[12 
History of Local Rates 
the several inhabitants, “according to their method 
of rating for the poor.” ? 
The sewers-rate alone of the rates which came into 
existence before the Commonwealth period has main- 
tained a really separate existence. It has never been 
possible for even the densest mind to overlook the 
fact that the defence of land against inundation is 
for the benefit of those who have interests in the 
land liable to be flooded, and consequently in the 
apportionment of expenses the amount of benefit ex- 
pected to accrue has always remained the recognised 
principle. There has thus been no scope for the con- 
fusion between rating a person because the fact that 
he occupies land of a certain annual value shows 
approximately that he has a certain ability to pay, 
and rating him because the value of his land is 
increased. When benefit received, and not ability 
to pay, is clearly recognised as the principle of assess- 
ment, it is evident that persons interested in the lands 
which, in the phrase of the Bedford Level Act of 
1649, are “ bettered ” 2 by the expenditure should pay 
according to the extent of their interests in the im- 
provement. So in the case of rural marshes and 
low-lying grounds the old law has remained practi- 
cally unaltered, and the sewers-rate has never become 
mixed up with the poor-rate. 
But at the beginning of the present century the 
sewers-rate was widely applied to the purposes of 
house and street drainage. In London there were 
seven commissions of sewers, five being subject to 
1 Vol: i. p. 478. The act of 1 585 was repealed in 1827 by 7& 8 
Geo. 1V,, c. 27. = 
2 In Scobell, Acts and Ordinances, Pt. ii. p. 37.