As the statute expressly mentions both inhabitants and occupiers, inhabitants were held liable to be rated in propor tion to their ability within the parish, although they had no property there which was capable of occupation, and occupiers of property therein were held liable although they resided elsewhere. Accordingly both real corporeal property and personal property within the parish may be assessed, as constituting "the abi lity of the parish ;" real corporeal property, as Wad or houses, may be assessed, where soever the occupier resides, and personal property, if the owner is resident within the parish. Incorporeal real property, since it is not the subject of occupation, seems not to be rateable unless incidentally, when, as in the case of the tolls of a canal, it is, as it were, annexed to and enhances the value of corporeal real pro perty, which is the subject of occupation. As it is the occupier and not the owner of real corporeal property who is rated for it, it will be obvious that the term " real property " is not used in the poor laws according to its strict legal sense, and that the occupier of a house is rated for it, although he has a mere chattel interest in it, The term " per sonal property" is also used in a re stricted sense ; it denotes stock in trade, and such things as are not at all of the nature of reality, and excludes chattels real. The assessment is laid in respect of the revenue or annual profit of the property rated, whether real or personal. Such property therefore as is incapable of yielding profit is not rateable. The assessment upon land and houses, &c. is calculated upon an estimate of their net annual value, which is defined to be the rent at which they would let from year to year, free of all tenant's rates and taxes, and tithe commutation rent charge, if any, and deducting the probable average of annual costs of repairs, in surance, and any other expenses which may be necessary to maintain the premises in a state to command such rent. Personal property was not rated unless it had, as it were, a local existence ; and therefore neither stock in the funds nor money was rateable. Furniture also was ex empted, because it yielded no profit. In practice the only kind of personal pro perty ever rated, and that in very few places, was stock in trade and ship& The rating of this species of property was attended with disadvantages The rate was to be made on the profit, which was defined to be not the whole profit, but the excess after payment of debts. Thus it was nearly impossible to ascertain the rateable amount of such property, and the proprietor might always evade the tax by residing out of the parish. So long however as per sonal property was rateable by law, the omission of it in the rate was a ground of appeal, because all persons liable are to be rated equally according to their ability.. The inconvenience attending this state of things induced the legisla ture (by the 3 & 4 Vict. c. 83) to sus pend the enactments which authorised the rating of inhabitants in respect of stock in trade, and by subsequent acts to continue the exemption from the liability to be rated in respect of such property until the 1st October, 1846.
It is unnecessary to make any detailed remarks on tithes and other property which, by the statute of Elizabeth, are expressly made chargeable.
If a parish is unable to furnish a suffi cient sum for the maintenance of its poor, any other parish in the same hundred, with the sanction of two justices, or in any other part of the county, with the sanction of the justices at quarter sessions, may be called upon to assist the less solvent parish. This is called
rating parishes in aid.
The overseers are to collect the rate from the persons rated. If a person rated do not pay when called upon, the overseers may obtain a summons from two justices, requiring him to show cause why a warrant should not issue to levy the rate by distress and sale of his goods; and if no sufficient cause is shown, the payment is enforced accordingly. The party so summoned may show for cause that the rate itself is void, or that he is not liable; he may also, with the consent of the overseers, or Board of Guardians, be excused, if it appear that he is unable to pay through poverty. He may also ap peal against the rate, and notice of ap peal deprives the magistrates of their jurisdiction to distrain until the appeal is decided, unless the objection is solely on the ground of overcharge, in which case the warrant may issue for such a sum as the property was rated at in the last valid rate. The appeal against the rate on the ground of inequality, unfairness, or incorreteness in the valuation of the property rated, may be to justices at petty-sessions, from whose decision a second appeal lies to the general quarter sessions. The appeal, on the above grounds, may also be taken to the quar ter-sessions in the first instance. If the objection be to the principle of the rate itself, or it is intended to dispute the lia bility of the property to be rated, the ap peal lies to the quarter-sessions only. In all these cases of appeal, notice of appeal and of the precise objections to the rate must be given to the parish-officers, and also to any rated inhabitants that may be interested in opposing the appellant, as, for instance, where his ground of com plaint is that they have been underrated.
The overseers, who in some parishes act under the direction of a select vestry, and are assisted by assistant overseers, are to apply the poor-rate to the relief of the poor of their parish. The poor of the parish are, in one sense, all those who happen to be in the parish at the time of their being in distress ; for the parish in which they happen to be is bound to afford such paupers im mediate, or, as it is called, casual relief. But if the same parish were bound also to afford continued relief to, or perma nently to maintain, all the destitute who should come within it, the burden of supporting the poor might press very unequally upon different parishes. Paupers would then, influenced by their own fancy, or instigated to exonerate some other parish, have the power of fastening themselves for ever on any particular parish, or of roaming at plea sure from one parish to another in unre stricted vagrancy. The 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 12, was passed to obviate these evils, and is the foundation of the pre sent law which determines the parish that a pauper belongs to, and gives the power of removing him to it. This law is called the law of Settlement. The statute enables two justices, upon com plaint made by the churchwardens or overseers of the poor of any parish, to any justice of the peace, within forty days after a person coming to settle there, in any tenement under the yearly value of lot., by their warrant to re move such person to the parish where he was " last legally settled, either as a native, householder, sojourner, appren tice, or servant, for the space of forty days at the least." Later statutes have greatly modified the heads of the settle ment here enumerated, and have added others ; they have also made a pauper irremovable, until he has become charge able to the foreign parish by receiving relief from it, either in person or through the hands of his wife or children.