46.—New Valuation not taken in 1697.

In 1697 a totally different plan was adopted by the Statute 9 W. III. c. 10, a fixed sum, as in the case of the assessments before mentioned, was granted, viz., £1,484,015 1s. 11¾d. And first, personal estate (except desperate debts, stock on land, household goods, and loans to his Majesty), and employments of profit (except military ana naval) were to pay 3s. in the pound ^d. Then lands, tenements, &c., were to be " charged with as much equality and indifferency as was possible, by a pound rate for or towards the said several and respective sums of money by this Act set and imposed" ^e. Instead of the precision with which the former acts required the real property to be rated according to its true and full value at the time, in the present act (which has been made the precedent for all succeeding ones) all reference to the actual value of the property was avoided, by the clauses being framed in the following words: "Which said assessors are hereby strictly enjoined and required, with all care and diligence, to assess the full sum given them in charge respectively, upon all ready money, debts, personal estates, offices and employments, according to this Act, and by an equal pound rate upon all manors, lands, tenements, rents, hereditaments, and other the premises within the limits, circuits, and bounds of the respective parishes and places for which they shall be so appointed assessors as aforesaid " ^f. That is, after the levy of a fixed rate has been made upon all personal property any deficiency there may then be in the amount specified by the statute is to be made up by what is termed a "pound rate" on real property, but nothing is said respecting the valuation of the real property on which such rate is to be levied; consequently the last valuation made must be referred to, which valuation continued the last from that time to the present.