BEST METHODS OF TAXATION. 531 



be taxed. The property to be assessed must be local, visible, and 

 productive; it must consist only of the surj^lus left after deducting 

 debts; it must be rated according to the profit produced; and its 

 nature must be distinctly specified. " Consequently, such subjects 

 as wages, pensions, easements, profits derived from labor and talent, 

 profits from money invested or lent elsewhere, and furniture, were 

 exempt." 



The absence of all attempts to tax or value property other than 

 what was visible and tangible continued to the reign of Queen 

 Anne, when a single decision of the court pointed to the taxation 

 of the stock in trade of a tradesman, a decision that does not appear 

 to have been acted upon. As late as 1775 Lord Mansfield said, " In 

 general, I believe neither here nor in any other part of the king- 

 dom is personal property taxed to the poor." At all events, it could 

 not be taxed unless usage could support it. Toward the end of the 

 century, when taxation for the Napoleonic wars was touching more 

 intimately the concerns of the people, the idea of subjecting personal 

 property to the poor rate was favored, but nearly half a century 

 passed before it attracted attention. In their report for 1843 on 

 local taxation the poor-law commissioners gave the following sum- 

 mary of the status of this question: 



" The practice of rating stock in trade never prevailed in the 

 greater part of England and Wales. It was, with comparatively 

 few exceptions, confined to the old clothing districts of the south 

 and west of England. It gained ground just as the stock of the 

 wool staplers and clothiers increased, so as to make it an object with 

 the farmers and other rate payers, who still constituted a majority 

 in their parishes, to bring so considerable a property within the 

 rate. They succeeded by degrees, and there followed upon their 

 success a more improvident practice in giving relief than had ever 

 prevailed before in England. . . . When the practice of rating 

 stock in trade was fully established in this district, the ancient staple 

 trade rapidly declined there and withdrew itseK still more rapidly 

 into the northern clothing districts, where no such burden was ever 

 cast upon the trade." 



A final determination of the question was imposed upon Parlia- 

 ment by the pressure of the manufacturing and commercial classes 

 arising from a decision in the case of R. vs. Lumsdaine, in 1839, 

 looking to the taxation of personal property. In consequence, an 

 act was passed (3 and 4 Vict., c. 89), and has remained in force until 

 the present time, exempting an inhabitant from any tax " in respect 

 of his ability derived from the profits of stock in trade or any other 

 property, for or toward the relief of the poor." Thus it is that the 

 English local taxation has managed to keep clear from the bog of 



