything." These re- 
 fractory individuals are therefore made liable to 
 distraint. 
 
 More interest attaches to an act of 1 545-6 (37 Hen. 
 VIII., c. 14) "for Scarborough Pier." This recites 
 that formerly when the harbour was in good con- 
 dition the inhabitants and dwellers were prosperous, 
 " and also all the owners of all the messuages, lands, 
 and tenements within the precinct of the said town 
 did set and let their said messuages, lands, and tene- 
 ments at great rents or farms, to their great advan- 
 tages and profits," but now that the quay or pier had 
 been partially destroyed and the safety of the har- 
 bour impaired, the inhabitants and dwellers were im- 
 poverished, and the rents and farms were hindered 
 and diminished. Parliament thereupon considered 
 that if the pier were repaired, the lands and houses 
 "might be set or letten for much greater rents or 
 farms," and also that the tenants and farmers wcro
 
 $6 History of Local Rates 
 
 not able to repair the quay unless the owners were 
 "compelled to be yearly contributors and helpers." 
 It therefore authorised the bailiffs, coroners, and 
 searchers of occupations in Scarborough to appoint 
 two masters or keepers of the pier, and enacted that 
 these masters or keepers and their successors, should 
 yearly levy, towards the repair and subsequent main- 
 tenance of the pier, one-fifth of the rents receivable 
 by "all and every person and persons being owner 
 or owners, and having estate of inheritance, or being 
 tenant by the courtesy or tenant in dower of any 
 messuage or messuages, tenement or tenements, or 
 any kind of rents, garthings, orchards, or other lands, 
 grounds, or hereditaments set, situate, or lying within 
 the precincts, limits, or bounds of the said town of 
 Scarborough, or the liberties and jurisdiction of the 
 same, or of any kind of rent or rents being due to 
 be paid forth, or for any of the same." The fifth was 
 to be collected from the farmers or occupiers, but it is 
 provided that every occupier holding under a landlord, 
 upon paying the fifth part of his rent to the masters 
 of the pier, " shall be thereof and for so much clearly 
 acquitted and discharged against the owner" from 
 whom he holds, "any usage, custom, law, covenant, 
 indenture, obligations, or bonds to the contrary made 
 or hereafter to be made in any wise notwithstand- 
 ing." To make a long story short, tenants were 
 allowed to deduct the fifth from their rents, and all 
 contracts to the contrary, past, present, and to come, 
 were rendered void. If any owner occupied or held 
 his property in his own hands, he was to pay the fifth 
 part of so much rent as it " may be reasonably let to 
 farm for, as by the valuation of ten discreet persons
 
 Miscellaneous Statutory Rates to 1640 37 
 
 of the same town shall be adjudged without fraud or 
 coven." 1 
 
 In setting aside past and future contracts on the 
 part of tenants to pay rates, this act is unique, but 
 the paving acts of the period afford examples of the 
 practice of authorising deductions from rent where no 
 such contracts existed. It is not very easy to see 
 how a road through a town came to be distinguished 
 from a highway in the country, but it seems to be the 
 case that the duty of repairing the streets in a town 
 lay upon the owners (not on the occupiers) of the 
 property abutting upon them. The liability of the 
 corporation was often admitted in the case of large 
 public places, like market squares, but not in that of 
 ordinary streets. The owners on each side were ex- 
 pected to pave the way as far as the channel, which 
 in those days, of course, was in the middle of the road, 
 not on each side between the carriage-way and the 
 footpaths. The enforcement of this obligation, if it is 
 not exactly the same thing as the imposition of a rate 
 apportioned according to frontage and width of street, 
 is very closely analogous, and in later times it cer- 
 tainly developed into a rate. The first paving act in 
 the Statutes of the Realm was passed in the year 
 1 53 2 -3 ( 2 4 Hen. VIII., c. 11). It recites that the 
 common highway between Charing Cross and the 
 Strand Cross Is " very noyous and foul, and in many 
 places very jeopardous " to passengers on foot or 
 
 1 The 4s. in the pound being fixed, whatever the requirements of 
 the pier might be, was, strictly speaking, a tax rather than a rate. 
 It was, however, a tax in respect'of things usually ratable ; and 
 from the fact that the owners were to be " contributors and helpers " 
 with the tenants, we may gather that the proceeds went in aid of 
 an ordinary rate.
 
 38 History of Local Rates 
 
 horseback, because " the landlords and owners of all 
 the lands and tenements next adjoining" it have been 
 "remiss and negligent, and also refuse and will not 
 make and support the said highway with paving, 
 every of them after the portion of his ground adjoin- 
 ing." It is therefore enacted that " all and every 
 person and persons, their heirs and successors, the 
 which now, or at any time from henceforth, shall be 
 seized in possession or in use of any manor, lands, or 
 tenements in any wise adjoining to the said highways 
 ... of any estate of fee-simple, fee-tail, or for time 
 of life, shall . . . sufficiently pave or cause to be paved 
 with stone the said highway along from his or their 
 lands or tenements adjoining to the said highway 
 unto the midst of the same way, in such and like 
 form as the high street between Temple Bar and 
 Strand Cross aforesaid is paved." The penalty for 
 neglecting to pave the street in this manner before 
 Michaelmas 1533, and for failing to maintain the 
 pavement afterwards, was 6d. per square yard. The 
 next act (25 Hen. VIII., c. 8), passed in the following 
 year," for paving of Holborn," complains of the " lack 
 of renewing " of the pavement of the street by " the 
 landlords which dwell not within the City." In spite 
 of its title, this act was really applicable to the whole 
 of the city and its suburbs. With regard to Holborn, 
 it follows the Strand act, and then gives the mayor 
 and aldermen power to inquire, by the oath of twelve 
 men of the city, " as well of them that have not paved 
 according to the provision aforesaid, as also of them 
 that remissly or insufficiently shall hereafter maintain 
 the same pavement or any other pavement within the 
 said city and suburbs of the same." Any one in
 
 Miscellaneous Statutory Rates to 1640 39 
 
 default might be fined by the mayor and aldermen 
 according to their discretions. In Southwark, outside 
 the jurisdiction of the city, the same powers were 
 given to the justices. It was further provided that 
 if the lessees of any lands " do sufficiently pave or 
 repair before their mansions or dwelling-places the 
 streets which have used to be paved, that then they 
 and every of them shall defalk, abate, and retain in 
 his or their own hands as much of the rents due to 
 the lessors as they can prove to have expended on the 
 same paving." The other eight Tudor period paving 
 acts printed in the Statutes of the Realm all agree in 
 making the landlord liable, and six of them contain 
 the provision allowing the tenants to do the work 
 and deduct the outlay from their rents. Of the six, 
 however, one (13 Eliz., c. 24), passed in 157 1 for paving 
 Ipswich, imposes a true money rate for defraying the 
 expense of paving in front of parish churches, and 
 in respect of this it fails to make any provision for 
 a deduction from rent. The streets in front of the 
 churches were to be paved " at the charges of the 
 parishioners of every such church, . . . the charges 
 thereof to be indifferently rated by the twelve head- 
 boroughs." 
 
 Returning from this digression on paving expenses, 
 we come to an act of 1553 (1 Mar., st. 2, c. 32) 
 for repairing the causeway between Sherborne and 
 Shaftesbury. 1 The preamble of this act says it is 
 thought meet that the cost of putting the causeway 
 in repair should be borne by the "owners, tenants, 
 fanners, and inhabitants of the manors, lands, tenc- 
 
 1 This act is not printed in its place in Statutes of the Realm, but 
 it will be found recited in full in i Mar., st. 3, c. 5.
 
 40 History of Local Rates 
 
 ments, and parishes lying nigh to the said causeway 
 and highway on either side of the same," and "the 
 owners, tenants, farmers, and inhabitants of the towns 
 of Shaftesbury and Sherborne." The act itself, how- 
 ever, says the cost is to be borne by "the owners, 
 tenants, and farmers of the lands, tenements, and 
 hereditaments lying nigh to the said causeway and 
 highway on either side of the same, and by the in- 
 habitants of and within the said towns of Shaftesbury 
 and Sherborne, and by the owners, tenants, and 
 farmers of the manors, lands, tenements, and heredita- 
 ments, and by the inhabitants of and within the forest 
 of Gillingham" and certain liberties and hundreds. 
 The justices of Somerset and Dorset are to make 
 assessments and taxations of money or otherwise on 
 these persons, "having good and indifferent respect 
 to the several abilities of them and every of them." 
 Probably no importance is to be attached to the 
 difference in the description of the ratepayers in the 
 preamble and the act itself. On the whole it seems 
 probable that both the "manors" adjoining the high- 
 way and "the owners, tenants, and farmers" of the 
 towns of Shaftesbury and Sherborne, spoken of in the 
 preamble, are not mentioned in the act merely because 
 the draughtsman considered they were covered by the 
 other expressions, "lands, tenements, and heredita- 
 ments," and "inhabitants." The word "owners" is 
 probably intended merely to include persons occupy- 
 ing their own lands. Whoever was to pay, it is plain 
 that the principle on which the payment was appor- 
 tioned was the relative ability of the contributors. 
 
 Another local highway act (i Mar., st. 3, c. 6) passed 
 in the following year (1554) does not make the same
 
 Miscellaneous Statutory Rates to 1640 41 
 
 rather unsuccessful attempt to be explicit. It merely 
 provides that the inhabitants of the cities of Bristol 
 and Gloucester, with the hundreds which lie between 
 them, shall be charged with the repair of the Glou- 
 cester and Bristol road. It authorises the justices 
 to rate and sess the inhabitants, but says nothing 
 about the distribution of the burden among them. 
 
 An act of 1555 (2 & 3 P. & M., c. 1) "for the re- 
 edifying of castells and forts, and for the enclosing 
 of grounds from the borders towards and against 
 Scotland," that is to say, in Northumberland, Cum- 
 berland, Westmorland, and Durham, is on the model 
 of the Sewers Acts. It authorises the appointment of 
 a commission " to inquire by the oaths of the honest 
 and lawful men " of the four counties, " by whom the 
 truth may best be known, who hath or holdeth any 
 lands or tenements or useth or perceiveth any com- 
 mon of pasture or other profit apprender in the said 
 counties or bishopric throughout the whole parts oi 
 the same, and all those persons and every of them 
 or such of them, to tax, assess, charge, distrain, and 
 pain by the number of acres and perches after the 
 rate of every person's profit, rent, or tenure, or after 
 the quantity of their common of pasture or profit 
 apprender or other commodities there." Crown lands 
 were to be liable to rating in the same way as others, 
 and the tenants of such lands might deduct the rates 
 from their rents. 
 
 The act of 1532 for destroying crows was allowed 
 to expire by effluxion of time; but in 1566 a 
 more comprehensive act " for preservation of grain " 
 (8 Eliz., c. 15) revived its provisions with regard to 
 the village net, and enacted further that, in order to
 
 42 History of Local Rates 
 
 raise money to be paid away in rewards for the eggs 
 and heads of birds and vermin, including foxes, the 
 churchwardens, with six other parishioners co-opted 
 by them, should annually, and as often as might be 
 necessary, "tax and assess every proprietor, farmer, 
 and other person having the possession of any land 
 or tithes within their several parishes, to pay such 
 sum of money as they shall think meet, according to 
 the quantity and portion of such lands or tithes as 
 the same person so assessed do or shall have or hold." 
 Of course the term proprietor is here qualified by the 
 1 laving possession of land, so that a landlord not 
 occupying his land would not be liable to be rated. 
 It is only natural that a rate to be expended so 
 directly for the benefit of agriculturists should be 
 levied from them alone. 
 
 In 1 57 1 (by 13 Eliz., c. 18) it was enacted that 
 the river Lea should be cleansed of all its shelves and 
 shallows "at the costs and charges of the country," 
 the freeholders and inhabitants being rated by the 
 sheriffs and justices of the three counties concerned, 
 and certain commissioners appointed by the Lord 
 Chancellor; but this somewhat vague provision was 
 greatly qualified by the condition that no one should 
 be charged except in so far as he would be chargeable 
 under the Statute of Sewers. 
 
 In 1575-6 the legislature was forced to take notice 
 of a difficulty in the enforcement of the labour required 
 by the Highways Act, which is closely connected with 
 the question, What constitutes an inhabitant for the 
 purposes of rating ? The statute of 1555 was amended 
 by an act (18 Eliz., c. 10) which, among other things, 
 explains that persons who occupy a plough-land
 
 Miscellaneous Statutory Rates to 1640 43 
 
 divided between several parishes axe to be chargeable 
 in the parish where they dwell, and that persons who 
 have several plough-lands, each in a different parish, 
 are to be chargeable just as if they were resident 
 parishioners of the parish in which each plough-land 
 lies "in such manner and form as if he and they 
 were a parishioner dwelling within the parishes where 
 the same several plough-lands do lie." 
 
 Curiously enough this same act contains a local 
 provision or addendum, in which the difficulty about 
 residence was entirely overlooked. The addendum 
 presents several points of interest. It says: "And 
 whereas the ferry or passage called Kingsferry within 
 the Isle of Sheppey, in the county of Kent, before the 
 making of the statute of highways, was usually repaired 
 and maintained time out of memory of man at the 
 charges of all the inhabitants and land -occupiers 
 within the whole isle by taxation and sessment at 
 one court or law-day time out of mind yearly holden 
 on the Monday next after the feast of Pentecost at 
 Kingsborough within the said isle, in the name of 
 the Queen's Majesty and her progenitors, only for the 
 maintenance of the same ferry ; Be it therefore enacted 
 that the said court shall be duly kept in such manner 
 and form as hath been heretofore accustomed, and that 
 it shall and may be lawful to and for the jury em- 
 pannelled and sworn at the same court for the time 
 being, by their discretions, reasonably to assess and 
 tax themselves and all other the inhabitants and land- 
 occupiers of the said isle indifferently, according to the 
 rate of land in every man's occupying, towards the 
 maintenance <>f the same passage or ferry and the 
 ways belonging or leading to the same, so as no acre of
 
 44 History of Local Rates 
 
 fresh marsh and upland be taxed above the rate of a 
 penny in one year, nor of every ten acres of salt marsh 
 above the rate of a penny in one year." Here we 
 have a money rate which had been levied time out 
 of mind for what were regarded as highway pur- 
 poses from occupiers of land at so much per acre. 
 Not content with reviving this ancient rate, Parlia- 
 ment proceeded to create a similar one on the 
 opposite side of the Swale. The road from Kingsferry 
 to Middleton had fallen into disrepair, and the parish 
 was not "able" to repair it. Three justices of the peace 
 were therefore authorised "reasonably to assess and 
 tax all and every land-occupiers dwelling out of the 
 said isle and within four miles distant from the said 
 ferry, as to their discretion shall seem convenient, not 
 exceeding the sum of one penny upon every acre of 
 fresh marsh and upland in one year, and upon every 
 ten acres of salt marsh one penny in one year." The 
 wording of this clause was very unfortunate, as we 
 learn from an amending act (27 Eliz., c. 26) passed 
 nine years afterwards, which says, " Forasmuch upon 
 the letter of the same branch some doubt and question 
 hath risen whether the said justices could sess any 
 but such as be land-occupiers and dwelling out of 
 the said isle, and within four miles distant of the 
 said ferry ; and that thereby the taxations by them to 
 be made by the letter of the same law will not suffice 
 to repair the said decayed ways, for that the lands and 
 grounds lying out of the said isle and within four 
 miles distant of the said ferry are for the most part 
 occupied by such persons as be inhabiting without the 
 compass of the said four miles ; by reason whereof the 
 said highways remain still unrepaired. ... Be it now
 
 Miscellaneous Statutory Rates to 1640 45 
 
 enacted . . . that yearly from henceforth for ever . . . 
 it shall and may be lawful to and for six, five, four, 
 or three justices of the peace ... to assess and tax 
 upon all and every the lands and grounds lying and 
 being without the said isle, and within four miles 
 distant from the said ferry, such assessments ... as 
 to them shall seem reasonable, notwithstanding that 
 the owners or occupiers of the same lands or grounds 
 be dwelling without the compass of the said four 
 miles." This little history affords an excellent ex- 
 ample of the insuperable difficulty involved in basing 
 local taxation on the dwelling-place of the taxpayer. 
 
 In the same year, 1584-5, was passed another act 
 which distinctly names the abilities of the inhabitants 
 as the criterion for the apportionment of a rate. This 
 act, "for the Hue and Cry" (27 Eliz., c. 13), after 
 reciting how individual inhabitants of a hundred had 
 hitherto had no means of reimbursing themselves 
 when their goods had been taken to pay damages to a 
 person robbed on the highway, 1 enacts " that after exe- 
 cution of damages by the party or parties so robbed 
 had, it shall and may be lawful (upon complaint made 
 
 1 " And although the whole hundred where such robberies and 
 felonies are committed, with the liberties within the precinct 
 thereof, are by the said two former statutes charged with tho 
 answering to the party robbed his damages ; yet nevertheless the 
 recovery and execution by and for the party or parties robbed is 
 had against one or a very few persons of the said inhabitants, and 
 he and they so charged have not heretofore by law had any mean 
 or way to have any contribution of or from the residue of the said 
 hundred ... to the great impoverishment of them against whom 
 such recovery or execution is had." This must not be taken to 
 prove that rates were never levied to reimburse persons whose 
 goods had been taken in execution, but only that such persons 
 could not compel the inhabitants to levy a rate to reimburse them.
 
 46 History of Local Bates 
 
 by the party or parties so charged) to and for two 
 justices of the peace ... of the same county, inhabit- 
 ing within the said hundred or near unto the same 
 where any such execution shall be had, to assess and 
 tax ratably and proportionably according to their dis- 
 cretions all and every the towns, parishes, villages, and 
 hamlets, as well of the said hundred where any such 
 robbery shall be committed as of the liberties within 
 the said hundred, to and towards an equal contribution 
 to be had and made for the relief of the said inhabi- 
 tant or inhabitants against whom the party or parties 
 robbed before that time had his or their execution; 
 and that after such taxation made, the constables, con- 
 stable, head-boroughs or head-borough of every such 
 town, parish, village, and hamlet shall, by virtue of 
 this present act, have full power and authority within 
 their several limits ratably and proportionably to tax 
 and assess according to their abilities every inhabitant 
 and dweller in every such town, parish, village, and 
 hamlet for and towards the payment of such taxation 
 and assessment as shall be so made on every such 
 town, parish, village, and hamlet as aforesaid by the 
 said justices." 
 
 This was the last rating act of importance passed 
 before the poor-laws of 1597 and 1601 ; but as some 
 most vital questions under the statute of 1601 re- 
 mained unanswered till 1633, and the influence of the 
 poor-rate is not apparent in other rating legislation 
 before the era of the Long Parliament, the few rating 
 acts of James I.'s reign may be regarded as a sort of 
 appendix to the earlier period. 
 
 Here we find in 1603-4 an act (1 Jac. I., c. 31) for 
 the relief and ordering of persons affected with the
 
 Miscellaneous Statutory Rates to 16.10 47 
 
 plague. The mayor, bailiffs, head-officers, and justices 
 of every city, borough, corporate town, or privileged 
 place were given power " to assess all and every in- 
 habitant and all houses of habitation, lands, tenements, 
 and hereditaments " within their jurisdiction at " such 
 reasonable taxes and payments as they shall think 
 fit." In this there seems a slight hesitation between 
 the idea of a rate on persons and one on things. The 
 inclusion of the things as well as the " inhabitants " is 
 probably only due to a desire to make quite sure that 
 non-resident occupiers should not escape. 
 
 Next we have several acts of 1605-6, the third year 
 of James I. Chapter 10, for conveying malefactors to 
 jail, authorises "an indifferent tax or assessment" to 
 be made by " the constables and churchwardens and 
 two or three other the hoc est inhabitants of the 
 parish, township, or tithing " where the malefactor 
 was apprehended. 
 
 Chapter 19, for repairing the highway from Non- 
 such to Taleworth, after reciting that the parishes 
 through which the road passes are not able to do 
 the work, charges the expense upon the " owners, 
 tenants, farmers, inhabitants, and occupiers of the 
 lands, tenements, and hereditaments" lying in half- 
 a-dozen hundreds. The apportionment was to be 
 made "having good and indifferent respect to the 
 several abilities, nearness, and remoteness" of the 
 persons and property. A special provision secured 
 the chargeability of non-residents. 
 
 Chapter 20 is " for clearing the passage by water 
 from London to and beyond the city of Oxford," and 
 is interesting, as it contains a more general assertion 
 of the principle of a betterment chargo than any
 
 48 History of Local Rates 
 
 other act. It says, "For that it is reasonable, just, 
 and equal that those who partake in the benefit of 
 any good work should in fit proportion contribute to 
 the costs and charges thereof: be it further enacted 
 . . . that the . . . commissioners, or the more part 
 of them, shall and may have full power and lawful 
 authority to tax and assess such of the inhabitants of 
 the said several counties " i.e., Oxford, Berks, Wilts, 
 and Gloucester " as shall in their opinion be likely to 
 receive ease or benefit by the said passage, and as well 
 those in the said university as in the city of Oxford, 
 at such reasonable sums of money and payments as 
 they in their discretions shall think fit and con- 
 venient." Eighteen years afterwards this Act was 
 repealed and its place taken by one (21 Jac. I., c. 32) 
 which puts the burden of improving the passage by 
 water entirely upon the inhabitants of Oxford, on the 
 ground that "the principal benefit thereof will redound 
 immediately to the university and city of Oxford." The 
 commissioners are given full power to tax and assess the 
 inhabitants of the university and city, and also bodies 
 politic and corporate there, as they in their discretions 
 shall think meet. Chapter 22 of the third year of 
 James I. is for paving Drury Lane and the town of 
 St. Giles. It charges both the owners and occupiers 
 of property adjoining the lane, and the inhabitants 
 and occupiers of certain parishes. Chapter 23 autho- 
 rises rating of the inhabitants of Monmouthshire and 
 Gloucestershire for Chepstow Bridge. Chapter 24 
 recites that ^7CX) at least had been "levied of the 
 inhabitants of divers parts " of Worcestershire, under 
 the Statute of Bridges, "and employed in the re-edifying 
 of the bridge at Upton-on-Severn, so as the same, with
 
 Miscellaneous Statutory Rates to 1640 49 
 
 some small further charge, might have been perfectly 
 finished ; notwithstanding all which, by the wilfulness 
 of some particular persons, being unwilling to contri- 
 bute anything towards so charitable a work, and 
 drawing others daily to like obstinacy, whereby the 
 inhabitants of some parts of the said county would 
 not yield or consent to the making or levying of any 
 taxations or assessments towards the building of the 
 said bridge, the said good and charitable work hath 
 been given over, so as some part of the said bridge, 
 for that it was left unfinished, is again fallen down, 
 and the rest greatly decayed, and like in short time 
 to fall down unless some speedy course be taken for 
 the finishing thereof." The inhabitants of the county, 
 " other than the citizens of the city of Worcester in- 
 habiting in the said city, and that only concerning 
 the lands, goods, and chattels within the said city," 
 are to finish the bridge within three years, on pain of 
 a fine of 100 per annum for every year in default. 
 The justices are empowered to " rate, tax, and assess 
 the said county of Worcester, and the several hundreds, 
 towns, parishes, villages, and hamlets within the same, 
 and every inhabitant or dweller " in them, except the 
 citizens of Worcester as provided above, and to appoint 
 collectors. The justices had evidently been powerless 
 to cope with a refusal on the part of the inhabitants 
 of particular localities to assess and levy the sum 
 rated on their district. The exemption of the citizens 
 of Worcester only in respect of lands and goods in 
 the city, shows the purely technical sense in which 
 the word inhabitant was used; the situation of the 
 property, and not that of the person, is the important 
 thing. 
 
 D
 
 50 History of Local Rates 
 
 Just as in the earlier or customary rates, so in these 
 statutory rates two principles of assessment are to be 
 seen. The rates for sea defence, the destruction of 
 crows and vermin, the rebuilding of Scarborough 
 Pier, re-edification in the northern counties, the im- 
 provement of the Lea and the Thames, are obviously 
 intended to be assessed according to the proportion 
 of benefit resulting from the expenditure to the rate- 
 payers. The rates for building jails, paying members 
 of Parliament, reimbursing persons robbed on the 
 highway, relieving persons suffering from the plague, 
 and conveying malefactors to jail, are equally clearly 
 intended to be assessed according to the ability of the 
 ratepayer. The bridges rate, too, probably belongs to 
 the last class. Between the two classes there are 
 some doubtful cases, such as that of the Nonsuch 
 and Taleworth highway rate, in which the Legislature 
 appears to halt between the two principles. In assess- 
 ing the benefit rates, the customary method evidently 
 was to assume that all fixed property is raised in value 
 in equal proportion, so that it was just and expedient 
 to levy a pound rate in respect of it upon the owner, 
 or, in the case of recurrent expenditure, upon the 
 occupier. In assessing the other statutory rates, the 
 customary method must have been the same as in 
 assessing the innumerable non- statutory rates. It 
 was assumed that a man's ability to pay towards the 
 local taxation of a particular place was measured by 
 the value of the land or house he occupied. That 
 this assumption, however, was not unquestioned in 
 1634 may be learnt from " the instructions and direc- 
 tions from the Lords of the Council for the assessing 
 and levying of the ship-money " in that year. These
 
 Miscellaneous Statutory Rates to 1640 51 
 
 show us exactly where the king's advisers thought the 
 assessment ought to differ from that of an ordinary 
 rate, if the tax was to be as little unpopular as its 
 unconstitutional character permitted. In the example 
 in Rush worth, the high sheriffs of Middlesex and Hert- 
 fordshire, and the head -officers of corporate towns 
 therein, are commanded to provide one ship, the cost 
 of which will be 3 300, and it is suggested that 
 Hertfordshire should pay 1500, "Westminster 350, 
 and the rest of Middlesex 1450, to make up the 
 amount. The instructions then proceed, "Secondly, 
 when you have settled the general assessments, we 
 think fit that you subdivide the same, and make 
 particular assessments in such sort as other common 
 payments upon the county and corporate towns afore- 
 said are most usually subdivided and assessed ; and, 
 namely, that you, the sheriff, divide the whole charge 
 laid upon the county into hundreds, lathes, and other 
 divisions, and those into parishes and towns ; and the 
 towns and parishes must be rated by the houses 
 and lands lying within each parish and town, as is 
 accustomed in other common payments which fall 
 out to be payable by the county, hundreds, lathes, 
 divisions, parishes, and towns. And whereas his 
 Majesty takes notice that in former assessments, not- 
 withstanding the express orders given in our letters 
 to ease the poor that [there ?] have been assessed to- 
 wards this service, poor cottages [cottagers ?] and others 
 who having nothing to. live on but their daily work ; 
 which is not only a very charitable [uncharitable ?] act 
 in itself and grievous to such people, but can admit 
 no better instructions [construction ?] than that it was 
 done out of an adverse humour of purpose to raiso
 
 52 History of Local Rates 
 
 clamour and prejudice the service. Wherefore his 
 Majesty's express command is that you take effectual 
 care and order, by such precepts and warrants as you 
 issue for this service, that no persons be assessed unto 
 the same unless they be known to have estates in 
 money or goods, or other means to live by over and 
 above their daily labour; and where you find such 
 persons to be taxed, you are to take off what shall be 
 set upon them, and lay it upon those that are better 
 able to bear it. And that you may the better spare 
 such poor people, it is his Majesty's pleasure that where 
 there shall happen to be any man [men ?] of ability, by 
 reason of gainful trades, great stocks of money, or other 
 usual estates, who perchance have or occupy little or no 
 land, and consequently in an ordinary land-scot would 
 pay nothing or very little, such men be rated and 
 assessed according to their worth and ability; and 
 that the monies which shall be levied upon such may 
 be applied not only to the sparing and freeing of the 
 such poor people as aforesaid, but also to the easing of 
 such as, being either weak of estate, or charged with 
 many children or great debts, or unable to bear such 
 great charge as their lands in their occupation might 
 require, in an usual and ordinary proportion ; and the 
 like cause [course?] to be held by the head-officers in 
 the corporate towns, that a poor man be not set in 
 respect of the usual tax of his house or the like at a 
 greater sum than others of much more wealth and 
 ability ; and herein you are to have a more than ordi- 
 nary care and regard, whereby to prevent complaints of 
 inequality in the assessments, whereby we were much 
 troubled the last year. 
 
 " Thirdly, to the end that this may be effected with
 
 Miscellaneous Statutory Rates to 1640 53 
 
 more equality and expedition, you, the sheriff, are to 
 govern yourself in the assessment for his service by 
 such public payments as are most equal and agreeable 
 to the inhabitants of that county ; and for your more 
 ease and better proceeding herein, after you have 
 accordingly rated the several hundreds, lathes, and 
 divisions of that county, you may set forth your 
 warrants to the constables, requiring them to call 
 unto them some of the most discreet and sufficient 
 men of every parish, town, or tithing, and to consider 
 with them how the sum charged upon each hundred 
 may be distributed and divided as aforesaid, and with 
 most equality and indifferency ; and to return the 
 same in writing, under their hands, with all possible 
 expedition; which being done, you are to sign the 
 assessment set on the several persons of every par- 
 ticular parish, town, or tithing, if you approve thereof ; 
 and if, for inequality, you find cause to alter the same 
 in any part, yet after it is so altered you are to sign 
 the same, and, keeping the true copy thereof, you 
 may thereupon give order for the speedy collection 
 and levying of such sums accordingly by constables 
 of hundreds, petty constables, and others usually 
 applied for collection of other common charges and 
 payments." 1 It is clear from this that in 1634 it was 
 already recognised that the ordinary method of rating 
 was not in accordance with distribution of the burden 
 according to ability. 
 
 1 Rushworth, Historical Collections, 16S0, vol. ii. pp. 259-61.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 POOR-LAW RATES TO l60I 
 
 While the "ability" rates created by Tudor and 
 Jacobean parliaments, in practice generally followed 
 the model of the earlier or customary rates, and were 
 consequently assessed in accordance with a measure- 
 ment of ability which was no longer regarded as sound, 
 the poor-rate, owing to its peculiar origin, started afresh 
 direct from the principle of contribution according to 
 ability, and was not at first encumbered with the 
 misleading standard of the older rates. 
 
 The first legislative step towards the establishment 
 of a local rate for the relief of the poor was taken 
 when it was enacted that certain persons dependent 
 on charity should be confined to particular places. 
 The act 12 Ric. II., c. 7 (1388) provided that 
 "beggars impotent to serve shall abide in the cities 
 and towns where they be dwelling at the time of the 
 proclamation of this statute; and if the people of 
 cities or other towns will not or may not suffice to find 
 them, that then the said beggars shall draw them to 
 other towns within the hundred, rape, or wapentake, 
 or to the towns where they were born, within forty 
 days after the proclamation made, and shall there con- 
 tinually abide during their lives." A century later, in 
 1495, the act 11 Hen. VII., c. 2, ordained "that all 
 manner of beggars not able to work, within six weeks
 
 Poor -Law Rates to 1601 55 
 
 next after proclamation made of this act go rest and 
 abide in his hundred where he last dwelled, or there 
 where he is best known or born, there to remain or 
 abide, without begging out of the said hundred." The 
 act 19 Hen. VII., c. 12 (1503-4) is rather less vague. 
 It ordains "that all manner of beggars not able to 
 work within six weeks next after proclamation made 
 by this act go rest and abide in his city, town, or 
 hundred where they were born, or else to the place 
 where they last made their abode the space of three 
 years, there to remain or abide, without begging out 
 of the said city, town, hundred, or place." It also 
 enacts that valiant vagabonds, after being punished, 
 are to go "into such city, town, place, or hundred 
 where they were born, or else to the place where they 
 last made their abode by the space of three years, and 
 that as hastily as they conveniently may, and there 
 to remain and abide." Lastly, in 15 30-1 the act 
 22 Hen. VIII., c. 12, provided that every impotent 
 beggar should have a license given him by the 
 justices, and should not go outside the limits they 
 assigned to him, and that every able-bodied vagrant 
 should be sent back " to the place where he was born 
 or where he last dwelt ... by the space of three 
 years, and there put himself to labour like as a true 
 man ought to do." 
 
 Provisions like these necessarily led to further 
 provisions for securing that the impotent should be 
 maintained, and the able-bodied set to work, in the 
 places assigned to them; and so in 1535-6 we find 
 Parliament awaking to a recognition of the fact that 
 it was not explained " how and in what wise the said 
 poor people and sturdy vagabonds should bo ordered
 
 56 History of Local Rates 
 
 at their repair and at their coming into their countries, 
 nor how the inhabitants of every hundred should be 
 charged for the relief of the same poor people, nor yet 
 for the setting and keeping in work of the aforesaid 
 valiant vagabonds at their said repair into every 
 hundred of this realm." 1 Difficulties had evidently 
 arisen from the unwillingness of the " countries " or 
 hundreds to extend charity to every impotent beggar 
 with whom the justices saddled them, and to provide 
 work of a kind which would satisfy the valiant vaga- 
 bond who had been returned, like a bad shilling, to 
 the place of his birth. A certain measure of com- 
 pulsion was accordingly applied. It was enacted 
 (27 Hen. VIII., c. 25) that "all the governors and 
 ministers of every of the same cities, shires, towns, 
 hundreds, wapentakes, lathes, rapes, ridings, tithings, 
 hamlets, and parishes" a fine confusion of local 
 government areas "as well within liberties as with- 
 out, shall not only succour, find, and keep all and every 
 of the same poor people by way of voluntary and chari- 
 table alms, . . . but also . . . cause and compel all and 
 every the said sturdy vagabonds and valiant beggars to 
 be set and kept to continual labour in such wise as by 
 their said labours they and every of them may get 
 their own living with the continual labour of their 
 
 1 Preamble of 27 Hen. VIII., c. 25. It is curious that this act 
 appears to assume, without any apparent justification, that the act 
 of 1 530-1 required not only able-bodied beggars and vagabonds, 
 but also impotent poor persons, to be sent back to the place where 
 they were born or last dwelt for three years. See the provision of 
 5, that leprous and bedrid persons may remain where they be, and 
 " shall not be compelled to repair into their countries according to 
 the tenor and purport of the aforesaid former act." There seems 
 to have been some confusion between the act of 1530- 1 and the 
 earlier acts quoted above.
 
 Poor-Laiv Rates to 1601 57 
 
 own hands." Every parish in default none of the 
 other areas are mentioned here might be fined 1 a 
 month by quarter-sessions. In order to defray the ex- 
 pense of succouring the impotent persons and keeping 
 the sturdy vagabonds at work, the mayors and head- 
 officers of corporate towns, and the churchwardens or 
 two others of every parish, were to collect alms of 
 the good Christian people within the same with boxes 
 every Sunday, or otherwise, " upon pain that all and 
 every the mayors, governors, aldermen, head-officers, 
 and others the king's officers and ministers of every 
 of the said cities, boroughs, towns corporate, hundreds, 
 parishes, and hamlets, shall lose and forfeit for every 
 month that it is omitted and undone, the sum of 20 
 shillings." This list of authorities seems to show that 
 the authors of the statute had still somewhat vague 
 notions as to the question by whom it should be put 
 in execution. The officers of each hundred and 
 corporate town were apparently intended to exercise 
 a general supervision, and to distribute the " overplus " 
 of the collections in the wealthy parishes among the 
 poor parishes ; but the parish was the primary unit, 
 and the provisions as to accounts all relate to it. The 
 churchwardens, with six or four honest neighbours, 
 could demand accounts quarterly or oftener from the 
 collectors. The parson, or some other honest man, 
 was to keep accounts showing receipts and expendi- 
 ture, but tho book containing them was always to 
 remain in the custody of two or three of the con- 
 stables and churchwardens, or some other indifferent 
 man, by their consents, and not in that of the parson, 
 vicar, or parish priest. The book was to be bought 
 mid ]>ai<l for by the constables and churchwardens
 
 58 History of Local Rates 
 
 for the time being at the common collections, whicli 
 probably means "out of the common collections." 
 Bailiffs, constables, churchwardens, or others the 
 collectors of alms might be paid wages out of the 
 money collected if they forbore their own business 
 and labour. No penalties could be exacted merely 
 because the "voluntary and unconstrained alms and 
 charity of the parishioners or people " who were made 
 " contributory to such alms " turned out to be in- 
 sufficient for the purposes of the act, and no one 
 was to be "constrained to any such certain con- 
 tribution but as their free wills and charities shall 
 extend." 
 
 Both these acts were repealed by the act of 1547 
 (l Ed. VI., c. 3), which attempts to get over the 
 difficulty of dealing with sturdy vagabonds by making 
 them slaves for two years, and in certain cases for 
 life, to any man claiming them. If unclaimed by 
 any private person, they were to be sent to the place 
 of their birth, and there treated as public slaves. 
 The mayors and other head -officers of every city, 
 town, or hundred, were to see all lamed, sore, aged, 
 and impotent persons who were born therein, or 
 had been there most conversant or abiding by the 
 space of three years, and who could not be treated 
 as vagabonds, " bestowed and provided for of the 
 tenantries, cottages, or other convenient houses to 
 be lodged in, at the costs and charges of the said 
 cities, boroughs, and villages, there to be relieved 
 and cured by the devotion of the good people of the 
 said city, borough, town, or village." Impotent poor 
 persons found in cities and corporate towns where 
 they were not born or had not dwelt three years,
 
 Poor-Laiv Rates to 1601 59 
 
 were to be sent on horseback or in carts or chariots, 
 from constable to constable, to their place of settle- 
 ment. 1 The meaning of the act might well have 
 been less obscurely expressed, but it seems plain that 
 the intention is to put the cost of housing the im- 
 potent poor upon the public funds of the localities, 
 which would eventually have to replenish their coffers 
 by rates raised in the old way. The cost of main- 
 taining the impotent poor when once housed, on the 
 other hand, is to be defrayed by voluntary gifts. To 
 stimulate the devotion of his flock in this respect, 
 every parson is ordered to exhort his congregation 
 to charity every Sunday, but there is no re-enactment 
 of the elaborate provisions of the act of 1535-6 for 
 enforcing and regulating the weekly collections. 
 
