8o RATES AND TAXES 



over, which is as if when two people commit 

 a murder only one should be hanged. This 

 confusion between persons and things had 

 begun before the Act of Elizabeth, but there 

 seems little doubt that in modern phrase the 

 poor-rate was intended to be a local income 

 tax upon all the inhabitants of the parishes. 

 The great difficulty as to the liability of non- 

 residents was met by including not only the 

 inhabitants but the occupiers of lands and 

 houses. This, no doubt, seemed to imply that 

 it was the things the lands and houses and 

 not the persons which were to be taxed. 

 But it should be observed that the Act first 

 applied to the " inhabitants " -and ap- 

 parently the occupiers are brought in simply 

 to cover the case of non-residents. 1 



1 See First Report of the Commission on Local Taxation 

 (1899) C 9,141. In this Report a history is given of the 

 law affecting valuation. There was much controversy as to 

 whether the taxation of inhabitants was to be extended 

 to ability arising from all kinds of personal property or 



