augmented by subsidies under Richard II. These subsidies were levied on real and personal property, generally at the rate of 4s. in the £ for realty, and 2s. 8d. for personalty. The amount which a subsidy so levied brought in came to be recognized as a fixed sum of £70,000, and that sum was understood when Parliament granted to the Crown a certain number of subsidies at one time. Subsidies were continued under the Tudors and Stuarts, and were granted sometimes by fixed sums and sometimes by a general rate of 4s. and 2s. 8d. in the £. The Commonwealth continued to levy fixed sums by quotas from each county or borough, and these quotas were raised by a rate on an assessment of the annual values of the real and personal property in each parish or district, made by commissioners (t) appointed for that purpose. After the Restoration in 1660, feudal tenures, the Court of Wards and Liveries, and the right of purveyance with the corresponding revenues were finally abolished by the 12 Car. II. c. 24, and it appears that Parliament contemplated a perpetual grant of £100,000 per annum by a tax levied on land in lieu of these revenues. (u) This resolution was not carried into effect, and the Act abolishing the feudal tenures granted the Crown certain taxes on ale, beer, and other liquors to make up for the loss of the feudal revenue.

The system, however, adopted by the Commonwealth continued to be practised, and fixed sums under the name of an aid (and occasionally of a subsidy (x)) levied on real and personal property by fixed quotas from each county or borough, or by a rate of varying amount on the annual value, (y) were generally granted in every year (2) during the reign of Charles II. and subsequent reigns. The valuations of the annual values of real and personal property were made by commissioners for each district appointed by the Act which granted the tax, and the necessary quotas were raised by a

(t) See Scobell's Collection of Acts and Ordinances, 1640-1656, p. 400

et seq.

(u) See resolution of the House of Commons to that effect, Journ. H. of Com., 1660, p. 45.

(x) See 15 Car. II. c. 9.

(y) See 1 Will. & M. sess. 2, c. 1, where the rate was 2s. in the £ on the annual value of real and personal property.

(z) See amongst others 12 Car. II. cc. 2, 27; 29 Car. II. c. 1.

rate on the annual values so determined. In the reign of Anne (a) we find a grant of an aid by divers subsidies and a land tax; and in the same year a grant of a land tax to meet the expenses of the war against France and Spain. (b) But though called a land tax, a tax on personalty was included in the Acts, which were annual until 1798. The tax did not, and does not now, extend to Ireland, but it was extended to Scotland by the Act of Union in 1707, (c) the quotas for the two countries being fixed in the proportion of £48,000 for Scotland and £1,997,763 for England. The present quotas raised from each county and borough are those fixed by the Land Tax Perpetuation Act, 1798, (d) which made perpetual, subject to redemption, the provisions of the Land Tax Act, 1797, as to the quotas to be raised from the various counties and boroughs, and as to the amounts to be contributed by England and Scotland, which were fixed at £1,989,673, and £47,954, respectively. (e) The tax on personalty was, by the Act of 1797, directed to be levied at the rate of 4s. in the £, (ƒ) but the Act of 1798 provided that the rates on personalty were to be levied separately and according to the provision of future Acts. (g) In 1799 Pitt introduced the Income Tax, (h) but the old tax on personalty still continued to be levied under the authority of annual Acts until it was finally abolished in 1833. (i)

Management and Incidence. The collection and management of the tax is now under the control of the Inland Revenue Commissioners, subject to the supervision of the Treasury. The tax falls on owners, and must not exceed 1s., or be less than 1d. in the £, on the same valuation as that made by the General Commissioners of Income Tax for the purposes of Schedule A of the Income Tax Act, 1842, viz. on the yearly value at a rack rent less the amount necessary for repairs. (k)

(a) 1 Anne, c. 12. (d) 38 Geo. III. c. 60; re-enacted by 42 Geo. III. c. 16. Reg. v. Tower Land Tax Commissioners (1853), 22 L. J. Q. B. 386. The quotas fixed upon the various parishes by the commissioners in 1798, under the Land Tax Act, 1797 (38 Geo. III. c. 5), cannot now be varied so as to equalize the incidence of the tax.

(b) 1 Anne, st. 2, c. 1. (c) 5 Anne, c. 8, s. 9. And see

(e) 38 Geo. III. c. 5, ss. 2, 128.
(f) 38 Geo. III. c. 5, s. 3.
(h) 39 Geo. III. cc. 13, 22.

(k) Finance Act, 1896, ss. 31-35.

(Ib.)

(g) Ib. c. 60, s. 2.

(i) 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 12.

On questions of assessment appeal lies to the district commissioners, whose decision is final, and there is no appeal by case stated to the High Court, as in the case of Income or House Tax.

Unless otherwise provided for in the lease, a tenant pays the tax and deducts it from the current rent, and unless he does so he cannot recover it later. A general covenant, throwing the liability for taxes upon the tenant, embraces the Land Tax (Amfield v. White), (l) and a tenant paying a premium, and holding at less than a rack rent, is liable for a proportionate part of the tax (Ward v. Const). (m) Crown property in the occupation of the Crown is exempt, but not if it is in private occupation; (n) and owners, the value of whose lands in the aggregate does not amount to the yearly value of 20s., are also exempt. The tax may be redeemed by any person having an interest in the land except tenants at a rack rent, and tenants under the Crown, (o) and the amount payable for redemption is now fixed at thirty years' purchase by the Finance Act, 1896. (p) Redemption is controlled by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, and the tax has now lost much of its former importance, since the greater portion of it has now been redeemed.

The Inhabited House Duty.

