profits of the water which flows from the springs and reservoirs. For as the water was conveyed from the reservoirs in L. and W., and distributed through several parishes in Bath, and as not only the apparatus but the soil itself, in those parishes, on which the pipes rest, must be considered as conducive to, and acquiring the water rents or profits; they were liable to be rated pro tanto in the other parishes as occupiers of local visible property there."

RIVER AND CANAL TOLLS.

Ir has been shown that land and buildings are rateable to the district in which they are situate, on account of their existence within it, and without reference to the residence of their occupier. The profits of any thing attached to land and buildings is also rateable, if the occupier reside in the same parish; but when a person has profits yielded from something attached to real property in another parish, and of which he has no possession, great doubts have been entertained as to his liability to the tax. The statute provides, that every occupier of lands and houses shall be taxed to the relief of the poor; and the question is, Whether property, so circumstanced, can be said to be occupied ?

Tolls are rateable

become

due.

The tolls of a navigable river become

where they due, not within every township through which it passes, but at the locks or other places on the line appointed by the company; therefore if canals, or navigable rivers, are only rateable where the tolls become due, several townships, through which they pass, may receive no rate for the ground they cover. This would evidently be an unequal way of apportioning the rate, as only part of the canal would be rateable.

It is held by some, that the proprietors of a canal cannot be termed the rateable occupiers in the strict legal sense of the word; for when a share of a canal is sold, or otherwise transferred, possession cannot be given of any certain piece of land, nor can any particular part of the canal be pointed out as the property disposed of. But several judges have declared that property has been decided as occupied within the meaning of the statute, although not considered as such in the common acceptation of the word in law. It seems reasonable, also, that if one

species of property be rateable according to its annual profits, another should not be exempt merely on account of its not being particularly described in the statute.

to 43 Eliz.

The act of parliament, on which the pro- Reference vision of the poor is grounded; namely, the 43d of Elizabeth, was passed before canals were in use, and, consequently, does not describe the manner of rating them. It, however, certainly meant, that annual profits arising out of property should be subject to the tax; for it is stated, that assessments" are to be gathered out of the same parish, accordingly to the ability of the same parish;" evidently meaning that the occupiers of all descriptions of property should contribute in proportion to the benefit derived by each within the district of the rate. By forming the canal, the soil is broken up, and the space is covered with water and banks, thus destroying the ability of the land from yielding its annual value in the usual way. It is converted to a more valuable purpose, and, of course, yields] greater profits, which ought to be fairly

Rate is due on tolls, not on land occupied by the canal.

ascertained, and rated accordingly. Much capital is expended, and each acre is made of, at least, ten-fold value; and if the additional profits be as certain as were the original returns, it seems reasonable they should be taxed on the same principle, as imposing more rate on property where new buildings are erected.

The rate is due on tolls, and not on land occupied by the canal or navigable river; and according to the decisions of the judges in the cases hereafter given, the land is exempt from rate. Tolls are considered rateable property, issuing out of the use of the canal, made out of the land, which would be otherwise subject to rate; and one great principle of rating is, that no property shall be rated twice, the land escapes the tax, and the tolls of the canal are its substitute. The land, converted into a canal, has ceased to yield herbage and corn; and being made use of for a different purpose, its profits are rateable in another shape. The judges have not, however, positively decided, that a canal passing through many