270 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



more industrious class of occu- 

 piers. This complaint is not new 

 to the House, their attention hav- 

 ing been called to the subject by 

 the ajjplication from the town of 

 Birmingiuun, for relief from this 

 alleged grievance ; and though the 

 House rejected a proposed Bill, 

 for rating tlie ovvneis of such te- 

 nements in that town, in default 

 of payment by the occupiers ; yet 

 as that vote might have proceeded 

 from the pnjvision being proposed 

 to be local, which, if expedient, 

 th« House might have thought 

 should be general, the Committee 

 feel it their duty to represent, 

 that similar applications have been 

 made to them from other quar- 

 tera, from Bristol, Brighthelm- 

 stone, Hull, Manchester, Portsea, 

 and Coventry, in each of which a 

 large portion of the property of 

 the town escapes contribution, 

 from the poveity or transient resi- 

 dence of the tenant ; wliile the 

 landlord secures on that very ac- 

 count an increased rent. The 

 objection to rating the owneis, 

 instead of the occupiers, which 

 would at once equalize the bur- 

 then in such towns, is, that it 

 would be introducing a new prin- 

 ciple into this law, whereby per- 

 sons would be made to contribute 

 to the ratt^s, who are not on tlie 

 spot to control the expenditure. 

 Such, at least, is the objection 

 stated in the Report of the Com- 

 mittee, to whom the ditferent pro- 

 '>isions of vaiious local acts for 

 the management of the poor were 

 referred in the year 1813 ;* who, 

 nevertheless, were of opinion, that 



* See Report or ered to be printed 26ili 

 March, 1813. 



in particular instanceSj some de- 

 parture from the general law 

 might be expedient. But your 

 Committee cannot wholly concur 

 in the reasoning of that Report, 

 because they conceive that the 

 occupiers of such tenements are 

 much more likely to bring a 

 burthen upon the parish than 

 to control its expenditure ; and 

 they are disposed to think, that 

 such beneficial control would 

 most probably be produced by the 

 owner having, in these instances, 

 a more direct interest ihan at pre- 

 sent in the disbursements of the 

 parish. In the assessment of lands, 

 it would imdoubtedly, for obvious 

 reasons, be far otherwise. In the 

 case of houses, however, it seems 

 of far more importance to pre- 

 serve the principle of making all 

 property contribute equally when 

 it is practicable, than to adhere to 

 the law of rating the occupier ra- 

 ther than the owner, by which, as 

 in the case of Bii'mingham, nearly 

 half the rental of the town, and 

 above three-fourths of the houses, 

 escape a burthen which it largely 

 contributes to create. On this 

 subject the committee can speak 

 from experience, for the practice 

 has been adopted with perfect 

 success, and without a complaint, 

 as it should seem, in tlie parishes 

 of Christ Church, Spitalfields, 

 Shadvvell, Gravesend, and proba- 

 bly others which have not come 

 within the knowledge of your 

 committee. In such cases the 

 landlord, no doubt, makes his 

 agreement with his tenant accord- 

 ingly, and has no leasonable ground 

 of complaint, if he is dejirived of 

 that part of his rent which should 

 in justice have been paid to the 

 parish fund. If it were possible 



to 