 As any one but the legislators of the reign of Edward 
 VI. would have expected, this slavery statute did not 
 long remain in force. It was repealed two years after 
 it was passed (by 3 & 4 Ed. VI., c. 16). Its provisions 
 for the removing, housing, and maintaining the im- 
 potent poor, however, were re-enacted, with the ex- 
 ception of the clause ordering the parson to exhort 
 his congregation to charity; and the act of 15 30-1 
 was revived, with an additional provision, which had 
 the effect of throwing the cost of deporting destitute 
 alien immigrants upon the ports. After two years 
 more the provisions with regard to the collection of 
 alms contained in the act of 1535-6 were in sub- 
 stance restored and enlarged in 1551 (by 5 & 6 
 Ed. VI., c. 2): 
 
 "Yearly one holiday in Whitsun week in every 
 
 1 There is no provision for removing impotent poor pcisons from 
 country districts to their place of settlement.
 
 6o History of Local Rates 
 
 city, borough, and town corporate, the mayor, bailiffs, 
 or other head-officers for the time being, and in every 
 other parish of the country, the parson, vicar, or curate, 
 and the churchwardens, having in a register or book 
 as well all the names of the inhabitants and house- 
 holders, as also the names of all such impotent aged 
 and needy persons as . . . are not able to live of 
 themselves nor with their own labour, shall openly in 
 the church and quietly after divine service call the 
 said householders and inhabitants together, among 
 whom the mayor and two of his brethren in every 
 city, the bailiffs or other head-officers in boroughs 
 and towns corporate, the parson, vicar, or curate, 
 and churchwardens in every other parish, shall elect, 
 nominate, and appoint yearly two able persons or 
 more to be gatherers or collectors of the charitable 
 alms of all the residue of the people for the relief 
 of the poor, which collectors, the Sunday next after 
 their election (or the Sunday following if need re- 
 quire), when the people is at the church and hath 
 heard God's holy word, shall gently ask and demand 
 of every man and woman what they of their charity 
 will be contented to give weekly towards the relief 
 of the poor ; and the same to be written in the said 
 register or book." 
 
 This public and regular contribution of definite 
 sums promised and recorded beforehand is in itself 
 more like a rate than the collection with boxes 
 authorised by the act of 1535-6. It was, too, of a 
 less voluntary character ; a person who refused to 
 subscribe might bring down on his head ecclesiastical 
 punishments (which were more dreaded then than 
 now), for it was enacted that if any one " able to further
 
 Poor-Laiv Rates to 1601 61 
 
 this charitable work " obstinately or frowardly refused 
 to assist, he might be sent to the bishop, who would, 
 "according to his discretion, take order for the re- 
 formation thereof." 
 
 These provisions remained in force till 1555, and 
 then they were simply re-enacted almost in the same 
 words, and stood till 1572. But important additions 
 were made in 1555 and 1562-3. By the act of 1555 
 (2 & 3 P. & M., c. 5) the rate-in-aid system was in- 
 troduced, in a semi- voluntary form, in consequence of 
 the same circumstances which long afterwards led to 
 the creation of the unions, and later still to the crea- 
 tion of the metropolitan common poor fund. In cities 
 and corporate towns not conterminous with a single 
 parish, the mayors and other head- officers were to 
 " consider the estate and ability " of every parish, and 
 if they found that the parishioners of any one parish 
 were " of such wealth and havour that they have 
 no poverty amongst them, or be able sufficiently to 
 relieve the poverty of the parish where they inhabit 
 and dwell, and also to help and succour poverty 
 elsewhere further," they might then, " with the assent 
 of two of the most honest and substantial inhabitants 
 of every such wealthy parish," consider the needs of 
 all the inhabitants of the town, "and move, induce, or 
 persuade the parishioners of the wealthy parish chari- 
 tably to contribute somewhat according to their ability 
 towards the weekly relief" of the poor in the other 
 parishes. By the act of 1562-3 (5 Eliz., c. 3) com- 
 pulsion by the civil magistrate was introduced. When 
 the bishop found himself unable to overcome the 
 obstinacy or frowardness of a person able but un- 
 willing to contribute, he was authorised to send the
 
 62 History of Local Rates 
 
 refractory individual to the county justices or town 
 magistrates, and these were empowered to " sess, tax, 
 and limit upon every such obstinate person, accord- 
 ing to their good discretions, what sum the said 
 obstinate person shall pay weekly towards the relief 
 of the poor." If he still declined to pay he was to 
 be committed to prison. 
 
 In 1572 (by 14 Eliz., c. 5) a clean sweep was made. 
 All these provisions were repealed. In place of them 
 it was enacted that the county justices and town 
 magistrates should divide themselves, and make 
 diligent inquiry within their several divisions as to 
 the aged, decayed, and impotent poor who were born 
 or had for three years resided in these divisions. 
 They were then to " devise and appoint, within every 
 their said several divisions, meet and convenient places 
 by their discretions to settle the same poor people for 
 their habitations and abidings, if the parish within the 
 which they shall be found shall not or will not pro- 
 vide for them." The justices and magistrates shall 
 also, says the act, "number all the said poor people 
 within their said several limits, and thereupon (having 
 regard to the number) set down what portion the 
 weekly charge towards the relief and sustentation of 
 the said poor people will amount to within every of 
 their said several divisions and limits ; and that done 
 they . . shall by their good discretions tax and 
 assess all and every the inhabitants dwelling in all 
 and every city, borough, town, village, hamlet, and 
 place known within the said limits and divisions to 
 such weekly charge as they and every of them shall 
 weekly contribute towards the relief of the said poor 
 people, and the names of all such inhabitants taxed
 
 Poor-Laiv Rates to 1601 63 
 
 shall also enter into the said register book, together 
 with their taxation; and also shall by their discre- 
 tions, within every their said divisions and limits, 
 appoint or see collectors for one whole year to be 
 appointed of the said weekly portion, . . . and also 
 shall appoint the overseers of the said poor people." 
 
 The fact that this act does not say that the in- 
 habitants are to be taxed primarily, at all events, for 
 the poor of their own parish, led the commissioners 
 of 1834 to think that it deviated from the practice 
 followed both before and after it, of making the relief 
 of the poor a parochial charge. "As it vested the 
 power of assessment in the justices," they say, "it 
 threw the burden, not on each parish, but upon all 
 the inhabitants of the divisions within the jurisdiction 
 of the assessing justices." 1 This does not seem, how- 
 ever, to have been either the intention or the result 
 of the act. The separate existence of each parish 
 was too well recognised to need express mention. 
 In the earlier acts language is constantly used about 
 the mayors and head-officers of towns which might 
 be taken to imply that parochial chargeability did not 
 exist within towns containing more than one parish ; 
 but this would be a totally erroneous conclusion, as 
 we learn from the act of 1555. 2 If it had been 
 intended to destroy parish chargeability in 1572 we 
 may be sure that the intention would have been 
 plainly expressed, whereas there is nothing in the act 
 to prevent the justices from keeping the accounts of 
 each parish separate. That they were intended to do 
 so is suggested by the 27th clause, which expressly 
 authorises the justices in session, in the case of poor 
 
 1 Report, 8vo ed., p. 13. * Sec above, p. 61.
 
 64 History of Local Rates 
 
 towns and parishes, to allow collections to be made 
 for the poor in other towns or parishes. If divisions 
 had been the unit, this clause could scarcely have 
 failed to make the fact clear, and it certainly does not. 
 That parish chargeability was not destroyed as a 
 matter of fact is shown by the act of 1575-6 (18 
 Eliz., c. 3), which complains that bastards "are now 
 left to be kept at the charges of the parish where 
 they be born, to the great burden of the same parish, 
 rnd in defrauding of the relief of the impotent and 
 aged true poor of the same parish," and therefore 
 empowers the justices to take measures not only for 
 the punishment of the parents, but also "for the 
 better relief of every such parish, in part or in all." 
 
 It is curious that, though systematic taxation is 
 apparently introduced by the act of 1572, and an 
 appeal to the general sessions of the peace against the 
 amount is provided for, the idea of voluntary alms is 
 not altogether abandoned. Instead of simply saying 
 that if the taxpayer will not pay the amount at which 
 lie is assessed, distress will be levied on his goods, it 
 says, " If any person or persons being able to further 
 this charitable work, will obstinately refuse to give 
 towards the help and relief of the said poor people, 
 or do wilfully discourage others from so charitable a 
 deed, the said obstinate person or wilful discourager 
 shall presently be brought before two justices of the 
 peace (whereof one to be of the quorum) of the same 
 county, to shew the cause of his obstinate refusal or 
 wilful discouragement, and to abide such order there 
 as the said justices shall appoint : if he refuse so to 
 do, then to be committed to the next gaol, . . . there 
 to remain until he be contented with their said order,
 
 Poor-Law Rates to 1601 65 
 
 and do perform the same." Moreover, the existence 
 of a surplus is contemplated. The surplusages of 
 the collections and forfeitures are to be expended 
 in setting to work the rogues and vagabonds. Now 
 with a well-ordered system of taxation there would of 
 course be no surplus. 
 
 The act of 1572, like its predecessors, imposes 
 charges for the conveyance of the vagabond and im- 
 potent poor upon the parishes or their officers without 
 making any special provision for it, but it also imposes 
 a definite rate for the relief of vagabonds in prison. 
 It says that in most shires the jails are in towns 
 " where there be a great number of poor people, more 
 than they are well able to sustain with their relief, 
 and in some shires the assizes are kept far distant 
 from the place where the common jails are; by 
 reason whereof the said prisoners are like to famish 
 for want of sustenance if they be not therefore pro- 
 vided." It therefore enacts that quarter - sessions 
 shall rate and tax every parish in the shire " at such 
 reasonable sums of money for and towards the relief 
 of the said prisoners as they shall think convenient 
 by their discretions, so that the said taxation and rate 
 doth not exceed above 6d. or 8d. by the week out of 
 every parish ; and that the churchwardens of every 
 parish within this realm for the time being shall every 
 Sunday levy the same." 
 
 The next act, a portion of which we have already 
 had occasion to quote, is that of 1575-6 (18 Eliz., 
 c. 3), " for the setting of the poor on work and for the 
 avoiding of idleness." The surpluses ot the collections 
 had apparently turned out insufficient to provide for 
 giving work to the unemployed, and so the new act 
 
 E
 
 66 History of Local Rates 
 
 was passed " to the intent youth may be accustomed 
 and brought up in labour and work, and then not 
 like to grow to be idle rogues ; and to the intent also 
 that such as be already grown up in idleness, and so 
 rogues at this present, may not have any just excuse 
 in saying that they cannot get any service or work, 
 and then without any favour or toleration worthy to 
 be executed; and that other poor and needy persons 
 being willing to work may be set on work." It was 
 provided that in every city and corporate town, and in 
 market towns or other convenient places, the magis- 
 trates or justices should get together a " competent 
 store and stock of wool, hemp, flax, iron, or other 
 stuff as the country is most meet for," in order that 
 the poor and needy in want of work might be em- 
 ployed. They were to appoint collectors and governors 
 of the poor, who were to deliver to the applicant for 
 relief a competent portion of the stock to be wrought 
 into yarn, and to pay him according to the desert of 
 his work, and then sell the product and buy more 
 stuff, " in such wise as the stock or store shall not be 
 decayed in value." If this scheme had worked as it 
 seems to have been intended to do, it would have 
 been self-supporting after the first outlay. To meet 
 that outlay the justices and magistrates were autho- 
 rised to " tax, levy, and gather " a stock from them- 
 selves and all other inhabitants within their several 
 jurisdictions. The act also empowered the justices 
 of each county in general sessions to tax, levy, and 
 gather from the inhabitants the means necessary for 
 building houses of correction and providing them 
 with stock and implements for setting on work the 
 more refractory rogues and vagabonds. Persons re-
 
 Poor-Law Rates to 1601 6y 
 
 fusing to pay the taxation are not threatened with 
 imprisonment, but with a double rate and distress. 
 
 The act of 1592-3 (35 Eliz., c. 4), "for the relief 
 of soldiers," authorises the justices of each county in 
 sessions to charge every parish with a weekly pay- 
 ment not exceeding 6d. nor less than id., "which 
 sums so taxed shall be yearly assessed by the agree- 
 ment of the parishioners within themselves, or in 
 default thereof by the churchwardens and constables 
 of the same parish or the more part of them, or hi 
 default of their agreement, by the order of such justices 
 of peace as shall dwell in the same parish, or (if none 
 be there dwelling) in the parts next adjoining." 
 
 This series of acts imposes a number of new charges, 
 such as the cost of the conveyance of vagabonds, the 
 relief of prisoners and soldiers, and the building of 
 houses of correction, which were clearly meant to be 
 borne just as other local charges were commonly 
 borne. But all these are kept quite separate from the 
 charge for the relief of the poor. They are looked on 
 as taxes pure and simple from the beginning, while 
 the charge for the relief of the poor is regarded at 
 first as purely voluntary alms, and afterwards as alms 
 which no one is allowed to refuse. 
 
 Now the canon of almsgiving, if we may speak of 
 the canon of almsgiving on the analogy of the canons 
 of taxation, is that each man should contribute ac- 
 cording to his ability, and there can scarcely be any 
 reasonable doubt that down to the act of 1572 the 
 poor-rate was intended to be assessed upon the in- 
 habitants in proportion to their real ability to contri- 
 bute, and not according to their ability as measured 
 by the standards in uso for the other rates. When
 
 68 History of Local Rates 
 
 the contribution was voluntary and unconstrained, as 
 prescribed by the act of 1535, it is obvious that public 
 opinion would regard it as fair that every man should 
 contribute according to his real ability. The parson 
 in the exhortation ordered by the act of 1 547 would 
 naturally tell his flock to give according to their 
 means. The churchwardens in their gentle demands, 
 and the bishop in taking order for the reformation 
 of obstinacy under the act of 155 1-2, must perforce 
 have been guided by the ability of the contributor. 
 In making orders that one parish should contribute 
 towards the relief of another, under the act of 1555, 
 the town magistrates are expressly directed to consider 
 the estate and ability of the parishes. In assessing, 
 taxing, and limiting upon the obstinate person who 
 had refused to obey the bishop, under the act of 
 1562-3, the justices could adopt no other criterion, 
 and it is entirely contrary to all we know of the 
 ordinary course of English legislation to suppose that 
 when in 1572 the justices were directed "by their 
 good discretions to tax and assess all and every the 
 inhabitants ... to such weekly charge as they and 
 every of them shall weekly contribute towards the 
 relief of the . . . poor people," they were expected 
 to follow a different principle of assessment from that 
 which they were expected to follow in 1562-3, when 
 they assessed, taxed, and limited upon the obstinate 
 person according to their good discretions what sum 
 he should pay weekly towards the relief of the poor. 
 If the intention of the early poor-rate was understood 
 anywhere, it was probably understood in the city of 
 London, and in 1587 the orders of the Common 
 Council, already quoted, directed that "the lord
 
 Poor-Law Hates to 1601 69 
 
 mayor and such as be thereunto authorised by the 
 statutes will sit again and peruse the books of taxa- 
 tion for the poor, that by the assessing of such as be 
 come in place since the last assessment and were not 
 assessed before, and by avancing such as God hath 
 further blessed with ability, and with reasonable con- 
 sideration of such as be less able, the book may be 
 renewed and made as beneficial as reasonably may be 
 for the poor." 1 
 
 In modern phrase, the poor-rate was intended to be 
 a local income-tax upon the inhabitants of the parishes. 
 If every one always lived in the same place, and had 
 all the sources of his income there, the assessors of 
 the poor-rate might perhaps have kept clear of the 
 old inaccurate methods of measuring ability for rating 
 purposes, and the poor-rate would now be a tax upon 
 all kinds of income. But even in the sixteenth century 
 it was common enough for a man to move from one 
 parish to another, and to have sources of income in a 
 parish in which he did not dwell. 
 
 Now when we reckon the number of inhabitants in 
 a parish by the methods of our modern censuses, we 
 count only those persons who happen to be present 
 there at a particular moment of time, say midnight 
 on a particular Sunday night. Even this plan cannot 
 be completely carried out, and arbitrary rules have to 
 be made for dealing with persons who at that hour 
 :ire in the streets or in railway trains. But in ordinary 
 language the word "inhabitant" is much more inde- 
 finite. A man cannot be in two places at once, but 
 he can quite easily be an " inhabitant " of two places 
 at once in the ordinary sense of the word. If he has 
 1 59 1 sec above, p. 20, note.
 
 70 ' History of Local Rates 
 
 one house in London and another in Gloucestershire, 
 and lives six months of the year in one and six 
 months in the other, he is clearly an inhabitant both 
 of London and Gloucestershire. If he has a house in 
 Peckham where he spends the night, and an office in 
 the City where he spends the day, he is an inhabitant 
 both of Peckham and the City. Admit this, which is 
 incontestable, and you are soon driven to admit the 
 paradox that a man may inhabit a place which he 
 has never been in. You cannot say that the squire is 
 not an inhabitant merely because you know that he 
 has not visited his country house or the home farm 
 for seven days, 365 days, or ten years. If the house 
 and farm are in the hands of his servants, he is merely 
 absent for the moment, and for all we know he may 
 return to-morrow. 
 
 In Jeffrey's case, which was heard in 1589, the 
 judges, as we have seen, 1 took this view of the word 
 "parishioner," which conveys exactly the same idea 
 as "inhabitant" of a parish. They decided that 
 Jeffrey, as an occupier of land there, was a par- 
 ishioner of Hailsham, and therefore liable to be rated 
 for the church, although he dwelt at Chiddingley. 
 They grounded themselves upon the reflection that 
 if a non-resident occupier was to escape rating for the 
 church, great inconvenience would ensue, since a man 
 who occupied the greater part of one parish might 
 live in another, and so churches in those days would 
 come to ruin. Four years earlier, as we have also 
 seen, 2 Parliament was called upon to remedy great 
 inconveniences which had actually ensued in conse- 
 quence of the act 18 Eliz., c. 10 having authorised 
 
 1 Above, pp. 25, 25. 2 Above, pp. 44, 45.
 
 Poor-Law Rates to 1601 yi 
 
 a rate upon "land occupiers dwelling within four 
 miles" distance from a particular point; to get rid 
 of the inconveniences, it was enacted that the rate 
 should be upon the lands and grounds within four 
 miles, wherever the occupier might happen to 
 dwell 
 
 It was inevitable that the poor-rate should follow 
 one or other of these precedents. Either the words 
 used by the Legislature would be judicially interpreted 
 so as to cover non-resident persons who had visible 
 sources of income in the parish, or the Legislature itself 
 would make it clear that such persons were to be rated. 
 Just as it was argued that if non-resident occupiers 
 did not pay church-rates, churches in those days 
 would come to ruin, so it would be argued that 
 if non-resident occupiers did not pay poor-rates, 
 the poor in those days would go in danger of 
 starvation. 
 
 As it happened, the change was made by Parlia- 
 ment. The act of 1597 (39 Eliz., c. 3), which consoli- 
 dates and amends the earlier acts, makes occupiers 
 as well as inhabitants liable to rating. It says : " The 
 churchwardens of every parish and four substantial 
 householders there, being subsidy men, or, for want of 
 subsidy men, four other substantial householders of the 
 said parish, who shall be nominated yearly in Easter 
 week, under the hand and seal of two or more justices 
 of the peace in the same county, whereof one to be 
 of the quorum, dwelling in or near the same parish, 
 shall be called overseers of the poor of the samo 
 parish ; and they or the greater part of them shall 
 take order from time to time, by and with the consent 
 of two or more such justices of peace, for setting to
 
 72 History of Local Rates 
 
 work of the children of all such whose parents shall 
 not by the said persons be thought able to keep and 
 maintain their children, and also all such persons, 
 married or unmarried, as, having no means to main- 
 tain them, use no ordinary and daily trade of life to 
 get their living by, and also to raise, weekly or other- 
 wise (by taxation of every inhabitant and every occu- 
 pier of lands in the said parish in such competent 
 sum and sums of money as they shall think fit), a 
 convenient stock of flax, hemp, wool, thread, iron, 
 and other necessary ware and stuff to set the poor 
 on work, and also competent sums of money for and 
 towards the necessary relief of the lame, impotent, 
 old, blind, and such other among them being poor 
 and not able to work, and also for the putting out of 
 such children to be apprentices, to be gathered out of 
 the same parish according to the ability of the same 
 parish." 
 
 Ability is again and again mentioned as the standard 
 of contribution. "If the said justices of peace do 
 perceive that the inhabitants of any parish are not 
 able to levy among themselves sufficient money for 
 the purposes aforesaid," they " shall and may tax, rate, 
 and assess as aforesaid any other of other parishes, or 
 out of any parish x within the hundred where the said 
 parish is, to pay such sum and sums of money to the 
 churchwardens and overseers of the said poor parish 
 for the said purposes as the said justices shall think 
 
 1 I.e., any inhabitant of another parish or extra-parochial place. 
 A rate in aid might be laid either on a whole parish or on individuals 
 in it. See a ruling of the King's Bench in 1694, and other cases 
 in Bott, Poor Laws, 3rd ed., vol. i. pp. 303-8. For an example of a 
 rate in aid on individuals in 1628, see Thos. Gardner, Historical 
 Account of Dunn- ich, dr., pp. 169, 170.
 
 Poor-Law Rates to 1601 73 
 
 fit, according to the intent of this law ; and if the said 
 hundred shall not be thought to the said justices able 
 and tit to relieve the said several parishes not able to 
 provide for themselves as aforesaid, then the justices of 
 peace at their general quarter-sessions, or the greater 
 number of them, shall rate and assess as aforesaid any 
 other of other parishes or out of any parish -within the 
 said county for the purposes aforesaid, as in their dis- 
 cretion shall seem fit." So, too, " the parents or chil- 
 dren of every poor, old, blind, lame, and impotent 
 person or other person not able to work, being of 
 sufficient ability, shall at their own charges relieve 
 and maintain every such poor person in that manner 
 and according to that rate as by the justices of peace 
 of that county where such sufficient persons dwell, or 
 the greater number of them, at their general quarter- 
 sessions shall be assessed." 
 
 Distress might be levied on any one refusing to 
 "contribute as he shall be assessed," and imprison- 
 ment was only to be inflicted in default of distress, 
 which shows that the idea of alms was being lost. 
 But even now the poor-rate was kept quite separate 
 from other rates imposed by the same act with much 
 the same purpose. The act provides that for tho 
 relief of prisoners in the King's Bench and Marshal- 
 sea, and also of the poor in hospitals and almshouses, 
 the justices in session are to rate every parish "to 
 such weekly sum of money as they shall think con- 
 venient, so as no parish be rated above the sum of 
 6d. nor under the sum of a halfpenny weekly to bo 
 paid, and so as the total sum of such taxation of tho 
 parishes in every county amount not above the rate 
 of 2d. for every parish in the said county," and these
 
 74 History of Local Rates 
 
 sums were to be yearly assessed by the agreement of 
 the parishioners within themselves, or by the church- 
 wardens and constables, or by the justices, just like 
 the sums raised for the relief of soldiers under 35 Eiiz., 
 c. 4. 1 So, too, Chapter 4 of the same session, "for 
 punishment of rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars," 
 which provides for the building of houses of correc- 
 tion, does not place the charge on the poor-rate. 
 It says nothing about the method of raising the 
 necessary funds, but merely enacts that " from time 
 to time it shall and may be lawful for the justices 
 of peace of any county or city in this realm or the 
 dominions of Wales, assembled at any quarter- 
 sessions of the peace within the same county, city, 
 borough, or town corporate, or the more part of them, 
 to set down order to erect, and to cause to be erected, 
 one or more houses of correction within their several 
 counties or cities; for the doing and performing 
 whereof, and for the providing of stocks of money and 
 all other things necessary for the same, and for raising 
 and governing of the same, and for correction and 
 punishment of offenders thither to be committed, 
 such orders as the same justices or the more part of 
 them shall from time to time take, reform, or set 
 down in any their said quarter-sessions in that behalf 
 shall be of force and be duly performed and put in 
 execution." 
 
 Manx, Scotch, and Irish vagabonds, rogues, and 
 beggars were to be deported " at the common charge 
 of the country where they were set on land." 
 
 The judges appear to have held a conference upon 
 these two statutes shortly after they were passed, and 
 
 1 Above, p. 67.
 
 Poor- Law Rates to 1601 75 
 
 to have arrived at certain resolutions as to their inter- 
 pretation, which were widely circulated in manuscript, 1 
 and were printed by Lambard in the 1599 edition of 
 his Eirenarclia. " I trust," he says, " that I may, 
 without offence to any, make public use of those grave 
 resolutions and advices that, being in the hands of 
 sundry men abroad, are commonly ascribed to her 
 Majesty's justices at Westminster, and do tend much 
 to the right execution of this and the other statute 
 (39 Eliz. Reg.) concerning rogues and the poor, which 
 only (of all our laws) have most Christianly and civilly 
 given order in that behalf, and are therefore with so 
 much the more care and diligence to be put in use 
 amongst us, as they will not only deliver us of the 
 present burden, but also destroy the very brood of 
 this unruly people." 2 There were twenty resolutions 
 in all, and the eighteenth and nineteenth were : 
 
 " Parsons or vicars, &c, be bound (as inhabitants) 
 to the relief of the poor, as well as others that inhabit 
 within the parish. 
 
 " Every one that hath tithes impropriate, coal-mines, 
 or lands in manual occupation, &c, is chargeable, and 
 so for such as have saleable woods, proportioning the 
 same to an annual benefit." 
 
 The act of 1 60 1 for the relict of the poor (43 Eliz., 
 c. 2) is merely a repetition of that of 1597, with a 
 few alterations, of which the most important is the 
 incorporation of these two resolutions of the judges, 
 so that the overseers are directed to raise the money 
 required, not " by taxation of every inhabitant and 
 
 1 See, for an example, Bodleian MSS., Tanner, 91, f. 163. 
 
 2 L'imuirckn, or / the Ojficc 0/ the Jxuticts of Peace, Book ii. ch. 7, 
 on unnumbered pages between pp. 206 and 207.
 
 76 History of Local Rates 
 
 every occupier of lands," but " by taxation of every 
 inhabitant, parson, vicar, and other, and of every 
 occupier of lands, houses, tithes impropriate or pro- 
 priations of tithes, coal-mines, or saleable under- 
 woods." 1 
 
 The statute of 1597 was only passed after much 
 discussion in Parliament, but it is probable that no 
 one then noticed the hopeless contradiction involved 
 in the coupling together of the inhabitant and the 
 non-resident occupier in a system of taxation accord- 
 ing to ability. If a man is to be taxed in one parish 
 let us say if Jeffrey is to be taxed in Hailsham in 
 respect of the ability which he is presumed to derive 
 from the occupation of 130 acres there, it is evident 
 that he must not be taxed at his residence at Chid- 
 dingley in respect of his whole ability or income, but 
 only in respect of what is left of it after deducting the 
 portion in respect of which he has already been taxed 
 in Hailsham. Now in a small place like Chiddingley 
 the overseers will very probably have quite definite 
 opinions as to the relative ability of the inhabitants 
 without making any elaborate computations. They 
 will say at once that Jeffrey ought to pay double what 
 Jones pays, and half what Smith pays, and so on. But 
 as soon as Jeffrey is divided in two, and part of him 
 made taxable in Hailsham, this rough-and-ready 
 method breaks down. He is only to pay at Chidding- 
 ley in respect of his whole ability, minus that part of 
 it in respect of which he is taxed in other parishes. 
 
 1 The sixteenth resolution of the judges, "By this word parents 
 is understood a father or a grandfather, mother or grandmother, 
 being persons able," was aho incorporated in substance ; but the 
 seventeenth, "Within the word children is included any child or 
 grandchild being able," was not.
 
 Poor- Law Rates to 1601 77 
 
 The Chiddingley overseers cannot get at this amount 
 by the way of subtraction, and are consequently driven 
 to assess him according to the means or sources of 
 ability which he possesses in Chiddingley. There will 
 be a natural tendency to apply the same criterion of 
 ability in the case of inhabitants as in that of non- 
 resident occupiers, so that Jeffrey and all other inhabi- 
 tants will be assessed simply according to the value 
 of the lands, houses, tithes, coal-mines, or saleable 
 underwoods occupied by them. 
 
 To make this transition complete all over the 
 country, however, took almost two centuries and a 
 half, and to trace the successive steps of the process 
 must be our next object.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE POOR-RATE SINCE l60I 
 
 In the 1635 edition of Dal ton's Country Justice, a 
 work of considerable authority in its day, we find the 
 following commentary on the rating provisions of the 
 act of 1 60 1 : 
 
 "In these taxations there must consideration be 
 had, first to equality, and then to estates. 
 
 "Equality, that men be equally rated with their 
 neighbours, and according to an equal proportion. 
 
 "Estates, that men be rated according to their 
 estates of goods known, or according to their [the ?] 
 known yearly value of their lands, farms, or occupy- 
 ings, and not by estimation, supposition, or report. 
 Also herein the charge of family, retinue, and counte- 
 nance is in some measure to be regarded ; for if one 
 valued at 500 in goods hath but himself and his 
 wife, and another estimated a.t ;iooo hath wife and 
 many children, &c, the first man by reason is to be 
 rated as much as the other ; and so of lands. Tamen 
 quaere what the law is in such cases." x 
 
 This opinion that expenses as well as income should 
 be taken into account, received some support from 
 the Court of King's Bench as late as 1698, when, 
 in the course of hearing a case concerning a rate 
 levied in Norwich Cathedral precinct the judges 
 
 1 P- 94- 
 
 78
 
 The Poor- Rate since 1601 79 
 
 remarked that "the rent is no standing rule, for 
 circumstances may differ, and there ought to be 
 regard ad statum et facvltates." x 
 
 The old practice of forming a general estimate of 
 ability probably lingered long in a great many out-of- 
 the-way places ; and in one parish at least, quite close 
 to the centre of government, as late as 1823, the poor- 
 rate was not assessed, and never had been assessed, 
 upon all the inhabitants uniformly, according to an 
 equal pound rate, but was made, according to an 
 ancient custom, by the vestry, "without respect to 
 value, but according to the ability of the party charged, 
 such ability being estimated with reference to pro- 
 perty, whether in the. parish or out of it." In some 
 instances the property was stated, but in a great 
 majority of cases it was not stated, and where it was 
 stated the rate was not in proportion to the rent of 
 the property ; for example, L. Turner, for two cooper- 
 ages rented at 40, paid 5 us. ; Alexander Mann, 
 for a house rented at 40, paid ;io 15s.; and Mr. 
 Lucas, for a house rented at $0, paid g 10s. This 
 was in no remote rural neighbourhood, but in the 
 parish of St. Mary, Whitechapel. 2 
 
 How firmly that parish still clung to the old prin- 
 ciple is shown by the fact that no less than seven- 
 teen years earlier, in 1 806, a local act had expressly 
 authorised the vestry to order that the poor-rate 
 and church-rate should be equal pound rates if it 
 thought fit, "the ancient custom" of the parish not- 
 withstanding. The act provided for an equal pound 
 rate for cleansing, lighting, and watching, but did not 
 
 1 Comberbach, Reports, p. 478. 
 
 * Iiarnewall and CresswUl, Jteports, vol. ii. p. 313.
 
 So History of Local Rates 
 
 interfere with the poor-rate or church-rate, except by 
 giving the vestry this option, of which, in regard to 
 the poor-rate, it had never taken advantage. 1 Cases 
 like this, however, are exceptional, and in general the 
 change from rating according to ability to rating ac- 
 cording to property occupied began far earlier. 
 
 When a system of taxation according to ability 
 estimated by persons acquainted with the circum- 
 stances of the taxpayers has been displaced by a 
 system of taxation according to the annual value of 
 lands and tenements occupied, two changes must have 
 occurred. In the first place, farmers and others who 
 derive business profits from the lands or tenements 
 they occupy have come to be rated by the value of 
 the lands or tenements they occupy, instead of by 
 their neighbours' rough estimate of the profits they 
 actually derive from tbem; and, secondly, no one is 
 rated in respect of the receipt of rent, salary, or profits 
 derived from the ownership of movable property. 
 
 The first of these changes can scarcely be said to 
 have any history. In small rural communities carry- 
 ing on agriculture by nearly uniform methods, the 
 rental value of the farms affords as good a criterion 
 of the farmers' means as anything that was likely to be 
 found three centuries ago. Even at the present day 
 a farmer's income, for purposes of the income-tax, is 
 assumed to be a fixed proportion of the rent he pays. 
 Similarly, the rental value of shops or factories is not 
 a bad criterion of the means of occupiers engaged in 
 the same trade, and not an extremely bad one of the 
 means of occupiers engaged in different trades. Rental 
 
 1 Enactments as to London Rating, 1895 (L-CC. No. 243), Part L 
 Hating clauses division, p. 272.
 
 The Poor-Bate since 1601 81 
 
 value of the property occupied was thus generally 
 adopted as a basis for estimating the relative ability 
 of the ratepayers, and the convenience of having 
 something arithmetical to go upon outweighed the 
 injustice of not always having regard ad statwm et 
 facilitates. 
 
 The omission to consider salaries, fees, and wages 
 was likewise a matter which caused little dispute, 
 and requires little explanation. In most parishes 
 in the seventeenth century there would not be a 
 single person who had sufficient earnings from mere 
 labour to make him be regarded as one who ought to 
 contribute to the support of the poor ; and even where 
 there was such a person, he would in all probability 
 occupy a house the annual value of which would 
 make him contributory in about the proper degree. 
 Persons with high salaries were generally engaged in 
 the service of the government, and difficult to deal 
 with as inhabitants of a parish. We can imagine 
 the overseers' difficulty in extracting anything from 
 naval and military officers or his Majesty's judges. 
 Lawyers and many great persons, moreover, had a 
 way of residing in extra-parochial places. So it came 
 about that it never became the general custom to 
 definitely assess people in respect of earnings from 
 labour. Here and there it was done. In Poole, so 
 lute as 1792, clerks and masters of ships and others 
 wen; assessed in respect of their salaries, 1 but the 
 judges always promptly suppressed any such cases 
 that came before them. 2 In fact, they considered it 
 
 ' Dumford and East, Term Reports, vol. iv. p. 771. 
 3 Sre the cases in t he Digest s.v. ".Salaries" in Bott's Poor Laics 
 3rd cd.. by F. Const. 
 
 F
 
 $2 History of Local Rates 
 
 a reductdo ad absurdum to suggest that, if such and 
 such an argument were good, lawyers might be taxed 
 for their fees. 1 
 
 The practice of omitting rents from consideration 
 was a much more serious matter. Doubts on the 
 subject were felt within thirty years of the death of 
 Queen Elizabeth. In 1633 certain propositions were 
 laid down, which became known as the Judges' Reso- 
 lutions of 1633, though, according to the editor of the 
 1742 edition of Dalton's Justice, they were really only 
 answers drawn up by Sir Robert Heath, the Chief 
 Justice, to questions put to him by country gentlemen 
 when he was on circuit. Of these, the eighteenth 
 proposition or resolution is an answer to the question, 
 " Whether the tax for the relief of the poor upon the 
 statute of 43 Eliz., c. 2, shall be made by ability or 
 occupation of lands, or both ; and whether the visible 
 ability in the parish where he lives, or general ability 
 wheresoever; and whether his rent received within 
 the parish where he lives shall be accounted visible 
 ability, and whether he shall be taxed for them only 
 and for any rent received from other parishioners ; 
 and what shall be said visible ability ? " The answer 
 is: "The land within each parish is to be taxed to 
 the charges in the first place equally and indifferently, 
 but there may be an addition for the personal visible 
 ability of the parishioners within that parish according 
 to good discretion, wherein if there be any mistaking, 
 the sessions, &c, or the justices must judge between 
 them." 2 This answers only a small portion of the 
 question, and that in somewhat obscure terms; but 
 
 1 See below, p. 95. 
 
 2 Dal ton, Country Justice, ed. of 1742, pp. 170, 17 1.
 
 The Poor-Mate since 1601 83 
 
 Sir Anthony Earby's case, which was tried at Lincoln 
 the same year, is clear enough, and, like Jeffrey's, is 
 " a good case to many purposes." It settled that in- 
 habitants of a parish could not be assessed in respect 
 of property occupied by them elsewhere, and also that 
 a landlord could not be assessed for his rent. Sir 
 Anthony and other inhabitants of Boston complained 
 of an undue assessment made upon them by the over- 
 seers of Boston, contrary to the statute of 43 Eliz., 
 c. 2, and contrary to former directions given by the 
 judges of assize. The offence of the overseers is not 
 stated, but it is obvious that they had taxed Sir 
 Anthony for property not within Boston; for, says 
 the reporter : 
 
 " Hereupon it was held and so delivered for law by 
 Hutton and Croke, justices of assize, that such assess- 
 ments ought to be made according to the visible 
 estates of the inhabitants there, both real and personal, 
 and that no inhabitant there is to be taxed by them 
 to contribute to the relief of the poor in regard of any 
 estate he hath elsewhere in any other town or place, 
 but only in regard of the visible estate he hath in the 
 town where he doth dwell, and not for any other land 
 which he hath in any other place or town. 
 
 " And also by Hutton and Croke, justices of assize : 
 This hath been so resolved by all the judges of 
 England upon a reference made to them, and upon 
 conference by them had together, where they all did 
 resolve that the assessments for relief of the poor 
 ought to be made in such manner as before, accord- 
 ing to their visible estates, real and personal, which 
 they had or enjoyed in the town or place where 
 they inhabited, and not having any regard to any
 
 8 \. History of Local Rates 
 
 other estate which they had in any other place or 
 town." 
 
 " Sir Anthony Earby complained also that, he having 
 divers tenements there which paid rent unto him, 
 they there did charge his tenants by their assessments, 
 and did charge himself also. Upon this, Mr. Leving, 
 being of counsel for the town of Boston, did inform 
 the judges that they did tax Sir Anthony Earby for 
 his estate, he having the rents ; and that such an 
 assessment was made in the county of Leicester upon 
 the lessor, and that by the order and direction of the 
 iudges of assize upon a complaint made unto them, and 
 that they were not to tax the tenants who paid the rents. 
 
