LOCAL TAXES 77 



of hereditary burden is : What was the under- 

 lying principle of this Act ? Was the main 

 object to tax " land-values," and to make 

 the relief of the poor a " first charge " on the 

 land? 



A reference to the actual words of the 

 Act gives no support to this idea. It says, 

 first of all, that the money shall be raised 

 by taxation of every inhabitant, and the 

 words of the Act, as Dr. Cannan observes, 

 say nothing whatever about the basis 

 of taxation, and would, by themselves, 

 cover an income tax, a poll tax, and many 

 other taxes. 



The real intention of the framers of the 

 Act will probably be best discovered if we 

 consider what was the practice up to that 

 time as regards local rates. Long before 

 this Act, various local wants had been met 

 by some kind of local taxation. 



In these early forms of local taxation we 



