By 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 96 (an Act for the regulation of parochial assessments), it was provided (a), that no poorrate shall be of any force which shall not be made on an estimate of the net annual value of the several hereditaments rated, that is to say, the rent at which the same may reasonably be expected to be let from year to year, free of all usual tenant rates and taxes, and tithes commutation rent-charge (if any), and deducting therefrom the probable average annual cost of the repairs, insurance, and other expenses (if any), necessary to maintain them in a state to command such rent. This statute also prescribes in what form the rate shall be made, and what particulars it shall comprise (b), and requires that the parish officers shall sign a declaration at the foot of it, to the effect that these particulars are true and correct as far as they have been able to ascertain by their best endeavours. And by 25 & 26 Vict. c. 103, and 27 & 28 Vict. c. 39, further provisions are made for securing (by a fresh valuation where required) the uniform and correct assessment of the rateable hereditaments comprised within all unions formed under the Poor Law Amendment Acts (c).

By 43 Eliz. c. 2, s. 1, no rate can be deemed valid unless it be allowed by two justices; and by 17 Geo. II. c. 3, public notice thereof is to be given at the parish church on the Sunday next after the same has been allowed (d). The allowance by the justices has been held to be a mere matter of form (e); but, after allowance and publication, any person aggrieved by the rate, and having reasonable

(a) As to this Act, see Report on Local Taxation, pp. 28, 48.

(b) As to the form of the rate, see The Queen v. Eastern Counties Railway Company, 5 Ell. & Bl. 974.

(c) See The Queen v. Justices of Kent, Law Rep., 6 Q. B. 132. As to the adoption of these provisions by unions not formed under the Poor Law Amendment Acts, see

25 & 26 Vict. c. 103, s. 45. As to the valuation of property in the metropolis, see 32 & 33 Vict. c. 67.

(d) As to the manner of giving notice, see 1 Vict. c. 45; Ormerod v. Chadwick, 16 Mee. & W. 367; Burnley, app. v. Methley Overseers, 1 E. & E. 789.

(e) R. v. Dorchester (Justices), Str. 393.

objection to it, as irregular and unequal, may appeal against it to the next practicable quarter sessions of the peace having jurisdiction in the place for which it is made.

But appeals against a poor-rate may also now in most cases be preferred to another jurisdiction; for by 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 96, the justices in petty sessions shall, four times at least in every year, hold a special sessions for hearing poor-rate appeals within their respective divisions (f); and their decision shall be conclusive, unless the parties impugning it shall, within fourteen days, give notice of appeal therefrom to the next general sessions or quarter sessions of the peace. In either course of proceeding the justices have power to affirm, quash, or amend the rate; or, if it become necessary to set the whole aside, may order the overseers to make a new one (g). They have also authority to award costs to the successful party (h) and the court of quarter sessions may make its decision (as in the case of an order of removal), subject to a special case for the opinion of the Queen's Bench.

It is the duty of the overseers, and of all persons having the collection, receipt, or distribution of the poorrate, to render to the proper auditors (i),-or, if there be none, to the guardians, or (where there are no such officers) to the justices in petty sessions,-once in every half year, (and oftener if required by the rules of the Local Government Board), an account of all monies and things received and expended and to verify the same on oath if required (k). And all balances remaining from time to time in the hands of the parish officers may be

(f) 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 96, s. 6. See also 27 & 28 Vict. c. 39.

(g) 17 Geo. 2, c. 38, s. 6; 41 Geo. 3, c. 23; 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 96, s. 6.

(h) 17 Geo. 2, c. 38, s. 6; 41 Geo. 3, c. 23; 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 96, s. 6. (i) See 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 76; 7 &

8 Vict. c. 101, s. 32, and 11 & 12 Vict. c. 91.

(k) Any parish officer supplying, for his own profit, any goods given by way of parochial relief, incurs a penalty of 51. (4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 76, s. 77; see Henderson v. Sherbourne, 2 Mec. & W. 236.)

recovered from them (if necessary) by a summary proceeding before two justices of the peace (1). Overseers are also bound to render an account at the end of their year of office (m).

Such are the general heads of the law relating to the poor; the great object of the whole system being to give such relief as charity requires to the necessitous and impotent poor, without affording encouragement to the idle (n). And it may safely be asserted that its operation can never be considered as satisfactory, except so far as

it tends to promote that combined result. For while humanity and religion prescribe the succour of the destitute, nothing is more obviously unreasonable than to compel the industrious part of the community to maintain those who are unwilling but able to labour. And surely they must be very defective in foresight as well as in justice who suffer one half of a parish to continue dissolute and unemployed, and at length are amazed to find that the industry of the other half is not sufficient to maintain the whole.

CHAPTER III.

OF THE LAWS RELATING TO CHARITIES AND

BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.

I. CHARITIES.-From the subject of the maintenance provided by law for the destitute poor, we may pass, by no abrupt transition, to that of public charities.

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Such charities have been always much favoured by the law (a). Thus, though gifts to superstitious uses were made void by a statute passed at the period of the Reformation, a distinction was allowed by the courts in favour of those for charitable purposes; which were held not to fall within the operation of that statute (b). For "no time," as Lord Coke observes, "was so bar"barous as to abolish learning, or so uncharitable as to prohibit relieving the poor" (c). And again by the 39 Eliz. c. 5, (made perpetual by 21 Jac. I. c. 1,) any person was enabled, by deed enrolled in Chancery, to found a hospital and to give it a corporate existence, with capacity to take and purchase goods and chattels, lands and tenements, to hold to them and their successors, without the king's licence (which by the statutes of mortmain is in general required where land is conveyed to a body corporate); subject only to these conditions, that the lands were freehold, in fee simple, of the clear value of 107. and not exceeding that of 2001. per annum (d).

(a) Bac. Ab. Ch. Uses, E.
(b) 23 Hen. 8, c. 10. See also 37
Hen. 8, c. 4; and 1 Edw. 6, c. 14.

(c) Porter's case, 1 Rep. 26.
(d) It was subsequently enacted

by 13 Geo. 3, c. 82 (see 24 & 25 Vict. c. 101), that all lying-in hospitals must be licensed; and provisions were made for regulating the settlement of bastards born therein.