Assimilation of other Rates ii} 
local acts and two to the great statute of Henry 
VIIL. As the law created liability in respect of all 
property which received benefit or avoided damage 
by means of the sewers, all houses were supposed to 
pe included in its provisions, whether drained or not, 
unless they were on “high lands” such as Hamp- 
stead, on the ground that they all received benefit 
from the surface-drainage of the streets. The rate 
was collected from the occupiers, but was deductible 
from the rent in the absence of agreement to the 
contrary! The commissions were non-representative 
and absurdly large bodies; that for Westminster had 
about 200 members? All the London commissions, 
except that for the City, the work of which is now 
done by the Public Health Department of the Corpora- 
tion, were consolidated into one in 1848 (by 11 & 12 
Vict, ¢. 112), and the new body made way to the 
Metropolitan Board of Works under the Metropolis 
Management Act, 1855 (18 & 19 Vict, ¢. 120). This 
act was careful to provide that the rearrangement 
which it effected should not prejudice the right of 
the occupier to deduct the sewers-rate from his rent. 
But similar care was not taken when the Local 
Government Act of 1888 was passed. Under that 
act the sewers-rate levied by the central authority 
lost its separate existence, and the right to deduct 
it from rent consequently disappeared® This was 
not the result of any deep design. but of a mere 
1 Report from Select Committee on Metropolitan Sewers, Parliamen- 
tary Papers, 1834, vol xv. pp. i.—vi. 
* Report from Select Committee on Sewers in the Metropolis (Parlia- 
mentary Papers, 1823, vol. v.), Minutes of Evidence, p. 28. 
* Royal Commission on the Amalgamation of the City and County of 
London, 1894 ; Minutes of Evidence, Questions 1236-42, 
wv