Westminster sewers, and the Regent Street and Regent's Park district, in certain shares and proportions, and were paid by the said board partly out of their general funds and partly by monies raised in some of the said parishes: and whereas that portion of the said sewer in respect of which the said works of reconstruction and reparation were executed, will be incorporated with and form part of the main drainage works now in course of execution by the said board, under the provisions of the said Acts of the eighteenth and nineteenth Victoria, chapter one hundred and twenty, and the twenty-first and twenty-second Victoria, chapter one hundred and four, and will enure to the benefit of the metropolis at large, and the costs and charges of executing the same ought to be borne by the metropolis at large instead of by individual parishes: Be it therefore enacted, that the expenses of and incidental to the execution of the said works of reparation and reconstruction so executed by the said board between the 1st day of January, 1856, and the passing of this Act, shall be deemed to be part of the expenses of and incidental to the main drainage works which the said board are empowered to construct and execute under the said Acts of the eighteenth and nineteenth Victoria, chapter one hundred and twenty, and the twenty-first and twentysecond Victoria, chapter one hundred and four; and the said board shall, out of the monies borrowed and raised or to be borrowed and raised by them for the metropolis main drainage rate under the provisions of the said Act of the twenty-first and twenty-second Victoria, chapter one hundred and four, replace the said monies taken from the general funds of the said board for the payment aforesaid, and reimburse the monies which the said parishes or any of them may have paid towards the said works of reparation and reconstruction between the 1st day of January, 1856, and the passing of this Act; and the said monies so to be applied in reimbursing the said parishes shall be retained by the said board, and shall be carried to the credit of the said parishes, in

Parishes, parts, and places on

on loan from

the Clergy Mutual Assurance So

ciety stands charged (c).

reduction, so far as the same will extend, of the next or some future assessment upon such parishes by the said board for their expenses in the execution of the firstly recited Act.

III. And whereas the said metropolitan commissioners of sewers did, in exercise of the powers vested in which debt them by the said Act of the eleventh and twelfth years of Her Majesty, chapter one hundred and twelve, borrow and take up at interest from a certain society known as the Clergy Mutual Assurance Society, on the security of certain rates authorized to be levied under the lastmentioned Act, the sum of 140,000l., and there was previous to the 1st of November, 1860, due and owing to the said society from the metropolitan board of works, as the successors of the said metropolitan commissioners of sewers, in respect of the said loan, the sum of 105,000l., and it is expedient accurately to ascertain and determine the several parishes, parts, and places on which the debt in respect of the said sum of 105,000l. shall stand charged, and on which monies or rates are to be raised or levied for the payment of the principal and interest in respect of the same, and to ascertain and determine the proportions charged upon each: Be it

(c) This sum was originally raised by the metropolitan commissioners of sewers for the purposes of main drainage, under the provisions contained in the 11 & 12 Vict. c. 112, s. 106, empowering them to borrow on the credit of all or any of the rates authorized to be raised under that Act. The money having been borrowed for main drainage was unexpended at the determination of the sewers commission. The commissioners did not, as in the case of their other mortgage debts, charge it on individual districts. A special fund having been created for the construction of the main drainage works, these monies were applied to the ordinary exigencies of the parishes and districts, and the enactment gives legislative sanction to that arrangement. In consequence of the difference between the limits of the sewers commission and the metropolis as now defined, it became necessary to ascertain and determine the parishes in which monies for payment of principal and interest should be raised.

therefore enacted, that the said debt of 105,0001. shall be and stand charged upon and apportioned to the several parishes, parts, and places enumerated in schedule (B.) to this Act, in the several proportions specified in such schedule, and the said several parishes, parts, and places shall be deemed to be and shall be liable to the payment of the sums set against their respective names therein, and to the payment of interest thereon, and the monies from time to time becoming payable under the said security, or required for or towards payment of the said debt or any part thereof, and the interest thereon, shall be raised by such board upon such parishes, parts, and places respectively in manner provided in respect of the expenses of such board in the execution of the firstly-recited Act: Provided always, that credit shall be given for any sums paid off in respect of the said loan previous to the passing of this Act according to the several proportions specified in the said schedule.

persons

IV. Provided, that nothing in this Act contained Saving rights and shall prejudice, abridge, diminish, or affect the priority (e) remedies of secured by the firstly-recited Act to the persons respec- holding tively entitled to the mortgages, annuities, securities, securities(d). and debts referred to in the one hundred and eighty

(d) This preserves the remedies of the mortgagees against the districts named in the original securities granted under the Sewers Acts, some of which, as already stated, were without the limits of the metropolis as now defined.