 "Hutton and Croke, justices, made answer, that 
 they did not remember any such case ; but they said 
 that by the words and meaning of the statute of 43 
 Eliz., c. 2, they are to assess the occupiers of the 
 land, and not the lessor who received the rents, the 
 occupiers of the land being by law only to pay the 
 assessment, unless it be specially provided for as to 
 this payment between him and his lessor." 
 
 This they also declared to have been " thus resolved 
 by all the judges of England." l 
 
 Mr. Leving seems scarcely to have made the best of 
 his case. He ought to have relied on the word " in- 
 habitant" in the statute rather than on a doubtful 
 Leicestershire precedent. Contrary as it appears to 
 the plain intention of the Parliament of 1601, the 
 decision of the judges met with general acceptance, 
 and was never disturbed either by subsequent judicial 
 deliverances or by legislation. This was probably due 
 in large measure to the natural confusion of mind 
 
 1 Bulstrode, Reports, Tt. ii. p. 354.
 
 The Poor-Bate since 1601 85 
 
 which constantly leads ns to talk and think of things 
 being taxed when in reality persons are taxed in pro- 
 portions determined by the amount of those things 
 they possess. As soon as the plan of estimating 
 ability by the rental value of the house or farm 
 occupied led to the amount to be paid being expressed 
 in the form of so much for every pound of rent, it 
 was inevitable that people would regard the rate as a 
 tax on the rent, and think it unfair to tax it twice, or, 
 as it would be better to say, to tax both tenant and 
 landlord in respect of it. Jeffrey, as we have seen, 1 
 thought it would be "against law and reason, and 
 against the common experience of all England," that 
 he should be taxed to the church-rate for land which 
 he had let. Economic ideas are not so clear now that 
 we can fairly expect that ratepayers of the beginning 
 of the seventeenth century would see that there were 
 really two things in respect of which persons might 
 have been rated: (1) the incomes of the landlords, 
 identical with the rents ; and (2) the incomes of the 
 tenants, not identical with, but merely assumed to be 
 equal to or in proportion to, the rents. 2 
 
 The history of the omission of profits derived from 
 movables or personal property is much more tedious 
 and obscure than the omission of rents. It extends 
 from 1 Co 1 to 1840. To rate people in respect of 
 goods held merely for personal use, such as household 
 furniture, was never usual, though, like almost every 
 conceivable thing in rating, it was occasionally 
 done, as in Poole* Such articles would be regarded 
 
 1 8ee above, p. 26. 
 a Cp. tx'low, pp. 1058. 
 
 8 Durnford and East, Term Report*, iv. 771 IT. ; Ilex r. 8. White 
 and others.
 
 86 History of Local Rates * 
 
 as a source of expense rather than of income, and 
 as therefore making the owner less rather than more 
 able to contribute. The cattle and other stock of the 
 farmer were not taken into account in rating him, 
 simply because his rent was supposed to furnish suffi- 
 cient evidence of his ability to pay. But there is no 
 reason whatever to suppose that what we call manu- 
 facturers and tradesmen were not rated in proportion 
 to their supposed profits so long as the rate was 
 assessed by a vague estimate of ability. As soon, 
 however, as occupiers of lands and houses and tithes 
 are assessed by a pound rate, difficulties arise about 
 these profits. The simplest solution is to trust that 
 the assessment of the houses and other tenements will 
 do justice among the receivers of such profits. There 
 seems little doubt that this was the course generally 
 followed. But it is easy to see that in some parishes 
 where different kinds of trades were carried on, the 
 value of the tenement alone would not be a very 
 satisfactory basis of assessment. It was natural to 
 look for some other concrete thing on which to im- 
 pose a pound rate, and to find this concrete thing in 
 stock-in-trade, assuming, of course, that 100 worth 
 of stock-in-trade brought in an income of five or some 
 other number of pounds, and treating this 5 for 
 purposes of rating as equal to 5 of rental value. 
 Accordingly it happened that, while in most parishes 
 no notice was taken of anything except lands, houses, 
 tithes, coal-mines, and underwoods, in a few places a 
 system of rating in respect of stock-in-trade existed 
 from the earliest establishment of pound rates down 
 to the present century. 
 
 The resolutions of Sir Robert Heath or the judges
 
 The Poor-Rate since 1601 87 
 
 in 1633, which have already been quoted, 1 after saying 
 that the land is to be rated in the first place, only 
 say there may be an addition for the personal visible 
 ability of the parishioners, which certainly suggests 
 that a parish might please itself about taxing par- 
 ishioners in respect of their movables. A general 
 highway act of the Commonwealth (anno 1654, c. 3) 
 creates a "pound rate upon all the several occu- 
 piers of houses, lands, tithes, coal-mines, fellable 2 
 woods, tenements, or hereditaments within the parish, 
 according to the true yearly value of the same, and 
 also upon the dead goods, commodities, or stock-in- 
 trade of every particular parishioner charged to pay to 
 the poor, rating every 20 value of such goods equal 
 to every 20s. land by the year." The words rather 
 suggest that the system of pound rates was not in. 
 general use, and that parishioners were charged to pay 
 to the poor according to a general estimate of ability. 
 This inference is confirmed by the wording of a sub- 
 sequent clause, which empowers every urban parish to 
 make " by-laws and orders for the rating and taxing 
 the several inhabitants of the said parish being occu- 
 piers of any houses, lands, tenements, or heredita- 
 ments, or having any stock or (sic) trade, or otherwise 
 being of sufficient ability," for reforming the defects 
 in paving and cleansing the streets. In 1662 another 
 general highway act (14 Car. II., c. 6) authorised 
 the surveyors to lay assessments "upon every inhabi- 
 tant rated to the poor, and upon every occupier of 
 lands, houses, tithes, impropriate or appropriate por- 
 
 1 See above, p. 82. 
 
 2 It is tempting to conjecture that " fellable " is a misreading for 
 "faleable."
 
 88 History of Local Rates 
 
 tions of tithes, coal-mines and other mines, saleable 
 underwoods, stock, goods, or other personal estate not 
 being household stuff;" and "an additional act for 
 the better repairing of highways and bridges " passed 
 in 1670 (22 Car. II., c. 12) speaks of assessments upon 
 " all and every the inhabitants, owners, and occupiers 
 of houses, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, or any 
 personal estate usually ratable to the poor." The 
 same words are used in the act of 1690 for paving 
 and cleansing London (2 W. & M., sess. 2, c. 8), 
 which assumes the return on the personal estate to 
 be 10 per cent., and in the highways act of 1691 
 (3 W. & M., c. 12). In his posthumous Discourse, 
 Lord Chief Justice Hale, who died in 1676, gives as one 
 of the reasons why no sufficient provision is made for 
 the poor " Because those places where there are most 
 .poor consist for the most part of tradesmen, whose 
 estates lie principally in their stocks, which they will 
 not endure to be searched into to make them contri- 
 butory to raise any considerable stock for the poor, 
 nor indeed so much as to the ordinary contributions. 
 But they lay all the rates to the poor upon the rents 
 of lands and houses, which alone, without the help of 
 the stocks, are not able to raise a stock for the poor, 
 although it is very plain that stocks are as well by 
 law ratable as lands, both to the relief and raising a 
 stock for the poor." 1 The local acts at the end of 
 the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury show the drift of local and parliamentary opinion 
 to be in favour of greater taxation of personal property. 
 Thus the act for erecting hospitals and workhouses in 
 Bristol passed in 1695-6 provides for the "taxation 
 
 1 A Discourse touching Provision for the Poor, 1683, p. 7.
 
 The Poor-Rate since 1601 89 
 
 of every inhabitant, and of all lands, houses, tithes 
 impropriate, appropriations of tithes, and all stocks 
 and estates, ... in equal proportion according to 
 their respective worth and values." 1 In 1703 the act 
 2 & 3 Ann., c. 8, authorised the guardians of the poor 
 in Worcester to assess sums of money upon "the 
 respective inhabitants or occupiers of lands, houses, 
 tenements, tithes impropriate, appropriations of tithes, 
 and on all persons having and using stocks and per- 
 sonal estates in the said city, ... in equal proportion 
 according to their several and respective values." 
 This doubtless incorporated Worcester opinion as to 
 what ought to be taxed, and also was not found re- 
 pugnant to ordinary principles by the Parliament 
 which passed it. In 171 1 we have another act (10 
 Ann., c. 15) in which a most strenuous effort is made 
 to subject every kind of property to rating. It is 
 for the establishment of a workhouse for the Nor- 
 wich parishes, and empowers the churchwardens and 
 overseers to lay a rate "on the respective inhabitants, 
 and on every parson and vicar, and on all and every 
 the occupiers of lands, houses, tenements, tithes im- 
 propriate, and appropriations of tithes, and on all 
 persons having and using stocks and personal estates 
 in the said respective parishes, ... or having money 
 out at interest, in equal proportion as near as may 
 be according to their several and respective values 
 and estates." 
 
 There does not appear to have been much litigation 
 on the subject at this time. Disputes were carried as 
 far as the sessions, but not further. In 1698 several 
 
 1 7 k 8 W. III., private acts exxxii. ; not printed in its place in 
 Statu*!.* i>f the Realm, but recited in 13 Ann., c. 32.
 
 90 History of Local Rates 
 
 inhabitants of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, appealed to 
 the sessions against a rate in which personal estates 
 were not assessed. The magistrates quashed the rate, 
 and ordered the overseers to make another. This 
 they did, but they taxed real estate ten times more in 
 proportion than personal, and the magistrates quashed 
 this rate also. Their right to set aside a whole rate 
 was questioned before the King's Bench, but the court 
 did not enter on the merits of the question. 1 Eight 
 years later, in 1706, the question was put to Chief 
 Justice Holt whether a farmer was chargeable in 
 respect of his stock as well as a tradesman in respect 
 of his stock-in-trade. Holt answered the question in 
 the affirmative, but three of his brethren disagreed 
 with him, and decided that a farmer was not liable 
 and that a tradesman was. The farmer in question 
 seems to have been rated in respect of certain stock 
 which he possessed over and above his ordinary neces- 
 sary stock for carrying on his business as a farmer. 
 It was noted in this case that farmers had never been 
 so taxed before, nor tradesmen till within recent years, 
 and it was said to be usual to tax clothiers, &c. 2 
 
 In the next fifty years nothing very definite seems 
 to have been decided on the subject by the courts, and 
 the usage of not taxing men in respect of movables, or 
 of taxing them at an absurdly low rate, became so con- 
 firmed in many parishes that the judges hesitated to 
 upset it by a clear declaration of the law. A great 
 many cases came before them, but they were always 
 decided on rather technical grounds, which left matters 
 
 1 Salkeld, Reports, vol. ii. p. 483. 
 
 2 Lord Raymond, Reports, p. 1280; Viner, Abridgment, s,v. "Poor," 
 p. 426.
 
 The Poor-Rate since 1601 91 
 
 much as they were. In 1769 a motion was made for 
 a mandamus to compel the justices of Canterbury to 
 rate persons who had stock-in-trade and carried on 
 considerable business there. It was refused. Mr. 
 Justice Yates said that the general question aimed at 
 in the argument did not seem to have been decisively 
 determined. Mr. Justice Aston thought there was 
 great difficulty and guesswork in taxing personal pro- 
 perty and stock-in-trade, and that it was scarcely 
 possible to ascertain the true quantum of either. No 
 case decided that it was ratable, and probably the 
 43 Eliz., c. 2, did not intend that it should be. He 
 declared, however, that he gave no direct opinion on 
 this point. " Mr. Justice Willes also declared that he 
 should give no obiter opinion about personal property 
 or stock-in-trade being liable to be rated. Yet he in- 
 timated that long contrary usage ought to go a great 
 way towards overturning any old dictum, and that, 
 if they were liable, they ought at least to be visible, 
 liquidated, and ascertained, not loose, fluctuating, 
 and uncertain." x Lord Mansfield was absent on this 
 occasion. He seems to have had a strong bias against 
 the assessment of personal property, and several of 
 the subsequent cases seem to be rather affected by 
 this. In 1770 a rate came up from Witney in which 
 manufacturers of blankets and other traders were 
 not assessed for their stock-in-trade. The sessions 
 quashed the rate, subject to the opinion of the 
 Court of King's Bench on the following facts. "It 
 appeared, and was admitted, that there have long boon 
 many such manufacturers and traders within the said 
 parish who have been constantly assessed to the land- 
 
 1 I5urrow, Reports, vol. iv. p. 2290 ff.
 
 92 History of Local Rates 
 
 tax for their respective stocks-in-trade, but none of 
 whom have been ever charged with the payment of 
 any rate for the relief of the poor on account of such 
 stock ; that as well the said manufacturers and traders 
 as all other occupiers of lands and houses within the 
 said parish have been and are constantly assessed in 
 this and all former rates for the relief of the poor, as 
 well as to the land-tax, for the lands and houses in 
 their respective occupations ; and " here the cat is 
 out of the bag " that the churchwardens, &c, of the 
 said parish have been generally, though not always, 
 traders." Lord Mansfield objected to the generality of 
 the question. " The matter," he said, " does not come 
 before the court in a proper manner. It ought to 
 come on by a complaint of some one who is rated for 
 somewhat which he thinks not ratable. The court 
 will not give an opinion on every general question 
 which the sessions may think fit to bring before it. If 
 this court should determine so vague and general a 
 question as whether stock-in-trade be ratable with- 
 out any distinctions or enumeration of particulars, it 
 would sow the seeds of dissension all over the king- 
 dom." The other judges agreed, and quashed the 
 order of the sessions, on the ground that the rate, if 
 wrong, ought to have been amended, not set aside. 1 
 
 In 1775 a very similar case occurred in Ringwood, 
 the sessions having quashed a rate because certain 
 brewers inhabiting the parish were omitted from the 
 rate in respect of their stock-in-trade, valued at 
 ^4000. Here all the old precedents were brought 
 forward and considered, and the only result was that 
 the judges were less favourable than before to taxa- 
 
 1 Bott, Poor Laus, 3rd ed., vol. i. pp. 1 14-15, 232-3.
 
 The Poor-Rate since 1601 93 
 
 tion in respect of movable or personal property. 
 Lord Mansfield said: "In general I believe neither 
 here nor in any other part of the kingdom is personal 
 property taxed to the poor. ... I think the justices 
 would not have done very wrong if they had ac- 
 quiesced in the practice which has obtained ever since 
 the stat. 43 Eliz., of not rating this species of pro- 
 perty. . . . The justices at sessions should have 
 amended the rate if they thought this property rat- 
 able ; and then on attempting to do it they would 
 have discovered the wisdom of conforming to the 
 practice which they expressly state in the case, of not 
 rating it, If they had tried to have amended it, how 
 would they have rated this stock ? Are the hops and 
 the malt and the boiler to be rated at so much for 
 each ? Or is the trader to be rated for the gross sum 
 which his whole stock would sell for ? If the justices 
 had considered, they would have found out the sense 
 of not rating it at all, especially when it appears that 
 mankind has, as it were, with one universal consent 
 refrained from rating it; the difficulties attending it 
 are too great, and so the justices would have found 
 them. As to the authorities which have been cited, 
 they are very loose indeed ; and even if they were less 
 so, one would not pay them very much deference, 
 especially as they differ; and the rules they lay down 
 have not been carried into execution for upwards of a 
 hundred years. They talk of visible property. What 
 is visible property ? I confess I do not know what is 
 meant by visible property. If every visible thing 
 should be determined to come under that description, 
 in that case a lease for years, a watch in a man's pocket, 
 would be ratable. Visible property Is something local
 
 94 History of Local Rates 
 
 in the place where a man inhabits. But that does not 
 decide what a man's personal property is. Consider 
 how many tradesmen depend upon ostensible property 
 only." The decision of the judges in 1706, that a 
 tradesman was liable for his stock, was, Lord Mansfield 
 added, extra-judicial. "But supposing it were not, 
 what do they mean by the visible stock of an artificer ? 
 Some artificers have a considerable stock-in-trade; 
 some have only a little ; others none at all Shall 
 the tools of a carpenter be called his stock-in-trade, 
 and as such be rated ? A tailor has no stock-in-trade ; 
 a butcher has none; a shoemaker has a great deal. 
 Shall the tailor, whose profit is considerably greater 
 than that of the shoemaker, be untaxed, and the shoe- 
 maker taxed ? " Mr. Justice Aston said : " There has 
 been no decision that personal property is ratable. All 
 the opinions upon the subject are only dicta of judges." 
 Mr. Justice Willes and Mr. Justice Ashurst agreeing, 
 the order of sessions was quashed on the same ground 
 as in the Witney case, namely, that the rate should 
 have been amended. 1 After two such plain decisions 
 as these as to the proper course to be pursued by the 
 sessions in dealing with a rate which omitted stock- 
 in-trade, it was natural that the sessions somewhere 
 would follow the course indicated, and amend a rate 
 by inserting in it owners of such property. Accord- 
 ingly a rate made in Andover in 1776 was amended 
 by the insertion of amounts to be paid by various 
 shopkeepers and others in respect of their profits, 
 which were assumed to be 5 per cent, on the value of 
 their stock. But whatever they did, the sessions were 
 unable to please Lord Mansfield and his colleagues. 
 
 1 Cowper, Reports, p. 326 ff.
 
 The Poor-Rate since i6oi 95 
 
 The order was quashed because it did not appear that 
 the persons whose names were added had notice. 
 Before this conclusion was arrived at, Mr. Burrough 
 had gone through all the authorities in an exhaustive 
 manner, and shown conclusively that the old standard 
 of contribution was ability, from whatever source 
 arising ; and this seems to have slightly shaken Lord 
 Mansfield's opinion as to rating in respect of stock-in- 
 trade. He said: " It is a very different question, whether 
 personal estate is to be rated to the extent in which it 
 has been argued to-day, or not to be rated at all in any 
 shape or under any circumstances. It would make 
 the poor-laws very oppressive if a man is to be taxed 
 to the extent of his whole personal estate and income. 
 In that case every man who has money in the funds 
 would be liable; lawyers for their fees, soldiers for 
 their pay, &c. But where men are occupiers of houses 
 and have stock-in-trade, whether such stock-in-trade 
 may be taken into consideration is a very di tic rent 
 question. Some personal estate may be ratable ; but 
 it must be local visible property within the parish. 
 The general question is too extravagant. It would be 
 material to state what has been the custom of rating, 
 [f the usage should be to take in stock-in-trade, there 
 would be very good right to support it." Mr. Justice 
 Aston did not think usage of so much importance. 
 He said that/' notwithstanding the usage, it' upon the 
 general question, which is what they arc now aiming 
 at, it should turn out to be the law that personal pro- 
 perty is ratable, if that is the law, it must be rated 
 then, though it never was so before." Mr. Burrough 
 had said that personal property had been rated for a 
 long time both in Andovcr and in many other parts
 
 96 History of Local Rates 
 
 of the kingdom, as at Alton, King's Lynn, many 
 parishes in the city of London, Bradford -on -Avon, 
 Trowbridge, Warminster, Frome, and other towns in 
 Wiltshire, and, he was told, probably incorrectly, in 
 many of the large towns of the North. 1 
 
 A few months after this the court was fairly run 
 to earth by a carefully raised case from Bradford-on- 
 Avon. One Francis Hill was charged the important 
 sum of " a penny, as his share or contribution towards 
 the relief of the poor" of the parish for a year in 
 respect of his stock in the clothing trade, and this 
 was proved and admitted to be no more than his just 
 proportion if he was legally bound to contribute any- 
 thing in respect of his stock-in-trade. He appealed 
 to the sessions, which confirmed the rate, and then To 
 the King's Bench. Lord Mansfield asked what the 
 usage had been in the parish. Counsel replied that 
 both sides had agreed to waive the question of usage. 
 Lord Mansfield then said they had no right to do 
 that, and, with the concurrence of Mr. Justice Aston, 
 referred the case back to the sessions for a statement 
 on the point. 2 It came back in January 1778, with a 
 statement that it had been usual in Bradford to rate 
 persons there for their stock-in-trade, and thereupon 
 the court confirmed the order of sessions, and the rate 
 stood good. 3 Though this case in reality only estab- 
 lished that stock-in-trade was ratable in those places 
 where it was the usage to rate it, the next generation 
 of judges seem to have regarded it as establishing the 
 ratability of stock-in-trade everywhere. When the 
 case of Poole came up in 1792, they decided that 
 
 1 Cowper, Reports, p. 550. 2 Ibid., p. 613 S. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 619.
 
 The Poor-Rate since 1601 97 
 
 salaries, money in coin and on real securities, and 
 household furniture were not ratable, but that ships 
 and stock-in-trade were ratable, without troubling 
 themselves about the usage, which was to rate all 
 these things. 1 In a case from Dursley, in Gloucester- 
 shire, in 1794, the Chief Justice, Lord Kenyon, inciden- 
 tally remarked that there was no doubt that personal 
 property was liable, although in the case before him it 
 had never been rated except for six years, between 
 1769 and 1775, as was shown by the parish books, 
 which went back to 1 566. 2 Finally, in 1795, the King's 
 Bench confirmed an order of sessions which quashed 
 a rate in Darlington because certain inhabitants were 
 not rated for their stock-in-trade, although the prac- 
 tice of rating it had only been shown to have prevailed 
 from 1746 to 1752 and from 1788 to I794- 3 
 
 From this time there could be no doubt that the 
 law required stock-in-trade to be rated, but it does not 
 appear to have been rated any more than before. The 
 Keport of the Poor-Laws Commissioners of 1834 con- 
 tains a page of condemnation of the uncertainty and 
 capriciousness of the existing mode of rating, in which 
 there is not a word which shows that they had ever 
 heard of such a thing as rating stock-in-trade. 4 In 
 1836 Mr. Poulet Scrope's Parochial Assessments Act 
 prescribed elaborate forms for the assessment of lands 
 and tenements, and preserved absolute silence as to 
 stock-in-trade. No one in either House of Parliament 
 called attention to the omission. 6 
 
 1 Durnford and East, Term Reports, iv. p. 771 ff. 
 
 2 Ibid., vi. pp. 53 ff. 
 Ibid., vi. p. 468. 
 
 4 P. 359 i" 'he 8vo ed. 
 
 8 See Hamard, 1S36, passim, especially vol. xxxv. p. 371 ff, 
 
 a
 
 9 8 History of Local Rates 
 
 At last, however, the new Poor-Law Commissioners 
 brought the matter to a head. Receiving inquiries 
 about it from the country, they issued a minute in 
 September 1838, which is decidedly unfavourable to 
 the rating of stock-in-trade. They say they hesitate 
 to express an opinion favourable to the adoption, or 
 even the continuance, of the custom, and they point 
 out both that " the practice has, with very few excep- 
 tions, hitherto prevailed only in the old manufacturing 
 districts of the south and west of England," and that 
 the Parochial Assessments Act appears to contem- 
 plate the assessment only of hereditaments, and there- 
 fore in some measure discountenances the opinion 
 that stock-in-trade is liable. 1 Six months after the 
 issue of this minute, the Court of Queen's Bench 
 decided, what any one might have expected, that 
 the silence of the Parochial Assessments Act did not 
 amount to a repeal of the law that stock-in-trade 
 should be rated. 
 
 Consequently, early in 1 840, the Poor-Law Commis- 
 sioners were driven to recant their previous opinion. 
 They issued a circular letter to churchwardens and 
 overseers which says: "Since the recent decision in 
 the Court of Queen's Bench in the case of Regina v. 
 Lumsdaine, in last Easter term, it can no longer be 
 doubted that inhabitants of parishes remain liable 
 to the poor-rate in respect of stock-in-trade, in like 
 manner as they were before the passing of the act to 
 regulate parochial assessments, and that every rato 
 may be successfully appealed against if any inhabitant 
 having productive stock-in-trade be omitted thore- 
 
 1 House of Commons Paper, 1840, No. 215 ; in vol. xxix. pp. 
 576-7.
 
 The Poor-Rate since 1601 99 
 
 from." In order to guide the overseers in carrying 
 out the law, it proceeds to point out that (1) non- 
 residents cannot be rated in respect of stock-in-trade 
 in the parish ; (2) the stock must be local, visible, and 
 productive ; (3) it must consist only of the surplus left 
 after deducting debts ; (4) it must be rated according 
 to the profit produced; and (5) its nature must be 
 specified distinctly. 1 
 
 At this action of an unpopular government depart- 
 ment, Parliament, which hid for more than sixty 
 years treated the decisions of the law courts with in- 
 difference, was seized with alarm. Sir Robert Peel 
 in the Commons, and Lord Portman in the Lords, 
 demanded a statement of the Government's inten- 
 tions, and the Government promised a bill for ex- 
 empting stock-in-trade. 2 This was soon introduced, 
 and passed first and second readings without discus- 
 sion. 3 On its going into committee, Mr. Goulburn 
 uttered a feeble and somewhat obscure protest in the 
 interest of tithe-owners. The Attorney-General asked 
 if he really thought " that it would be better to let the 
 law remain as it was. If the right honourable gentle- 
 man thought so, he was the only man in the House or 
 in the country who held that opinion. ... It had been 
 found utterly impossible that a rate on stock-in-trade 
 could be so modelled as to be free from legal objec- 
 tions. ... In fact, the law had become quite odious, 
 and except in a very few instances, no attempt had 
 been made to enforce it. Then the bill made that 
 law which was at present usage." * It passed its third 
 
 1 House of Commons Paper, 1840, No. 215 ; in vol. xxix. pp. 575-6. 
 
 2 Hansard, liii. 1367, liv. 499. s Ibid., 1261 and 1381. 
 * Ibid. , lv. p. 933.
 
 ioo History of Local Rates 
 
 reading in the Commons, and its first and second 
 readings in the Lords, without debate, 1 and was then 
 dropped, because it was discovered that the last clause 
 might be interpreted so as to create other exemptions 
 besides what was intended. In place of it Bill No. 2, 
 "to exempt stock-in-trade from being rated for the 
 relief of the poor," was promptly introduced in the 
 Commons. This provides that " it shall not be lawful 
 for the overseers of any parish, township, or village 
 to tax any inhabitant thereof, as such inhabitant, in 
 respect of his abiHty derived from the profits of stock- 
 in-trade or any other property, for or towards the relief 
 of the poor ; provided always that nothing in this act 
 contained shall in any wise affect the liability of any 
 parson or vicar, or of any occupier of lands, houses, 
 tithes impropriate, propriations of tithes, coal-mines, 
 or saleable underwoods, to be taxed under the pro- 
 visions " of the acts mentioned in the preamble 
 (43 Eliz., c. 2, and 13 & 14 Car. II., c. 2), "for and 
 towards the relief of the poor." This bill passed all 
 its stages in the House of Commons on August 5, 
 1840, and passed through the Lords without discus- 
 sion. 2 It was a temporary measure, and has been 
 renewed from year to year ever since. It practically 
 amounts to a repeal of the statute of Elizabeth so 
 far as the word " inhabitant " is concerned, and thus 
 at last, after 243 years of struggle between two con- 
 tradictory ideas, the desire of the Elizabethan Par- 
 liament of 1597 to include the non-resident occupier 
 led to the disappearance of the inhabitant as such 
 from the list of ratepayers. 
 
 1 Hansard, lv. pp. 1023, 1067, and 11 63. 
 
 Ibid., pp. 1279-81, 1344, 1395, and 1398. It is 3 & 4 Vict., c. 89.
 
 The Poor- Rate since 1601 10 1 
 
 The express inclusion of a particular kind of mines, 
 viz., coal-mines, and of a particular kind of woods, 
 viz., saleable underwoods, was always held to exclude 
 other mines and woods from rating, although other- 
 wise the word lands would have been large enough to 
 cover them. It has sometimes been supposed that 
 Elizabeth's Parliament really meant to exclude these 
 things, but it is much more probable that coal-mines 
 and saleable underwoods were inserted in the act 
 merely because the judges' resolutions of 1597 or 
 1 598 mention " coal-mines and saleable woods, pro- 
 portioning the same to an annual benefit"; and it 
 is, of course, impossible that the judges could have 
 mentioned coal-mines with a view of excluding other 
 mines, while " saleable woods proportioned to an 
 annual benefit" might easily be interpreted to mean 
 saleable underwoods as opposed to forest not looked 
 upon as a continuous source of profit. It took the 
 Legislature 273 years to nerve itself to the task of 
 getting rid of the illogical exemption. This was done, 
 though not quite thoroughly, by the Rating Act, 1874 
 (37 & 38 Vict., c. 54), which makes all woods and 
 mines ratable. 
 
 And so at last the poor-rate came to apply to all 
 immovable and to no movable property.
 
 CHAPTEE V 
 
 ASSIMILATION OF OTHER RATES TO THE POOR-RATE 
 
 Having traced the development of the poor-rate 
 down to the present time, we must now go back to 
 the seventeenth century, and endeavour to follow the 
 steps by which the practice of local authorities, the 
 decisions of courts of law, and the enactments of 
 Parliament have caused the whole of local rates, 
 with trifling exceptions, to be little but additions to 
 the poor-rate. 
 
 The old rates levied by common assent of the rate- 
 payers, or by the authority of the governing body of 
 a corporation without statutory sanction, gradually 
 died out or were replaced by modern statutory 
 creations. The relics of them which still existed in 
 the towns just before the Municipal Corporations 
 Reform Act of 1835 will be found described in the 
 Appendix to the report of the Municipal Corpora- 
 tions Commission. There was, for example, at Folke- 
 stone a " chamberlain's rate " on property and an 
 "ability tax" of is. 6d. per head on persons, which 
 certainly suggests that the Folkestone measurement 
 of ability was decidedly rough. 1 At Pevensey, we 
 are told, " a rate called the town scot is almost every 
 year imposed by the magistrates upon the property 
 within the liberty occupied by persons residing within 
 
 1 House of Commons Papers, 1835, No. 116 (in vol. xxiv.), p. 9S3.
 
 Assimilation of other Hates 103 
 
 the liberty. Property owned by non-residents is not 
 rated. The scot is sometimes id. in the pound, some- 
 times 2d. on the poor-rate assessment." 1 Probably 
 there is not now any town or other locality which 
 even claims the power to levy a non-statutory rate, 
 unless the rate of the nature of a county rate, which 
 the City of London believes it could raise, belongs 
 to this class. 2 In any case, we may be sure that if 
 the City were reduced to levying such a rate, it would 
 levy it like a modern statutory rate, and not accord- 
 ing to ancient custom. 
 
 One alone of the old rates can be said to have died 
 hard the church-rate ; and before it ceased, except in 
 name, to be a rate at all, the differences which existed 
 between its assessment and that of the poor-rate had 
 become very small. After the decision in Jeffrey's 
 case the judges seem sometimes to have held that 
 non - resident occupiers were not liable to pay a 
 rate for what were called the " ornaments " of the 
 church, such as bells, seats, bread and wine, clerk's 
 wages, visitation charges, and the like, on the ground 
 that the personal estates of the inhabitants were 
 chargeable with expenses not relating to the fabric of 
 the church or the fences of the churchyard. Some 
 parishes certainly followed this rule, or something like 
 it ; for example, Leverton, near Boston, which levied 
 a church-rate of id. per acre in 161 1, is reported to 
 have levied a poll-tax of id. per head for bread 
 and wine in 1 6 1 5 . 3 But in the first of these years, 
 
 1 House of Commons Papers, 1835, No. 116 (in vol. xxiv.), p. 1019. 
 a Royal Commission on the Amalgamation 0/ the City and County 0/ 
 London, 1891, Minutes of Evidence, Questions 7048-52. 
 3 P. Thompson, Antiquities of Boston, 1856, p. 570.
 
 to4 History of Local Rates 
 
 when Mr. Justice Yelverton remarked that a man 
 was chargeable for reparations by reason of his land, 
 and for ornaments by reason of his coming to church, 
 Chief Justice Fleming and Mr. Justice Williams said, 
 " If the party have land there, he is chargeable for 
 both, whether he come to church or not, for that he 
 may come to church if he please." 1 The distinction 
 was soon almost entirely forgotten. 
 
 The Long Parliament, which was often far in 
 advance of its time, passed an ordinance in 1647 
 practically consolidating the church-rate with the 
 poor-rate. It provides that the churchwardens, or 
 the collectors of monies for church duties, where any 
 such have been formerly used to be chosen, together 
 with the overseers of the poor, shall, after public notice 
 has been given in the church, " from time to time make 
 rates or assessments by taxation of every inhabitant 
 dwelling or residing " within the parish, " and of every 
 occupier of lands, houses, tithes impropriate or im- 
 propriations of tithes, coal-mines, or saleable under- 
 woods, or other hereditaments within the said parish 
 or chapelry, in such competent sums of money as they 
 shall think fit, for and towards the reparation and main- 
 tenance of every such parish church or chapel respec- 
 tively, and providing of books, . . . bread and wine, 
 . . . repairing the walls and enclosures of the church- 
 yards." 2 But the action of the Long Parliament in 
 
 1 Bulstrode, Reports, Pt. i. p. 20. Brownlowe [Reports, Pt. ii. p. 10) 
 gives a different account. In the case of Woodward v. Makepeace 
 in 1688 the court held that a non-resident occupier was chargeable 
 for bells, because bells are not ornaments, being as necessary as the 
 steeple (Salkeld, Reports, vol. i. p. 164). See Degge, Parson's Coun- 
 sellor , Pt. L ch. 12 (later editions). 
 
 2 In Scobell, Acts and Ordinances, Pt. i. p. 140.
 
 Assimilation of other Mates 105 
 
 this matter was not ratified by statute after the 
 Restoration, and the civilians seem to have retained 
 rather antiquated ideas as to the liability to church- 
 rates, if we are to judge by a series of propositions 
 given in a bookseller's appendix to the second edition 
 of Godolphin's Repertorium Canonicum in 1680, and 
 attributed to the joint wisdom of thirteen doctors of 
 civil law sitting at Doctors' Commons to consider a 
 question as to the church-rate of Wrotham, in Kent 
 According to these propositions, every inhabitant 
 dwelling within the parish is to be charged according 
 to his ability, and his ability may be estimated either 
 by his goods or by the value of the holding he occu- 
 pies. No exemption is accorded to resident landlords : 
 "Every owner of lands, tenements, copyholds, and 
 other hereditaments inhabiting within the parish is 
 to be taxed according to his wealth in regard of a 
 parishioner, although he occupy none of them him- 
 self, and his farmer or farmers also are to be taxed for 
 occupying only." However, Prideaux, Dean of Nor- 
 wich, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
 after quoting these propositions and Lyndwood, 1 says, 
 " But the general usage now is to make a rate accord- 
 ing to the value of the lands." It is, he then adds, a 
 personal, not a real charge not on the lands, but on 
 persons in respect of the lands, " and for this reason 
 the farmer or occupier, not the landlord, is to pay the 
 same." 2 Wo may take his evidence as to the usage 
 without accepting as sufficient his explanation of 
 its origin. 3 It is difficult to suppose, however, that 
 
 1 See above, p. 15. 
 
 * IXrrrtions to Churchwarden* for the Faithful Discharge of their 
 Office, 3rd ed., 17 13, p. 51. 
 
 Sec above, pp. 84, 85.
 
 106 History of Local Rates 
 
 resident landlords escaped rating in respect of their 
 rents in those parishes where, in spite of the general 
 usage, the church-rates were assessed according to 
 real estimates of ability. In the case of Miller v. 
 Bloomfield, tried in 1823, counsel quoted from the 
 registry of the Court of Delegates a number of places 
 where all sources of ability were taken into account 
 about the time of the Revolution. In Boston in 
 1706 it was alleged that most of the inhabitants 
 were "tradesmen that live by their trades, and are 
 chiefly assessed to the church assessments according 
 to their way of trading; whereas were they to be 
 assessed according to the rents they sit on or by 
 any other way than by will and doom, which is the 
 constant way of making and levying such assess- 
 ments in the said parish, their contributions thereto 
 would not advance so much money as they do, and 
 that, moreover, the greatest burden of such assessments 
 would then fall upon such as are not well able to bear 
 the same." Assessing by will and doom was explained 
 as "having due regard to every one's estate, quality, 
 ability, way and circumstances of living." l But 
 these exceptional cases are exactly analogous to the 
 exceptional cases in which the poor-rate was assessed 
 in the same way. In some cases (though probably 
 not in that of Boston, considering that Sir A. Earby's 
 case was decided there) they are coincident. For 
 example, it seems that at the beginning of the 
 present century both church-rate and poor-rate were 
 assessed according to a general estimate of ability 
 in Whitechapel, though before 1823 the church-rate 
 became an ordinary pound rate on property under 
 
 1 Addams, Ecclesiastical Reports, vol. i. p. 527 ff.
 
 Assimilation of other Mate 107 
 
 the powers given in the act of 1806. 1 Poole, which, 
 as we have seen, 2 taxed rather freely for the poor-rate, 
 was equally erratic with regard to the church-rate. 
 From 1751 to 1773 i fc rated stock-in-trade and ships, 
 but not money or securities. From 1773 to 1792 it 
 rated stock-in-trade and ships, and money and secu- 
 rities. Then came the decision of the judges that 
 the poor-rate on money, securities, furniture, and 
 salaries was bad, and it is doubtless owing to that 
 decision that from 1792 to 1800 stock-in-trade and 
 ships, but not money nor securities, were rated to the 
 church-rate. After 1800 ships were omitted, but in a 
 case brought before it in 1823 the Court of Delegates 
 decided that this was wrong. 3 
 
 During the eighteenth century and at the begin- 
 ning of the nineteenth it was by no means uncommon 
 for the legislature to charge a portion of a rate for 
 building or rebuilding a church upon the landlords, 
 whether resident or not. In the case of St. Leonard's, 
 Shoreditch, in 1735, 4 St. Olave's in 1737, 5 St. Botolph's 
 in 1740, St. Matthew's, Bethnal Green, in 1742, 7 and 
 St. Mary's, Islington, in 1750, 8 the local act charges 
 two-thirds of the rate upon the owners. After this 
 the proportion falls to a half in the case of St. John's, 
 Wapping, in 1755, 9 Lewisham parish church in 1774, 10 
 
 1 Compare 54 of the local act 46 Geo. III., c. 89 (in the L.C.C. 
 Enactments relating to London, Pt. i , Hating clauses, p. 272) with the 
 extracts from the rate-books in Barnewall and Cresswell, Reports, 
 vol. ii. p. 315 ; and see above, pp. 79, So. 
 
