who are to summon a petty sessions; and the justices at such petty sessions are empowered to proceed summarily, and after hearing and examining on oath the party grieved, and the churchwardens, &c., of the parish, or place, to order damages, in their discretion, to be paid to the former, out of the county, city, or town rates. But an appeal to the quarter sessions is given to persons thinking themselves aggrieved (a). CHAP. III. OF EXEMPTIONS AND LIABILITIES. Of Rates and Taxes. UNDER this head are included the land tax; the poor's rate; the window tax; the inhabited house duty; and parochial or ward taxes, as they respectively apply to chapels and charitable institutions. the cri Beneficial occupation, irrespective of its ultimate Beneficial purpose, constitutes the criterion of rateability, with occupation regard to the two first of these taxes (b); and the terion. measure of rateability is not the individual benefit of the occupier, but the entire profit of the thing occupied (c). Hence, the ground on which a place of Land tax.) worship or building for a charitable purpose is erected, is not, as a necessary consequence of that erection, exonerated from a land tax to which it was pre (a) Vide 3 Geo. 4, c. 33. (b) R. v. Munday & others, 1 East, 584; 42 Geo. 3, c. 116. (c) R. v. Parrott, 5 T. R. 593; R. v. St. Austell, 5 B. & A. 693. K Poor rate. viously liable (a); but where held on lease, and no profit is derived from it by any person, beyond the amount of rent reserved, the rent furnishes the measure of the assessment; and if no rent is reserved, or the inheritance is in the trustees, and no profit whatever is derived from it by any person, it is not liable to the tax at all. So, if a profit is made of a chapel, or other building for charitable purposes, whether it be annual and fixed, or contingent and varying, as by letting pews, or in any other way; whoever makes that profit, either the trustee or the preacher, may be considered a beneficial occupier, and is rateable to the poor in respect of the thing occupied. And if pews are let by trustees, in whom the property vests, they are deemed to make a profit of the rent, and are rateable for it, even though the expenditure of the trust exceeds its income; the subsequent disposition of the rent being considered altogether a matter of private arrangement (b). But if a chapel is solely used for charitable and religious purposes, and no pecuniary advantage arises from it to any person, although a part of it be inhabited by a door-keeper, and various other persons, supported out of a voluntary fund, no one can be considered to have a beneficial occupation subject to the poor's rate (c). (a) As to exonerations by statutes, vide 46 Geo. 3, c. 133, s. 2; 49 Geo. 3, c. 67 38 Geo. 3, c. 5, s. 25, &c. (b) R. v. Agar, 14 East, 256; Jones v. Mansell, Doug. ; 302; Rowls v. Gells, Cowp. It may be observed under this head, that mere nominal trustees are not rateable, because their occupation is neither beneficial to themselves nor to those who might be considered occupiers, if they were not so (a). And on the same principle, pew-holders (6), it appears; founders of a charity who derive no profit from it (c); and poor inmates who have no control over the premises they inhabit, are not rateable (d); but where the objects of a charity have such a property therein as may constitute them beneficial occupiers (e), or where there is a beneficial occupier for their benefit, as in the case of trustees of a chapel, the surplus profit of which goes to the preacher, the property is rateable to the poor (ƒ). Windows in any room of a dwelling house licensed Window according to law, as a chapel for divine worship, and tax. for no other purpose; and hospitals, charity schools, and houses for the reception and relief of poor persons, except the apartments therein which are occupied by the officers or servants of the charity, and which are to be severally assessed as entire dwelling houses, are exempted from the window tax; but they must be stated in the certificate of assessment; and on proof of the several grounds of exemption, may be discharged by the commissioners (g). (a) R. v. St. Bart. Hosp. 4 Burr. 2435; R. v. St.Luke's, 2 Burr. 1053. (b) Ibid. (c) R. v. Agar, supra; R. v. Waldo. Cald. 358. (d) R. v. St. Bart. Hosp. and St. Luke's Hosp. supra; (e) R. v. Catt, 6 T. R. 332. Inhabited house duty. Parochial taxes. Charity schools, hospitals, houses for the reception or relief of poor persons, are exempted from the inhabited house duty (a). Chapels used exclusively for divine worship, do not come within this description. The watch, scavenger, lamp, sewer, and other and ward parochial or ward taxes, depend for their applicability to chapels and charitable institutions, on the several statutes and local provisions, under the authority of which they are respectively levied (b): but if they are taxes on the occupier, beneficial occupation, as in the instances before mentioned, will be the criterion of their rateability. CHAP. IV. OF THE JURISDICTION OF COURTS OF LAW AND IT has been already stated, that the religious worship of Protestant Dissenters; their institutions for the inculcation of doctrine not contrary to law; and their various charities and trusts of a nature not illegal, are now protected by the general jurisprudence of the country (c). It remains to consider, briefly, those cases of exemption or peculiarity, by which the laws comprised in this division of the Summary are distinguished. (a) Ibid, Sch. (B). Geo. 2, c. 22, &c. (c) Vide supra, pp. 18, 21. SEC. II. Of the Charities and Trusts of Protes tant Dissenters. ordinary THE ordinary rules of jurisprudence which for the How far Dissenting most part govern these charities and trusts equally charities with others, do not form the subject of inquiry. It and trusts subject to needs only be observed, that the legal property in chapels and charities among Protestant Dissenters, rules. is usually vested in trustees, by deeds of trust; that this property is modified and adapted, so far as consists with its intrinsic nature and quality, to the convenience of the respective communities to which it belongs; and that, in the absence of all provision on the subject, usage is sometimes permitted to regulate these trusts and charities, even in contradiction to the principles of public policy. Trusts and charities so modelled, become, like all others, creatures of equity, and are subject to the control of the court of Chancery. Much of the general law respecting these, and other topics included in this chapter, may be found in the text books, under the heads-Of Trusts; Endowments; ByeLaws; the Visitorial Power; the distinction of Appointments and Devises; the operation of the Statute of Mortmain; Validity of the Gift, but Nullity of the Use; changing the Use to purposes eodem genere: Uncertainty of Devises and Appointments; of the Doctrine of cypres; Misemployment; Trustees; Surplus Rents; Commission; Inquisition; Decree; Exceptions; and other titles enumerated in a preceding chapter (a). Of the cases of exemption or peculiarity which (a) Vide supra, p. 76, n. (b) |