(e) The 181st section of the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120, preserves such priority among the several mortgagees, &c., as they were, at the passing of that Act, entitled to under the Metropolitan Sewers Act, 1848, 11 & 12 Vict. c. 112, or any Act continuing or amending such Act. By the 106th section of the latter Act, mortgagees were entitled to be repaid the sums due to them without any preference by reason of priority; but by a subsequent Act, 17 & 18 Vict. c. 111, s. 4 (now expired). priority was given to all securities on the rates granted before a certain date, over and in preference to the mortgages or annuities under securities subsequent to that date; and subject to that priority all future mortgagees or annuitants were to come in pari passu.

Sums to be assessed by

board.

first section of that Act, and the first, second, (f) and third sections of this Act, or the right of any or either of such persons to require and enforce payment of any principal or interest thereon, or in respect thereof, in, from, or out of all or any of the districts, assessments, rates, or monies liable to such payment under or by virtue of their respective mortgages or securities; but all the securities, rights, and remedies of such persons respectively shall remain as good, ample, and effectual, to all intents and purposes, as if this Act had not been passed: provided also, that nothing herein contained shall prejudice or affect the power vested in the said metropolitan board under the firstly recited Act to borrow monies for paying off former securities.

V. From and after the passing of this Act the one metropolitan hundred and seventieth section of the firstly recited Act is hereby repealed; and in lieu thereof be it enacted, that the metropolitan board of works shall from time to time ascertain and assess upon the several parts of the metropolis the several sums which, having regard to the annual rateable value (g) of the property in such

(f) This is a mistake, the word "second" having originally referred to a provision ultimately struck out, and it has been retained by inadvertence. The second section of the present Act has no reference to the mortgage debts in question.

(g) The repeal of the 170th section of the former Act, and the re-enactment of its provisions in the present form, get rid of the necessity of assessing the expenses of maintaining main sewers on particular sections of the metropolis, on the assumed ground that those parts have been peculiarly benefited by them; and the outlay on main sewers is assimilated to that applicable to the intercepting works, the formation of streets, and other matters within the cognizance of the metropolitan board. The practical effect of the enactment is, that the works of the central board are treated as parts of a comprehensive system, directed to the object of conferring metropolitan and not merely local benefit, and the cost of their maintenance is regarded as being of metropolitan and not of local incidence. This enactment, applying to the gross sums to be raised by the board upon parishes, has no reference to a subject with which it has frequently been confounded, namely, the levying of sewer rates

parts respectively ought to be charged thereon for defraying the expenses of the said board in the execution of the firstly and secondly recited Acts and of this Act, and any such sums may be assessed wholly or in part in respect of expenses incurred or to be incurred, and also in respect of any unpaid balance of any former precept of the said board: Provided always, that such repeal shall not in any respect affect any act, matter, or thing whatsoever done or commenced to be done under or by virtue of the said firstly and secondly recited Acts, or any proceeding taken or to be taken under the thirdly recited Act, or to affect or prejudice, except as herein specially provided, in any way the rights or liabilities of any district or part under the one hundred and eightyfirst section of the firstly recited Act, but the same shall be judged of in all respects as if this Act had not been passed.

assessment.

VI. For the purpose of making any assessment under Basis of the preceding section, the board shall estimate the annual value of property according to the estimate or basis on which any county rate in force in any part of the metropolis is made, or, where there is no such county rate, according to a like estimate or basis. (h)

VII. All such assessments to be made by the metro- Mode of

within parishes in detail, and the liabilities of individual occupiers of property as regards exemption from rateability by reason of want of benefit, or on other grounds, which liabilities will be determined as heretofore. Before this Act, the 21 & 22 Vict. c. 104 (Main Drainage Act), had already sanctioned a departure from the principle established by the repealed section, and enacted that for the purpose of the assessments under that Act, all parts of the metropolis should be deemed to be equally benefited by the expenditure under it.

(h) That is, according to any estimate founded on the criterion established by the County Rate Act, viz., the full and fair annual value of the property rateable to the relief of the poor. The county rate has been objected to, but it ought to be, and there seems no valid reason why it should not be, a fair and equitable impost. If inequalities exist in the county rate, they should be set right on appeal, or by means of the periodical revision made by the magistrates.

assessment