 2 .See above, pp. 81, 96, 97. 
 
 :i Addams, Ecclesiastical Reports, vol. ii. p. 30 ff. 
 ' L.C.C., Enactments t elating to London, Pt. i., Rating clauses, 
 p. 42. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 202. 6 Ibid., p. 277. 7 Ibid., p. 3. 
 
 M Ibid., p. 298. Ibid. p. 226. 10 Ibid., p. 186.
 
 io8 History of Local Rates 
 
 St. John's, Hackney, in 1790, 1 and Shadwell parish 
 church in 1817. 2 In several other local acts for 
 building or rebuilding London churches, however, 
 from 1774 onwards, there is no provision for a con- 
 tribution from the owners of property. 3 
 
 In 1837 the parishioners of Braintree refused to 
 make a church-rate when it was obviously required. 
 The churchwardens thereupon attempted to raise one 
 on their own authority, without the common assent 
 of the inhabitants. The ecclesiastical court upheld 
 their action, but the Queen's Bench and Exchequer 
 Chamber both decided against it. The latter court, 
 however, suggested that a rate laid by the church- 
 wardens and a minority of the parishioners might hold 
 good. 4 The suggestion was acted upon, but eventually 
 a rate laid in the manner proposed was defeated on 
 appeal to the House of Lords. 5 The church-rate con- 
 tinued to struggle on for some time in spite of this 
 decision, which placed beyond doubt the fact that the 
 Nonconformist opposition to such taxation could pre- 
 vent a rate being laid wherever it could secure a 
 majority of votes; but in 1868 all legal remedy 
 against persons refusing to pay church - rates was 
 abolished by statute, 6 so that the church-rate now 
 lacks one of the essential features of all taxation a 
 compulsory character. 
 
 A tendency towards the consolidation of the minor 
 
 1 L.C.C., Enactments relating to London, Pt. i., Eating clauses, 
 
 P- 159- 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 224. 3 Ibid., pp. 244, 36, 176, 239, 220. 
 
 4 Phillimore, Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, ed. of 1842, vol. i. p. 388A ff. 
 
 5 W. W. Attree, The Braintree Church-Bate Case (House of Lords), 
 
 1853. 
 
 6 31 & 32 Vict., c. 109.
 
 Assimilation of other Rates 109 
 
 Tudor statutory rates with each other and the poor- 
 rate seems to have made itself felt very early. The 
 country gentlemen who interrogated the Chief Justice 
 in 1633 asked "whether the tax for the county stock, 
 jail, and house of correction, is to be made by the 
 statute of 14 Eliz., 5, 43 Eliz., 2, by ability, and 
 upon the inhabitants of the parish only, or upon 
 them or [and?] the occupiers of lands dwelling in 
 that parish, or whether such as occupy lands in that 
 parish and dwell in another parish shall be taxed ? " x 
 11* they are well reported, their style is far from lucid; 
 but it is plain that, besides wanting to know whether 
 the non-resident occupier was to be rated, they wished 
 to know whether the same standard that of ability 
 was to be adopted in assessing these miscellaneous 
 rates as in assessing the poor-rate. The answer of 
 the Chief Justice was : " If the statute in particular 
 cases give no special direction, it is good discretion to 
 go according to the rate of taxation for the poor ; but 
 when the statutes themselves give direction, follow 
 that." The rates mentioned by the country gentle- 
 men, together with the other county rates then in 
 existence/ were consolidated and, so far as assessment 
 
 1 Dal ton, Country Justice, ed. of 1742, p. 173. 
 
 2 For bridges, under 22 Hen. VIII., c. 5, and 1 Ann., c. 18; for 
 jails, under 11 & 12 W. III., c. 19, which authorised quarter-sessions 
 " by equal proportions to distribute and charge the . . . sums of 
 money . . . upon the several hundreds, lathes, wapentakes, rapes, 
 wards, or other division" of the county; for houses of correction, 
 under 7 Jac. I., c. 4 ; for prisoners in the King's Bench ami Mar- 
 slialsea, under 43 Eliz., c. 2; for prisoners in county jails, under 
 14 Eliz., c. 5 ; for setting prisoners on work, under 18 & 19 Car. II., 
 o. 9 (vulgo, 19 Car. II., c. 4), which empowered quarter-sessions to 
 iaise money to provide a stock of materials for the purpose "in
 
 1 1 o History of Local Rates 
 
 is concerned, amalgamated with the poor-rate in 1739 
 by the act 12 Geo. II., c. 29, which says that some 
 of the rates were so small that they did not amount 
 to more than a fractional part of a farthing in the 
 pound, and, "if possible to have been rated, the 
 expense of assessing and collecting the same would 
 have amounted to more than the sum rated." To 
 obviate the difficulties and doubts which resulted 
 from this, it provides that quarter-sessions shall make 
 one assessment, to cover all these expenses, upon 
 towns, parishes, and places "in such proportion as 
 any of the rates heretofore made . . . have been 
 usually assessed." The lump sums thus assessed on 
 the parishes were to be paid in ordinary cases by 
 the churchwardens and overseers " out of the money 
 collected or to be collected for the relief of the poor 
 of such parish or place." Where no poor-rate was 
 levied, the petty constables were to raise the money 
 " in such manner as money for the relief of the poor 
 is by law to be rated or levied," by means of a con- 
 stable's 1 or any other rate, as the justices might 
 order. In 18 15 (by 55 Geo. III., c. 51) Parliament 
 directed the abandonment of the old practice of 
 
 such manner and by such ways as other county charges are levied 
 and raised ; " and for paying the cost of conveying vagabonds, 
 under 13 Ann. c. 26 (vulgo, 12 Ann., stat. 2, c. 23), which authorised 
 the raising of money " by such ways and means as monies for county 
 jails or bridges may be raised." 
 
 1 By 14 Car. II., c. 12, constables who had incurred expenses in 
 relieving or conveying vagabonds to houses of correction and work- 
 houses were empowered " to make an indifferent rate, and to tax 
 all the occupiers of lands and inhabitants, and all other persons 
 chargeable by the statute of the 43rd of Elizabeth concerning the 
 office and duty of overseers for the poor."
 
 Assimilation of other Rates 1 1 1 
 
 assessing the amounts required in traditional and 
 stereotyped proportions on the various parts of the 
 county. 1 Quarter-sessions were ordered to assess and 
 tax every parish and place according to a certain 
 pound rate of the full and fair annual value of the 
 messuages, lands, tenements, and hereditaments ratable 
 to the relief of the poor therein. The true annual 
 value of the property liable to the poor-rate thus 
 became the basis for distributing the charge between 
 parish and parish, as well as between individual and 
 individual within the parish. 
 
 The hue-and-cry rate, which under the act of 1585 
 was to be assessed according to the ability of the 
 inhabitants, 2 was assimilated to the poor-rate by 
 practice and legal decisions without aid from the 
 legislature. A non-resident occupier in 1674 tried 
 to escape from the rate on the ground that as he was 
 not a resident he could not keep watch and ward, and 
 was therefore in no way responsible for the robbery. 
 In spite of the plausibility of this contention, and of 
 son 10 precedents in his favour, he lost his case. 3 In 
 the 1736 edition of Nelson's Justice there is a blank 
 form of warrant in which the constables and head- 
 boroughs in a hundred are directed to raise tho 
 money required from each parish by assessing it on 
 
 1 For an example of these traditional apportionments see A General 
 Rate for the County of Norfolk, 1743 and 1768, which gives the 
 amount to be paid by every parish in case of (1) "a three hundred 
 pound levy," (2) a "four hundred and fifty pound levy," and (3) a 
 "six hundred pound levy." Quarter-sessions order a copy to be 
 kept by the overseers of every town, parish, and place in the 
 county. 
 
 2 See above, p. 46. 
 
 1 Viner, General Abridgment of f.uw and Equity, s.v. "Robbery," 
 p. 269.
 
 I 12 
 
 History of Local Rates 
 
 the several inhabitants, "according to their method 
 of rating for the poor." x 
 
 The sewers-rate alone of the rates which came into 
 existence before the Commonwealth period has main- 
 tained a really separate existence. It has never been 
 possible for even the densest mind to overlook the 
 fact that the defence of land against inundation is 
 for the benefit of those who have interests in the 
 land liable to be flooded, and consequently in the 
 apportionment of expenses the amount of benefit ex- 
 pected to accrue has always remained the recognised 
 principle. There has thus been no scope for the con- 
 fusion between rating a person because the fact that 
 he occupies land of a certain annual value shows 
 approximately that he has a certain ability to pay, 
 and rating him because the value of his land is 
 increased. When benefit received, and not ability 
 to pay, is clearly recognised as the principle of assess- 
 ment, it is evident that persons interested in the lands 
 which, in the phrase of the Bedford Level Act of 
 1649, are "bettered" 2 by the expenditure should pay 
 according to the extent of their interests in the im- 
 provement. So in the case of rural marshes and 
 low-lying grounds the old law has remained practi- 
 cally unaltered, and the sewers-rate has never become 
 mixed up with the poor-rate. 
 
 But at the beginning of the present century the 
 sewers-rate was widely applied to the purposes of 
 house and street drainage. In London there were 
 seven commissions of sewers, five being subject to 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 478. The act of 1585 was repealed in 1827 by 7 & 8 
 Geo. IV., c. 27. 
 
 2 In Scobell, Acts and Ordinances, Pt. ii. p, 37.
 
 Assimilation of other Rates I i 3 
 
 local acts and two to the great statute of Henry 
 VIII. As the law created liability in respect of all 
 property which received benefit or avoided damage 
 by means of the sewers, all houses were supposed to 
 be included in its provisions, whether drained or not, 
 unless they were on "high lands" such as Hamp- 
 stead, on the ground that they all received benefit 
 from the surface-drainage of the streets. The rate 
 was collected from the occupiers, but was deductible 
 from the rent in the absence of agreement to the 
 contrary. 1 The commissions were non-representativo 
 and absurdly large bodies ; that for Westminster had 
 about 200 members. 2 All the London commissions, 
 except that for the City, the work of which is now 
 done by the Public Health Department of the Corpora- 
 tion, were consolidated into one in 1848 (by 11 & 12 
 Vict., c. 112), and the new body made way to the 
 Metropolitan Board of Works under the Metropolis 
 Management Act, 1855 (18 & 19 Vict., c. 120). This 
 act was careful to provide that the rearrangement 
 which it effected should not prejudice the right of 
 the occupier to deduct the sewers-rate from his rent. 
 But similar care was not taken when the Local 
 Government Act of 1888 was passed. Under that 
 act the sewers-rate levied by the central authority 
 lost its separate existence, and the right to deduct 
 it from rent consequently disappeared. 3 This was 
 not the result of any deep design, but of a mere 
 
 1 Report from Select Committee on Metropolitan Sewers, Parliamen- 
 tary Papers, 1834, vol. xv. pp. i.-vi. 
 
 2 Report from Select Committee on Seicers in the Metropolis (Parlia- 
 mentary Papers, 1823, vol. v.), Minutes of Evidence, p. 28. 
 
 3 Royal Commission on the Amalgamation of the City ami County of 
 London, 1894 ; Minutes of Evidence, Questions 1236-42. 
 
 H
 
 1 14 History of Local Rates 
 
 oversight. There was no effective opposition, in con- 
 sequence of the prevalence of agreements on the part 
 of the occupier to pay all rates. The fact that, as was 
 alleged in 1823, ninety-nine tenants out of a hundred 
 agreed not to deduct the rate, 1 of course did not 
 diminish the injustice of refusing to allow the hun- 
 dredth to deduct it when he had made no agreement 
 not to do so. That such an injustice could be per- 
 petrated in 1888 is strong testimony to the strength 
 of the tendency towards consolidation on the basis of 
 the poor-rate. In the case of the sewers expendi- 
 ture of the London borough councils the right of 
 deduction from rent still exists, 2 but is almost uni- 
 versally ignored, the occupier almost always under- 
 taking to bear all rates. 
 
 Of the later local rates, the first in chronological 
 order is the land-tax. Simply because it happens to 
 retain the term " tax " in its title, and because its 
 proceeds go to the national exchequer, the land-tax is 
 not usually reckoned as a local rate. But as it is a sum 
 determined beforehand, and levied at different rates 
 in different localities, it has the essential features of a 
 rate and a local rate, and no comparison of the rates 
 of two parishes is complete which omits it from con- 
 sideration. 
 
 Though it is usually said to have been established 
 after the Revolution, the true origin of the land-tax 
 is to be found in the somewhat rough-and-ready 
 method of raising money adopted by the Long Par- 
 liament. Requisitions for particular sums of money 
 were at first laid upon those counties which were sub- 
 ject to the power of the Parliament. The requisitions 
 
 1 Report on Sewers, 1823 (see above, p. 113, note 2), p. 39. 
 a London Government Act, 1899, s - I2
 
 Assimilation of other Hates 1 1 5 
 
 were gradually extended all over the country, and 
 when reduced to a comparatively orderly system the 
 procedure was as follows : The county commissioners 
 named in the act imposing the assessment appointed 
 two assessors in each parish or place usually rated by 
 itself. These assessors estimated the annual value of 
 all kinds of real and personal estate whatsoever, the 
 income from personal estate being assumed to amount 
 to 5 per cent, on its capital value. The commissioners 
 then added up the returns from all the assessors within 
 their county, and calculated what number of pence in 
 the pound would be necessary to raise the amount 
 required from them by Parliament. The rate thus 
 arrived at was collected, in the case of rents, from tho 
 occupiers of the lands and tenements, who were, oi 
 course, allowed to deduct it when paying their rent to 
 their landlords. 
 
 These "monthly assessments," as they were called, 
 were very like ship-money. They were naturally un- 
 popular, and the Restoration Parliament only resorted 
 to them because it could discover no other efficient 
 means of raising money. It made the king a grant of 
 70,000 a month for eighteen months (by 1 3 Car. II., 
 st. 2, c. 3), apportioning the amount among the counties 
 in exactly the same way as the last assessment under 
 the Commonwealth had been apportioned in 1659. 
 The commissioners named for each county were 
 to distribute the sum assessed upon it among the 
 parishes, and for tho assessment of the tax on each 
 parish among the individual taxpayers they wero to 
 appoint two assessors, who, says the act, "are hereby 
 required with all care and diligence to assess the 
 same equally by a pound rate, as formerly, upon all
 
 1 1 6 History of Local Rates 
 
 lands, tenements, hereditaments, annuities, parks, 
 warrens, goods and chattels, stock, merchandise, 
 offices usually rated, tolls, profits, and all other 
 estates, both real and personal, within the limits, 
 circuits, and bounds of their respective parishes and 
 places." A curious provision shows how rough the 
 method of assessment still remained after twenty years 
 continuous use. It was provided that if the assess- 
 ment by a pound rate should anywhere prove ob- 
 structive or prejudicial to the collection of the whole 
 sum required, the commissioners might cause the 
 assessment to be made by the " most just and usual 
 way of rates held and practised " there. The act of 
 1664-5 06 & 17 Car. II., c. 1), granting .2,477,500 
 in three years, is identical in its provisions, but does 
 not distribute the total among the counties in the 
 same proportions. The rest of the acts of Charles II. 
 follow the new scale. Five of them are almost identi- 
 cal in their main provisions with the act of 1 664-5 \ 
 but the sixth and last, that of 1679 (31 Car. II, c. 1), 
 shows a tendency towards a further stereotyping of 
 the assessment. It says: "For the avoiding of all 
 obstructions and delays in collecting the sums by 
 this act to be rated and assessed, all places, offices, 
 constablewicks, divisions, and allotments shall pay 
 and be assessed in such county, hundred, place, rape, 
 division, or wapentake, according to the like propor- 
 tions and distributions in respect to this assessment as 
 they were assessed and taxed " by the act 29 Car. II., 
 c. 1. The first assessment act of William and Mary 
 (1 W. & M., c. 3), that for granting ,68,820 19s. id. 
 per mensem for six months in 1688, makes no change 
 whatever, and the next two assessment acts, which
 
 Assimilation of other Rates 1 17 
 
 were passed in 1690 (2 W. & M., sess. 2, c. 1) and 1691 
 (3 W. & M., c. 5), follow in its footsteps. In 1688, 
 however, there were also " aids," or what we should 
 call income-taxes, of is. and 2s. in the pound; and in 
 1692 and each of the three following years there were 
 aids of 4s. in the pound. In 1696-7 an act (8 & 9 
 Will. III., c. 6) was passed "for granting an aid to 
 his Majesty, as well by a land-tax as by several sub- 
 sidies and other duties." This combines a kind of 
 poll-tax on wage-earners with a tax of 25 s. for every 
 1 00 of personal estate (traders paying double, and 
 farmers only 12s. on their stock), and 3s. in the 
 pound on the rental value of land. The enormously 
 high rate of these income-taxes is by itself sufficient 
 proof of the fact that they were never strictly assessed. 
 Apparently because the yield from them was dimin- 
 ishing, Parliament reverted again in 1697-8 (by 9 
 Will. III., c. 10) to the plan of voting a fixed sum 
 in definite amounts leviable from each county. The 
 total was .1,484,015 is. ufd., and it was assessed 
 on the several counties and corporate towns in pro- 
 portions determined by the yield of the first of the 
 four-shilling aids in 1692. But instead of leaving the 
 sum required from each county to be raised by an 
 equal pound rate on all kinds of income, Parliament 
 provides that offices and personalty shall be taxed 
 3s. in the pound, and then, " to the end that the full 
 and entire sums charged upon the several counties, 
 cities," and so on, " may be fully and completely raised 
 and paid to his Majesty's use," it enacts that all 
 manors, messuages, lands, tenements, quarries, mines, 
 woods, fishing, tithes, tolls, and all annuities, rent 
 charges and other profits out of land, ' shall bo
 
 1 1 8 History of Local Rates 
 
 charged with as much equality and indifferency as 
 possible by a pound rate for or towards the several 
 and respective sums of money, ... so that by the 
 said rates " upon the personal estate, and so on, " and 
 upon the said manors, messuages," and so forth, " the 
 full and entire sums hereby appointed to be raised as 
 aforesaid shall be completely and effectually taxed, 
 assessed, levied, and collected." The land-tax con- 
 tinued to be voted annually in this form for a whole 
 century, with the exception that 4s. was substituted 
 for 3s., and the sums required from the counties and 
 towns accordingly increased by one-third. 
 
 If the provisions of these annual acts had been 
 faithfully carried out, it is plain that in many places 
 land would either at once or very soon have been 
 exempted from the " land-tax," since 4s. in the pound 
 on incomes from other sources would have been suf- 
 ficient to raise the specific sums demanded. What 
 actually happened, however, was that the 4s. in the 
 pound was not levied from personalty, and almost the 
 whole burden was placed upon landowners. In 1797 
 this practice was legalised and perpetuated by the act 
 which created the system of redempt'on of land-tax 
 (38 Geo. III., c. 60), the unredeemed portion of the tax 
 being made a perpetual charge on the unemancipated 
 part of each parish or place. At that time only 
 ;i 50,000 was levied from property other than land; 
 and in 1833, when all taxation of personalty was 
 abolished by statute (3 Will. IV., c. 1 2), the amount 
 was only 5214 8s. 4d. 1 The tenant's right to de- 
 
 1 See Bourdin, Exposition of the Land-Tax, 3rd ed., by S. Banbury, 
 1885, pp. 10, 11, wbere a table showing the amounts paid for per- 
 sonal property in each county is given.
 
 Assimilation of other Rates 1 19 
 
 duct the land-tax from his rent has remained intact 
 throughout. 
 
 The history of the highway-rate, like that of the 
 land-tax, begins during the Commonwealth period. 
 The ordinance or act of 1654 (c. 3) 1 provides that two 
 or more householders with lands worth ,20 a year, or 
 with ;ioo worth of personal estate, shall be chosen sur- 
 veyors yearly in each parish. They shall view all the 
 common highways and roads where carts and carriages 
 usually pass, all common bridges belonging to the 
 parish, and all watercourses, streets, and pavements. 
 Within six days afterwards they are to give public 
 notice in the church " to the parishioners to meet to 
 make an assessment for repairing the said highways 
 and streets, for making and repairing of pavements, 
 and for cleansing the said streets and pavements from 
 time to time, and for what else shall be requisite for 
 the purposes aforesaid, and thereupon a rate or tax in 
 writing . . . shall be laid by the said inhabitants present 
 at such meeting, or the greater number of them, by a 
 pound rate, upon all the several occupiers of houses, 
 lands, tithes, coal-mines, fellable woods, tenements, or 
 hereditaments within the parish, according to the true 
 yearly value of the same; and also upon the dead 
 goods, commodities, or stock-in-trade of every parti- 
 cular parishioner charged to pay to the poor, rating 
 every 20 value of such goods equal to every 20s. land 
 by the year ; and such further rate to be afterward and 
 oftener made as occasion shall require, so as all the 
 rates together do not exceed I2d. in the pound for 
 
 1 Several of the highway acts here dealt with have been already 
 mentioned (pp. 91,92) as illustrating the practice with regard to 
 the poor-rate.
 
 120 History of Local Rates 
 
 any one parish in any one year." If the inhabitants 
 can not or will not agree to lay a rate within 
 two days, the surveyors may make one of their own 
 authority. In any case where the common highways 
 or streets "extend in so great length in any one 
 parish as that the parish is overburthened therewith, 
 and the rate of 12& in the pound before mentioned 
 will not suffice to amend and repair the same," the 
 justices in session are empowered to rate other 
 parishes in their jurisdiction, up to the I2d. limit, in 
 aid of the overburdened parish. Streets and pave- 
 ments in cities, corporate towns, and their suburbs, 
 were expressly declared to be common highways, and 
 " scavengers " to be surveyors, and all streets and pave- 
 ments were to be paved and kept in repair, "and 
 cleansed for the conveniency and health of the in- 
 habitants." If existing provisions and laws were 
 insufficient for this, the parishioners "rated to the 
 poor" might meet and "set down and make such 
 reasonable by-laws and orders for the rating and 
 taxing the several inhabitants of the said parishes, 
 being occupiers of any houses, lands, tenements, or 
 hereditaments, or having any stock or trade, or other- 
 wise being of sufficient ability." 1 The rate thus to 
 be levied seems to have been in addition to, not in 
 substitution for, the statute labour required by the 
 act of Philip and Mary. 
 
 Like some other parts of the Commonwealth legis- 
 lation, this act was re-enacted without much alteration 
 early in the reign of Charles II. The act of 1662 
 (14 Car. II., c. 6) provides that the surveyors are to 
 consider " what sum or sums of money will be requisite 
 
 1 In ScobelPs Ads and Ordinances, Pt. ii. pp. 283-6.
 
 Assimilation of other Rates 1 2 1 
 
 to be raised . . . over and above what will be done by 
 the other laws " made for the amending of highways, 
 and thereupon shall, together with two or more sub- 
 stantial householders, " lay one or more assessment or 
 assessments upon every inhabitant rated to the poor, 
 and upon every occupier of lands, houses, tithes im- 
 propriate or appropriate portions of tithes, coal-mines 
 and other mines, saleable underwoods, stock, goods, 
 or other personal estate not being household stuff," 
 within the parish, town, village, or hamlet, as they 
 shall think fit, " which said assessment or assessments 
 shall not exceed in the whole above the sum of 6d. 
 in the pound in any one year." Twenty pounds in 
 money, goods, stock, or other personal estate, is to 
 be reckoned equal to 20s. a year in lands. The agree- 
 ment of the parishioners generally is no longer sought 
 after, and the provisions about streets are dropped. 
 It is carefully provided that the tenant and occupier, 
 not the landlord, is " to bear all charges for the mend- 
 ing of the highways," and that no occupier of lands is 
 to be assessed both for land and stock. The rates 
 were not to continue beyond 25th March 1665, how- 
 ever, and the next act that of 1670 (22 Car. II., c. 12) 
 does not re-establish them, but simply provides that 
 where the justices at quarter -sessions are satisfied 
 that the other laws in force are insufficient for the 
 repair of the highways of a parish, they may cause to 
 be laid " one or more assessment or assessments upon 
 all and every the inhabitants, owners, and occupiers 
 of bouses, lands, tenements, and hereditaments, or 
 any personal estate usually ratable to the poor, within 
 any such parish, township, or hamlet." These assess- 
 ments were not to exceed Gd. in the pound per annum
 
 122 History of Local Rates 
 
 on the yearly value of any lands, houses, tenements, 
 and hereditaments so assessed, nor the rate of 6d. for 
 .20 in personal estate, and they were to cease after 
 25th March 1673. 
 
 By the act of 169 1 (3 W. & M., c. 12) a rate for re- 
 imbursing the surveyors for buying road material 
 might be assessed by the justices upon all the inhabi- 
 tants of the parish, according to the 43rd of Elizabeth 
 for the relief of the poor. For general expenses, if 
 satisfied that the other provisions of the law are 
 insufficient, the justices might cause a rate to be laid 
 upon the persons mentioned in the act of 1670. 
 The limit of 6d. in the pound was still maintained. 
 In spite of the introduction of the word "owner" 
 before "occupier" in the act of 1670, and its repeti- 
 tion in 1 69 1, it is clear enough that all these three 
 acts follow the ordinance of 1654 in intending the 
 rates to be laid on the same persons in the same 
 proportions as the poor-rate. 
 
 The extension of the turnpike system hindered the 
 development of the highway-rate, and we have a long 
 interval before we come to the consolidatory act of 
 1 j6j (7 Geo. III., c. 42). According to this, money for 
 the purchase of land required for widening a highway 
 is to be raised by an equal rate "upon all the occupiers 
 of lands, tenements, and hereditaments within such 
 parish, township, or place, according to the rules and 
 methods prescribed in an act of Parliament made 
 in the 43rd year of the reign of the late Queen 
 Elizabeth, entitled an act for the relief of the poor ; " 
 but the rate for general purposes, levied when the 
 other laws prove insufficient, is to be "upon all and 
 every the occupiers of lands, tenements, and heredita-
 
 Assimilation of other Hates 123 
 
 merits," without any such exact reference to the act 
 of the late Queen Elizabeth. This act was repealed 
 in 1773 by 13 Geo. Ill, c. 78, which provides for 
 several rates, each with a limit of so much in the 
 pound, and places them all on the occupiers of 
 " lands, tenements, woods, tithes, and hereditaments." 
 These words can scarcely have been intended to in- 
 dicate exactly the same things as were subject to the 
 poor-rate. "Woods" and "hereditaments" include 
 certain woods and mines which are not saleable 
 underwoods nor coal-mines, and were therefore sup- 
 posed to be excluded from the scope of the poor-rate 
 by the express inclusion of saleable underwoods and 
 coal-mines. The difference between the two rates 
 was fully recognised in the great act of 1835 (5 & 6 
 Will. IV., c. 50). This provided that "a rate shall 
 be made, assessed, and levied by the surveyor upon 
 all property now liable to be rated and assessed to 
 the relief of the poor, provided that the same rate 
 shall also extend to such woods, mines, and quarries 
 of stone, or other hereditaments, as have heretofore 
 been usually rated to the highways." It has been 
 said * that these words rendered stock-in-trade ratable 
 to the highways, but it is quite certain that this was not 
 intended and did not happen. Custom paid so little 
 attention to the law of the matter that it seems to 
 have been most common not to rate the mines, woods, 
 and quarries not ratable to the poor-rate; and in 1862 
 (by 25 & 26 Vict., c. 61) this practice was legalised 
 win rover it existed on the formation of a highway 
 district. It was provided that the highway boards' 
 expenses were to be raise 1 by precept to the overseers 
 
 1 Danby 1'. Fry, Local 7'axes, p. 48.
 
 124 History of Local Rates 
 
 of the poor, except in cases where for a period of not 
 less than seven years it had been the custom of the 
 surveyor to levy a highway-rate in respect of property 
 not subject to be assessed to the poor-rate. In these 
 cases the waywarden of the parish was to levy a high- 
 way-rate as if the act had not passed. But this partial 
 discrepancy between the highway-rate and the poor- 
 rate disappeared when the poor-rate was extended to 
 all woods and mines by the Eating Act of 1874. 
 
 Until the present century legislation with respect 
 to streets in towns was almost entirely local, and it is 
 consequently buried in many hundreds of acts of Par- 
 liament which are not easily obtained, and from their 
 enormous bulk are very difficult to deal with when 
 they are obtained. 
 
 A comprehensive act (14 Car. II., c. 2) was passed in 
 1662 "for repairing the highways and sewers, and for 
 paving and keeping clean of the streets in and about 
 the cities of London and Westminster, and for reform- 
 ing of annoyances and disorders in the streets of and 
 places adjacent to the said cities, and for the regu- 
 lating and licensing of hackney coaches, and for the 
 enlarging of several strait and inconvenient streets and 
 passages." It provides that rates, taxes, and assess- 
 ments for scavengers, rakers, and such-like officers' 
 wages for cleansing the streets, shall be paid by the 
 parishioners and inhabitants of every parish and pre- 
 cinct in the city of London, " according to the ancient 
 custom and usage of the said city." In Westminster 
 likewise rates are to be made according to custom. 
 In the other parishes within the weekly bills of mor- 
 tality, the constables, churchwardens, and overseers 
 of the poor and of the highways, calling together
 
 Assimilation of other Rates 125 
 
 such of the inhabitants as have formerly borne the 
 like office, are to "make and settle a tax, rate, or 
 assessment, according to a pound rate, to be imposed 
 or set upon the inhabitants," which rate is to be con- 
 firmed by two justices. Nothing, except the reference 
 to custom in the case of the City and Westminster, 
 is laid down as to the principles on which the 
 parishioners or inhabitants are to be rated, but there 
 is a provision in the case of the City that all new 
 messuages, tenements, and houses shall be likewise 
 rated, taxed, and assessed, and shall pay proportionably 
 with others, which is sufficiently suggestive. As to 
 the strait and inconvenient streets and passages, 
 the act contains a betterment clause. After giving 
 certain commissioners power to pull down one side of 
 the street, it says, " And whereas the houses that shall 
 remain standing on the other side of the said street 
 or streets, or behind the said houses that shall be 
 so pulled down as aforesaid, will receive much advan- 
 tage in the value of their rents by the liberty of air 
 and free recourse for trade and other conveniences by 
 such enlargement, it is also enacted . . . that in case 
 of refusal or incapacity ... of the owners and 
 occupiers of the said houses to agree and compound 
 with the commissioners for the same, thereupon a 
 jury shall and may be empannclled ... to judge 
 and assess upon the owners and occupiers of such 
 houses such competent sum or sums of money or 
 annual rent, in consideration of such improvement 
 and renovation, as in reason and good conscience they 
 shall judge and think fit." The same clause appears 
 in the act of 1666 (i"8 & 19 Car. II., c. 8) for rebuilding 
 London, and is there applicable to all streets which
 
 126 History of Local Rates 
 
 may be enlarged, instead of only to certain streets 
 mentioned by name. This act also authorises a 
 " reasonable tax upon all bouses within the said city 
 and liberties thereof, in proportion to the benefit they 
 shall receive " from the new drains and paving. 
 
 The act of 1662 was allowed to expire in 1679, and 
 except in the City, where " ancient usage and custom " 
 seems to have been still strong enough to stand with- 
 out statutory support, great inconveniences ensued. 1 
 These were tolerated for eleven years, and then, in 
 1690, a new act (2 W. & M., sess. 2, c. 8) for paving 
 and cleansing the streets was passed. This provides 
 that all public streets already paved shall from time 
 to time be repaired at the costs and charges of the 
 " householders inhabitants " in such streets, and in the 
 case of unoccupied houses, at the cost of the owners, 
 each householder or owner being required to repair 
 the part of the street in front of his house as far as 
 
 1 The preamble of the act 2 W. & M., sess. 2, c. 8, gives a graphic 
 description of these inconveniences : "Many persons in the out- 
 parishes in Middlesex and other parishes . . . which have been 
 chosen to serve the office of scavenger refuse to take the execution 
 of the said office upon them, and others who have been rated and 
 assessed towards the cleansing and carrying away the dirt and soil 
 out of the streets have refused to pay the rates assessed upon them, 
 there being no law in force to compel them thereunto, so that no 
 person can be employed to be raker to carry the dirt out of the 
 said streets, for want of some provision for payment for doing that 
 service, and the poorer sort of people daily throw into the said 
 streets all the dirt, filth, and coal-ashes made in their houses, by 
 reason whereof the said streets are become extremely dirty and 
 filthy, so that their Majesties' subjects cannot conveniently pass 
 through the same about their lawful occasions, and many other 
 inconveniences daily arise for want of the like provisions in other 
 cases relating to the street pavements and common ways." The 
 ancient custom and usage of the City were expressly preserved by 
 the act.
 
 Assimilation of other Bates 127 
 
 the middle of the channel. In the case of new streets, 
 quarter-sessions might require the paving to be done 
 by the " owners and inhabitants of all and every the 
 houses new built or hereafter to be built, or adjoining 
 to any new streets or ways, . . . according to their 
 several and respective interests therein." In the two 
 Westminster parishes the cost of cleansing the streets 
 and removing house refuse is to be " rated, taxed and 
 assessed, raised, and paid by the parishioners of those 
 respective parishes, according to the custom and 
 usage " of the city of Westminster. In the parishes 
 outside the cities of London and Westminster it is to 
 be raised by a " pound rate to be imposed or set upon 
 the inhabitants" by a meeting summoned by the 
 constables, churchwardens, overseers, and surveyors, 
 who are to call together " such other ancient inhabi- 
 tants of their respective parishes as, according to the 
 custom of the said parishes or places, are usually 
 present at the election of parish officers." 
 
 It is easy to see that, as soon as, by a natural tran- 
 sition, the expenses of paving came to be borne by 
 public authorities levying rates, instead of by the 
 adjoining owners of property, each dealing with the 
 patch in front of his own property, the old idea that 
 the construction and maintenance of paving was an 
 obligation of the owner and not the occupier would 
 be in danger. The maintenance of the surface of a 
 street is not always practically distinguishable from 
 keeping it clean, and lighting and watching it is work 
 of much the same character; while to distinguish 
 between the cost of creating an improved surface and 
 the maintenance of an old one is a matter of some 
 nicety, and requires a conception of capital and current
 
 1 28 History of Local Rates 
 
 expenditure which is scarcely present to the minds of 
 government authorities, local and imperial, even at 
 the close of the nineteenth century. It is not very 
 surprising, therefore, to find that by the beginning of 
 the eighteenth century the ancient liability of the 
 owners was no longer recognised. An act of 1698-9 
 (11 Will. III., c. 23) for cleansing, paving, and lighting 
 Bristol, which allows the tenants (in the absence ot 
 agreement to the contrary) to deduct the paving- 
 rate from their rents, expressly attributes the per- 
 mission to the consideration that the landlords 
 were liable for paving expenses "by the custom of 
 the city," as if this was a local peculiarity. In the 
 scores of acts for paving parts of London which were 
 passed in the eighteenth century there are several 
 which charge the whole cost on the landlords, 1 and 
 a great many which charge them with propor- 
 tions such as two-thirds, a half, one-third, and three- 
 tenths ; 2 but it is quite plain that this was regarded as 
 
 1 See L.C.C. Enactments relating to London, Part i., Rating clauses 
 division, pp. 117, 118 (8 Geo. II., c. viii. 18), for paving with pebble 
 stone the unpaved parts of Oxford Street, a frontage rate ; p. 47 
 (17 Geo. III., c. lx. 7, 10, 11), for enclosing, fencing, and embel- 
 lishing the middle of Hoxton Square, a pound rate on the houses in 
 the square ; p. 215 (26 Geo. III., c. cxx., 63) and p. 217 (52 Geo. III., 
 local series, c. xiv. 96), for paving the Clink ; p. 192 (28 Geo. III., 
 c. lxviii. 32), for improvements in Bermondsey ; p. 207 (33 Geo. III., 
 c. xc. 32), for a new street in the parish of Christ Church, a rate 
 on the land abutting on the new street; p. 26 (43 Geo. III., local 
 series, c. x. 14), for paving Kensington Square, Young Street, and 
 James Street, a rate on the houses in the square and streets. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 162 (10 Geo. II., c. xv. 3), for enclosing, watching, 
 paving, adorning, and cleaning Red Lion Square, a rate on the 
 houses in the square, three-tenths ; p. 167 (16 Geo. II., c. vi. 3), 
 the same in the case of Charter House Square ; p. 253 (24 Geo. II., 
 c. xxvii. 4), for enclosing, paving, lighting, and adorning Golden 
 Square, a rate on the houses in the square, one-half ; p. 232 (29
 
 Assimilation of other Rates 129 
 
 exceptional legislation, departing avowedly from the 
 general rule. 
 
