P 
History of Local Rates 
most characteristic feature of the English system of 
local taxation—the fact that it is levied on occupiers 
in proportion to the annual value of the immovable 
property they occupy. The sixth chapter deals 
with the effort of those who thought themselves 
peculiarly interested in local rates so to arrange 
the relations of local and national finance that local 
rates should bear as little and national taxes as much 
of public expenses as possible. In the geventh and 
pighth chapters I discuss the merits of the system 
as it now exists. 
Almost all the money raised by English local taxa- 
tion at present is raised either by means of the poor- 
rate or by means of other rates which, though they 
have names of their own, are in reality nothing but 
additions to the poor-rate. It is consequently natural 
for the legal mind, which never goes behind a statute, 
to explain the fact that occupiers are rated in respect 
of certain property by a simple reference to the act 
of 1601, on which the poor-rate is based to this day. 
In June 1894 the deputy-chairman of the London 
County Council, in examination before the House 
of Lords Committee on Betterment, ventured to 
suggest that the reason people are rated on property 
is «because it is the best criterion of ‘the measure of 
the ease with which a person can bear rating.” Lord 
Salisbury remarked that this was “ rather a formidable 
doctrine to lay down,” whereupon the present Lord 
Chancellor said, “ The reason you are rated is because 
the act of Elizabeth says you shall be.”? But. first, 
U Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Town 
Improvements (Betterment), No. 292 of 1894, Minutes of Evidence, 
Duestions 2011-14.