Report from Select Committee on Metropolis Sewers : with minutes of evidence, and an appendix.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Metropolis Sewers.
- Date:
- [1834]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report from Select Committee on Metropolis Sewers : with minutes of evidence, and an appendix. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![II. Westminster and part of Middlesex District. 14] made to reform, repeal and make new, from time to time, as the cases necessary shall require in that behalf. ’ The 8th section provides and enacts: “ That if any person or persons being assessed or taxed to any lot or charge for any lands, tenements or hereditaments, within the limits of any commission hereafter to be directed, do not pay the said lot and charge according to the ordinance and assignment of the Commissioners having power of the execution of the said commission, by reason whereof it shall happen the said Commissioners having power of the execution of such commission for lack of payment of such lot and charge, to decree and ordain the same lands, tenements and hereditaments, from the owner or owners thereof, and their heirs and the heirs of every of them, to any person or persons for term of years, term of life, in fee simple or in tail, for payment of the same lot and charge, that then every such decree and ordinance so by them made and engrossed in parchment, and certified under their seals unto the King’s Court of Chancery, with the King’s Royal assent had to the same, shall bind all and every person and persons that at the time of making of the same decree had any interest in such lands tenements or hereditaments, in use, possession, reversion or remainder, their heirs and feoffees, and every of them, and not to be in anywise reformed unless it be by authority of Parliament hereafter to be summoned and holden within this realm.” And the gth section enacts as follows : “ That the same laws, ordinances and decrees, to be made and ordained by the said Commissioners, or six of them, by authority of the said commission, shall bind as well the lands, tenements and hereditaments of the King our Sovereign Lord, as all and every other person and persons, and their heirs, for such their interest as they shall fortune to have or may have in any lands, tenements or hereditaments, or other usual profit, advantage or commodity, whatsoever they be, whereunto the said laws, ordinances and decrees, shall in anywise extend, according to the true purport, meaning and intent of the same laws.” And by the 3 & 4 Edw. 6, c. 8, s. 2, it is enacted, “ That all scots, lots and sums of money hereafter to be rated and taxed by virtue of such commission of sewers upon any of the lands, tenements or hereditaments of our Sovereign Lord the King, his heirs or succes¬ sors, for any manner of thing or things concerning the articles of the said commission of sewers, shall be gathered and levied by distress or otherwise, in like manner and form as shall or may be done in the lands tenements or hereditaments of any other person or persons; and that all bills of acquittance, signed with the hand or hands of such collector or receiver as shall have the collection thereof by the appointment of the said Commissioners, or six of them, shall be as well a sufficient discharge to the tenants, farmers and occupiers of the same grounds, shall be charged for tiie same sum wherewith their grounds shall be so charged, as also sufficient warrant to all and every the receivers, auditors and others what¬ soever officer or officers of our said Sovereign Lord the King, his heirs and successors, for the allowance to such tenant, farmer or occupier for the same.” By the 7th of Anne, c. 10, s. 1, after reciting the different statutes of sewers, giving power to sell freehold lands, it is enacted as follows : “ That it shall and may be lawful to and for the Commissioners authorized by commission from her Majesty, her heirs and suc¬ cessors, or any six or more of them, to put in execution the laws now in force concerning sewers, for non-payment of any lot or charge assessed or charged upon any copyhold or customary lands within the limits of their commission, and by the power and authority of the said commission of sewers to decree and ordain the said copyhold or customary lands so charged from the owner or owners, and their heirs, and the heirs of every of them, to any person or persons for such estate and interest therein as the said owner or owners thereof, or any claiming in remainder under them at the time of such decree made, had in the same copyhold lands, tenements and hereditaments, the said decree to be made and executed as decrees concerning freehold lands are by the said laws now in force to be mad'fe and executed.” And by the 3d section of same statute, it is enacted as follows : “ That it shall and may be lawful to and for the Commissioners of Sewers, or any six or more of them, by wrarrant under their hands and seals, to give authority to any person or persons to levy the sums of money by them from time to time to be assessed or taxed upon the lands, meadows, marshes or grounds liable or chargeable with any cesses, taxes, impositions or charges by authority of their said commission, by distress and sale of the goods of such person or persons that shall not pay, or refuse to pay the same, and the overplus of the money arising upon such sale, after deduction of the reasonable charges of making such distress and sale, shall be restored to the owner or owners of the goods so distrained.” In 1831 a sewers’ rate was made for the district, called the District of the Ranelagh Sewer, in the county of Middlesex, and delivered with the usual warrant of the Commis¬ sioners to one of their collectors (Oak) for collection. A sum of 1 /. 15 s. was assessed on a house in Grove-terrace, then in the occupation of one-7 Budding, who quitted without having paid the rate ; the house is now in the occupation of another tenant; the collector, therefore, applied to the landlord (Mr. Farlar), who paid rates for other property in the neighbourhood, and he several times promised to pay the rate in question, but he now refuses payment altogether. It will be borne in mind that the sewer-rate is prospective as well as retrospective, a rate being only made when the district shall be in debt; this may happen once in three or four years or oftener, and the sum raised is more than the actual debt incurred. The property, and not the person, is rated. It has hitherto been the practice of the Commissioners of Sewrnrs, where payment of a rate has been refused, to go on the premises in respect of which the rate was made, and distrain for](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30459205_0214.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