 In general, the rates for street expenditure, such as 
 paving, cleansing, watering, lighting, and watching, 
 
 Geo. II., c. xc. 4), for repairing the terrace walk and water gate, 
 a rate on York Buildings, one-half ; p. 24 (7 Geo. III., c. ci. 72), 
 for paving and repairing certain footways in Kensington, a rate on 
 contiguous property, one-half; p. 279 (9 Geo. III., c. xxii. 4), for 
 paving, cleansing, and lighting certain streets in Aldgate, a rate 
 on contiguous property, apparently ninepence in three shillings and 
 sixpence; p. 227 (11 Geo. III., c. xxi. 37), for paving certain 
 streets in Wapping, a rate on contiguous property, one-third ; 
 p. 266(11 Geo. III., c. xv. 34), for paving Wliitechapel High Street, 
 a rate on contiguous property, one-third, "any agreement or con- 
 tract between landlord or tenant, or any usage, custom, or law to 
 the contrary notwithstanding;" p. 280(11 Geo. III., c. xxiii. 37), 
 fur paving certain streets in Aldgate, a rate on contiguous property, 
 one-third ; pp. 290, 291 (12 Geo. III., c. xxxviii. 92), for paving in 
 the parish of Christ Church, one-half ; pp. 126, 127 (14 Geo. III., 
 c. Hi. 16), foj cleansing, paving, lighting, watching, and embel- 
 lishing Grosvcnor .Square, a rate on the houses in the square, one- 
 half ; p. 22S ( 17 Ceo. III., c. xxii. 52), for improvements in Wapping, 
 a rate on contiguous property, one-third; p. 267 (18 Geo. III., c. 
 xxxvii. S, 29), for paving the footways of Wliitechapel Road, a rate 
 on contiguous property, one-third ; p. 261 (20 Geo. III., c. lxvi. 
 81), f"r paving in Mile End New Town, one-half; p. 229 (22 
 Geo. III., c. xxxv. S 40), for improvements in Wapping, a rate on 
 property improved, one third ; p. 204 (23 Geo. III., c. xxxi. 39), for 
 paving, cleansing, lighting, and watching in Itotherhithe, "where 
 the term of any agreement or lease of any premises shall not exceed 
 the term of seven yens," one third ; p. 26S (23 Geo. III., c. xci. 22), 
 for paving and regulating certain lanes in Wliitechapel, a rate on 
 contiguous property, one-third ; p. 7 (33 Geo. III., c. lxxxviii. 65), 
 for certain paving in Bethnal Green, a rate on contiguous property, 
 one-half; p. 20 (43 Geo. I II., local series, c. x. 14), for maintaining 
 the fence in Kensington Square, a rate on the houses in the square, 
 one-half. Only in one or two cases do these provisions override 
 agreements on the part of tenants to pay all rates, but possibly the 
 ordinary agreement of those times was not strong enough to oblige 
 the tenant to pay a rate or proportion of a rate expressly charged 
 on the landlord. 
 
 I
 
 130 History of Local Rates 
 
 created by local acts, seem to have conformed closely 
 to tlie poor-rate, though, there were many differences 
 on points of detail. The only general difference of 
 principle was that the benefit to be received from the 
 expenditure was constantly taken into account in the 
 case of the street-rates. Special areas were formed 
 for the purpose, and even within those areas houses 
 in courts were often charged at a lower rate for paving 
 than houses in carriage-roads, and places not actually 
 lighted or watered were frequently exempted from 
 the lighting and watering rates, and so on. 
 
 In all the towns except London the Public Health 
 Act, 1848 (n & 12 Vict., c. 6$), placed the cost of 
 paving and other street expenditure upon the general 
 district rate, which is levied on the poor-rate assess- 
 ment. Seven years later the same thing was done 
 for London by the Metropolis Local Management 
 Act, 1855 (18 & 19 Vict., c. 120), which swept away 
 the 1 50 authorities for paving which then existed in 
 London, and transferred their powers to the vestries 
 and boards of works, whose rates were directly based 
 on the poor-rate assessment. 1 
 
 Both these acts admitted certain abatements for 
 which the Lighting and Watching Act, 1833 (3 & 4 
 Will. IV, c. 90), afforded a precedent. That act pro- 
 vided that houses and buildings should always pay a 
 
 1 It is inconceivable that a public authority should undertake to 
 lay out a building-estate for the benefit of the owners at the expense 
 of the rest of the area, and so modern legislation has preserved, and 
 even extended, the obligation of the owner to provide a properly 
 furnished street in the first place, though all the subsequent ex- 
 penses of improvements and maintenance have been laid upon the 
 general body of ratepayers. See 18 & 19 Vict., c. 120 105 ; 25 & 
 26 Vict., c. 102 77 ; and 38 & 39 Vict., c. 55 150.
 
 Assimilation of other Bates 1 3 1 
 
 rate three times as high as agricultural land. Under 
 the Public Health Act every "occupier of any land 
 used as arable, meadow, or pasture ground only, or as 
 woodlands, market-garden, or nursery grounds, and the 
 occupier of any land covered with water, or used only 
 as a canal or towing-path for the same, or a railway 
 constructed under the provisions of any act of Par- 
 liament for public conveyance," is rated only in the 
 proportion of one quarter of the full net annual value. 
 The Metropolis Management Act continued the abate- 
 ment allowed by the Lighting and Watching Act 
 wherever that act had been adopted. 
 
 The purely modern rates, such as the borough-rate 
 and the police-rate, all based from the first upon the 
 poor-rate, are of no great interest from our present 
 point of view. 1 
 
 1 For a detailed account of the rates as they existed at the zenith 
 of their complication, see the Report of the Poor Law Commissioners 
 on Local Taxation, 1S43 (Parliamentary Paper.-, Nos. 486, 487, and 
 488 : in vol. xx. ). For their state outside London in 1884 and 1S94 
 the best authorities are the two editions of An Outline of Local 
 Government and Local Taxation in Enjland and Wales (excladiny 
 London), by K. 8. Wright, H. Hobhouse, and (2nd edition) E. L. 
 Fansbawe. The Annual Local Taxation Returnt published by the 
 Local Government Board, with all their defects, present an un- 
 rivalled picture of local taxation at work.
 
 / 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE LOCAL KATEPAYER AGAINST THE NATIONAL TAXPAYER 
 
 The triumph in 1840 of the principle that local rating 
 was to be confined to immovable property did not 
 leave those who thought that kind of property too 
 heavily burdened altogether without resource. While 
 local taxation fell entirely upon immovable property, 
 general or national taxation fell also, and perhaps for 
 the most part, upon other property and on incomes 
 derived from labour. Consequently, the more any 
 particular expense could be placed upon the general 
 taxes rather than on local rates, the less would be the 
 burden upon immovable property. Hence the struggle 
 between " the ratepayer " and " the taxpayer," which 
 forms a remarkable feature in the history of English 
 public finance in the latter part of the nineteenth 
 century and the beginning, at any rate, of the 
 twentieth. 
 
 In 1834 a Select Committee of the House of- 
 Commons was appointed "to inquire into the county 
 rates and highway rates in England and Wales, and 
 to report their opinion whether any and what regula- 
 tions may be adopted to diminish their pressure 
 upon the owners and occupiers of land." This 
 committee thought that if the system of valuation 
 was improved, and "if chattel property could be made 
 to contribute its fair proportion to the expense of 
 administering criminal justice, no objection could, 
 
 132
 
 Ratepayer against Taxpayer. 133 
 
 perhaps, be fairly urged " against that expense being 
 borne on local funds; but till then they were of 
 opinion that " some portion, at least, of the present 
 charges entailed by improvements in our criminal 
 jurisprudence may justly be placed upon those funds 
 to which the general mass of property throughout 
 the country contributes more equably than it does 
 to the county rate." 1 The practical result was that the 
 next parliamentary estimates included sums for the 
 cost of the removals of prisoners from local prisons 
 to convict depots and for half the cost of prosecutions 
 at assizes and quarter sessions, and sums for these 
 purposes were henceforward voted annually.' 2 In 
 1845 they only amounted to ,10,000 and 120,000 
 respectively. 3 In 1846 the vote for prosecutions was 
 increased so as to cover the whole cost, and additional 
 votes appeared for the maintenance of certain classes 
 of prisoners in county and borough gaols at 4s. a 
 week per prisoner, half the salaries of the medical 
 oflicers of the poor-law unions (70,000), half the 
 salaries of teachers and industrial trainers in poor-law 
 schools and workhouses (30,000), and the whole of 
 the fees of district auditors for auditing poor-law 
 accounts (l3,000). 4 For the year 1852-3 the whole of 
 
 1 Parliamentary Papers, 1S34, No. 542. p. 14 (in vol. xiv). 
 
 - Sir Edward Hamilton 'a Memorandum on Imperial and Local 
 Taxation in Memoranda chiefly relating to the Cla**{ficatiou unit 
 Incidence of Imperial and ImcuI Tn./rs. issurd by the lloyal Commis- 
 sion on Local Taxation in 1897, '. 952S, \>. 11. 
 
 : Miscellaneous Services Estimates for 1S45-6. Parliamentary 
 Paper*. 1845, No. 257. III., p. 5 (in vol. xxix. p. 367). 
 
 ' Hamilton, pp. 5860: II. II. Fowler, Report mi Local Taxation 
 with e*pecial reference to the proportion of lucid burden* home hi/ 
 urban and rural ratepayer* and different clauxe* nl real property in 
 England and Wale*, Parliamentary Papers. 1893, No. 168, pp. 79 S5. 
 TIm' amounts given in the text are the estimates for 1847-8, the lirst
 
 1^4 History of Local Bates 
 
 these votes amounted to ^448,872. l The sum seems 
 small, but the total of rates raised in the previous 
 year was only 8,916,000, so far as Goschen was able 
 to calculate in i870, 2 so that it would be just over 
 5 per cent, of the total expenditure. 
 
 Larger at the start than any of these grants, and 
 more likely to grow, was the vote under the Police 
 (Counties and Boroughs) Act, 1856. The national 
 exchequer had already been making a contribution to 
 the cost of the Metropolitan Police, but this is to be 
 regarded simply as a payment for the special services 
 rendered to the State by the police of the area in 
 which the seat of government was situated. The new 
 Police Act provided for a grant of one-fourth of the 
 cost of the pay and clothing of county and borough 
 police when certified by Home Office inspectors to be 
 efficient in numbers and discipline. The sum required 
 was 140,000 in the first -year (1857-8) and 278,971 
 in 1872-3. 3 A complementary grant was, of course, 
 required for London, and this was made in 1857, but 
 the amount, instead of being fixed at a quarter of 
 the cost of pay and clothing, was a sum equal to 
 the produce of a rate of 2d. in the pound in the 
 Metropolitan Police district. 4 
 
 unbroken year of the new system : the estimates for the maintenance 
 of prisoners amounted to 120,000 for Great Britain and Ireland. 
 Parliamentary Papers, 1847, No. 229, III., p. 7 (in vol.xxxv., p. 315). 
 
 1 Hamilton, p. 24. 
 
 2 G. J. Goschen, Report on the progressive increase of Local Taxa- 
 tion, with especial reference to the proportion of local and imperial 
 burdens borne by the different classes of real propeHy in the United 
 Kingdom, as compared with the burdens imposed upon the same classes 
 of property in other European countries, Parliamentary Papers, 
 No. 470, 1870 (reprinted 1893, No. 201), p. 8. 
 
 3 Fowler, pp. 79, 80 ; Hamilton, p. 24. 4 Powler. p. 80.
 
 Ratepayer against Taxpayer 135 
 
 The next seventeen years were marked by no appre- 
 ciable new " relief of rates," and two great events 
 were decidedly adverse to " the ratepaj'er." One of 
 these was the gradual expiration of the turnpike trusts 
 from 1864 onwards, which threw the cost of the turn- 
 pike roads on the rates, and the other was the 
 establishment of rates for elementary education in 
 itt/o. Tlie turnpike system had been an excellent one 
 in its day, but it had survived its usefulness. Long 
 distance travelling and transport of goods had been 
 taken over by the railways, and once more nobody was 
 much interested in the roads of a neighbourhood 
 except the people of that neighbourhood. The collec- 
 tion of money at gates, always expensive and vexatious, 
 became more and more so when by-roads were made 
 more passable and new approaches into towns were 
 created by the extension of streets. The substantial 
 people of a neighbourhood became the principal 
 payers of the tolls in the neighbourhood, and were 
 gliid to see the gates go, even at the cost of some 
 addition to their rates. All the same, while the rates 
 remained, the gates were soon forgotten, and the new 
 "burden" became a reason for demanding further 
 relief. 
 
 The emergence of the education rate in the nine- 
 teenth century offers a curious parallel to that of the 
 poor rate in the sixteenth. The poor rate came into 
 existence because it was considered a religious duty 
 for tin- well-to-do to succour the poor of the neigh- 
 bourhood, and when this duty was found to be 
 insufficiently performed the State stepped in, at first 
 with " persuasion," and when that failed, with compul- 
 sion. So in the nineteenth century we find people who
 
 136 History of Local Bates 
 
 believed it a religious and moral obligation to teach 
 the children of the poor starting great organisations 
 for the purpose, supported by voluntary contributions, 
 which were drawn chiefly from subscribers who were 
 influenced by the needs of their own neighbourhood. 
 The State, seeing the goodness of the work, endea- 
 voured to assist and encourage it by the provision of 
 additional funds in exchange for a certain amount of 
 control, and, at last, finding that the voluntary system 
 was never likely to be thoroughly effective in particular 
 parts of the country, it enacted that rates should be 
 levied in those districts where the voluntary move- 
 ment had failed to supply adequate schools and 
 teaching. The natural and inevitable result soon 
 followed ; voluntary effort slackened, and now provides 
 for only a trifling proportion of the whole expense 
 incurred. 
 
 Parliamentary votes in aid of voluntary effort to 
 supply elementary education began in 1833. In 1S61 
 a Eoyal Commission proposed that further aid should 
 be obtained by grants from the county and borough 
 rates, 1 but nothing in this direction was done till, in 
 1870, Forster's Elementary Education Act set up 
 school boards in the parishes and boroughs in which 
 voluntary effort had failed. These boards were to 
 provide and maintain a sufficiency of schools and to 
 raise any funds required (over and above what was 
 got from parliamentary grants and school fees) by 
 precept served on the usual rating authorities. The 
 amount to which these rates would grow in the next 
 forty years was not foreseen at all. Forster, when 
 introducing the Education Bill in 1870, mentioned 
 
 1 See Grice, National and Local Finance, p. 69.
 
 Ratepayer against Taxpayer 137 
 
 incidentally that be did not believe that the rate would 
 amount to anything like 3d. in the great majority of 
 cases, 1 and a year later, the champion of the cause of 
 rate relief, Sir Massey Lopes, desirous as he was of 
 taking the gloomiest view, " did not think much less 
 than sixpence would be necessary." 2 
 
 Even so it seems curious at first sight that the 
 establishment of local rating for education should have 
 been carried so easily. It was, however, an inevitable 
 result of the voluntary system. To have made the 
 whole cost of elementary education a national charge 
 in those districts where voluntary effort failed would 
 seem unfair to the contributors in other districts, and 
 would obviously have led to the swift disappearance 
 of the contributions. The only way of maintaining 
 the contributions was to confine the taxation to the 
 districts in which they were absent or insufficient. 
 It happened, also, that the voluntary contributors had 
 no desire that the State should take over their burden 
 if, as was surely probable, it took away at the same 
 time the control over the schools which they possessed, 
 and which they valued because they imagined, pro- 
 bably without much foundation, that it enabled them 
 to propagate their own particular religious beliefs. 
 Consequently local rating for education was accepted 
 in itself, but led to a still more vigorous demand for 
 relief of the ratepayer in other directions. Sir Massey 
 Lopes brought it into his speeches of February 28, 
 1S71, and April \C>, 1N72, on his motions for more 
 relief of rates, though he did not demand that the 
 relief should take this particular direction. The first 
 
 1 I fun xn nl, February 171I1. 1S70. \\. 455. 
 -' ////'//.. February 2S1I1 1S71. |>. lojy.
 
 138 History of Local Bates 
 
 of these motions, which was of rather a general cha- 
 racter, was disposed of by the Government with some 
 difficulty : the second, which demanded relief for 
 occupiers and owners in respect of the cost of " the 
 administration of justice, police, and lunatics, the 
 expenditure for such purposes being almost entirely 
 independent of local control," was carried against the 
 Government by 100, but nothing was done in that 
 parliament. But in 1874 the electors returned a 
 large Conservative majority, and Gladstone was suc- 
 ceeded as Prime Minister by Disraeli. The new 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Stafford Norfchcote, 
 at once proposed and carried two considerable mea- 
 sures of relief. He raised the county and borough 
 police grant from one quarter to one half of the cost 
 of pay and clothing, and the Metropolitan Police grant 
 by a corresponding amount, while he also provided for 
 a new grant of 4s. a week for each pauper lunatic 
 maintained in an asylum. The augmentation of the 
 police grants amounted to over half a million and the 
 lunatics grant to about one-third of a million per 
 annum. 1 In 1877 the Prisons Act, by transferring 
 the county and borough prisons to the State, 
 relieved the rates of a charge of about 300,000 a 
 year. 2 
 
 A less sympathetic government was placed in power 
 by the general election of 1880, but it was unable to 
 
 1 Hamilton, pp. 16, 17, 24, 58, 59. The addition to the Metropolitan 
 Police grant was at first a quarter of the pay and clothing, but in 
 1877 the whole grant was fixed at 4d. in the on the annual value 
 of the district. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 24. The relief was, of course, not the whole cost of the 
 prisons, but that amount less the government contribution of about 
 ^"90,000 for maintenance of prisoners.
 
 Ratepayer against Taxpayer 139 
 
 resist the pressure of the friends of the ratepayer. 
 Having escaped defeat on a motion for " adequate 
 increase of contributions from general taxation " in 
 February, 1882, by the narrow majority of 5, 
 Gladstone proposed in the Budget of that year to 
 increase the carriage duty and give the proceeds in aid 
 of the highway rates. This project, however, was not 
 carried out, and in place of it a sum equal to one 
 quarter of the cost of disturnpiked and main roads 
 was voted to the Highway Boards. The amount of this 
 new grant was about 170, 000. 1 In 1887, Goschen, 
 then Liberal Unionist Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 to a Conservative government, doubled this highway 
 grant by giving another quarter of the cost. 2 This 
 second quarter was paid to the counties, doubtless for 
 the reason that if it had gone to the boards they 
 would have had to raise no part of their expenditure 
 locally, as they already received one quarter of the 
 cost from the exchequer, and (under the Highways 
 and Locomotives Amendment Act, 1878) one half 
 from the counties. 
 
 The new grant was intended to be temporary, and 
 (rather by exception) turned out actually to be so. 
 Opponents of grants in relief of rates had for a long 
 time been in the habit of meeting the demand for more 
 relief by the suggestion that what was really wanted 
 was a relief of the occupier by a division of the burden 
 of rates between him and the owner, and Goschen 
 himself had been one of the most prominent expo- 
 nents of this view. But as early, at any rule, as 1868 
 
 1 Fowler, p. 89. 
 
 '-' Hamilton, p. 19; Fowler, p. 89 ; Uoschen, Budget speech, Hansard, 
 April 21st. 1SS7. p. 1455.
 
 140 History of Local Bates 
 
 he had begun to think of another expedient. Speaking 
 on the Eeport of the Metropolitan Board of Works he 
 mentioned the French system of levying for local 
 purposes additional centimes or percentages on certain 
 national taxes, and said he " did not see how we could 
 avail ourselves of similar resources, though possibly 
 there was to be found in the idea the germ of a plan 
 which might be feasible." x " If parliament and the 
 country," he added, " should decide it to be just that 
 a tax, say of id., should be laid upon income for 
 municipal purposes, he would propose that it should 
 be accepted, and the local community having been 
 granted id. should say to the State, ' We have a tax 
 that will be difficult for us to raise, and you have one 
 of similar value which we could collect with ease ; 
 suppose we exchange ; we will give you that penny on 
 the income tax to which you have just assented as a 
 just impost for municipal purposes, and do you give 
 us the house duty.' " In the discussion which ensued 
 the usual statements were made about the " intoler- 
 able " nature of the burden of rates and the " end of 
 our resources," but the House was counted out. 
 
 Three years later, on April 3rd, 1871, however, 
 Goschen, now President of the Poor Law Board in 
 Gladstone's administration, moved for leave to bring in, 
 on behalf of the government, a bill which would have 
 handed over the house duty to the parishes in which 
 the houses were situated. This would, he explained, 
 be much the same thing as a repeal of the duty, if 
 it were not for the fact that the duty only applied 
 to houses over .20 annual value. Mere repeal would 
 consequently relieve only the houses over that value* 
 
 1 Hansard, February 2ist ; 1868. p. 1025.
 
 Ratepayer against Taxpayer 141 
 
 whereas transferring the duty to the local exchequers 
 would relieve all kinds of rateable property. The 
 proposal did not commend itself to the "landed 
 interest." It would have relieved the rates of London 
 and the towns generally much more than those of 
 the rural districts, in which the number of houses over 
 20 value is very small, and it was coupled with the 
 old proposal for a division of rates between occupier 
 and owner, which, perhaps without much reason, was 
 greatly disliked by owners even when it was, as in this 
 instance, to be accompanied by some measure of 
 representation in local government. In 1882, as we 
 have seen, an abortive attempt was made to give the 
 carriage duty in aid of highway rates, but it was not 
 until 1888 that Goschen found his opportunity for 
 carrying out the idea of which the germ entered his 
 mind in 1868. 
 
 The scheme which finally emerged from parliament 
 as the result of the Local Government Act and the 
 budget of 1888 involved the discontinuance of the 
 annual votes for prosecutions, poor-law medical officers, 
 poor-law school teachers, police, pauper lunatics, dis- 
 turnpiked and main roads, and two or three minor 
 votes of trilling amount. In place of these votes, 
 arrangements were made for the automatic annual 
 transference to county and county-borough "Exchequer 
 Contribution Accounts" in England of 40 per cent, of 
 the receipts from the probate duty in the United 
 Kingdom and the whole of the receipts from the licence 
 duties collected in England on the retailing of beer, 
 sweets, wine, and tobacco, on refreshment bouses, 
 carriages, armorial bearings, male servants, dogs, 
 appraisers, auctioneers, platedealers, and pawnbrokers. 
 and on the shooting of game and carrying guns.
 
 142 History of Local Bates 
 
 Goschen proposed also to give the counties new 
 licence duties on vehicles and on what at once became 
 known as "pleasure horses " in order to make those 
 pay for the roads who used them. But relief of rates 
 loses all its popularity as soon as it is obviously con- 
 nected with increase of taxation ; the government were 
 forced to drop this project. 
 
 The most remarkable feature of the discussion in 
 the House of Commons is the almost entire absence of 
 any attempt to show that the system of annual votes 
 was one which ought to be discontinued. Ritchie, the 
 President of the Local Government Board, in intro- 
 ducing the Local Government Bill, said very shortly 
 that it had been criticised, but that he himself thought 
 it had led to greater efficiency, and that the only 
 objection he had to it was that it mixed up local with 
 national finance. 1 Similarly Goschen seems to have 
 found no fault with the system except that it caused 
 " double entry " of certain expenditure, which appeared 
 both in the accounts of the nation and in those of the 
 localities. 2 What difficulty there would have been in 
 collecting all the parliamentary votes in aid of rates 
 together under one heading, and so making it easy for 
 anyone to deduct them from the national expenditure, 
 he did not attempt to explain. 
 
 The licence duties were chosen for transference 
 because they were regarded as " localised " in the sense 
 that the burden of them fell almost entirely on persons 
 resident in the locality in which they were collected. 
 It was at first intended to allow the counties to vary 
 some of the licences within certain narrow limits, 3 but 
 
 1 Hansard, March 19th, 1888. p. 167 1. 
 
 2 JAW., March 26th, 1888. p. 287. 
 
 3 Ibid,, p. 288.
 
 Ratepayer against Taxpayer 1 43 
 
 this part of the scheme dropped out, so that the licences 
 remained national taxes in the sense of being levied at 
 the same rate all over the country. 
 
 The probate duty was selected merely as a sop to 
 the people who demanded that " personal property," 
 by which they really meant non-rateable property, 
 should contribute to local taxation. The fact that a 
 large portion probably much the larger portion of 
 the probate duty was derived from rateable property 
 was conveniently overlooked. Moreover, if the probate 
 duty bad all been derived from non-rateable property, 
 the way to satisfy the demand in question would surely 
 have been to draw the contribution from an increase of 
 the tax instead of from its existing amount. When 
 an existing tax was transferred, it could make no 
 difference what tax was selected : in any case the 
 question whether rateable property was relieved or not 
 must then depend on the sources from which the State 
 proceeded to draw the amount necessary to till up the 
 gap left' by the transference. As a matter of fact the 
 gap was tilled up partly by miscellaneous small taxes 
 and partly by an increase of the succession duty 
 expressly intended to satisfy those who complained that 
 real property did not pay enough towards national 
 expenses. 
 
 The parliamentary votes in aid of rates had been 
 distributed between the various localities in propor- 
 tion to the cost or amount 1 of particular services 
 performed by the local authorities. In place of this 
 criterion, which had at any rate the advantage of 
 
 1 A grant of a quarter or a half of particular expenditure is 
 distributed according t<> the est of the service actually incurred ; 
 while a grant like that of Is. a week for each pauper lunatic is 
 distributed according to 'lie amount of the service performed.
 
 144 History of Local Rates 
 
 simplicity, a wonderful jumble of principles was 
 confusedly adopted. 
 
 As the licences were chosen for transference because 
 they were " localised," it was naturally proposed that 
 the State, after collecting them, should hand them back 
 to the localities the counties and county boroughs 
 were selected as the localities for this purpose in 
 which they were collected and in the same proportions. 
 It seems to have been taken for granted, without any 
 thought whatever, that the possession of large numbers 
 of valuable public-houses and dogs, carriages, armorial 
 bearings, and pawnbrokers gave a locality a good claim 
 to rate relief. 
 
 The only difficulty felt was that some of the licence- 
 duties collected in the county boroughs did not properly 
 "belong" to them, inasmuch as they were paid by 
 people living in the counties outside, to whom the 
 county borough happened to be the most convenient 
 place for payment. The Local Government Act handed 
 over the solution of this difficulty to the Commissioners 
 under the Act, who were charged with making " equit- 
 able adjustments" between the counties and county 
 boroughs. We shall see how they dealt with it 
 presently. 
 
 The probate-duty grant might have been distributed 
 on exactly the same principle : there is no more diffi- 
 culty in deciding the locality to which a deceased 
 person who has left property " belongs " than there 
 is in deciding the locality to which a dog-owner or a 
 displayer of armorial bearings belongs. But no one 
 seems to have thought of alleging with regard to the 
 probate duty what everyone accepted without question 
 with regard to the licences : to give relief to localities
 
 Ratepayer against Taxpayer 145 
 
 in proportion to the amount of "personal property" 
 which people " belonging to it " happened to leave 
 would doubtless have been scouted as absurd. Some 
 other criterion had to be looked for, and the govern- 
 ment at first thought they had found it in the 
 principle already adopted in the Metropolitan Common 
 Poor Fund, which pooled the cost of indoor relief 
 among all the London parishes. They proposed to 
 divide the probate-duty grant in proportion to the 
 amount (not the cost) of indoor pauperism. 1 To some 
 who demanded division in proportion to the discon- 
 tinued grants Goschen replied that " nothing could 
 be more unjust," 2 but his own proposal turned out 
 to be extremely obnoxious to the party of rate-relief. 
 They thought it would favour London and other places 
 where the burden of outdoor pauperism was small 
 compared with what it was in the rural counties, in 
 which they were largely interested. It was also, of 
 course, unpopular with all who disliked the " work- 
 house test," as it would certainly have had a deterrent 
 effect on the granting of outdoor relief. In the end 
 Goschen was driven to accept the proposal which he 
 had shortly before denounced as the height of injustice, 
 and it was decided that the probate-duty grant should 
 be divided between the ancient counties in the same 
 proportion as the discontinued grants had been divided : 
 the division between the new administrative county 
 and any county-boroughs it might contain was left to 
 the Commissioners, along with the division of the 
 licences. 
 
 The extent of the victory of the rural counties in 
 
 1 ilitchie's speech, in flaward, March 19th, 18SS. p. 1674. 
 llanmrd, March 2C1I1, 1S88. p. 295. 
 
 K
 
 146 History of Local Rates 
 
 this settlement seems never to have been sufficiently 
 grasped by politicians and commissions. Not only 
 did these counties preserve a basis of distribution of 
 rate-relief which was already tolerably favourable to 
 them ; they further secured that it should year by 
 year become more favourable to them automatically, 
 noiselessly, and in a manner which could only be 
 detected by the aid of a good deal of research and 
 tiresome arithmetic. Under the old system the urban 
 counties which grow in population would naturally, as 
 time went on, have received larger and larger amounts 
 in proportion to the nearly stationary rural counties. 
 But the new system stereotyped the proportions of 
 the year 1887-8 for all time, or at any rate till parlia- 
 ment should otherwise determine. In 1887-8 the 
 population of Glamorgan was a little under 5| times 
 as great as that of Herefordshire. Glamorgan then 
 received from the old grants about 2\ times as much 
 as Herefordshire. In 1 9 1 1 , when Glamorgan's popula- 
 tion had become 9f times as great as that of Hereford- 
 shire, Glamorgan was still receiving only 2 \ times as 
 much as Herefordshire from the estate duty and 
 " whisky money " grants 1 ; and will continue to do so 
 until parliament shall otherwise determine. 
 
 In the division between the administrative county 
 and the county-boroughs, if any, contained in the old 
 county, the rural interests did not fare so well. It 
 would be natural to suppose that when new principles 
 of distribution were being introduced, certain localities 
 
 1 After the reorganisation of the death duties in 1894, the probate 
 duty grant was paid out of the estate duty, but its amount was 
 calculated in the same way as before, so that this was merely a change 
 of name. The " whisky money " is explained below, pp. 153 4.
 
 Ratepayer against Taxpayer 147 
 
 might suffer. Some of those which thought themselves 
 threatened secured the insertion in the Act of a proviso 
 that in making an " equitable adjustment " between 
 county and county-borough the Commissioners were 
 to take care that neither party should be placed in a 
 worse position than it occupied before. If this had 
 been interpreted to mean a worse relative position, 
 the Commissioners could only have arranged that 
 the county and county-borough should have the 
 same proportions as before, which would seem 
 rather futile. So they almost necessarily inter- 
 preted the proviso to mean that neither party was to 
 be placed in an alisolutelji worse position than before. 
 This they endeavoured to carry out by arranging that 
 each party should first receive from the total of 
 licences and probate duty belonging to the old county 
 as a whole sums equal to the discontinued grants 
 received in their respective areas in 1887-8, and also 
 a sum equal to the cost of union officers in that year ; 
 the remainder was to be divided in proportion to rate- 
 able value, ascertained, however, not annually but only 
 every five years. The device of the fixed sums was hit 
 upon because, as we shall see presently, the adminis- 
 trative counties and county-boroughs had to pay corre- 
 sponding amounts to the minor authorities or to 
 special accounts of their own, and it was thought 
 apparently that their position would be " worse" if 
 they were not sure of receiving these sums from the 
 pooled fund. The criterion of rateable value for the 
 remainder was pressed upon the Commissioners by 
 the representatives of the administrative counties, and 
 seems to have been adopted merely in default of any 
 other criterion which could be represented as not
 
 148 History of Local Bates 
 
 making the position of either party " worse " than 
 before. 1 The criterion of rateable value was doubtless 
 favourable to the administrative counties at the 
 moment, but the fact that a fresh valuation could be 
 adopted every five years has, unlike the distribution 
 between the ancient counties, been very unfavourable 
 to rural counties containing county-boroughs which 
 grow rapidly in rateable value, while the county 
 remains stationary or declines. 2 It is believed, how- 
 ever, that county-boroughs, owing to stupidity and 
 ignorance, have often failed to claim the quinquennial 
 revisions which would have benefited them. 
 
 The licences amounted to about 3,000,000, and the 
 English share of the probate duty to about 2,000,000. 
 If the administrative counties and county-boroughs had 
 received the whole of this sum without any charges on 
 it, many of the former could have paid the ratepayers 
 something instead of collecting rates. It was never 
 proposed that the money should all go in aid of county 
 and county-borough rates. Though Goschen objected, 
 as we have seen, to the old grants on the ground that 
 they made some expenditure appear twice over, once 
 in the accounts of the State and once in those of the 
 localities, the government deliberately proposed to 
 transfer this confusion to the local budgets by making 
 the cost of the same services figure both in the 
 accounts of the county councils and in those of the 
 
 1 The Commissioners prudently abstained from giving any reasons 
 for their awards. We ean only infer what their reasons were from 
 the Act itself, and from the evidence which is reported in Minutes of 
 Evidence taken before the Commissioners tinder the Local Government 
 Act, 1888, with Orders and Appendices, 1892, C. 6839. 
 
 2 In Oxfordshire, for example, the administrative county has lost 
 heavily by two "adjustments" with the county-borough of Oxford.
 
 Ratepayer against Taxpayer 149 
 
 non-county boroughs, the urban districts, and the 
 unions. Various expenses were even to appear twice 
 over in the accounts of the same body. 
 
 The Act, which does not here differ very much 
 from the government's first proposals, provided 
 that the poor-law unions should receive from the 
 counties and county-boroughs the 4s. a week for each 
 pauper lunatic, and several minor grants formerly 
 received direct from the national exchequer, and in 
 addition an amount equal to the salaries and allow- 
 ances of union officers and the cost of drugs and 
 medical appliances, not in the current or preceding 
 year, but for 1887-8. Urban districts (including non- 
 county boroughs) and rural districts were allowed to 
 claim from the counties half the salaries of medical 
 officers and inspectors of nuisances when the conditions 
 of their appointment were approved by the Local 
 Government Board. Each non-county borough with 
 a separate police force, and consequently a police rate 
 of its own, could recover from the county half the cost 
 of pay and clothing. The highway boards disappeared, 
 main roads being made a county charge and the rest 
 thrown on the urban and rural districts, but urban 
 districts, including non-county boroughs, were allowed 
 to retain control of main roads within their districts 
 and to recover from the county the whole cost of 
 maintenance. 
 
 It would have been difficult to devise a more 
 atrocious jumble of finance. The whole of the 
 payments, except possibly that for main roads, 
 might much better have been made to the minor 
 authorities direct from the national exchequer, since 
 the passing of them through the county accounts
 
 150 History of Local Hates 
 
 merely swelled the county figures for nothing. With 
 a partial exception in the case of main roads, the 
 county was given no control whatever over the amount 
 or expenditure of the grants which it had to make. 
 Further, in order to get over some difficulties, such 
 as the existence of different police rates in the county 
 and the non-county police boroughs, it was provided 
 that the counties and county-boroughs should keep a 
 separate " Exchequer Contribution Account " into 
 which the money received from the State should be 
 paid, and from which, with the exception of the main 
 roads payments, all the money due to the minor 
 authorities, and in addition half the cost of pay and 
 clothing of the county's own police, should be drawn : 
 the surplus only being available for the county as a 
 whole. Thus half the pay and clothing of the police 
 appears twice over in the county and county-borough 
 accounts, first in the payments out of the Exchequer 
 Contribution Account, and then in the payments out of 
 the Police Account. Some such arrangement may have 
 been necessary in counties which contained non-county 
 boroughs with separate police forces or other areas 
 which prevented the levy of a uniform county rate, but 
 the separate account was unnecessary in the other 
 counties and in all the county-boroughs. In the 
 county-boroughs it was absolutely futile, and its only 
 effect was to confuse the finance and make town coun- 
 cillors think they were still getting grants which 
 ceased in 1888. It can obviously make no difference 
 to a county-borough whether the payments which it 
 has to make to the unions are taken from an Exchequer 
 Contribution Account, the surplus of which goes in aid 
 of the borough rate, or from the general account which
 
 Ratepayer against Taxpayer 151 
 
 is fed by the borough rate. To compel a town council 
 to take half the cost of paying and clothing its police 
 from the first account and solemnly pay it into the 
 other is a gross absurdity, and its maintenance for 
 now nearly a quarter of a century is one of the most 
 striking instances of the inefficiency of English 
 administration and legislation. It has very frequently 
 led to watch committees recommending their councils 
 to agree to an increase of the police force on the 
 ground that " the Government will pay half," and I 
 well remember the astonishment with which the flat 
 denial of this statement was received in one fairly 
 intelligent town council nearly twenty years after 
 parliament had ceased voting the police grant. 1 
 
 We have already seen that two different principles 
 were adopted by the Local Government Act in the 
 distribution of money between the complete counties, 
 (1) the principle of the allocation of uniform taxes to 
 the areas in which they were collected, and (2) the 
 principle of dividing the total proceeds of a tax accord- 
 ing to certain proportions fixed once for all. We have 
 already seen also that in the distribution between each 
 county and its county-boroughs two other principles 
 were adopted by the Act, or, at any rate, by the Com- 
 missioners acting under it: (3) the principle of sums 
 fixed for all time, and (4) the principle of rateable 
 value. We now see that in the distribution between 
 the minor authorities within the administrative county 
 only one of these principles, that of fixed sums, was 
 adopted (in the union officers grant), while three more 
 
 1 In Manchester the converse mistake was once made, a proposal for 
 diminution of the police force being discussed on the assumption thai 
 the rates would share the benefit with the national exchequer.
 
 152 History of Local Bates 
 
 principles were added : (5) for several of the grants the 
 old pre- 1 888 principle of payment of a proportion of 
 the cost, whatever the cost may be, was maintained ; 
 (6) for the lunatics grant the old but different principle 
 of a payment varying with the amount rather than the 
 cost of the service was also continued ; and (7) for main 
 roads in urban districts the new and startling principle 
 of payment of the whole cost of a service entirely un- 
 controlled by the paying authority was introduced. So 
 seven different principles appear eclecticism in excelsis. 
 
 The fixity of the union officers grant had the same 
 effect between the unions as the fixed proportions of 
 the probate duty had between the counties as time 
 went on it favoured the stationary areas as against 
 those which were growing in population. The urban 
 main roads arrangements favoured those urban 
 districts which were lucky in having their principal 
 streets coincident with main roads, and gave all urban 
 districts which had any main roads the advantage of 
 being able to spend freely on them without paying any 
 of the cost. 1 
 
 It is useless to talk of " finality " to the daughters 
 of the horse-leech, and any sinrple soul who expected 
 Goschen's scheme to " settle the question " would 
 have been disappointed even if it had been carried out 
 in its entirety. But the failure to carry the horse tax 
 and the wheel-and-van tax made the relief of rates less 
 than was at first intended. Certain proposals for 
 reducing the number of public-houses had also dropped 
 out of the bill in the course of its progress. A strong 
 agitation for an adequate system of police pensions 
 
 1 See for illustrations E. Caiman, " The Financial Relations of 
 English Localities," in Economic Journal, March, 1903, pp. 6 16.
 
