their several quarterly payments; and the receiver-general is to allow three-halfpence in the pound to the commissioners' clerks, who are to be appointed by a majority of the acting commissioners present at each meeting within every hundred, &c. for their pains in furnishing the assessments, duplicates and copies directed by the act to be made, and all warrants, orders and instructions relating thereto (s. 14).

Collectors and assessors prosecuted in the execution of the act may plead the general issue; and if the plaintiff or prosecutor shall become nonsuit, or forbear further prosecution, or suffer a discontinuance, or if a verdict pass against him, the defendant is entitled to treble costs (s. 39).

SECTION 3.

As to the Mode in which the Assessments are to be collected, and the Rights, Remedies and Liabilities of Parties chargeable therewith.

All places are to be taxed in the counties, hundreds, &c. in which they have been usually assessed (s. 36); but lands not worth 20s. a year are not chargeable (s. 30). The tax is to be demanded of the parties themselves, if they can be found, or else at the place of their last abode, or upon the premises charged with the assessment (s. 9).

Tenants may pay the tax, and deduct it out of their rent; and if any difference should arise between them and their landlords respecting any rates assessed under the act, the commissioners may settle the same (ss. 17 and 18); but contracts between landlords and tenants as to the payment of taxes and assessments are not to be affected by the act (s. 35).

Where lands or houses are unoccupied, and no distress

12

MODE IN WHICH ASSESSMENTS ARE TO BE COLLECTED.

can be found on them by reason whereof, the parish or place in which they are situated is forced to make good the tax assessed upon such unoccupied lands or houses; the collectors may distrain at any time after, and distribute the money raised proportionably among the parties who contributed to the tax of the unoccupied lands or houses (s. 40). And where any woodlands shall be assessed, and no distress can be had, the collectors, by warrant under the hands and seals of two of the commissioners, may cut and sell so much of the wood (timber trees excepted) as shall be sufficient to pay the assessments unpaid and the charges (s. 41). So where the tax is assessed upon any tithes, tolls, profits of markets, fairs, fisheries or other annual profits, the collectors may, with the like authority, seize and sell so much of such tithes, tolls, &c. as shall be sufficient to satisfy the tax and the charges (s. 42).

Should any person be doubly rated, he will, upon obtaining a certificate from the commissioners of the sums charged upon him, and upon such certificate being verified upon oath, be discharged from such double rate (s. 54) (g). And where the lands of a whole parish, town or place, are charged with more than 4s. in the pound upon the yearly value thereof, because the estates of persons formerly doubly taxed are made liable only to a single assessment, the commissioners may, on the application of the owners and occupiers, inquire into the matter, and certify to the Barons of the Exchequer the names of the persons doubly taxed, who may discharge the overplus, or so much of the sum chargeable as shall exceed the pound rate of 4s. in the pound (s. 116), the benefit of such discharge being confined to the parishes or places formerly over-burthened (s. 115) (h).

(g) As to the further remedies given for relief against double assessment, see 1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 21, post, p. 29.

(h) As to the power of appeal in cases of unequal assessment, see pp. 6 and 8, ante.

SECTION 4.

As to the Enactments relating to particular Subjects and to particular Places.

Fee-farm rents, and all other rents, payments, sums of money and annuities, issuing out of or payable for any lands, are liable to contribute towards the tax, and tenants may pay the same and deduct the amount from their rents (s. 24).

And auditors and receivers of fee-farm rents, answerable to the crown, or which have been purchased from the crown by virtue of the acts 22 & 23 Charles 2, c. 24, and which were not before the 25th of March, 1793, payable to any college, hospital, reader in either university, or any person exempted by the act, are to allow four shillings for every pound of such rents, and a proportionate rate for any greater sum than ten shillings, to the party paying the same; and any auditor, &c. setting in and upon any tenants for what ought to be allowed, or refusing allowance, is to forfeit 1007. (s. 30).

Assessments on the houses of foreign ministers to be paid by the landlord or owner (s. 46).

Shareholders in the New River, or in the Thames, Marylebone or Hampstead Waterworks, and in fire insurance offices, and in the stock in the king's printing-house, are to pay four shillings for every pound of yearly value; and they and all companies of merchants in London, and the Bank of England, and all salaries and pensions (taxable in London) payable at the General Post Office and Excise Office charged by the act, are to be assessed by commissioners nominated for the city; and the assessments are to be paid by the governors, or the respective treasurers or receivers of such waterworks, &c., to such persons as the commissioners appoint for the collection, and be deducted

out of their next dividend; any persons chargeable refusing to pay are liable to distress (s. 58).

And every person having a salary in respect of any office or employment exercised in the ward of London, where the post-office is situate, to be assessed in that ward (s. 57).

The King's Bench and Marshalsea prisons, and all rents, offices, &c., and the prison-house, lands, &c., and all other offices and perquisites of the marshalsea court, and the judges of that court, and the counsel practising there, are to be assessed after the rate of four shillings in the pound in the assessment of St. George the Martyr, and on refusing to pay are liable to distress (ss. 59, 60).

For the better guidance of assessors, the officers in the receipt of the Exchequer and in other public offices, are to deliver true lists or accounts of all pensions, annuities, stipends or other annual payments, and of all fees, salaries and other allowances payable at the said receipt, or in the said public offices, to any commissioner or other officer; and if the tax on them be not paid it may be deducted (s. 32).

Every person rated or assessed for his office or employment is to be rated in the county, city or place where the same is exercised (s. 51).

The Master of the Rolls, masters in chancery, clerks of the petty bag, examiners, and all other officers of the Court of Chancery who execute their offices within the liberty of the Rolls, are to be there assessed for their respective offices, salaries and other profits; and the masters in chancery and registrars for the time being are to be the commissioners for putting the act into execution within the said liberty.

All annuities, stipends and pensions payable to any officers in respect of their offices are to be taxed and assessed, where such officers are rated and assessed, for the offices, and all other pensions, stipends and annuities in the parishes or places where they are payable (s. 52).

But with regard to the pension list, one-half is to be charged in the division of the palaces of Whitehall and St. James's, and the other half with the offices executed in Westminster Hall (s. 73).

All offices and places assessed for the years 1703 and 1704, within the palaces of Whitehall and St. James's, to be assessed within those palaces (s. 72).

Patent offices to bishoprics to be charged where assessed in the year 1693 (s. 76).

The waterworks in the borough of Southwark are to be assessed in that borough by the commissioners and assessors of the county of Surrey, and not by the commissioners and assessors of London, and according to their clear yearly profits (s. 70).

The waterworks in Westminster are to be assessed there, and not in the city of London (s. 71).

The collectors of the profits of the waterworks at Colchester in Essex, in New Windsor, in Exon, and in Shrewsbury to be charged (ss. 74, 75, 97, 114).

The officers of the dock-yard at Stoke Damerell, near Plymouth, are to be assessed where the salaries of the old dock-yard at Plymouth, in 1693, were assessed, but the parish of Stoke Damerell must not be charged with a greater proportion in respect of such salaries and profits than they were in 1693 (s. 62).

And the officers of the hospital at East Stonehouse, near Plymouth, are to be assessed within Plymouth, but the parish of East Stonehouse must not be charged with a greater proportion than they were in 1759, and twenty pounds out of the assessment on the officers of such hospital are to be paid in aid of the assessment on the parish of East Stonehouse (s. 64).

The commissioners, clerks and other officers of the Stamp Office are to be assessed in Shire Lane ward, within the division of St. Clement Danes and St. Mary-le-Strand