OF NUS: PAROCHIAL ASSESSMENTS, EXPLAINED IN A PRACTICAL COMMENTARY ON THE STATUTE 6 & 7 WILL. 4, CAP. 96. Third Edition. BY WILLIAM GOLDEN LUMLEY, ESQ. OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE POOR LAW BOARD. London: SHAW AND SONS, FETTER LANE, PUBLISHERS OF THE BOOKS AND FORMS OF THE POOR LAW BOARD. NOTICE. In preparing the third edition of this little work I have carefully revised the text, and have introduced the various new subjects and matters connected with Parochial Assessment which have arisen during the interval since the publication of the last edition. Several interesting questions have been decided by the superior courts of law, but no important statutory enactment, bearing upon the assessment to the Poorrate has been passed, though an attempt was made, by some of the Cornish members of Parliament in the last session, to render all mines assessable to the Poorrate. Two bills were introduced, and were much considered. There was no discussion in the House, but considerable opposition to them out of it. The attention of Parliament, however, was too much engrossed by the great public topic then agitating it, to give attention to a subject like this, upon which there was a great conflict of interests, and therefore neither bill was read a second time. W. G. L. Dec. 6, 1855. INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION. A short time after the publication of the former edition of this work, the Poor Law Commissioners submitted to Parliament the valuable report upon local taxation, compiled by their assistant secretary, Mr. Coode. That able treatise exhausted the general topics, principles, and rules, which applied to the numerous local rates and taxes then existing, wholly or partially, throughout the kingdom. It also contained a series of useful suggestions for the amendment of the law in reference to this subject. In 1846, Mr. Knight published a digest of the law relating to the local taxes of England, Ireland, and Scotland, which had been prepared by Mr. Danby P. Fry, one of their officers, and a member of Lincoln's Inn. This is a more technical compilation than that of the previous report, but will be found of great use to those who have occasion to investigate any local tax or rate. Mr. Hodgson has also published a concise but clear treatise upon the rating of railways. Mr. Smirke, in his letter to Lord Campbell, upon the same subject, published in 1851, has given a full exposition of the difficulties which attend that subject (a), but I am not (a) I have now to refer to a very practical tract, by Mr. H. W. Cripps, published in 1853, entitled "How to rate a Railway, in accordance with the Decisions of the Court of Queen's Bench;" and to the Treatises of Mr. Hodges and Mr. Wordsworth upon the Law of Railways in general, which contain chapters upon this subject. |