 Ratepayer against Taxpayer 153 
 
 had arisen. These three causes led to further tinker- 
 ing in 1890. Goschen then proposed to add what he 
 called a " surtax " of 3d. a barrel on beer and 6d. a 
 gallon on spirits, in order to provide 300,000 a year 
 for police superannuation, nearly half-a-inillion for 
 compensation for extinguished public-house licences, 
 and a considerable balance for " reinforcing the funds 
 of the county councils." ! The licensing scheme fell 
 through, and eventually the funds of the counties and 
 county-boroughs were " reinforced " by the whole 
 balance, about three-quarters of a million, left after 
 deduction of the Scotch and Irish share (one-fifth of 
 the proceeds of the surtaxes) and the 300,000 for 
 police superannuation. Technical education was the 
 talk of the moment, and in consequence it was pro- 
 vided that the councils receiving the "reinforcement" 
 might spend it on technical education, but they were 
 not compelled to devote it to this particular purpose. 
 As nobody apparently had the least idea how the 
 money ought to be divided between the localities, the 
 principle of " like the probate duty under the Local 
 Government Act " was hastily adopted, so that the 
 amount became practically an addition to the probate 
 duty grant,'-' though, owing to its semi-allocation to 
 technical education, it was necessarily kept separate 
 in all accounts, thus adding further confusion and 
 complication in local finance. Among educationists 
 the fund was usually called, in irreverent allusion to 
 
 1 Budget speech, Ifu/uard, April 17th. 1890. pp. 731 4. 
 
 s l.r.. between the old counties it was divided in proportion to the 
 "discontinued grants" (abo>e, pp. 141, 145). Between an adminis- 
 trative- county and the county-boroughs carved out of an old county, 
 the "equitable adjustments" of tin- Commissioners mad" the division 
 simply according t" rateable value (above, p. 147).
 
 154 History of Local Bates 
 
 one of its sources, " the whisky money." The option 
 to use it for general relief of rates was taken away by 
 the Education Act of 1902. After that the whole had 
 to be devoted to higher education. 
 
 The portion of the " surtaxes " devoted to police 
 superannuation was a sum arbitrarily fixed once for 
 all at 300,000 and arbitrarily divided into two halves, 
 150,000 for the Metropolitan and 150,000 foL - the 
 country police. In the distribution of this amount 
 none of the seven principles of the Local Government 
 Act were adopted ; each police force receives an amount 
 equal to the deductions made for pensions from the 
 men's pay (these must not exceed 2\ per cent.), and 
 then what is left is divided in proportion to the 
 amounts paid out of the fund. 
 
 In the Agricultural Eates Act of 1896 there is no 
 pretence of benefiting the ratepayers as a whole. No 
 one has ever publicly confessed it, but the probability 
 is that the agrarian interest, the influence of which in 
 parliament and cabinets had secured nearly the whole 
 of such relief as had hitherto been given, began to see 
 that the rapid urbanisation of England was making it 
 more and more difficult to reduce rates on agricultural 
 property by subsidies to rates in general. Agricul- 
 tural property had become so small a proportion of 
 the whole of rateable property that to ask the tax- 
 payers to reduce rates in general in order to relieve 
 agricultural property had become almost like burning 
 houses to roast pigs. It would cost the taxpayers so 
 much less to relieve agricultural land alone that it 
 would be worth while to sacrifice t|ie support of such 
 of the urban ratepayers as believed that they would 
 benefit by a transfer of cost from rates to taxes, or
 
 Ratepayer against Taxpayer 155 
 
 ignorantly overlooked the fact that " relief " could not 
 be got out of nothing, but must come from some- 
 where and be a burden on somebody. Accordingly it 
 was proposed to follow the precedent provided by the 
 three-quarters exemption of agricultural land and 
 certain other property from the sanitary rate. It was 
 enacted that agricultural land should henceforth only 
 be rated at one-half of its annual value to all the 
 ordinary rates to which the three-quarters exemption 
 did not apply. In purely rural parishes this would 
 not have made much difference by itself, since the rest 
 of the property, on which the burden thrown off agri- 
 cultural land would have fallen, would be closely con- 
 nected with the agricultural land and belong to the 
 same people. But the Act provided that the national 
 exchequer should pay the remitted half of rates in 
 each parish. The only fly in the ointment was that 
 this grant was not a variable, and therefore in all pro- 
 bability an increasing, amount, but was fixed once for 
 all at the half of the rates levied in 1895-6. The 
 total was estimated at 1,560,000, but when worked 
 out in detail turned out to be only ^1,3 30,000. x From 
 the agrarian point of view it must be regarded as far 
 the most successful of all the measures of relief. In 
 the previous cases out of every pound levied from the 
 taxpayer, the agrarian interest had received only a few 
 shillings. Of the agricultural rates grant it received 
 every penny, and in addition stood to benefit largely 
 in the future at the expense of other ratepaying 
 interests in all parishes in which there was any con- 
 siderable amount of non-agricultural property and in 
 which an increase of rates took place. 
 
 1 Hamilton, [. 23 ; Finance Account*, 1901-2, p. 107.
 
 156 History of Local Bates 
 
 A few years later an apparently similar measure of 
 relief was granted to clerical owners of tithe rent- 
 charge by the Tithe Rent-charge (Rates) Act, 1899. 
 But this, curiously enough, was not given at the 
 expense of the taxpayers, but at that of other rate- 
 payers through their interest in the probate duty 
 grant, out of which it was made payable, thus reducing 
 the total divisible under the Local Government Act. 
 Unlike the amount given by the Agricultural Rates 
 Act in another respect also, the grant varies with 
 the rates levied from year to year, half of the actual 
 rate levied being paid. The amount is small only 
 147,663 for 1 9 10- 1 1. 1 
 
 To complete this brief sketch of the struggle of rate- 
 payer against taxpayer, it only remains to add that 
 since 1870 the amount raised by rates for elementary 
 education has been steadily growing, not only in 
 absolute amount but also in proportion to the amount 
 coming from national sources. In 1871 the taxes 
 provided 927,524, and the rates only 71,184. In 
 1895 the tax contribution had risen to 6,963,279, 
 but the rate contribution had risen much faster to 
 3,987,790? In 1908-9 the rate contribution almost 
 exactly equalled the tax contribution, both being 
 over 1 i,ooo,ooo. 3 Since 1870 the ratepayers as a 
 whole have lost by the imposition of this new service 
 more than all they have gained by relief in other 
 directions since 1835, and the loss is the more 
 galling inasmuch as the local authorities have no 
 
 1 Finance Accounts, No. 201 of 191 1, p. 42. 
 
 2 See table issued by the London County Council given in Grice, 
 National and Local Finance, p. 103, and cf. ibid., p. 366. 
 
 3 Statistics of Public Education, Pt. ii., Cd. 5506, pp. 3. 46, 222.
 
 Ratepayer against Taxpayer 157 
 
 real control of the expenditure. The bureaucracy 
 which is but thinly disguised under the name of 
 the " Board of Education " not only possesses 
 overwhelming mandatory powers, but also exercises 
 comprehensive and minute control by means of its 
 powers of refusing annual grants and withholding 
 consent to borrowing for capital expenditure. What 
 shall be taught, and in what buildings the teaching 
 shall take place, is laid down by the bureaucracy in 
 minute detail, and in nearly everything of any 
 importance the local authority has about as much 
 freedom of action as a 'bus horse. 
 
 The general principle of the terms of partnership 
 between the State and the localities in regard to 
 education has been that the State should pay definite 
 sums for definite quantities of particular services for 
 example, so many shillings for each child taught such 
 and such subjects to the satisfaction of the inspectors 
 while the locality makes up the balance. But there 
 have been some attempts to assist overburdened 
 localities to provide tbe balance, which are interesting 
 on account of the principle which they exemplify, 
 though they have been too feeble to possess much 
 practical importance. Section 97 of the Act of 1870 
 provided that where the produce of a 3d. rate did not 
 amount to 7s. 6d. per scholar the difference between 
 that produce and 7s. 6d. per scholar should be paid by 
 the State in addition to all other grants. This was a 
 subsidy in aid of localities with small rateable value 
 in proportion to amount of service required. By the 
 Elementary Education Act, 1897, it was provided that 
 the districts thus relieved should receive in addition 
 4<1. per scholar for every complete penny by which the
 
 158 History of Local Bates 
 
 rate exceeded 3d., the element of cost, as well as amount 
 of service, being thus brought into account. But both 
 provisions were swept away by the Education Act, 
 1902, under which every authority is entitled to receive 
 three-fourths of the amount by which the produce of 
 a penny rate falls short of 10s. per scholar. By this 
 the element of cost of service was eliminated. In 1906, 
 however, the complaint of West Ham and one or two 
 other highly rated districts became so loud that, with- 
 out special legislation, a parliamentary vote was taken 
 in order to give these districts three-fourths of the 
 excess of their expenditure over the produce of a 
 is. 6d. rate, and this " Necessitous School Districts 
 Grant " has been continued, with some makeshift 
 restrictions and modifications, to the present time. 1 
 
 Taken as a whole, the system of educational 
 finance has been favourable to the rural districts 
 owing to the fact that the principal grants provide in 
 them a larger proportion of the whole expense than 
 in the towns. This may be one of the reasons why 
 resistance to the growth of the rate-contribution has 
 been so unsuccessful. It has lacked the whole- 
 hearted support of the agrarian interest, which has 
 exercised its influence in other directions. 
 
 1 Statistics of Public Education, Ft. ii., Cd. 5506, pp. xxvi., 31. 215 : 
 Regulations prodding for special grants in aid of certain local 
 education authorities in England and Wales in 1910, Cd. 5461.
 
 CHAPTEK VII 
 
 THE EQUITY OF LOCAL RATES 
 
 It is clear that two great principles or canons of 
 taxation swayed the minds both of the people who 
 respected custom in the assessment of the old rates 
 and of the politicians and parliamentary draftsmen 
 who created new statutory rates. These principles or 
 canons are : 
 
 (i.) That every inhabitant of a district should be 
 made to contribute according to his ability ; and 
 
 (ii.) That everyone who receives benefit from the 
 local expenditure should be made to contribute in 
 proportion to the benefit he receives. 
 
 Applied to the same rate, the two principles are 
 obviously incompatible. It is difficult to think of any 
 kind of government expenditure which confers benefits 
 upon people approximately in proportion to their 
 ability to contribute. But it happens that in practice 
 tiie nearest possible approximation to local rating 
 according to ability and the nearest possible approxi- 
 mation to local rating according to benefit are one 
 and the same thing, namely, the rating of persons in 
 respect of fixed property in the district. 
 
 Are we to accept tbis system? 
 
 The ultimate object of every system of public 
 finance, so far as the distribution of taxation, or 
 rather the distribution of all kinds of payments 
 drawn by the State from its subjects, is concerned, 
 
 i5'J
 
 160 History of Local Bates 
 
 must be of course to secure the best results on the 
 whole and in the long run. The two great guiding 
 principles for the attainment of this end are Equity 
 and Economy, the latter term being, of course, under- 
 stood not in the vulgar sense of spending little, 
 irrespective of the return to the expenditure, but in 
 the sense of the best utilisation of available means. 
 
 In the application of existing ideas of equity to our 
 system of taxation, local or other, the first thing to do 
 is to recognise that the present distribution of wealth 
 is not by the great majority of people regarded either 
 as equitable or inequitable in its main features. No 
 one seriously claims that the distribution is equitable 
 in itself, so that for example it is actively just and 
 equitable that one infant should be born owning 
 100,000 a year, and another nothing at all. On the 
 other hand, few persons regard the distribution as 
 actively inequitable as a whole, though many condemn 
 particular features in it with some asperity. The 
 usual attitude is to accept the scheme as a whole in 
 the shape in which it has come down to us, and 
 merely to propose amendments in it here and there, or 
 to oppose amendments proposed by others, grounding 
 opposition not on any alleged perfection of the scheme 
 as it is, but on the undesirability of the particular 
 alterations suggested. 
 
 Subject to certain modifications introduced by the 
 claims of family and by public and private almsgiving, 
 and other gifts and gratuitous allowances, the existing 
 system proportions command over economic goods to 
 the value of services rendered and property possessed, 
 part of this property being obtained by services 
 rendered by the present possessors in the past, and
 
 Tin' Equity of JjOraJ Boies 161 
 
 another and larger part by inheritance. As against this 
 established state of things, we find that many people, 
 perhaps most people, have somewhere in their minds 
 two inconsistent and somewhat nebulous ideals. The 
 first they acquired in very early years when they were 
 promised jam or an outing "if they were good," and 
 therefore I call it the nursery ideal ; according to it, 
 command over economic goods ought to be in propor- 
 tion to moral merit, irrespective of market value of 
 service rendered by the meritorious person. The 
 second ideal is the communist one of equal distribu- 
 tion, with modifications to meet differences of need, 
 which allow it to be spoken of as simply distribution 
 according to need. This ideal is very seldom openly 
 avowed, though it is more or less adopted, not only in 
 beleaguered towns and on ships which have run short 
 of provisions, but also in every hospital and every 
 home. It is at the root not only of socialist propa- 
 ganda, but also of the far more widespread belief 
 which traditional religion causes to be expressed in 
 the phrase, " It was never intended " that some should 
 be so rich while millions are so poor. 
 
 Though the principle of the nursery ideal is incon- 
 sistent with that of the communist ideal, it is not 
 difficult to hold both ideals at once when proposing 
 some small change in the established system. Whether 
 the rich are more meritorious or less meritorious 
 than the poor may be open to question, but scarcely 
 anyone will be found to contend that their greater 
 merit is in proportion to their greater riches ; so that, 
 for example, men with 50,000 a year, taken as a 
 class, are 500 times as meritorious as men with 100 
 a year. Hence a moderate proposal to increase the
 
 1 62 History of Local Bates 
 
 small incomes at the expense of the great satisfies 
 both ideals : it will cause distribution to be both more 
 equal and more in proportion to moral merit. The 
 nursery ideal is too childish to be put forward openly 
 by itself, but it has considerable influence in politics, 
 as the speeches of popular orators show us. In a 
 campaign for the taxation of a particular kind of 
 property nothing seems more useful than scandalous 
 conduct on the part of the proprietors. 
 . As the greatest support of the established system 
 against any revolutionary change, we find (in addition 
 to considerations of economy with which for the 
 moment we are not concerned) a strong and almost 
 universal belief that it is unjust to disappoint legiti- 
 mate expectations of wealth. When difference of 
 opinion arises it is always on the question of what 
 expectations are legitimate. Evei^one agrees that it 
 is quite legitimate for an individual to expect equality 
 of treatment that he will not be treated worse than 
 the class to which he belongs. There is not a man in 
 England who would not think it grossly unjust to 
 select particular millionaires, or even particular dukes, 
 brewers, or newspaper proprietors, for special taxa- 
 tion by drawing names out of a hat. The most 
 ardent apostle of land nationalisation without com- 
 pensation would not propose to take the land required, 
 say for a government office, from the particular land- 
 lord to whom it belonged without paying him any- 
 thing for it. To most people the maxim of equality 
 of treatment seems much wider than this. They 
 think not only that individuals have a right to be 
 treated no worse than the other members of any small 
 class to which they belong, but also that every small
 
 1 66 History of Local Bates 
 
 frontage was at one time the usual standard, and even 
 now it is the rule in making up new streets, and many 
 towns still require (or profess to require) the frontagers 
 to clear filth and snow from the footways. The 
 standard of frontage is tolerable as long as each man 
 pays for his own front ; when it becomes convenient to 
 have a common organisation for a whole town, it would 
 be exceedingly inconvenient to have to discover the 
 cost of each few yards of road, while to charge an 
 average according to total mileage and cost would let 
 the people with houses and shops in important streets 
 off very much easier than before, and would seem to 
 charge those in back lanes far too much. The 
 standard of the annual value of the properties seems 
 much more " reasonable," which means at bottom 
 more in accordance with what people would pay if a 
 free choice could be allowed. 
 
 That the standard of annual value was supposed to 
 proportion payment to cost of service is well illustrated 
 by the charges of the water companies : these were 
 usually based on a regressive scale of annual value, the 
 houses of small annual value being charged at a higher 
 rate per pound of annual value than those of high 
 value, the idea evidently being that more water would 
 be used per pound of annual value in the less expen- 
 sive houses an idea which was probably sound in the 
 days before fixed baths and " h. and c." scullery and 
 pantry sinks. The connexion is als;> shown by the 
 partial exemption of particular kinds of property from 
 rates for lighting and watching and later from the 
 general district rate, 1 these exemptions being allowed 
 
 1 Above, pp. 130. 131.
 
 The Equity of Local Bates 165 
 
 persons. We all feel we must have roads and drains, 
 and if the public authority did not provide them, we 
 should be willing to pay somebody to provide them, 
 just as when the public authority does not supply 
 water or gas or electricity, we are willing to pay water- 
 porters to bring us water in buckets or water companies 
 to supply it in pipes, and gas and electric companies to 
 supply gas and electricity through pipes and cables. If 
 the public authority which takes away sewage charged 
 for the service by the gallon, measured by meter, and 
 for the house-refuse removed by its weight and bulk, the 
 questions that might be raised would be of the recondite 
 character familiar in the discussions of electricity 
 managers about flat rates and differential rates of 
 charge. No one would think of discussing the 
 " incidence " of the payments. 
 
 All that the system of local rating does in regard to 
 these charges is to substitute a particular presumption 
 about expense incurred for an actual measurement of 
 quantity of commodity or service taken. To measure 
 the quantity of roads used by particular persons at all 
 accurately is impossible, and to measure it with 
 approximate accuracy is very expensive. To measure 
 sewage or house refuse would be difficult and expensive. 
 No one knows how to measure the street-lighting 
 required by any particular individual. What can be 
 more reasonable than to select some standard which 
 will lump these services and a great many more of 
 the same sort together, and charge according to this 
 standard for the whole lot ? 
 
 For separate services various standards have been 
 used at different times. For some of them the 
 repairing, cleansing, watering and lighting of streets
 
 164 History of Local Bates 
 
 Everyone agrees that in such cases no question of 
 justice arises. Suppose there are three residents in a 
 rural district where the removal of house refuse is not 
 undertaken by the local authority, and that the 
 removal costs A. 6d. a week, B. 5d., and C. 3d. A 
 neighbouring urban district is now extended, and the 
 removal is henceforward carried out by the local 
 authority at a cost of a rate of twopence in the pound, 
 A.'s property being assessed at 156, B.'s at 130, and 
 C.'s at 78, and the work being done just as well and 
 no better than before. No question of equity would 
 be supposed to have arisen : A., B., and C. would be 
 just where they were before, and the mere introduction 
 of the local authority would not be any ground for 
 demanding that their position should be altered. And 
 so in all cases where the service rendered and the 
 amount paid in rates for it are supposed to be about 
 the same as the service which would have been bought 
 and the price which would have been paid if the service 
 had not been rendered by the public authority. 
 Further, when, as usually happens, it is impossible to 
 tell what the service would have cost if its provision 
 had been left to private enterprise, people are generally 
 willing to accept its cost to the local authority as a 
 substitute, and so to raise no complaints on the score 
 of equity if their payments and the cost of serving 
 them appear about equal. 
 
 A great many of the most costly services at present 
 rendered by local authorities are of such a kind that 
 there is no doubt that they are, as a whole, worth what 
 they cost, that is to say, the consumers would buy the 
 services voluntarily, if they were not provided by the 
 local authority and could be bought from private
 
 The Equity of Local Rates 163 
 
 class has a right to be treated no worse than the 
 larger category of which it is a sub-division. But 
 difficulties arise when they cannot agree about the 
 classification. If a man regards landowners as a class 
 by themselves, distinguished by important charac- 
 teristics from other owners of property, he may regard 
 certain measures which damage them as equitable, 
 though to another person, who regards landowners as 
 merely a sub-division of property-owners, these 
 measures appear grossly inequitable. Hence the 
 feeling that inequality of treatment is unjust leaves 
 room for much dispute. 
 
 There is, however, beside the conviction that 
 persons and classes should be treated equally, a very 
 widespread and strong belief that it is legitimate even 
 for the largest classes to expect that no very great 
 and sudden change will be made to their detriment. 
 This belief is to be placed among the most powerful 
 of the causes which prevent modern democracies from 
 making more active attempts to reduce the extremes 
 of wealth by taking from the richest to give to the 
 poorest. They do not refrain because they are told 
 by "good authorities" that it is dangerous, but 
 because they do not think it would be " right " to 
 deprive people of the property which they have 
 inherited or earned. 
 
 These being the prevalent ideas of equity in the 
 distribution of wealth, it is not surprising that there 
 is room for a good deal of controversy about the equity 
 of the English system of local taxation. 
 
 So far, indeed, as it makes people pay for what they 
 get in the proportions in which they get it, there is not 
 much difference of opinion except as to the facts. 
 
 l 2
 
 The Equity of Local Rates 167 
 
 on the ground that the exempted property did not 
 require so much expenditure as the rest. 
 
 The substantial accuracy of the annual value 
 standard has scarcely been seriously questioned, and 
 consequently the rating system has scarcely been 
 seriously attacked as unjust, so far as this class of 
 services, usually described as " beneficial," is concerned. 
 The only considerable attack on the ground of justice 
 was made in the later part of the nineteenth century 
 by some writers and politicians who acquired the 
 curious idea that because expenditure of this kind 
 tended to raise the value of the fixed property of a 
 locality, the occupiers who had to pay rates for it paid 
 " twice over," once in rates and once in increased 
 rent for the property occupied. It was forgotten that 
 while it is perfectly true that the service tends to raise 
 the value of the property, the fact that the rates have 
 to be paid by the occupier tends to reduce the rent 
 that can be charged for it. So if, as is usually the 
 case owing to the competition of localities, the service 
 adds to the value of the property no more than its 
 cost, 1 the rent cannot be raised. No one would 
 suppose rent would be raised by the occupier receiving 
 and paying for his groceries: no one seems to suppose 
 it is raised by his paying a gas company or a water 
 
 1 If it did add more than its cost it would be a paying speculation 
 to convert more fields into building estates than arc being converted 
 at present. Sometimes, chiefly in the speeches of politicians, we find 
 1 1 1 r grotesque notion thai the high value of land in particular places 
 is "due to municipal expenditure." According to this view the high 
 value of land in Liverpool as compared with the value of land in 
 Dingwall is due to the greater or wiser municipal expenditure of 
 Liverpool, and the -till higher value of land in London is to be 
 ascribed to the -till greater or wiser expenditure of the various bodies 
 which have governed London.
 
 1 68 History of Local Bates 
 
 company for the commodities they supply, nor even by 
 his paying his local authority for water supplied by it : 
 why then should it be raised by his paying his local 
 authority for taking that water away in drains when he 
 has done with it ? 
 
 Attacks on the equity of the rating system have 
 almost always related not to the "beneficial" services 
 but to what have been called the "onerous" services, 
 of which the relief of the poor and education are the 
 most important and perhaps the purest examples. An 
 " onerous " local service is one which is regarded as a 
 burden because it is not worth to the local taxpayers 
 what it costs them. The ratepayers of a town demand 
 with menaces that their town council shall spend some 
 more of their money on tarring the roads to keep down 
 motor dust, because they think they will be more 
 comfortable if they secure immunity from dust, 
 although they have to abandon some other good thing 
 in consequence of the expenditure in this direction. 
 But when they spend more money on the poor or on 
 education they do it because it is their rather painful 
 duty, or because the Local Government Board says 
 they must, or because the Board of Education says it 
 will take away their grants if they do not do it. There 
 is no suggestion that these services are paid for by the 
 persons who benefit in proportion to the cost of serving 
 them. 
 
 The prevalent ideal of equity in regard to the expenses 
 of such services in the abstract is that people should 
 fee taxed according to their ability. If the British 
 parliament were legislating for Mars and Saturn 
 with no knowledge of the present system of taxation 
 in existence there, this is the ideal which would be set
 
 The Equity of Local Rates i6g 
 
 up. But in fact we never have to deal with taxation 
 in the abstract, and equity cannot be attained without 
 regard to present circumstances. A system of taxation, 
 when it has once come into operation and remained in 
 operation long enough to become accepted as some- 
 thing on the continuance of which men may depend in 
 making contracts with one another, becomes part and 
 parcel of the general scheme of the distribution of 
 wealth, and it is considered that expectations founded 
 on it are legitimate expectations which it is unjust to 
 disappoint. Hence, when a duty on an imported com- 
 modity is taken off, dealers in the commodity are often 
 repaid the amount of duty which has been collected on 
 the unsold stocks in their possession. 1 Hence too, to 
 give another example, no one troubles about the fact 
 that the old land-tax is not in proportion to ability and 
 has no pretensions to be an integral part of a S3 r stem 
 which secures taxation according to ability. The 
 ordinary person is prepared to accept the present 
 distribution of the land-tax along with the present dis- 
 tribution of the land itself, and to a landowner who was 
 rash enough to ask for a redistribution of the tax he 
 might reply: "Let us begin by a redistribution of the 
 land on equitable principles." 
 
 Conflict of opinion arises when it is arguable whether 
 a particular arrangement is sufficiently well established 
 to make it part and parcel of the accepted scheme of 
 the distribution of wealth on which we all base the 
 calculations of everyday life. In this matter of local 
 taxation we find a system of rating immovable 
 property only which has been in operation for several 
 
 1 K.l'.. the repayments of South African War Corn Duty, under the 
 finance Act. 1903. nect. I.
 
 170 History of Local Rates 
 
 hundred years, but which has been fairly continuously 
 protested against, and which has never yet been quite 
 recognised by permanent legislation. So far as one 
 great service, the relief of the poor, is concerned, the 
 primitive legislation on the subject goes back to the 
 sixteenth century, but the other, education, was only 
 V made a local charge in 1 870, and seems then to have 
 been regarded as a trifling matter. Consequently it is 
 easy for those who would benefit by a shifting of some 
 of the charge from immovable property to other 
 sources of income to believe that such a shifting is 
 demanded by equity. On the other hand, it is equally 
 easy for those who have no bias in favour of immov- 
 able property to believe that the special burdens upon 
 it have become " hereditary," to use an expression 
 which has often been employed in the discussion that 
 is to say, they have become part and parcel of a system 
 of the distribution of wealth which has no pretensions 
 to equity, but is maintained because it is there and 
 nobody can suggest a more desirable scheme, or at any 
 rate persuade his fellow men to adopt and work it. 
 Equity, it is said with much force, does not demand 
 that the system of taxation shall be altered merely 
 because different sources of income are not treated 
 equally. Eateable and non-rateable property have 
 been bequeathed and inherited, bought and sold, and 
 have been the subject of innumerable contracts since 
 1 60 1, and even since 1870, on the assumption that 
 existing arrangements will remain substantially un- 
 altered, and to tamper with these arrangements is 
 consequently something like tampering with the 
 currency. 
 
 The same argument may be brought against the
 
 The Equity of Local Bates 171 
 
 claim, often made, though with far less influential 
 backing, by the localities in which " onerous " rates 
 are heaviest against those in which they are lighter. 
 The ratepayers in the heavier-rated localities are apt 
 to complain that it is " unfair " that they should have 
 to pay a much higher rate for a " national service " 
 than some other place of more ability. So far as the 
 mere occupier of other persons' property is concerned, 
 the complaint is clearly an empty one, since about 
 half the occupiers in most rateable areas, 1 and often a 
 larger proportion, have immigrated into the area and 
 voluntarily made themselves subject to its taxation. 
 The high rates of a highly-rated district undoubtedly 
 tend to deter population and business from settling in 
 it, and this means that they will not settle in it unless 
 the owners charge less than they would if the rates 
 were lower. If the rates were reduced, the owners 
 would be able to charge more for their properties. Con- 
 sequently these high rates are at bottom an owners' 
 grievance, and to any complaint against them on the 
 ground of equity it may be answered, as before, that 
 property has been bequeathed and inherited, bought 
 and sold, and made the subject of innumerable con- 
 tracts on the assumption that the inequalities of rates 
 existed and would remain in existence. A man who 
 buys property cheap in Stoke Regis because of the 
 high rates there, and then demands that his rates 
 should l)e made level with those of Pedlington, where 
 he sold property dear because of the low rates, is 
 little better than a thief. If an owner says in answer 
 to this that as a matter of fact he has held the same 
 property since 1869, and has seen the education rate 
 
 1 Sr.- below, p. 181.
 
 172 History of Local Bates 
 
 rise from nil to 2S. while somewhere else it is only 3d., 
 he may very probably be met with some such retort 
 as " And in the meantime your land, which you used 
 to let at 2 an acre, has been covered with working- 
 class houses on small plots, for each of which you get 
 2. You don't seem to have much cause for com- 
 plaint." Very probably this would be more than a 
 mere chance argumentum ad homincm : the highest 
 education rates are frequently the result of rapid 
 growth of suburban residence. In any case the holder 
 of property must be prepared to take some risks, and 
 why should not the development of the rate authorised 
 by the legislation of 1 870 be one of them ? 
 
 The conclusion to which we are driven is that the 
 prevalent ideas about equity provide no great guidance 
 in regard to our existing system of local taxation. 
 They only indicate that it may be left alone without 
 inequity.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE ECONOMY OF LOCAL RATES 
 
 No government can afford to disregard the ideas of 
 equity entertained by its subjects at any particular 
 time. It is no use to try to forget the fact that men 
 are generally prepared to sacrifice their economic 
 interests on many altars, one of which is dedicated to 
 Justice. The State has to satisfy their desire for 
 equity as well as their desire for material welfare. 
 But of the two principles, Equity and Economy, Equity 
 is ultimately the weaker. History, and indeed the 
 recollection of every middle-aged man, provide in- 
 stances which go to show that the judgment of 
 mankind about what is equitable is liable to change, 
 and that one of the forces which cause it to change is 
 mankind's discovery from time to time that what was 
 supposed to be quite just and equitable in some par- 
 ticular matter has become, or perhaps always was, 
 uneconomical. To take an example far enough 
 removed from our own time to be beyond the sphere 
 of current controversy, let us look at the disappearance 
 of the mediaeval belief in the iniquity of taking 
 interest for the loan of money. Tho opinion that 
 taking interest was inequitable! was undoubtedly 
 broken down by the observation that business was 
 much assisted by it, or, in other words, that it was an 
 economical institution. So continually we find self- 
 interest and an optimistic belief that what is for the 
 
 173
 
 1 74 History of Local Bates 
 
 material good of mankind must also be " right " join- 
 ing together to undermine the notions of equity which 
 we received from our predecessors. We can see how 
 difficult it is to keep the two things apart when we 
 notice how continually a discussion about what is 
 equitable in taxation drifts into a discussion of what 
 is economical. 
 
 The very existence of local taxation is due to 
 economic considerations. Of course the actual sub- 
 division of modern countries into local government 
 areas with separate exchequers and separate levels of 
 taxation is largely due to historical reasons, many of 
 which can scarcely be said to have been economic. The 
 boundary, for example, between Kent and Sussex was 
 presumably settled soon after the English invasion of 
 Britain by circumstances connected with that invasion 
 which it would be difficult to class as economic. But 
 these ancient areas, so far as they have been preserved, 
 have been preserved on account of economic considera- 
 tions, and have mostly been more or less altered in 
 order to make them more suitable to modern economic 
 conditions. And most of the more important areas, of 
 local taxation at the present time have been delibe- 
 rately created in order to secure good government, 
 especially in economic and semi-economic matters. 
 It is clearly necessary, for many economic reasons, that 
 territories as large as those of most modern nations 
 should be sub-divided into smaller districts, each with 
 a subordinate government of its own. Some consider- 
 able measure of autonomy is absolutely necessary. The 
 council of a small English borough finds difficulty 
 enough in reconciling or disregarding the demands of 
 different parts of its area for road repairs, lighting,
 
 The Economy of Local Bates 175 
 
 parks, and such like things : a government which had 
 to decide about such matters between the claims of 
 London, Liverpool, Berwick and Penzance, Stoke- 
 Marshall (the residence of the cantankerous but 
 influential Lord A.) and Pedlington-by-the-Sea (the 
 favourite holiday resort of the popular Mr. B.), to say 
 nothing of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin and Belfast, 
 with perhaps Calcutta and Capetown thrown in, would 
 soon succumb to excessive mental strain and wide- 
 spread dissatisfaction. And of course a necessary 
 accompaniment of separate government is a separate 
 exchequer and separate taxation : a government which 
 is allowed to spend what it likes must raise its own 
 funds. Local taxation, often looked on as an engine 
 of socialism, is from the side of the national govern- 
 ment to be regarded as a concession to individualism. 
 It allows the local authority the same kind of freedom 
 that the individualist arrangements with regard to 
 labour and property allow to the individual. More- 
 over, just as the individual is required by law to do 
 certain things which he would shirk if not compelled, 
 and left free to do or leave undone many other things 
 of equal or greater importance which self-interest will 
 induce him to do, so the local authority is required by 
 law to provide certain services to the satisfaction of 
 the national government and left free to perform other 
 equally important ones or not as it pleases, everyone 
 understanding that "local self-interest " will usually 
 induce the performance of these others. 
 
 \W must beware, of course, that we do not thought- 
 lessly assume that " local self-interest " will necessarily 
 tend to the common good of the whole community, 
 whether that whole community is to be conceived as
 
 176 Historji of Local Bates 
 
 the nation, the empire, or the world at large a 
 question of some difficulty, which does not concern us 
 at present. The historical spirit has destroyed the 
 old belief in the natural beneficence of a chimera 
 called " the free play of individual self-interest." It 
 is becoming a commonplace of modern economic 
 teaching that the beneficence of the play of self-interest 
 only exists because that play is not free, but is con- 
 fined to certain directions by our great social institu- 
 tions, especially the Family, Property, and the terri- 
 torial State. It is recognised also that these institutions 
 did not come into existence once for all, but are under- 
 going continual modifications to make them suitable 
 to the circumstances of. the time, so that the restraints 
 imposed on the action of self-interest are continually 
 altering. What individual self-interest dictates as a 
 course of action in any particular case depends on the 
 institutions of the time and place, and how far that 
 course of action is beneficent to the community at 
 large depends on the excellence of those institutions. 
 The same thing is true, perhaps we may say even 
 more obviously true, of local self-interest. What is 
 said to be for the interest of the entity, glibly spoken 
 of but obscurely conceived as " the locality," depends 
 on the institutions of the moment, and whether action 
 taken in the interest of the locality is beneficent to 
 the community at large depends on the excellence of 
 those institutions. 
 
 The local authority is usually in England elected by 
 a large section of the inhabitants 1 and is commonly 
 
 1 The voters are by no means identical with the inhabitants, but 
 usually comprise a considerable proportion of the adult inhabitants 
 and but few persons who are not inhabitants. The Common
 
 The Economy of Local Bates 177 
 
 spoken of as if it represented the inhabitants, 
 and most of the questions with which it is con- 
 cerned are discussed as if they were to be settled 
 by reference to the interest of the inhabitants. Bat, 
 as we have seen, from the case of Jeffrey downwards, 
 this assumption of the identity of the inhabitants with 
 the locality has given trouble. 1 Jeffrey and others like 
 him who do not live in the locality have been taxed in 
 it because they had an interest in it, while on the 
 other hand many people living in the locality and 
 perfectly well able to pay have escaped taxation because 
 they had no similar interest. Jeffrey himself possibly 
 paid rates in Chiddingley, where he lived, as well as in 
 Hailsham, where his farm lay, but he certainly did not 
 pay in Chiddingley in respect of the ability which he 
 derived from the Hailsham farm ; he was, so to speak, 
 divided up between the parishes in proportion to his 
 interest in each. English local taxation is not upon 
 inhabitants but upon persons, wherever they may be 
 living, and upon corporate bodies, whether they be 
 regarded as consisting of persons or not, who have a 
 certain interest within the locality. 
 
 This interest is usually occupation of property, but 
 many important properties are occupied by their 
 owners, and in one important case, that of small house 
 property, though the occupiers may perhaps technic- 
 ally be the ratepayers, the owners ordinarily pay the 
 rates, and charge the tenants inclusive rents, which do 
 not vary with every change in rates. Moreover, 
 though the interests of the occupier and the owner 
 
 Council of the City of London has a peculiar constituency, and the 
 Mctro|iolitan Police authority it* appointed by tin- Crown. 
 1 Above pp. 2426. 
 
 M
 
 lj'& History of Local Bates 
 
 are obviously directly opposed when they make their 
 bargain for rent, a rent once settled, even if it can be 
 revised every year, or even every quarter, is not 
 regarded as a thing to be lightly altered. Every 
 occupier expects to have to bear the brunt of 
 any small change to the detriment of the property 
 he occupies, and to reap for a considerable, if often 
 somewhat indefinite, period, the profit of any small 
 change which makes his occupation more valuable. 
 
 The consequence is that there is not much differ- 
 ence between the feeling of an occupier who is the 
 owner of the property he occupies and one who is not. 
 Both, so far as enlightened self-interest governs them, 
 are of course inclined to favour such expenditure, and 
 such expenditure only, from the local exchequer, as 
 will bring them in commodities or services which they 
 value more highly than what they could buy with the 
 money if it had remained at their private disposal 
 instead of being contributed as taxes. Now if com- 
 modities or services which cost a penny in the pound, 
 but which occupiers generally value at sums more 
 than equivalent to a penny in the pound, are pro- 
 vided from rates in any locality, the value of fixed 
 property in that locality will tend to be raised. 
 Hence the effort of the occupiers to spend rates profit- 
 ably for themselves is favourable at the same time to 
 the owner who is not an occupier. What they do in 
 the well-founded expectation of immediate benefit for 
 themselves, he himself would do for them at his own 
 immediate expense for his own ultimate benefit, if there 
 were no machinery by means of which they could do 
 it. In actual fact it constantly happens that in the 
 absence of suitable local government machinery for the
 
 The Economy of Local Bates 179 
 
 purpose, as at the starting of a new town, the owners 
 do offer to perform for the occupiers services which 
 they later do for themselves. If we can imagine an 
 island suddenly thrown up in Bournemouth Bay 
 which was exempt from the whole of local govern- 
 ment custom and legislation, but was the property of 
 the Crown or some private person, it is easy to see 
 that it would pa}- the owner to provide and undertake 
 to maintain much the same paraphernalia of roads, 
 drains, lamps, parks, police, beach-inspectors, dust- 
 collectors and other things provided on the mainland 
 by the corporation of Bournemouth at the expense of 
 the rates. In course of time, when the occupiers had 
 settled on the island and become a numerous body, 
 complaints would be sure to arise that the owner, 
 probably non-resident, was not performing his obliga- 
 tions properly, and a committee would be formed to 
 represent the interests of the occupiers. If the owner 
 were wise he would see that a committee representing 
 the occupiers would work the business more satis- 
 factorily for the occupiers, and ultimately better for 
 him than he could for himself, and he would come to 
 an agreement with them which would, for due con- 
 sideration in rent, relieve him of his obligations and 
 leave them free to establish a district council or cor- 
 poration by local act of parliament, and henceforth 
 rate themselves, like the occupiers on the mainland, 
 for the services formerly provided by the landlord, and 
 for any others they might wish to add and could get 
 obstructive private bill committees to agree to. 
 
