43.—Obvious intention of this and later Acts as to Assessments.

In 1693 ⁿ, 1694 ^o, and 1695 ^p, the same enactments were made as in 1692. In the 5 W. & M. c. 1, the Commissioners under the 4 W. & M. c. 1 were reappointed. The words above cited from the Act 4 W. & M. c. 1, were again used in this Act, 5 W. & M. c. 1, viz., "of the full yearly value, as the same are let for or worth to be let at the time of assessing thereof" ^q. In the 6 and 7W.& M. c. 3 the names of the Commissioners for putting the act in execution are again inserted; and the 8th. section again contains the important words "of the full yearly value as the same are let for, or worth to be let, at the time of assessing thereof" ^r. The statute passed in the following year, the 7 and 8 W. III. c. 5, likewise contains the same words, "after the rate of 4s. for every 20s. of the full yearly value as the same are let for, or worth to be let, at the time of assessing thereof " ^s.

It is quite clear, from these data, that it was not the intention of the framers of the original land tax acts, the legislators who made and passed the Act of Settlement, and the other acts that form the principal parts of the present fabric of the English Constitution, that the land tax should be levied to all time on a valuation of the land made in 1689 or 1692. On the contrary, the words of the successive acts in 1689, and from 1692 to 1696, declare, as plainly and unequivocally as words can be made to declare, that the valuation upon which the rate of 4s. in the pound of yearly rent should be levied should be the full true yearly value at the time of making the assessment.