Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/212

 far as the words of their laws enable us to judge of their meaning and intention, the framers of no inconsiderable portion of that system of government which is generally understood when we say the English Constitution, certainly intended that the tax which the land was to pay was to be a certain proportion of the "full yearly value thereof at the time of assessing thereof," not a proportion of a nominal yearly value thereof. It may be added in corroboration that in all the land-tax acts down to the 38 Geo. 3 inclusive, the commissioners are directed to appoint "assessors" (see 38 Geo. 3, c. 5, s. 8) for the purpose of assessing all property, real as well as personal. Now unless there was to be every year a new assessment, collectors of the moneys to be levied would be sufficient, whereas, after directing the appointment of assessors, there is always a distinct and separate clause for the appointment of "collectors of the moneys which shall be assessed as aforesaid."

William the Norman took from the Anglo-Saxons their country, but bound himself and his successors, as far as he could bind them, by engagements, which were fulfilled for six hundred years, to defray the main part of the expenses