 The long and the short of the matter is that in 
 serving themselves well, the occupiers are also engaged 
 in serving the permanent interest of the proprietors 
 
 M 2
 
 180 History of Local Bates 
 
 of the immovable property in the locality. The self- 
 interest of the locality is regarded as served by action 
 which tends to maintain or raise the value of the 
 fixed property. Expenditure out of rates receives the 
 name of " beneficial," if its direct effect is sufficient to 
 more than counterbalance the opposite effect of the 
 addition to rates, so that in spite of the addition to 
 rates, it tends to cause an actual rise in the value of 
 immovable property, while expenditure out of rates 
 which depresses the value of immovable property, is 
 called " onerous." x 
 
 To some it appears that local self-interest so con- 
 ceived cannot work towards the general good. They 
 know that the object of public expenditure should be 
 to benefit the persons, present and to come, of whom 
 the community consists at present and will consist in 
 the future. Therefore, they argue, it is obvious that 
 the object of the public expenditure of a locality ought 
 to be to benefit the inhabitants of the locality. But, 
 paradoxical as it may appear at first sight, this is not 
 at all true. The public expenditure of each locality 
 ought to be directed to the benefiting of all the per- 
 sons composing the whole community in the present 
 and the future, and an attempt on the part of each 
 locality to benefit its own particular inhabitants, 
 regardless of the interest of the owners of the fixed 
 property of the locality, will not, as is rashly and 
 
 1 Sidney Webb, Grants in Aid, 191 1, p. 88, is entitled to the credit 
 of pointing out that this is the true interpretation of "beneficial" 
 and '* onerous " as commonly applied to rates and expenditure. The 
 " paradox " which he finds in it, however, disappears if we remember 
 that those who use the words in this way identify the "locality" 
 with the ultimate local ratepayers. Mr. Webb identifies it with the 
 " inhabitants " or li people of the district."
 
 The Economy of Local Bates 181 
 
 gratuitously assumed, tend to the benefit of the com- 
 munity as a whole. 
 
 The inhabitants of a locality are perpetually being 
 changed in number and personnel not only by birth 
 and death but by migration. At the census of 1901 
 less than three-quarters of the native inhabitants of 
 England were found in the counties in which they 
 were born, and of these a very large proportion must 
 have belonged to that third of the population which 
 always consists of children. It is probably quite safe 
 to surmise that more than half of the natives of Eng- 
 land cease to live in the town or rural district in which 
 they were born at some time or other before their 
 decease. Migration is therefore the rule rather than 
 the exception, and to ignore it is only a foolish kicking 
 against the pricks. If localities competed in an effort 
 to benefit their own particular inhabitants, the localities 
 which were the richest, and therefore the most success- 
 ful in the effort, would be the most attractive to the 
 class of immigrants which expects to receive in benefits 
 more than it will pay, and such immigrants would 
 keep on coming in to them until the effort to benefit 
 the inhabitants became so burdensome that the con- 
 dition of the inhabitants of these localities was brought 
 down to an equality with that of the inhabitants of 
 other localities. 
 
 It is sometimes supposed by those who have 
 attempted to assimilate Ricardian theories that rent 
 cannot be abolished, but must always go to sonielxxly. 
 This is only true if some person or institution has 
 control over the land and desires to use that control 
 in a profitable manner. Any landlord could wipe out 
 his rent by employing enough people on his land :
 
 1 82 History of Local Bates 
 
 many who have home farms often, unintentionally, do 
 so wipe out part or even the whole of the rent, and it 
 is clear that a sufficient amount of over-cultivation 
 would wipe out the rent of any land, however pro- 
 ductive. Ordinarily such over-cultivation is pre- 
 vented simply by the fact that owners have control 
 and wish to draw income. If they work their own 
 land, they do not employ more than that number of 
 persons which will yield them the largest surplus : if 
 they let the land, their farmer's interest leads him to 
 do the same. Now if perverse institutions, or a wholly 
 abnormal burst of altruistic sentiment, led to the over- 
 cultivation of the more valuable land and the conse- 
 quent abandonment of the rest, rent would disappear. 
 The workers would not get it, because competition 
 would attract to the most valuable land just that 
 number which would suffice to reduce the advantage 
 of working on that land to an equality with that of 
 working on other land, the reason being that the 
 general return to industry would have been reduced 
 by the new and uneconomical distribution of labour. 
 At present labour produces the income of the workers 
 and the rent over and above : under the over-cultiva- 
 tion system it would produce no greater income for the 
 workers, and the rent surplus would have disappeared. 
 This cannot be regarded as a good result, whatever views 
 the reader may hold about the proper destination of rent. 
 But it is just to this result that the attempt of each 
 locality to benefit its own particular inhabitants, 
 regardless of its own interest as now conceived and 
 defined above, would tend to lead. The raising of 
 funds for benefiting the inhabitants without regard to 
 the " interest of the locality " means raising them in
 
 The Economy of Local Hates 183 
 
 such a way as to reduce the surplus eventually going 
 to the owners. Wherever this surplus is at present 
 largest in proportion to the number of inhabitants, the 
 locality could benefit its inhabitants most, and for the 
 moment, therefore, offer the greatest attractions to 
 immigrants. 1 The final effect of a competition of this 
 kind could only be to deplete the districts in which 
 there is little surplus and to overcrowd those in which 
 there is at present a large surplus, until that surplus 
 was taxed away, being used up in the futile task of 
 paying people to be where they should not be. 
 
 On the other hand, the attempt of each locality to 
 secure that the property inseparably attached to it 
 shall be as valuable as possible, fits in perfectly with 
 the general economic system of to-day, in which the 
 ultimate control of production is vested in the posses- 
 sors of purchasing power, whether their power is 
 derived from property, from labour, or from any 
 other source. The desire of almost every owner of 
 property to make the most of his property induces 
 him to take his part along with workers of all kinds 
 
 1 This was scon to be the effect of the unstandardised system of 
 poor relief in the 17th century, and parliament endeavoured to meet 
 the difficulty by restricting the freedom of migration. The Act 14 
 Car. II., c. 12. recites that, "by reason of some defects in the law, 
 poor people arc not restrained from going from one parish to another, 
 and. therefore, do endeavour to settle themselves in those parishes 
 where there is the best stock, the largest commons or wastes to build 
 cottages, and the most woods for them to burn and destroy, and when 
 they have consumed it then to another parish, and at last become 
 rogues and vagabonds, to the great discouragement of parishes to 
 provide stocks, where it is liable to be devoured by strangers." It 
 was. therefore, enacted that immigrants into a parish likely to 
 Ijccome chargeable Bhould be removable to their place of settlement 
 on complaint of the churchwarden or overseers.
 
 184 History of Local Bates 
 
 in satisfying demand. He finds his self-interest best 
 served when he best satisfies demand. The machinery 
 of local government is merely a necessary supplement 
 to his individual effort in this direction. It makes a 
 combination of his interest with that of other proprietors 
 in the same locality, and arranges for the joint interest 
 being well served by putting the actual management in 
 the hands of people who are either the actual de- 
 manders, or are one or two degrees nearer them in the 
 market than the owners. The local authority in 
 maintaining, cleaning, or lighting streets, in creating 
 and maintaining trunk sewers and disposing of sewage, 
 in removing house refuse and in performing a multi- 
 tude of other services is merely engaged in the effort 
 to satisfy demand, just as nearly all individuals are in 
 the ordinary business by which they make their 
 livings. 
 
 No doubt the satisfaction of demand is not the finest 
 of all aims, even from a purely economic point of view. 
 To attain the economic ideal we should satisfy the 
 wants of the people, present and to come, as completely 
 as possible, and the satisfaction of demand has 
 certainly never yet been coincident with the satisfac- 
 tion of wants. But in the absence of any really 
 practical means of substituting by some complete 
 scheme the direct satisfaction of wants for the satisfac- 
 tion of demand, the commonsense of mankind suggests 
 the desirability of approximating the satisfaction of 
 demand to the satisfaction of wants as far as possible. 
 Now at the present time the simplest and most 
 effectual means of causing such an approximation 
 seems to be found in various measures which take 
 away purchasing power from the rich, and give what is
 
 The Economy of Local Bates 185 
 
 taken away from them, and possibly more, to the poor. 
 No one has any real doubt, however he may measure 
 wants, that wants are nothing like so unequal as wealth 
 at the present time, and therefore no one can doubt 
 that the present power of production would go much 
 further if purchasing power were much more equally 
 distributed : hence the almost universal acquiescence 
 in the provision of elementary education at the expense 
 of taxpayers and in progressive taxation. Measures 
 adapted to produce greater equality are, however, 
 exceedingly unsuitable for local authorities. The 
 smaller the locality the more capricious and ineffectual 
 are likely to be any efforts it may make to carry out 
 such a policy. It seems clearly desirable that all such 
 measures should be applied to the largest possible 
 area, and that subordinate authorities should be left 
 to act, like the individual, from motives of self- 
 interest. 
 
 It is possible that some reader may think that it is 
 a red actio ad absurd 11 m of the whole of this argument 
 to point out that it can be applied to national areas, 
 which, after all, are only localities, and some of them 
 not very large ones. It is perfectly true that the argu- 
 ment can be so applied. There is, however, no reductio 
 ad (tbsurdwn, but only a pertinent illustration. The 
 smaller a national area is, and the easier a movement 
 between it and other areas, the more likely is it to 
 conceive its interest in the same way as a subordinate 
 locality, and the more futile will be any attempt it 
 may make to benefit its " inhabitants." That western 
 European nations have been as successful as they 
 have been in such attempts is to be explained by 
 the fact that those between which movement is really
 
 1 86 History of Local Bates 
 
 easy have proceeded not exactly in concert, but in the 
 same direction at about the same pace. Difficulties 
 are increasing, and if there is any socialist who expects 
 a purely national socialism to overthrow the existing 
 system either suddenly or by a slow process of evolu- 
 tion, he is living in a fool's paradise ; a great measure 
 of cosmopolitanism is necessary for any considerable 
 progress in a socialistic direction. 
 
 The loudest complaint made on grounds of economy 
 against rates as a whole levied under the present 
 system is that they discourage " building," in which 
 term it is meant to include the investment of new 
 capital in all kinds of new immovable and rateable 
 property. They certainly do so. In order not to lose 
 ourselves in a maze of commercial transactions, let us 
 make for the moment the perfectly legitimate assump- 
 tion that occupiers build and use their own buildings. 
 Then let us ask ourselves why they do not build bigger 
 buildings. Obviously not only because of the original 
 cost in bricks and mortar, but also because of the con- 
 tinuing cost of maintaining the buildings themselves 
 and their necessary furniture, and of providing all 
 kinds of necessary service. In this continuing cost it 
 is clear that rates form an element. No matter 
 whether a man is contemplating a new building on 
 fresh ground, or the rebuilding of an old one, or an 
 addition to an old one, he has to take rates into 
 account. A professional builder is affected by rates 
 just as much. He knows it will not be profitable 
 to build anything new, or make any addition to an old 
 building, unless an occupier will find it worth while to 
 pay rates for the building, as well as to pay interest on 
 the cost of construction. No man ever sat down to
 
 The Economy of Local Bates 187 
 
 reckon up the reasons for and against building without 
 being " discouraged " by the thought of rates. 
 
 But why should he not be discouraged by the rates 
 for "beneficial" purposes'? Is not the discourage- 
 ment, so far as the " beneficial " rates are concerned, 
 absolutely economical ? The man who started 
 building without sitting down to count up the cost 
 has long been a byword. It seems reasonable to 
 everyone that people should be discouraged from 
 building, not only by the cost of the bricks and mortar, 
 wood, and wall-paper, but also by the cost of carpets 
 and domestic service. It seems only reasonable that 
 a man should think about the cost of carting coal 
 before he builds on the top of a hill, that he should 
 think of the cost of sinking a well if he builds in a dry 
 place in the country, and that he should think of the 
 cost of draining his garden if he builds in a wet one. 
 I do not know that anyone has ever suggested that 
 there was anything wrong in his being discouraged by 
 the high cost of gas and water supplied by a company 
 in a place where the supply of these articles was 
 naturally difficult. Why then should he not be dis- 
 couraged by the cost of commodities and services 
 supplied by the local authority ? The general 
 discouragement offered by the cost of such services 
 seems to be a perfectly sound part of the general 
 scheme which settles the distribution of people's 
 resources between different ends, and the inequality of 
 the discouragement as between place and place seems 
 quite desirable, because it directs investment towards 
 the cheaper places. 
 
 If the discouragement to building involved in the 
 occupiers having to pay for certain commodities and
 
 1 88 History of Local Bates 
 
 services quite arbitrarily selected simply because they 
 happen to be supplied by the kind of associated effort 
 known as local government is to be removed, these 
 commodities and services must still be paid for from 
 some source or other. The proposal is that they 
 should be paid for by rates levied on the capital value 
 of each parcel of land in separate occupation, valued 
 as if it was cleared of its own buildings and other 
 " improvements," while the surrounding sites and the 
 streets, drains, water and gas supply, and, in short, 
 all the paraphernalia of modern civilisation round it 
 remained untouched. The " site value rate," as it is 
 called, would be payable only by the owners, either 
 directly or by way of deduction from rent. 
 
 It is probable that many supporters of this scheme 
 support it under the impression that it would throw 
 the whole cost, or at least a large portion of the cost, 
 of local authorities' services upon the owners, loosely 
 conceived as principally consisting of the London 
 V Dukes, so that the position of the respectable middle- 
 class person, with whom " the ratepayer " is usually 
 identified, would be directly improved. Legislation 
 which introduced such a scheme with no proviso for 
 saving existing contracts would doubtless put money 
 into the pockets of existing leaseholders at the expense 
 of existing freeholders. But if existing contracts are 
 saved, and in any case in the long run, the ultimate 
 terms of the bargain struck between those who own 
 and those who do not own the land will be the same, 
 whether certain payments for services rendered are 
 made in the first instance by the owner or by the 
 occupier. If land is let carrying with the letting 
 certain valuable rights, it will let for more than if it
 
 The Economy of Local Bates i8g 
 
 is let on terms which involve the hirer paying an 
 additional sum for those rights. The services supplied 
 by local authorities are not and cannot be made an 
 exception to the rule : if rates are simply transferred 
 from occupiers to owners, occupiers will pay that much 
 more in rents, the capital value of land remaining the 
 same, for the obvious reason that the net annual return 
 is unaltered. 
 
 The most plausible argument in favour of the view 
 that mere occupiers would benefit at the expense of 
 property-owners is to be found in the allegation that 
 they would be benefited by a fall in the value of land 
 not yet built on in the outskirts of towns. At present 
 such land is rated in proportion to the actual income 
 from it, and when it is, as it usually is, agricultural 
 land, only at half or a quarter of that income. Now 
 it constantly happens that the anticipation of the 
 growth of a town leads to the capital value of such 
 land being much above the usual number of years' 
 purchase of the actual income obtainable at the 
 moment. Consequently under the proposed scheme 
 such land would be chargeable with much more rates 
 than now, l>oth absolutely and in comparison with land 
 already built on. It would bring in no more than at 
 present, and therefore its capital value, and also the 
 amount which a tenant undertaking the payment of 
 rates would have to pay as rent to the landlord, would 
 be less than at present. From these unquestionable 
 premises supporters of the scheme draw the quite 
 erroneous deduction that the owners would tumble 
 over each other in anxiety to sell, and land would 
 therefore come cheaper to those who wish to build on 
 it. They overlook the fact that while the change from
 
 i go History of Local Bates 
 
 the present system to the new would certainly reduce 
 the net yield of the property to the owner who does 
 not sell it, the fact that it would also reduce the capital 
 value or selling price in just the same proportion, 
 would make the continued holding of the land exactly 
 as good an investment as before. If I hold prospective 
 building land worth at present 1,000, and a change 
 in methods of rating reduces the value to 800, why 
 should I sell any more than before ? And if I am 
 frightened into selling by the talk of the promoters of 
 the scheme, why should the braver person who buys 
 at 800 proceed immediately to sell at a loss ? 
 
 It will perhaps be said in answer to this that the 
 encouragement to -building afforded by the exemption 
 of buildings from rates will cause a larger demand for 
 land, so that it will be more profitable to sell for 
 immediate building than it is now. This means that 
 the occupiers will be ready to pay the increased rate 
 on the land and a rent not reduced so much as the 
 rate is increased; to put it in another way, the 
 occupier, no longer having to look forward to paying 
 rates on his building, will be ready to pay more (in 
 rates plus rent or interest on capital expended in pur- 
 chase) for land on the outskirts than he is now. But 
 the argument appears to be unsound. So far from 
 encouraging building in the outskirts, it appears that 
 the proposed scheme would provide distinct and 
 V strong encouragement to unwholesome concentration 
 of buildings in the centre of towns. At present it is 
 all the same, so far as rates are concerned, to a man 
 whether he lays out money in buying more ground or 
 in extra cost of building higher : whether he spends 
 another thousand pounds in buying extra land on
 
 The Economy of Local Bates igi 
 
 which to put a building covering a larger area, or uses 
 the thousand pounds to cover the extra cost of provid- 
 ing equally good accommodation on his original site, 
 he will have to pay the same amount of additional rates. 
 Whenever the comparative advantages of the two 
 courses are nearly equal under the present law, the 
 balance would incline strongly under the proposed 
 scheme in favour of higher building, since no more rates 
 would be paid on the higher than on the lower edifice. 
 This has been denied, but it is surely incontestable that 
 to take rates off buildings and put them entirely on 
 land would cause people to use less land even at the cost 
 of some greater expense in building. The effect has 
 actually been observed in some towns in New Zealand, 
 where the scheme has been partially adopted. 1 
 
 Not only would the scheme tend to concentrate 
 building in each town : it would also tend to concen- 
 trate building in the most purely urban areas as 
 against the rest of the country. As a rule, the 
 more urban the district the more important are the 
 services performed by the local authority. Hence, 
 anything which relieved buildings from charges for 
 these services would be a more powerful encourage- 
 ment to building in the more urban districts than in 
 the rest of the country. This, too, has been denied, 
 but there surely can be no doubt that if taking rates 
 off buildings encourages building, it must encourage 
 it most where the rates taken off are heaviest. 2 
 
 1 Sec the reporl on the Working of the Taxation of the Unimproved 
 
 Value of Land in New Zealand, New South Wales, and South 
 Australia, 1906, Cd. 3191, |>|>. 2730. 
 
 2 The only uemblauce of an answer to these truths which has been 
 produced is the rather feeble rejoinder that undue concentration of 
 building could ! prevented by by-laws regulating buildings. Auyonc
 
 1 92 History of Local Bates 
 
 " Is not this," someone may say, " proving too 
 much ? If, as you admit, the owners of prospective 
 building land, now worth more than the normal 
 number of years' purchase of the actual income, will 
 be damaged, does it not follow that occupiers will be 
 benefited ? These owners are going to pay more 
 rates : then somebody must pay less." The answer 
 to this is that the extra amount taken from the 
 owners of the prospective building land will go 
 immediately in relief not of occupiers but of owners 
 of sites already built on : this land will have to pay 
 less rates in consequence of the extra payments of the 
 owners of the prospective building land, and will con- 
 sequently become more valuable. There is not the 
 least reason to suppose that the occupiers will get a 
 half- penny. 
 
 All that the occupiers can get is their share in the 
 loss of the whole community from the adoption of a 
 scheme which has a very unfavourable effect on pro- 
 duction by causing a worse distribution of people and 
 capital and also of expenditure of resources between 
 different ends. 1 
 
 Opposition to a scheme for relieving buildings from 
 
 who has had any practical experience of the working of building by-laws 
 would scarcely be found with this childlike belief that greater 
 stringency in these regulations would be a satisfactory substitute for 
 the force of self-interest which it is proposed to remove. 
 
 1 For a fuller treatment of the thesis put forward in the text above 
 see the paper read by the present writer at the Congress of the Royal 
 Economic Society held on January 9, 1907, printed in the Economic 
 Journal, March, 1907, pp. 34-46. See also Major Leonard Darwin's 
 paper in the same Journal, September, 1907, pp. 330-44, in which the 
 same conclusion with regard to concentration inside each town is 
 arrived at, and Mr. Edgar Harper's criticism, and the resulting con- 
 troversy in Economic Journal, 1908, pp. 28-41, 314-19 and 609-11.
 
 The Economy of Local Bates 193 
 
 all rates and a general approval of the present system 
 are quite compatible with doubts whether the best 
 results are obtainable from the plan of a flat rate on 
 all kinds of immovable property. As a matter of fact, 
 the present system already includes some important 
 differentiations in favour of agricultural land, railway 
 lines (not stations) and canals. These differentiations, 
 and the possibility of the introduction of others, have 
 received as yet very little consideration at the hands 
 of competent and impartial persons, or even of incom- 
 petent and bigoted controversialists, so that it would 
 be rash to pronounce any very positive judgment on 
 them at present, but some suggestions may be 
 hazarded. 
 
 Our object should be to harmonise, so far as possible, 
 the interests of different kinds of ratepayers, so as 
 to make the separate interest of each kind promote 
 the joint interest of the whole. This end will be 
 secured completely only if contribution to expenditure 
 is exactly proportionate to benefit received from the 
 expenditure. Perfection being impossible, we must 
 not expect exact correspondence under any system, 
 but approximation is possible. The differentiation 
 under the Lighting and Watching Act, 1.S33, as we 
 have said, was introduced under the influence of the 
 idea that agricultural land did not require lighting 
 and watching as much as houses and buildings of all 
 kinds do. The differentiation in favour of agricultural 
 land, railway linrs and canals under the Public 
 Health Act, 1X4.S, was inspired by the idea that these 
 properties did not require the paraphernalia which 
 could be provided under that Act so much as buildings 
 do. It seems, however, obviously undesirable to 
 
 N
 
 ig4 History of Local Hales 
 
 have a number of differentiations for different kinds 
 of expense. The greater harmony of interest which 
 might be secured by this method would be dearly 
 bought by the complications of finance which it would 
 introduce. Different classes must put up with trifling 
 discrepancies in particular cases of expenditure if they 
 get equality on the whole. The question is, then, 
 whether one single differentiation should be applied to 
 the whole of the " beneficial " expenditure, and in 
 attempting to answer it the best plan seems to be to 
 assume a flat rate to start with, and ask what case 
 there is for partial exemption. 
 
 Railway lines (not including stations, sidings, &c.) 
 and canals (not including wharves, &c.) should be 
 entirely or almost entirely exempted, 1 inasmuch as 
 they add nothing except, perhaps, a very trifling 
 expense for police to the cost of localities through 
 which they run, and receive no benefit from local 
 expenditure. Stations, of course, are in quite a 
 different position. The existence of a railway station 
 always adds considerably to local expenditure, and 
 the local expenditure benefits the owners. The case 
 for agricultural land is not so strong, though it is 
 also in some measure a good one. In a purely rural 
 district the agricultural land causes all the local 
 authority's expense for "beneficial" purposes and 
 gets all the benefit that results. To give it a partial 
 exemption can make no difference there. But there 
 are few, if any, purely rural districts, and in most 
 mixed districts of a stationary character it is fairly 
 
 1 This is, of course, intended to indicate the general principle. It 
 does not mean that existing lines should all receive the exemption 
 without any equivalent being exacted.
 
 'Tlw Economy of Load Bates 195 
 
 certain that a flat rate on annual value for beneficial 
 purposes will favour urban at tbe expense of agricul- 
 tural interests, that is, the agrarian will calculate, 
 and calculate justly, that he is paying for more than 
 he gets, while those interested in buildings are paying 
 for less than they get. In such districts, therefore, a 
 considerable differentiation in favour of agricultural 
 land seems likely to promote harmony of interest. 
 On the other hand, where agricultural land lies within 
 a rating area in which there is a growing town, though 
 a flat rate will make the occupier feel that he pays 
 more than he gets (which he will remember in 
 bargaining with his landlord), it will very probably 
 unduly favour the owner. The existence of the land, 
 combined with the probability of its being built over 
 at some future time, should cause the local authority 
 to spend more money than would otherwise be spent 
 in widening the old highways, in buying land for 
 sewage disposal, in building large main sewers, and in 
 making other provision for the future. This capital 
 expenditure will doubtless be defrayed from loans only 
 slowly repaid, a fact which increases the share that 
 tilt; owner of the agricultural land is likely to bear in 
 the long run ; but even allowing for this, there can be 
 little doubt that he is likely to "get off too cheaply," 
 which means that the other ratepayers, if they under- 
 stand the position, will feel that they are being rated 
 for bis benefit, and will consequently be inclined not 
 to spend as much as ought to be spent in providing 
 for the future development of the town. A solution 
 of the difficulty might perhaps be found in main- 
 taining the present rebate in favour of agricultural 
 land so far as the ordinary rate paid by the occupier
 
 196 History of Local hates 
 
 is concerned, but charging the owner a special rate on 
 excess capital value, wherever the capital value is 
 more than can be accounted for simply by the actual 
 annual value of the moment. For example, if 3! per 
 cent, is regarded as the standard and some particular 
 agricultural land with an annual value of 35 has a 
 capital value of 3,000 instead of the normal 1,000, 
 the owner might be asked to pay a special rate on the 
 difference between 3^ per cent, on this capital value 
 and the 35 actually brought in (on which the occupier 
 would continue to pay with the usual rebate). 1 
 
 It is at least open to question whether it would not 
 be desirable to introduce an entirely new differentiation 
 against dwelling-houses of the higher values. Those 
 who live in such houses often grumble a good deal 
 against rates, but, as a matter of fact, they are 
 generally desirous of high expenditure on good roads 
 and other amenities, and it seems highly probable 
 that if they had their way a good deal more would be 
 spent than is spent. Their incomes are larger in pro- 
 portion to their house-rent than those of the poorer 
 classes, and they can therefore afford these amenities 
 better, and it would be economical and harmonise 
 interests if they paid for them in a proportion higher 
 than the difference of rent. It would be easy enough 
 to introduce a scale of additions to rateable value of 
 houses, and if it were thought undesirable to increase 
 the burden of householders, the national house-duty 
 might be removed at the same time. 2 
 
 1 The introduction of this plan would, of course, be accompanied 
 by the disappearance of the clumsy Undeveloped-Land Tax imposed 
 by the Finance Act of 1909-10. 
 
 2 It is sometimes said that the allowances to owners compounding 
 for rates are so liberal that they amount to a differentiation in favour
 
 The Economy of Local Hates igy 
 
 The conclusion is that, so far as the expenditure for 
 what are called " beneficial " purposes is concerned, 
 the case for the present system with or without some 
 modification of the existing differentiations between 
 different classes of property is extremely Rtrong. It 
 is much weaker on the side of the expenditure which 
 is made not because it serves the enlightened self- 
 interest of the ratepayers, but because they regard it as 
 their duty, or because the national government compels 
 them. The historical explanation of the origin of rating 
 for these purposes is no justification of its continued 
 existence. The conditions have entirely altered since 
 poor relief was put on the rates in the reign of 
 Elizabeth, and even since education was put on the 
 rates in 1S70. Such present justification as there is 
 consists in the general belief that a certain amount of 
 local management is desirable in the provision of these 
 services ; that local management will be too lavish 
 unless the funds which it administers are drawn from 
 local sources ; and that rating immovable property 
 is the least objectionable form of local taxation. On 
 the other hand, the system of raising money for these 
 purposes by local rates on immovable property is 
 unsatisfactory, because (1) it everywhere places a cer- 
 tain burden on immovable property while exempting 
 other sources of income, and (2) because this burden, 
 though it exists everywhere in some small measure, is 
 very unequal as between the different localities. 
 
 The first of these two faults is not very serious, and 
 need not detain us long. It must be admitted that 
 it is not desirable to tax immovable property for 
 
 of small houses : if bo, there is already the beginning <>f Buch :i 
 differentiation as i- suggested above.
 
 ig8 History of TjohiI Bates 
 
 "onerous" expenditure higher than other sources of 
 income when it is possible to avoid it. The effect of 
 taxing one particular form of property more than 
 another is to restrict investment in that form until 
 the restriction makes it more valuable, so that it 
 becomes once more as profitable as other forms, and 
 there appears to be no reason for specially discourag- 
 ing investment in the creation of immovable property, 
 whether it be building or road-making and sewering, 
 or agricultural improvement. But immovable pro- 
 perty is such a large proportion of all property, and is 
 so generally necessary for the production of other kinds, 
 that the displacement of industry and resources caused 
 by its being somewhat overtaxed may be regarded as 
 negligible, or at all events certainly insufficient to 
 over-balance the enormous advantage arising from the 
 cheapness and efficiency of the taxation of immovable 
 property when the taxation is unequal as between 
 place and place. If it is considered necessary to 
 relieve immovable property from this general burden, 
 it could easily be done by taking off, in exchange, some 
 of the national taxes, such as Schedule A of the income 
 tax, and the transfer duties which nre at present levied 
 in respect of immovable property. But in order to 
 do this we should have either to reduce expenses or 
 find other sources of taxation which might easily be 
 worse. 
 
 The second fault, unjustifiable inequality of rates 
 as between different localities, is more serious. 
 
 The inequality cannot, it is true, be properly con- 
 demned so far as it is merely the result of a given 
 quantity and quality of the service provided costing 
 more in one place than another, whether owing to
 
 The Economy of Local Rates 199 
 
 differences of efficiency of management or geographical 
 reasons. 1 
 
 There is no reason why places in which it costs 
 little to provide a workhouse for a given number 
 of persons and maintain them there should con- 
 tribute to the greater expense required elsewhere : 
 each locality should " stand on its own legs " here, just 
 as in regard to the rates for beneficial purposes. If a 
 place is for geographical reasons, or for reasons 
 founded on differences in efficiency of management, 
 unable to do certain necessary things as cheaply as 
 others, it is well, on the whole, and as a general rule, 
 that the rates there should be higher, so as to check 
 the settlement of people and property in that place : 
 it is well that people should go to the cheaper and 
 well-managed places, and that the ill-managed places 
 should thereby be stimulated to better management. 
 
 But inequalities which arise simply from the fact 
 that there is a larger quantity of these services to be 
 performed in proportion to the rateable property in 
 some districts than in others seem to be decidedly 
 uneconomical, for two reasons. 
 
 (1) They tend to cause a distribution of population 
 and property between tin; different districts, for which 
 there is no good reason. Suppose two areas uniform 
 in all respects. except that one contains a district which, 
 owing to soiik! freak of fashion or historical accident, 
 becomes the home of a number of wealthy people who 
 contribute no pauperism and send no children to the 
 rate-supported schools. The rates will evidently be 
 
 1 The- following |>:i'_'is are taken, with little alteration, from a paper 
 p-a. I l.v I lie author al 1 1 - National Conference "ii the Prevention of 
 I >el it ill ion, held in f/oiiiloti, in June, 1911.
 
 200 History of Local Hates 
 
 lower in the area containing the wealthy district than 
 in the other, and people and property will he attracted 
 into it as compared with the other. There seeni3 to be 
 no possible jnstification for this ; it cannot possibly 
 lead to any good result. I certainly fail to see why 
 places should be higher taxed because they are more 
 largely the homes of the people for whose benefit the 
 taxes are raised. 
 
 (2) Inequalities of this kind tend to improper distri- 
 bution of total resources by causing expenditure for 
 the necessary purposes under discussion to be too 
 stinted in some places and too lavish in others. It is 
 not so certain, as we often think, that a high rate must 
 be more burdensome than a low one in any particular 
 case : the ultimate burden of the high rate may be 
 upon richer persons than that of the low one. But 
 this is only a chance : in the average of cases it can 
 scarcely be so, and therefore, as a rule, the higher rate 
 is more burdensome ; and whether it is or not, it 
 always seems so to the people who are hit in the first 
 instance. Moreover, people as a rule compare the 
 rates of different places with very little regard to the 
 different circumstances, and are apt to attribute high 
 rates to inefficiency or too lavish expenditure. The 
 inevitable consequence is a certain amount of profusion 
 in some places and uneconomical stinting in others. 
 
 The practical question is whether we can devise 
 means for reducing the tendency to wrong distribution 
 of people and property and to uneconomical distribu- 
 tion of expenditure without introducing greater evils. 
 
 There is not, I think, much difficulty about the 
 principle. The ideal procedure would be to ascertain 
 for each rateable area the amount of the " onerous "
 
 The Economy of Local Bates 201 
 
 services required, calculate the cost of that amount at 
 the average of the whole country, and then give to 
 each rateahle area a grant equal to the difference 
 between the cost as calculated and the produce of some 
 given rate in the pound. Thus, for example, if the 
 standard rate chosen was is. in the , and the cost 
 calculated for the district of X. was 19,000, while the 
 produce of a is. rate was only 10,000, the grant 
 would be 9,000 ; in the district of Y., where the cost 
 calculated was 20,000, and the produce of a is. rate 
 was 18,000, the grant would be 2,000. In every 
 case the standard rate plu* the grant would produce 
 the calculated cost. The locality would bear all 
 excesses of the actual over the calculated cost, and 
 profit by any amount by which the actual fell short 
 of the calculated cost ; so that if the actual cost in X. 
 was 18,000, the rate levied there would be 1 id., and 
 if the cost in Y. were 21,500, the rate levied there 
 would be is. id. 
 
 It is true that the district with much rateable pro- 
 perty would be able to exceed the ideal sum easier 
 than the district with little, and that the gain made by 
 keeping below the calculated cost would appear more 
 worth having to the district with little rateable pro- 
 perty than to the other ; but this does not seem very 
 important. 
 
 The real dilliculty lies in the ascertainment of the 
 amount of service required. To ascertain it by 
 particular inquiry in each district is obviously im- 
 practicable for many reasons. Unless some general 
 rule, based on definite and known facts, can be devised, 
 the plan must be rejected. Now in regard to elemen- 
 tary education it does not appear to be very difficult
 
 202 History of Local Hales 
 
 to discover facts which will form a good and sufficient 
 guide. The number of children is the most important, 
 and is actually used at the present time in determining 
 the financial relations between the State and the local 
 authorities. It would ba easy enough for any intelli- 
 gent person, with a knowledge of the elementary rules 
 of arithmetic and with certain statistics already avail- 
 able before him, to draw up a scheme which would 
 make the money at present devoted by the national 
 government to elementary education really and sub- 
 stantially equalisatory by distributing it according to 
 the principle which I have just suggested ; it is all a 
 matter of detail. But the ascertainment of amount 
 of service required is usually much more difficult than 
 it is in the case of elementary education. 
 
 In regard to the prevention of destitution Lord 
 Balfour of Burleigh, with the late Sir Edward Hamilton 
 and Sir George Murray, took population as the guide 
 in the ascertainment of the cost of the work to be 
 done. Every rateable area was in their scheme to 
 receive from the State as a primary grant the differ- 
 ence between the produce of a 4d. rate and 3s. 6d. per 
 head of population. 1 
 
 There are, I think, two fatal objections to this plan. 
 In the first place the population is not ascertainable ; 
 and in the second it is, when ascertained, an untrust- 
 worthy guide for the purpose in hand. (1) Censuses 
 can only be taken at infrequent intervals, such as 
 every ten or five years, so that they are generally 
 considerably out of date. When not mixed up with 
 pecuniary considerations they are fairly accurate, but 
 
 1 Royal Commission on Local Taxation. Appendix to Final Report, 
 1902. Cd. 1221, pp. 205-25.
 
 The Economy of Local Kates 203 
 
 as soon as the locality (in whose service the enumera- 
 tors are usually engaged except on the census day) is 
 to benefit by a few shillings per head of persons 
 enumerated, accuracy is likely to give way to interest. 
 I do not mean that non-existent persons will be 
 invented for census purposes, but that the heads of 
 households will be encouraged to insert members of 
 their families who are temporarily absent and are 
 enumerated elsewhere. I know of one case of this in 
 the London intermediate census of 1895, which was 
 taken to settle the distribution of the equalisation 
 fund, 1 and I do not doubt it was by no means isolated, 
 nor that the practice would not become very important 
 if Lord Balfour of Burleigh's scheme were carried out. 
 It is, I think, extremely important to keep the census 
 returns free from all bias. (2) Further, supposing 
 the population to be properly ascertained, it is by no 
 means an efficient indicator of the amount which 
 should be spent in the prevention of destitution. 
 Small areas, and even the larger areas likely lo be the 
 rate-able areas for this purpose in the future, are far 
 from containing equal proportions of persons likely to 
 fall into distress. Tn the unions as they are now con- 
 stituted, it is easily conceivable that the cost per head 
 of population would be four times as much in many 
 unions as it would be in many others, simply owing 
 to the fact that poor persons are a larger proportion 
 of the whole population in some places than in others. 
 There are many reasons for this, but the most 
 
 1 1'iul'T tlic Fi)(lnn ( Initialisation of Hates) Act, iSo.;. which pro- 
 viilnl for the levying of a rate <>f 6<1. in the / all over Loin Inn, ami 
 the distrihution of the proceeds l>etwecti the various ili<tiicis with 
 separate sanitary rales in proportion to 1 1 1 i r [Herniation.
 
 204 History of Local Bates 
 
 important at any rate, if we look to the future 
 rather than the present is the fact (a) that industries 
 are localised by geographical causes, and some 
 industries are worse paid than others; and (b) that 
 poor people cannot afford to live in the most salubrious 
 places. 
 
