MEANS FOR OBTAINING AN EQUITABLE SETTLEMENT OF THE RATING QUESTION. IN A LETTER, ADDRESSED, (BY PERMISSION,) TO THE Right Honourable the Earl of Hardwicke. BY WILLIAM METCALFE, L. L. B. RECTOR OF FOULMIRE, ONE OF HER MAJESTY'S JUSTICES OF THE PEACE FOR THE COUNTY OF CAMBRIDGE, OF CHURCH RATES." PRINTED AT THE ROYSTON PRESS OFFICE: SOLD BY WHITTAKER & CO., LONDON: DEIGHTON & STEVENSON, CAMBRIDGE: 1839 882. My Lord, In the sixth and seventh years of King William the Fourth, an Act of Parliament was passed, intituled "An Act to regulate Parochial Assessments." The Preamble recites, that "whereas it is desirable to establish one uniform mode of rating for the relief of the Poor throughout England and Wales, and to lessen the Cost of Appeal against an unfair Rate." Be it enacted, &c." that no Rate for the relief of the Poor in England and Wales shall be allowed by any Justices or be of any force, which shall not be made upon an estimate of the net annual value of the several hereditaments rated thereunto ; that is to say, of the rent at which the same might reasonably be expected to let from year to year, free of all usual Tenant's Rates and Taxes, and Tithe Commutation Rent Charge, if any, and deducting therefrom the probable average annual Cost of the Repairs, Insurance, and other Expenses, if any, necessary to maintain them in a state to command such Rent: Provided always that nothing herein contained shall be construed to alter or affect the Principles or different relative Liabilities, if any, according to which different kinds of Hereditaments are now by Law rateable." The objects of this statute were, 1st, to compel every occupier of rateable Hereditaments in every Parish to be assessed according to the net Rent, with a view to obtain the fair proportion from each Parish towards the County Rates; and 2ndly, to provide a cheap and easy remedy, by an Appeal, at a Special Sessions, against over assessment. There was evidently, no intention to exempt any persons, whose property before the passing of the Act, was liable to be rated; nor to change the relative liabilities of any class of persons which was before included in the Assessment for the relief of the Poor. After a short trial of the working of the Act, its inefficiency was discovered, and nearly at the close of the last Session of Parliament a Bill was prepared and brought in, by Mr. Shaw Lefevre and Sir Edward Knatchbull, "To declare the effect of an Act of the sixth and seventh years of King William the Fourth, to regulate Parochial Assessments," the professed object of which Bill, was, to repeal the proviso in the first clause of the said Act, and all the clauses in every other Act, deemed to have the effect of rendering any hereditaments liable to be rated for any Occupier's profit in addition to the net annual value of such hereditaments, or of entitling any hereditaments not producing an Occupier's profit in addition to the net annual value, to any deduction in or from Rate, on the ground that other hereditaments producing an Occupier's profit are rated only on the net annual value thereof;" "that is to say, the Rent at which the same might reasonably be expected to let from year to year." The strong opposition which was threatened against the Bill, and the late period at which it was introduced, for discussion in the House of Commons, induced the framers to withdraw it. The question, however, must again, in some shape or other, be brought before the Legislature, and is not, and ought not to be, left at rest. It is one of deep importance, not only to the Owners of Canals, Railroads, Tithes and of all hereditaments not producing an Occupier's Profit, but also to the Landed Proprietors; for if any legislative measure should be passed upon the principle of the " Declaratory Bill," great injustice must be committed against every one, of these Interests. In having your Lordship's permission thus publicly to address you on the subject, I feel myself peculiarly fortunate; because no one can be better qualified than yourself, to enter into the investigation of its merits. Your activity as a County Magistrate and as Chairman of a Board of Guardians, must have given your Lordship a full acquaintance with the existing defects of the Parochial Assessment Act; and of the unequal pressure of the present rating system; and your practical knowledge, as the occupier of extensive farms must enable you to judge accurately of the Profits which such an application of Capital may fairly be calculated to produce. Without further preface, I will now solicit your Lordship's attention : 1st. To the Law and Principle of rating, as they stood previous to the passing of the Parochial Assessment Act, in August, 1836. 2ndly. To the Justice and equity of that Law and Principle-and 3rdly. To the practical difficulties and the means which appear necessary to be taken for an Equitable settlement of the question. 1st. To ascertain the Law and Principle of rating, previous to the passing of the Parochial Assessment Act, we must refer to the 43rd of Eliz. cap. 2, and the interpretation of that Statute by the Court of Queen's Bench, as exhibited in the various adjudged cases on the subject. By the 1st section it is enacted that the Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor shall "raise weekly or otherwise, by taxation of every Inhabitant, Parson, Vicar and other; and of every Occupier of Lands, Houses, Tithes impropriate, propriations of Tithes, Coal mines, or saleable Underwoods in the said parish, in such competent sum and |