may be considered as so much of salary and emolument annexed to the office, and enjoyed, in respect of it, by the officer for the time being. But if the use of, or residence upon, the property be either as the servant of the crown, and for public purposes only, as in Lord Somers's case, or as a mere public officer or servant, or of any other description, such as the superintendent of the Philanthropic Society, Rex v. Field, 5 Term Rep. 587., the trustees of a meeting-house, the servants at St. Luke's, the masters in chancery, in respect of their public offices; in all such cases, the parties having the immediate use of the property, merely for such purposes, are not rateable; because the occupation is throughout that of the public, and of which public occupation the individuals are only the means and instruments. It is said, that if the commanding officer be rated for the degree of private accommodation he enjoys in a building of this description, why not the soldiers in their barracks for the accommodation they enjoy there? I am not aware that private

Reason for soldiers have any accommodations in bar

private soldiers

being exempt.

racks beyond what are required for the mere ordinary uses and purposes of animal nature, I mean for sleeping and eating, and the like; but if their barracks should supply even them with any accommodation of a beneficial and valuable, and not strictly of a necessary nature, the analogy between the two cases would rather afford, perhaps, a ground for including them, under such circumstances, in the rate, than for excluding an occupier of the present description from it. The reason of the thing, and the sound and established construction of the statute, subjects every person, who has the beneficial use of any local, visible property in a parish, to this species of public contribution. The parish is liable to be burdened with settlements of them and their children: a part of the property antecedently contributing to the poor-rate is, by being thus built upon, and appropriated to such public purposes, effectually withdrawn from its liability to contribute, unless the nature and quality of the occupation thereof restores

and throws it back again, either in the whole or in part, within the scope and reach of this species of parochial contribution. And the immediate occupant has, in fact, nothing to complain of; for, I believe, it never has occurred in experience, that the quantum of the mere rate, upon an occupier of this kind, has exceeded in amount the benefit and advantage derived to him from his occupation. Whether the commanding officer could withdraw himself from the rate by contracting his occupation in some proportionable degree, within the same narrow limits of merely necessary enjoyment with the soldier in his barracks, will be a question to be decided when it shall occur. It is enough for us to say at present, that upon the principles laid down and acted upon, in the cases already referred to, the commanding officer in question has such a beneficial occupation of these apartments, and other conveniences, as to render him rateable for the same, and that this rate, of course, should stand, and the rule for amending the same be discharged."

106

RATING IN AID.

Two jus

tices must

necessity of rating in

aid.

WHEN any parish, or other local division, is overburdened with its own poor, and unable to provide sufficient for their support, two justices have power to assess any other division within the same county to make up the deficiency.

"Whenever there is any person or parish judge of the within the hundred in which the parish, unable to maintain its poor, is situate, of ability sufficient to supply the deficiency, the rate in aid is to be made by two justices. They have power to determine the inability of the parish which applies for assistance, and the capacity of those upon whom they make an order to contribute. Reported cases furnish no rules to guide their discretion in this particular, further than that in one parish where the rates

amounted to 25s. in the pound, and were gradually on the increase, and the parishes called upon to contribute were moderately assessed, it was taken for granted at the bar to be a case in which two justices might interfere."- Rex v. Holbeach.

rating in

The magistrates have power to rate in aid Mode of only within their own jurisdictions; for aid. they are not supposed to know the circumstances of those places in which they are not in the habit of acting. When it is found reasonable and necessary to rate one place in aid of another, the justices have power either to tax particular persons, or the whole parish, in a certain sum. The latter mode is generally preferred as being the most equitable, and it operates on the assisting division in the same manner as an increase of rate for its own power. The quantum of the sum to be levied in aid must be fixed by the justices, as they are the only authorized persons, and cannot delegate their power to others. The sum thus determined may be levied by the overseers on the whole of the parish, or on