 Lord Balfour of Burleigh endeavours to allow for 
 this want of correspondence between population and 
 poverty by giving, in addition to the difference 
 between 4d. in the and 3s. 6d. a head, a secondary 
 grant of one-third of the actual expenditure over and 
 above the 3s. 6d. a head. This seems a very unsatis- 
 factory expedient. It enables every localitj', whatever 
 its needs and powers, when once the low 3s. 6d. limit 
 is exceeded, to get for 13s. 4d. what really costs 20s., 
 and that is sure to be very uneconomical in all the 
 localities where there is no great pinch to counteract 
 it. The whole scheme looks much more specious in 
 the expositions of Lord Balfour of Burleigh himself 
 and that of Sir E. Hamilton and Sir G. Murray than 
 it does in the table, 1 published later, in which its 
 actual working is calculated for each union. It is 
 somewhat of a shock to see a scheme which is intended 
 to be equalisatory reducing the rates of the lowest- 
 rated union in England, Fylde, from 3'3d. to rgA. 
 simply because that union has the good fortune to 
 include Blackpool and Lytham. Easter is not much 
 of a holiday in Lancashire, but I have no doubt that 
 an early Easter in the census year would make an 
 enormous difference to the grant obtainable by some 
 south coast unions. While the rates of the lowest- 
 
 1 Royal Commission on Local Taxation. Final Report, 1901, 
 Cd. 638, pp. 65-90, 132-142.
 
 Th<> Economy of Load Rates 205 
 
 rated union are thus reduced by 43 per cent., those of 
 the highest-rated, Mildenhall, only come down from 
 26-ijd. to 22*6d., or about 16 per cent., simply to all 
 appearance because that union contains no aggregation 
 of the class of people who do not come on the local 
 rates. Examination of the table given shows that 
 great benefit would be derived from the scheme by the 
 rates of the unions which happen to contain prosperous 
 suburbs of towns. My own union, Headington, for 
 example, in which the rate stands at the low level of 
 7 id., because Oxford has pushed its wealthy northern 
 suburb into it, has its rate still further reduced to 5d. ; 
 while the adjoining union of Thame, probably much 
 the same in management and everything else except 
 for this accident, finds its rate raised from iyyd. 
 to iS'9<1. 
 
 Cannot some better indication of the expense which 
 should be incurred be discovered ? I have thought of 
 the number of houses or tenements under a certain 
 value as representing approximately the number of 
 persons likely to be the source of the expense, but I 
 am afraid that the difficulty arising from the different 
 distribution of expenditure in different parts of the 
 country, and the different conceptions of a house or 
 tenement, would be insuperable obstacles. I am not 
 myself prepared with any suggestion in this direction, 
 but it is possible that the wit of man can discover 
 .some standard which would serve the purpose. 
 
 If none such can be discovered, it seems that by far 
 the best plan, after the State had taken over any 
 services which can be better managed by it than by 
 the localities, would be to adopt the rougher but 
 simpler expedient of a frankly and directly equalisatory
 
 206 History of Load Hates 
 
 scale of grants determined only by the rates levied, on 
 the model of the Necessitous School Districts Grant. 
 Such a scale might, for example, be : Nothing 
 towards expense which would be covered by an 8d. 
 rate ; one-quarter of additional expense up to the 
 produce of a is. rate ; one-half of further expense up 
 to the produce of a is. 4d. rate ; and three-quarters of 
 still further expense over and above that amount. 
 Thus an area in which the expense without assistance 
 would amount to i id. in the would have its actual 
 rate reduced by one-quarter of 3d., so that its actual 
 rate would be io.^d. ; an area in which the expense 
 would without assistance bring out a rate of is. 3d. 
 would receive a grant equal to one-quarter of 4d. and 
 one-half of 3d., in all 2^d., so that the actual rate 
 would be is. o^d. ; an area in which the expense 
 would bring out a rate of 28. would get one-quarter 
 of 4d., one-half of 4d., and three-quarters of 8d., in 
 all 9d., so that the actual rate required would be is. 3d. 
 At first sight this plan seems open to the objection 
 which I have just urged against Lord Balfour of 
 Burleigh's second grant, that it enables the locality to 
 buy things for less than they cost. There is this 
 important difference, however, that Lord Balfour of 
 Burleigh's second grant cheapens all the expenditure 
 over and above a certain sum per head of population, 
 whereas my grant only cheapens all the expenditure 
 above a certain rate in the pound. Lord Balfour of 
 Burleigh's second grant consequently makes it easier 
 for all localities to spend in excess of 3s. 6d. per head, 
 whether they are already pinched by high rates or not. 
 My grant, on the other hand, only cheapens the 
 expenditure when the spenders are already feeling the
 
 The Economy of Local Bates 207 
 
 pinch of high rates, and cheapens it more only as the 
 pinch of high rates becomes greater and greater. 
 This seems to be just what is required to encourage 
 "onerous" expenditure in the localities which have 
 difficulty in meeting the proper amount and to dis- 
 courage it in those localities which can raise it so 
 easily that they are inclined to be too lavish. It is 
 true that the scheme does not, as a perfect scheme 
 should, exclude from equalisation differences of rates 
 arising from the different cost of given quantities of 
 service in different localities, but we have to strive for 
 the best possible, not for the absolutely perfect. 
 
 A very practical recommendation of the scheme is 
 to be found in the fact that a given sum of money 
 will go a great deal further in appeasing discontent 
 when it is spent in lowering high rates than when it 
 is spent in aiding large expenditure. This is so 
 because the highest rates and the largest absolute 
 expenditure by no means go together. The additional 
 grant of 3,363 which Lord Balfour of Burleigh gives 
 to Fylde would scarcely be noticed by the Blackpool 
 ratepayers, who would get the most of it, whereas the 
 same sum given to Mildenhall would reduce the rate 
 there from 26-9 to i*7d. 1 Why should 1,600 a year 
 more be given to my own union, which is perfectly 
 able to bear all the expense, and in which nobody 
 ever complains of the rate for the poor ? The Local 
 Taxation Commission refrained from collecting any 
 statistics showing the percentage of expenditure to 
 rateable or assessable value in the different unions, 
 
 1 Here and onwards to the end I use for purposes of illustration 
 tin' figures given for 1899 1900 in (lie Appendix to the Final ttrjwrt 
 of the Koyal Commission on Local Taxation, C'd. 1221. \>\>. 1,8-147.
 
 208 History of Local Bates 
 
 and the task of showing the effect upon rates of 
 different schemes of grants in a comprehensive manner 
 is consequently beyond the means at the disposal of a 
 private person. But I have taken from the table 
 printed by the Commission the first eight non- 
 metropolitan unions in which the expenditure was 
 below is. in the of assessable value and compared 
 them with the first eight in which the expenditure 
 was over 28. The under is. list is Eeigate, Kingston, 
 Bromley, Hastings, Christchurch, Bradfield, Hendon, 
 and Willesden. The over 2s. list consists of Hoo, 
 Med way, Cranbrook, Tenterden, Sheppey, Bye, 
 Hailsham, and Petworth. The present grants to 
 those under is. amount to "29,112, while those over 
 2s. only get 18,714. Lord Balfour of Burleigh would 
 increase the grant obtained by the under is. list to 
 58,913, and that obtained by the over 2s. list only to 
 34,713. The scheme described above would give the 
 under is. list only 9,542, while it would give the 
 over 28. list 30,611. Lord Balfour of Burleigh's 
 total is thus 45,800 in excess of the present grants, 
 while the other scheme would give 7,673 less than the 
 present grants, and yet be far more equalisatory than 
 Lord Balfour of Burleigh's. It is so simply because 
 Lord Balfour of Burleigh's scheme is so much kinder 
 to the owners of Bournemouth (Christchurch Union) 
 and Hastings and some very prosperous London 
 suburbs. 
 
 Of course, the figures of equalisatory scale which I 
 have suggested are merely illustrative. It is 
 impossible to say what the actual figures should be 
 until we know what services are to continue in the 
 hands of the smaller areas, what are to be taken over
 
 The Economy of Lock] Rates 209 
 
 by the larger, such as the counties, and what are to 
 be assumed by the largest possible area, such as 
 England or the United Kingdom. I presume, for 
 example, that everyone expects that the cost of reliev- 
 ing vagrants will disappear from the union budgets 
 in consequence of new arrangements by which the 
 State will take over the work of preventing mendicant 
 and larcenous vagrancy, and that the counties will 
 take over the whole charge of lunacy instead of, as at 
 present, only a small fixed charge per lunatic main- 
 tained in the county asylums erne of the maddest 
 arrangements ever made by people who professed to 
 be sane, as it makes the county, which manages, bear 
 a fixed charge, while the unions which do not manage, 
 pay the varying charges resulting from difference of 
 management. Alterations of this kind will of course 
 reduce the amount of money necessary for equalising 
 purposes.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Acre rates, n. 21, 27 8, 35. 41. 
 
 43 
 
 Agricultural land, partial exemp- 
 tion of, 130-1, 155. 194 6; 
 national grant in relief of rates 
 ou, 154 5 
 
 Aliens deported, 59. 74 
 
 Alms. 56 62, 64 5, 67-9 
 
 Almshouse-rate, 73 
 
 Alton poor-rate on personalty, 96 
 
 Antlovcr poor-rale on stock-in- 
 trade, 94 5 
 
 Assent, rates by common, 16. 49, 
 67, 73 4. 108 
 
 Assessments, monthly, 114 17 
 
 Auditors of poor law accounts, 
 national grant for. 133 
 
 I'.AI.KOI 1:. I,OI!l), of Mlllleii.il, 
 
 202 8 
 Bedford level. 112 
 
 Hem lieial." 167, ISO 
 
 Bettered."' 112 
 Hettermenl charge, 125 6 
 Blackpool, 204, 207 
 Borough- rale, 17. 131 
 
 Boston, |Mxir-rnte, S3 4 ; church- 
 rate, 106 # 
 
 Boll I lieiiiolllll. 208 
 
 Bradfield, 208 
 
 Brad ford-on- A von poor-rate cm 
 
 pcrsoiinlty, 96 
 Biaintree elnireli-rate, 108 
 Bi id'.'es, 9 10. 30 2, 51J 
 
 Bristol, paving-rate on owners, 
 128 ; workhonse-rate on stocks 
 and estates, 88 9 ; highway 
 to Gloucester, 7. 40-1 
 
 Bromley. 20S 
 
 Burgesses in Parliament, wages 
 of, 21, 34 5 
 
 Calais burgesses in Parliament, 
 
 34 
 Canals, three-fourths exemption 
 
 of. 130 1 
 
 Canterbury poor-rate on stock- 
 in-trade, 91 
 
 Cardiff Bridge, 32 3 
 
 Carriage duty, 139, 141 
 
 Cattle, rating of, 15, 16, 23, S6 
 
 Causeway, 16. &>e Highway 
 
 ('< at i mi's mltl it 'wild*, 20. 140 
 
 Chepstow Bridge, 4S 
 
 Chester Bridge, 12 
 
 Chichester walls, 17, 22 11. 
 
 Choughs and crows. 34, 50 
 
 Christ church, 208 
 
 Church-rate, 14 16. 24 6.79 i'o, 
 103 8 
 
 Communis! ideal of distribution, 
 160 
 
 Constable's- rate, 1 10 
 
 Contracts set aside, 56, 129//. 
 
 Conveyance of poor and vaga- 
 bonds, 58 9, 65, 67, 100 11., 
 Iio . : of mah factor-, 47. 50. 
 I IO 11.
 
 212 
 
 Index 
 
 Correction, houses of, 66-7. 74, 
 
 109 N. 
 Counties and county boroughs, 
 
 adjustments between, 144, 
 
 145-7 
 County rate, 109-11, 132-3; 
 
 stock, 109 
 Cranbrook, 208 
 Crown land rated for sewers, 29 ; 
 
 for re-edification, 41 
 
 Darlington poor-rate on stock- 
 in-trade, 97 
 
 Deduction of rate from rent, 36, 
 41, 113-14, 115 
 
 Disraeli, 138 
 
 Division of rate3 between owner 
 and occupier, 139, 141 
 
 Drury Lane paving, 48 
 
 Dureley poor-rate on personalty, 
 97 
 
 Eabby's case, 83-4, 106 
 Education rate, 135-7, 156-8 
 Exchequer contribution accounts, 
 
 141, 150 
 Expenses of family, &c, 78 
 
 Facvltates, 22 ., 79 
 
 Farmer's stock, 86, 90. 117 
 
 Feudal obligations, 7-10 
 
 Fifteenths and tenths, 13-14, 18- 
 20, 22 ., 23 . 
 
 Fitz-Osbert's riot, 17-18 
 
 Folkestone, ability and chamber- 
 lain's rates, 102 
 
 Forster, 136 
 
 Fortifications, 16-17 
 
 Frome poor-rate on personalty, 
 96 
 
 Fylde, 204, 207 
 
 General district rate, 130, 166. 
 
 193 
 Gladstone, 138, 139 
 Glamorganshire, 146 
 Gloucester and Bristol highway, 
 
 7, 40-1 
 Goschen, 134, 139-54 
 Grain, preservation of, 41-2 
 Greenwich marshes, 35 
 Grumbling, ratepayer fined for, 
 
 21 
 Guildford tenth, 14 
 
 Hailsham church-rate on non- 
 resident, 24-6 ; union, 20S 
 
 Hamilton, Sir Edward, 202 8 
 
 Hastings, 208 
 
 Headington, 205 
 
 Hendon, 208 
 
 Herefordshire, 146 
 
 Highways, 6-9 ,42-3; rale, 119- 
 24, 132, 135 ; national trrants 
 for, 139, 141-9 
 
 Holborn paving, 38-9 
 
 Hoo, 208 
 
 Horse tax proposed, 142, 152 
 
 Hospital rate, 73 
 
 House duty, 140, 149 
 
 Household goods, rating of, 85-6 
 
 Hue-and-cry rate, 45-6, 50. m 
 
 Income tax, Schedule A, 198 
 Ipswich, miscellaneous expenses, 
 18-21 ; paving, 39 
 
 
 Jail-hate, 33, 50, 109. See also 
 
 Prisoners 
 Jeffrey's case, 24-6, 31, 70, 103, 
 
 177 
 Judges' resolutions in 1597,74-5, 
 
 101 ; in 1633, 82, 86-7
 
 Index 
 
 213 
 
 King's Bench prisoners, 73 4. 
 109 
 
 Kingsferry, rate for maintenance 
 of, 43 4 ; highway from, to 
 Middleton, 44 5. 70-1 
 
 King's Lynn poor-rate on per- 
 sonalty, 96 
 
 Kings'011, 208 
 
 Land-Scot, 52 
 
 Lain I lax. 1 14 19 
 
 I.- .1, dredging the, 42-50 
 
 Leicestershire, landlords rated in, 
 
 84 
 I, evert mi church-rate, 103 
 Licence duties transferred to local 
 
 authorities, 141 2, 147 8 
 Lighting, 129 31, 166, 193 
 Local self-interest, 175 86 
 Local taxation, distinguished 
 from general, 4 ; individual- 
 istic, 175 
 London, City Commission of 
 Sewers, 113; county rate in 
 City, 103 : church-rates, 107 8; 
 |mxm -rates on pcrsonaltj', 96, 
 and gee Shoreditch and White- 
 chapel ; sewers, 112 14 ; 
 streets, 124 31 
 Lopes. Sir Massey, 137 
 Lump sums, 31 2, 1 1 1 
 Lunatics, national grant for, 13S, 
 141 ; grant from counties to 
 unions for. 1 49 
 Lytham, 205 
 
 .Mai.kiacto'is' conveyance to 
 
 jail, 47 
 .Mai-lial-ia prisoners, 73 4. 109 
 Medical officers, national |ranl 
 
 for [sx>r-law, 133. 141 
 
 Med way, 208 
 
 Metropolitan Board of Works, 
 113, 140 
 
 Metropolitan common poor fund, 
 61, 145 
 
 Middleton. See Kingsferry 
 
 Migration, the ride, 181 
 
 Mildenhall, 205. 207 
 
 Mines, poor-rate on, IOI ; land- 
 tax on, 117 ; highway-rate on, 
 
 123-4 
 
 Minority, attempt to lay church- 
 rate l>y, 108 
 
 Money, poor-rate on, 96 7 ; 
 church-rate on. 107 
 
 Murray, Sir George, 202-8 
 
 NATIONAL areas only localities, 
 4, 185 6 
 
 Necessitous school districts grant, 
 158, 206 
 
 New /'aland, 191 
 
 Nonsuch to Tale worth highway, 
 47. 50 
 
 Northcote (Lord Iddeslcigh), 138 
 
 Norwich Cathedral poor-rale, 
 78 9: workhouse-rate on per- 
 sonalty, 89, 133 . 
 
 Nursery ideal of distribution, 161 
 
 Onkrouh," 171, 180 
 Oxford rate for impiovin 
 Thames, 47 8 
 
 the 
 
 I'AVINO. See Streets 
 Pel worth, 208 
 PcvcUSCy town-scot, io2 3 
 IMaguc, rale for s ilTeiers from, 
 46 7, 5o
 
 214 
 
 Index 
 
 Police, national giants for, 134, 
 138, 141, 153-4 ; grant from 
 counties to non - county 
 boroughs for, 149 
 
 Police-rate, 131, 150-2 
 
 Toll-tax, 17-18 
 
 l'oole, poor-rate on salaries, 
 money, household goods, ships, 
 and stock-in-trade, 81, 85, 
 96-7 ; church-rate, 107 
 
 Poor-rate, origin, 54-62 ; history 
 to 1601, 62-77 ! history since 
 1G01, 78-101; assimilation of 
 other rates to, 102-30 
 
 Prisoners, rate for relief of, 65, 
 73-4, 109 n. ; national grants 
 for removal and maintenance 
 
 of. 133 
 Probate duty grant, 1415, 148 
 Profits, 85 
 Prosecutions, national grants for, 
 
 133, Hi 
 
 Quality of land considered, 11, 
 
 24 
 Quiiizieme. See Fifteenths 
 
 RAILWAYS, three-fourths exemp- 
 tion of, 130-1, 194 
 
 Kate-in-sid, 61, 72-3, 120 
 
 He-edification, 41, 50 
 
 Rcigate, 208 
 
 Kent paid, as criterion of ability, 
 80 ; received, not ratable, 
 82-5 ; possibility of abolishing, 
 181-2. See Deduction 
 
 Resolutions. See Judges' resolu- 
 tions 
 
 Kingwood poo:-rate on stock-in- 
 trade, 92-4 
 
 Ritchie, 142 
 
 Roads. See Highways 
 Rochester Bridge, 10 n. 
 Romney Marsh, 10-12, 21-2, 28 
 Rye, 208 
 
 St. Giles paving, 48 
 
 Salaries. 24, 80 -2 
 
 Scarborough pier, 35-7, 50 
 
 Scot and lot, 21 
 
 Sea-wall, 16. See Romney Marsh 
 and Sewers 
 
 Sewers-rate, 10-12, 21-2, 27-30, 
 42, 1 12-14 
 
 Shaftesbury and Sherborne 
 causeway, 39-40 
 
 Sheep, rating of, 16, 23 
 
 Sheppcy, 43-4, 208 
 
 Sherborne. See Shaftesbury 
 
 Ship-money, 50-3, 115 
 
 Ships, rating of, 97, 107 
 
 Shoreditch poor-rate on per- 
 sonalty, 90 
 
 " Site value rate," proposed, 188 
 
 Soldiers, rate for relief of, 67, 74 
 
 Southampton fortifications, 17 n. 
 
 Southwark paving, 39 
 
 Status to be regarded, 79 
 
 Stock-in-trade, poor-rate on, 86- 
 100 ; church-rate on, 106-7 ! 
 highway-rate on, 119-23 
 
 Strand paving, 37-8 
 
 Streets, 37, 120-1, 124-31 
 
 Subsidy, 20 n. 
 
 Substance, 18, 22 
 
 Succession duty increased, 144 
 
 Surplus from poor-rate, 65 
 
 "Surtaxes." 153-4 
 
 Talewoktii. See Nonsuch 
 
 Tainworth fifteenth, 22 n. 
 
 Tax distinguished from rate, 3-5
 
 Index 
 
 215 
 
 Teachers in poor-law schools, 
 national grant for, 133, 141 
 
 Technical education, 153 
 
 Tenterden, 208 
 
 Tenths. See Fifteenths 
 
 Thames, 47 8, 50 
 
 Tithe rent-charge, national grant 
 to pay half rates on, 156 
 
 Town expenses, 17 21 
 
 Trowbridge pojr-rate on person- 
 ally, 96 
 
 Turnpikes, 122, 135 
 
 Union officers, giant from coun- 
 ties to unions, 147, 149 
 I 11 ions, 61 
 rpton-on-Severn Bridge, 48-9 
 
 Vagabonds, 55 9,65-9,74, 109 
 
 //., 1 10 //. 
 
 Visible property, 93 4, 99 
 
 \\ ACS EH. See Salaries. 
 
 Wales, wages of representatives 
 in Parliament, 34 5, 50 
 
 Warminster poor-rate on person- 
 alty, 96 
 
 Watching, 129-31, I0 6 
 
 Water charges, 166, 168 
 
 Wei ib, Sidney, 180 11. 
 
 West Ham, 158, 193 
 
 Westminster, sewers commission, 
 113 ; streets, 124-7 
 
 Wheel and van tax, proposed, 
 142, 152 
 
 'Whisky money," 146, 153 4 
 
 Whitechapel poor-rate, 79 80 ; 
 church-rate, 79-80, 106 7 
 
 " Will and doom," 106 
 
 Willesden, 208 
 
 Witney poor-rate on stock-in- 
 trade, 91-2 
 
 Woods, poor-rate on, 101 ; land- 
 tax on. 117: highway-rate on, 
 
 123-4 
 
 Worcester, not ratable for Upton 
 Bridge, 49 ; poor-rate on per- 
 son dty, 89 
 
 Wrotham church-rate, 105 
 
 TIIK END. 
 
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 pa|>ei money and 'sense,' any community can equip itself with public buildings. 
 
 TAXATION, LOCAL AND IMPERIAL, 
 AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT . 
 
 By .I. C. (fBAHAM, Barristcr-at-Law. Fourth Edition. Revised and 
 brought up to date by M. I>. WABMINOTON, Barrister-at-I^iw. Crown Hvo. 
 Cloth. 2,'- net. 
 
 1'Uii I'n . "The distinction Ijetween Imperial aiel Loral Taxation are clearly indi- 
 cated: tl \aet duties that devolve upon local authorities are defined with 
 
 commendable exact itude." 
 
 P. S. KING & SON, & r S$ r m 1m H 8t.
 
 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND 
 LABOUR. 
 
 By Francis George Heath, Author of "The English Peasantry," 
 " The Romance of Peasant Life," &c. Demy 8vo. Cloth, 1 0/6 net. 
 (Inland Postage, Id.) 
 
 Devon and Exeter Gazette. " We are in agreement with Mr. Heath . . . 
 when lie says the depopulation of the rural districts of the United Kingdom 
 would be largely cheeked by the adoption of a system of freehold cottages and 
 small beddings . . . We are sure the conclusions at which he has arrived 
 will be given very careful consideration . . . The book is written in Mr. 
 Heath's best style. He has gone deeply into his subject, and all who have 
 sympathy with those who live in our rural districts, and with those who are 
 closely associated with the soil, wilt derive a good deal of pleasure as well as 
 information from a perusal of the volume." 
 
 Daily Telegraph. " . . . Has long made a special study of the subject with 
 which he deals in this volume a subject of almost incalculable importance to the 
 country at large . . . One solution . . . Mr. Heath thinks is to be found 
 in the increase of small freeholds, and he gives interesting particulars of his 
 association with the late Lord Randolph Churchill in the attempt to formulate a 
 scheme which should work to that end . . . Interesting and suggestive, 
 affording . . . a. concise survey of the whole field." 
 
 NATIONAL CONGRESS ON RURAL 
 DEVELOPMENT AND SMALL HOLDINGS. 
 
 Official Report of the Proceedings of the National Congress in connection 
 with the Small Holdings and Country Life Section of the Festival of 
 Empire, held at the Crystal Palace, 18th, 19th and 20th October, 1911. 
 Crown 8vo. \ Cloth, 2/- net. (Inland Postage, '3d.) 
 
 Contents. List of Persons and Associations attending or represented at the 
 Congress Address by the Rt. Hon. Earl Carrington, K.G. (late President Hoard 
 of Agriculture) Co-operative Credit as an aid to Rural Development, by H. W. 
 Wolff Agricultural Co-operation, by Clement Smith Co-operation, by J. T. 
 Corbett Production, by H. Vincent (Lecturer Vincent College) Marketing of 
 British Eggs and Poultry, by Verney Carter (National Poultry Organization 
 Society) Pigs and Small Holdings, by Sanders Spencer Marketing of Fruit and 
 Vegetables produced on Small Holdings, by Geoffrey Hooper Equipment of Small 
 Holdings, by Henry T. Tate Rural Education, by Christopher Turnor, author of 
 "Land Problems and National Welfare" Rural Education, by Evan R. Da vies: 
 Director of Education, Carnarvonshire Discussions. 
 
 P S. KING OC SON) Westminster!
 
 PROBLEMS OF BOY LIFE . 
 
 Edited by .1. II. WHITEHOUSE, Ml*. With an introduction by the Hight 
 Reverend John PEBCIVAL, Bishop of Hereford. Demy 8vo. Cloth, 
 10/6 net. (Inland Pottage id.) 
 
 Counts-re. Introduction, by the Bishop of Hereford The Reform of Elementary 
 Education, by J. II. Whitehouse), M.P. The Economics of Boy Labour, by it. 11. 
 Tavrney Buy Labour : Home Studies in Detail, by Spencer J. <iil>!> Boy Labour : 
 Towards Reform, by Spencer J. Gibb and J. II. Whitehouse, M.P. Boy Labour and 
 the Factory System, by A. K. Clark Kennedy The Boy Criminal, byJ.M. Myers 
 The Station Lounger : A .Study, by Norman Chamberlain -Street Trading by 
 Children, by .1. II. Whitehouse, M.P. The Supervision of Juvenile Employment, 
 by .1. II. Whitehouse, II.P. Dr. Kerschensteiner's System of Education in Munich, 
 by B. T. ('. Horsfall -The School a-s a Means of Social Betterment, by Mai inn 
 Phillips, It. A., D.Sc, late Investigator to the Royal Commission on the Poor 
 Laws -Children's Care Committees, by Che Bev. W. II. H. Elliott, Head of Cam- 
 bridge House Homes for Working Boys, by toe Rev. W. II. II. Klliott, Head of 
 Cambridge House Religious Influences and the Adolescent Cross-fertilisation in 
 Schools, r>y J. I.. Paton, High Master, Manchester Grammar School The Breaking 
 Down oi Caste, by Arthur II. Hope, Join! Editor " Tin- Highei Education of Hoys 
 in England '' -Recent Parliamentary and other Inquiries Concerned with Problems 
 of Boy Life, by Spencer J. Gibb The Compulsory Age lor School Attendance in 
 Foreign Countries. 
 
 CAMPING FOR BOYS. 
 
 By .1. II. WHITEHOUSE, M.I'.. Honorary Warden of t lie Secondary 
 Schoolboys' Camp. Crown 8vo. Numerous Illustrations. Paper, "I/- net ; 
 Cloth, 1/6 net. (Inland Postage, IV.) 
 
 Contknts. -The Story of the Secondary Schoolboys' Camp The Educational 
 Work of the Camp The Camp Excursions Camp Games A Typical Hay in Camp 
 - Tenl Crafl and Camp Craft An Open Letter to a Boy Coming to Camp A Song 
 of England A Short Lis! of Books about Camping, etc. Ollcers of the Secondai v 
 Schoolboys' Camp. 
 
 JUVENILE LABOUR EXCHANGES 
 AND AFTER-CARE. 
 
 I'.y Abthub Greenwood, Head of the Economics Department, 1 1 udders- 
 field Technical College. With an Introduction by Sidney Webb, LL.B. 
 Demy 8vo. 1/- net. (//</ W Postage, 2d.) 
 
 Timet l.iteniry Supplement. "A close examination bya wider of much know- 
 ledge and experience of the problem of juvenile employment, with practical 
 proposals ol reform on the general principle of the need of co-ordination on a 
 comprehensive scale of juvenile welfare orgauisat ions, whet her Stale oi i uluutary." 
 
 THE LABOUR EXCHANGE 
 
 In Relation to Boy and Girl Labour. 
 
 By Fbkdkbick Kekling. Ilemy 8vo. 6/- net. (Inland Portage, ljrf.) 
 
 P. S. KING & SON, WBW.nVtW.
 
 UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE : 
 
 A Study of Schemes of Assisted Insurance . 
 
 A Record op Research in the Department 
 op Sociology in thr University op London. 
 
 By I. G. Gibbon. With a Preface by Professor L. T. Hobhouse (Martin 
 White Professor of Sociologj', University of London). Demy 8vo. Cloth, 
 6/- net. (Inland Postage, id.) 
 
 Bristol Timrst and Mirror. "An excellent epitome of foreign experience. . . . 
 'I'lie author aims at giving facts rather t"lian at putting forward opinions. But his 
 conclusions, nevertheless, lean to a certain definite line of policy. The most noteworthy 
 fact is that he does not favour compulsion. . . . Mr. Gibbon in viewing compul- 
 sion with disfavour is upheld by Professor L. T. Hobhouse, who contributes a short 
 Preface. Moreover, both of these experts in sociology are against forcibly putting any 
 of the burden on the employer ; they incline to the opinion that it is a matter for the 
 State (or the municipality) and the worker himself. . . . Mr. Gibbon describes 
 most fully, and advocates chiefly the voluntary system, which has been successfully 
 adopted in Ghent, under municipal auspices, and in Denmark, under the State." 
 
 LEGAL POSITION OF TRADE UNIONS. 
 
 By Henry Herman Schloesser, of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at- 
 Law ; Lecturer on Public Administration at the London School of Economics ; 
 and W. Smith Clark, M.a., LL.B., of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law. 
 Demy 8vo. Cloth, 1 0/6 net. {Inland 1'orfage, id.) 
 
 Contents. Law before the Trade Union Act, 1871 Trade Unions Delined Liabili- 
 ties and Immunities of Trade Unions Jurisdiction of the Courts and Procedure 
 Registered Trade Unions Statutes Regulations. 
 
 The book includes a careful examination of the recent Osborne Decision and the legal 
 consequence of it, together with all the leading cases on Trade Union Law from the 
 earliest times, and an appendix of statutes, and deals in greater detail and in more 
 comprehensive manner with the Scottish cases than has hitherto been done. 
 
 HISTORY OF FACTORY LEGISLATION. 
 
 By B. L. HuTCHiN.sand A. Harrison (Mrs. F. H.Spencer), D.Sc. (Econ.). 
 With a Preface by Sidney Webb, LL.B. Second Revised Edition, with a 
 New Chapter. Demy 8vo. Cloth, 6/- net. (Inland Postage, id.) 
 
 Evskin Collegian." We strongly urge every trade-unionist to read this book, to ask 
 for it at the public libraries, to get it added to the club-room library." 
 
 P. S. KING & SON, ^g^ 1N ^T U E S R E :
 
 MEDICAL EXAMINATION OF SCHOOLS 
 AND SCHOLARS. 
 
 Edited by T. X. Kely.vack, M.D.. Member of the Royal College of 
 Physicians of London ; Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine ; Medical 
 Adviser to tlie National Children's Home and Orphanage, &c, &c. With 
 an Introduction by Sir Lauder Brunton, Bart. Demy 8vo., 434 x 
 xvi.pi>. 10,'6ni-t. [Inland Portage, $d.) 
 
 The Bristol Timet ami Mirror. " The object of this l>ook is to provide a practical 
 guide I'm those medical men who, under the provisions of the Education Act. of iihit, 
 hold appointments in connection with Council Schools. The subject of medical exami- 
 nation of school children has already reached such dimensions that no one man can 
 possibly provide a complete description of all matters concerned with the conduct of 
 an efficient school medical service. Hence Dr. Kelynack, the Editor, has called on no 
 fewer than thirty-six different contributors, each of whom has earned a right to be con- 
 sidered an expert in his particolar branch uf the ttubject. . . . A book like this is of 
 great value, not only to the school medical officer, but also to the intelligent educa- 
 tionist, and will be found very suggestive and illuminating to all who study it. 
 
 HEALTH-PROMOTING INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 Report "f the Proceedings of the Fifth Annual General Meeting of the 
 National League for Physical Education and Improvement, and of the First 
 Conference of Health- Promoting Institutions, held at the Guildhall, London, 
 on the .Stli and 9th December, 1910, under the Presidency of The LORD 
 
 Mayor ok London, The Duchess ok Marlborough, Alderman 
 Benjamin Broadrent, and Sir Shirley Murphy. Demy 8vo. "I/- net. 
 
 (Iiihinil Ventage, 'Ad.) 
 
 Contkkth. Mow to Win k a "School f..i Mothers, "l.y Lady Meyer Infant Welfare 
 Schemes Abroad, by Miss H. M. Itlagg Day Nurseries, |>y Muriel Viscountess Helmsley 
 
 What may l- Accomplished by Cliildren'sCare Committees, by Miss M. Krere Health 
 Societies : Theii Aims and Opportunities, by Mr. Douglas Eyre The Co-ordination of 
 Health-Promoting Agencies, by Mr. P. E. Kremantle Report on Existing "Schools 
 for Mothers and Smnl.n Institutions, with a Directory of such "Schools, "by Mr. I. O. 
 (Sibbon. 
 
 MEDICAL REVOLUTION. 
 
 A I'll a for National Preservation of Health, Based upon the Natural 
 Interpretation of Disease. By Sidney W. MacIlwaink. M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. 
 (Retired.) Crown 8vo. 2 6 net. (Inland J'o#tage, 'Ad.) 
 
 Cintkkth. Preface Introductory The Evolution of Medicine The Pure Science 
 of Medicine -Diagnosis The True Relation ol Theory and Practice Pathology 
 Spurious Diseases Illusory Diagnosis The false Relation of Theory and Practice 
 
 Medie Surgery S]eciallsiii (ieueral Practice The Hospital- A Suggestion 
 
 Medical Educati..n Organisation The st.de and tl- Medical Profession Death 
 CVrtillcntiim Quack Medici in Summary. 
 
 I.nit i-l-iii K Shaw, M.D., K.K.C.P., In Cuy's Hospital Cozrttr, "The author makes 
 out a slum.' > |,,i a complete reconsideration ol our everyday attitude towards 
 disease." 
 
 P. S. KING OL SON, Westminster!
 
 NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE 
 PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION. 
 
 Poport of the Proceedings containing t lie Text of the Papers 
 contributed by various Authorities, and the full Discussion. 
 
 Complete in One volume. 1 0/6 net. [Inland Postage, Cxi.) 
 
 The Report of the Proceedings of each section is also published separately 
 as follows : 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 Report of the Proceedings of the Education Section of the National Con- 
 ference on the Prevention of Destitution. Royal 8vo. Paper boards, cloth 
 back. 2/6- (Inland Pontage, Bet.) 
 
 Contents. Prefatory Statement Presidential Address by Professor Sadler The 
 Medical Inspection of School Children The Medical Treatment of School Children 
 Public Organisation and Control of Juvenile Employment The Work of the Education 
 Authority in Relation to the Prevention of Unemployment The Physical Basis of 
 Education and the Work of Care Committees The Function of the Boarding School 
 (Day and Residential) The Training of the Mentally Defective in Special Schools. 
 
 LEGAL AND FINANCIAL. 
 
 Report of the Proceedings of the Legal and Financial Section of the 
 National Conference on the Prevention of Destitution. Royal 8vo. Paper 
 boards, cloth back. 2/6 net. (Inland Postage, 2d.) 
 
 Contents. Prefatory Statement Presidential Address by Mr. Justice Phillimore 
 Charge and Recovery of Cost of Services rendered by Local Authorities The Estimation 
 of Ability to Pay Evidence of Ability to Pay and Modes of Recovery Grants in Aid. 
 
 MENTAL DEFICIENCY. 
 
 Report of the Proceedings of the Mental Deficiency Section of the Nat ional 
 Conference on the Prevention of Destitution. Royal 8vo. Paper boards, 
 cloth back. 2/6 net. (Inland Postage, 2d.) 
 
 Contents. Prefatory Statement Presidential Address by Sir William Chance- 
 Problem or Defining Mental Deficiency Heredity in Relation to Mental Deficiency 
 Social and Economic Evils resulting from Mental Deficiency The Work of Public 
 Authorities and Voluntary Agencies in securing Permanent Care for Mental Defectives 
 The Education of Mentally Defective Children. 
 
 PUBLIC HEALTH. 
 
 Report of the Proceedings of the Public Health Section of the National 
 Conference on the Prevention of Destitution. Royal 8vo. Paper boards, 
 cloth back. 2/6 net. (Inland Postage, M.) 
 
 Contents. Prefatory Statement Presidential Address by Sir T. Clifford Allbutt 
 The Medical Inspection of School Children The Medical Treatment of School Children 
 The Administrative Control of Tuberculosis The Work of the Public Health Authority 
 in relation to Birth and Infancy The Physical Bar to Unemployment Sickness and 
 Invalidity Insurance The Need for a Unified Public Medical Service. 
 
 UNEMPLOYMENT . 
 
 Report of the Proceedings of the Unemployment Section of the National 
 Conference on the Prevention of Destitution. Royal 8vo. Paper boards, 
 cloth back. 2/6 net. (Inland Postage, 3d.) 
 
 Contents. Prefatory Statement- Presidential Address by Sir Alfred Mond Labour 
 Exchanges The Public Organisation and Control of Juvenile Employment The Work 
 of the Education Authority in Relation to the Prevention of Unemployment The 
 Physical Bar to Employment Labour Colonies and Provision for the Unemployed- 
 Elimination of Sessional and Cyclical Fluctuations in the National Demand for Labour. 
 
 _ P. S. KING & SON,~8^RhW:5:
 
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