History and Incidence. This tax was first imposed in 1778; (q) it was, however, abandoned in 1834, but re-imposed in 1851 (r) on the abolition of the Window Tax, which was first imposed in 1696. (s)

The tax applies to Great Britain only, and not to Ireland, and falls upon occupiers (not lodgers or servants). It is charged upon all inhabited houses of the annual value of £20 and upwards. To bring a house within the Act as inhabited some one must sleep upon the premises; (t) but this does not include premises used purely for trade business or professional purposes, in which a caretaker resides solely for purposes of

(1) (1825) R. & M. 246.

(n) See 42 Geo. III. c. 116, s. 141.
(0) Ib. s. 10; 16 & 17 Vict. c. 117, s. 1.
(p) S. 40.

(r) 14 & 15 Vict. c. 36.

(t) Riley v. Read (1879), 4 Ex. D. 100.

(m) (1830) 10 B. & C. 635.

(q) 18 Geo. III. c. 26.
(s) 7 & 8 Will. III. c. 18.

protection. (u) Where a house is divided into distinct properties, each is treated as a house for taxing purposes; but where a house not so subdivided is let to two or more lodgers or tenants, the owner is treated as the occupier subject to certain exemptions for working-class dwelling, and reductions for registered lodging-houses.

Houses belonging to the king, public offices, and such buildings as hospitals, charity schools, or houses for the relief of the poor, are exempt from the tax, as also are premises occupied for purposes of trade or for professional purposes only, houses of less than £20 yearly value, houses subdivided into dwellings of less than that amount, dwelling-houses unoccupied or unfurnished and in the occupation of a caretaker only. The assessment in country districts is made by local assessors under the local Income Tax Commissioners (x) on the annual value at a rack rent, or the rent at which the property is worth to be let by the year. Appeal lies to the local Income Tax Commissioners, whose decision is final, unless they choose to state a case for the High Court. The assessment must not in any case be less than the poor rate valuation. In the County of London the valuation is that made by the surveyors of taxes under the Metropolis Valuation Act, 1869. (y) By the Act of 1851 and subsequent Acts two scales of duty are fixed. For ordinary dwelling-houses the rates are— £20 and not exceeding £40, 3d. in the £.

In the second class are shops, hotels, inns, coffee, lodging, and farm houses, and the corresponding rates for these are 2d., 4d., and 6d.

The collection and management of the tax is under the control of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue.

Crown Lands, and the Hereditary Revenues of the Crown.

The ancient hereditary revenues of the Crown are derived principally from such lands, or interests in land, as have, or

(u) 41 & 42 Vict. c. 15, s. 13 (2); 44 Vict. c. 12, s. 34.
(x) Taxes Management Act, 1880 (43 & 44 Vict. c. 19).
(y) 32 & 33 Vict. c. 67.

may become, vested in the sovereign in his body politic in right of the Crown. (2) In addition to these are the revenues derived from prerogative rights relating to property, such are the right to bona vacantia (including waifs, wrecks, estrays, and treasure trove), and to certain fisheries, royal fish, and swans; the revenues derived from droits of Admiralty, and the Courts of Justice, and from fines, recognizances, legal fees and forfeitures. Besides these there were formerly certain revenues derived from prerogative rights relating to the Church, such as the temporalities of bishoprics during vacancy, corodies, firstfruits, and tenths, which have been diverted to other uses, or, in the case of corodies, fallen into disuse; (a) together with certain revenues derived from taxation which were settled upon the Crown by statute, and have now been surrendered to the nation along with the other hereditary revenues in the manner presently mentioned, and are either paid into the Consolidated Fund, or have ceased to be chargeable. These were the revenues derived from the post office, which are now paid into the Consolidated Fund; the hereditary excise on beer, ale, and cider, now no longer

(z) These comprise the ancient demesne lands which the Crown acquired on the original distribution of property, and lands coming to it afterwards by virtue of the prerogative, such as the foreshore, lands formed by alluvion, or diluvion, or the right to royal mines, or lands acquired by escheat or forfeiture. (See 1 Bl. Com., 14th Ed. 286.)

(a) The temporalities of bishoprics on avoidances are now paid to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the bishop receives a fixed income in lieu of the former revenues. (See the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act, 1860, 23 & 24 Vict. c. 124, s. 1.) A corody was the right to send a chaplain to be maintained by the bishop, or to have a pension allowed him until the bishop promoted him to a benefice; this has apparently fallen into disuse. (See 1 Bl. Com. 14th Ed. 283.) Firstfruits consist of the first year's whole profits of a benefice, and tenths, of the tenth part of the annual revenues and profits. They were first introduced into England, it seems, by Pandulph, the Pope's legate, in the reign of John and Henry III. (See 1 Bl. Com. 14th Ed. 283; 26 Hen. 8, c. 3, s. 29; Rochester (Bishop) v. Le Fanu, [1906] 2 Ch. 513, 518.) They were made payable to the Crown out of all livings, and enforceable by writ of extent. (See stats. 26 Hen. VIII. c. 3; 33 Hen. VIII, c. 39, s. 55.) They were resigned by Anne to trustees to form the fund called Queen Anne's Bounty. (See 2 & 3 Ann. c. 11, Ruff. s. 1.) They are now rated under statute at £1 and 17s. 6d. for every £100 of the annual value, and paid to the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty, to form a fund for the augmentation of poor livings. (See the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act, 1836, 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 77; O. in C. 27th Nov., 1852; Rochester (Bishop) v. Le Fanu, supra, at p. 520.)