submitted to bodies called "presentment sessions," composed of justices and cesspayers, there are such restrictions as quite to prevent all effective popular control. The authority of the grand juries formerly extended to all the towns, but the cities of Dublin, Cork and Limerick succeeded, in 1849, 1852 and 1853, in obtaining acts by which the non-judicial functions and powers of the grand jury were transferred to the municipal councils in those cities.1 The grand juries have also ceased to act as the road authorities in all the more populous of the other towns and urban areas, the care and cost of the roads in such places being undertaken by the town authorities.2 No particulars are published of the loan indebtedness of the county and union authorities in Ireland, and therefore no total for the whole country can be given. A peculiar and interesting feature of Irish local finance consists of the arrangements under which the construction of railways and tramways may be aided by baronial guarantee. The method is by pledging the rates of the barony (a sub-division of the county), with the consent of the baronial presentment sessions and certain higher powers.

The older municipal bodies of the Irish cities and towns, like those of England, appear in the last century, or earlier, to have become close corporations, with exclusive privileges of trading, and to have lost whatever powers of imposing direct taxation they may have formerly possessed. This has been remedied by acts passed in 1828, 1840 and 1854, and by special acts applicable to some of the larger towns. Under these, representative bodies have been created, with functions analogous to those of urban authorities in England, and with similar taxing and borrowing powers; 5 subject, however, to certain limitations in these latter respects. The receipts of the town authorities

1 Mr. O'Brien's Report, pp. 37 and 41.

2 Local Taxation Returns (Ireland), 1892, p. 42. The figures for 1892 given in the text of this Part are chiefly taken from these returns.

8 Hancock on Local Taxation, 1875, p. 205.

4 Mr. O'Brien's report, p. 40.

Ibid, pp. 42 and 46. There are eleven town councils, and sixty other urban sanitary authorities. Of these, thirty are road authorities. There are also fortyseven towns which are not urban sanitary districts. Except in the eleven corporate towns, the governing bodies are called town commissioners.

in 1892, exclusive of loans, amounted to £917,149, of which £621,143 was raised by rates. The expenditure for the same year included £139,977 in respect of water supply, £126,680 on paving and repair of streets, £119,246 on sewers, drains and other sanitary objects, £97,096 on street cleansing and watering, and £90,950 on public lighting. The outstanding debt of the town authorities in 1892 was £4,478,687. In 1871, the amount was £1,602,928.

The city of Dublin occupies a peculiar position in respect of its police. These are a distinct body from the constabulary, but are under the direct control of the crown. The Dublin city council is, however, required to levy a police rate of 8d. in the pound, and to hand the proceeds over to the metropolitan police commissioner. The latter official also receives the proceeds of special and peculiar local taxes on carriages and on pawnbrokers' and publicans' licenses, in addition to fees, fines and penalties from the city police courts. The total sum received from local sources in 1892-93 was £49,395, but the bulk of the charge rests upon the imperial exchequer.1 Belfast and Londonderry formerly possessed similar local police forces, but these have been disbanded.

No statutory provision for the relief of the poor was made until 1771; and the law passed in that year, and extended in 1806 and 1818, was merely permissive and practically inoperative.2 In 1838, however, a comprehensive and obligatory poor law was passed, under which Ireland was mapped out into unions and electoral districts, and a system of relief and administration resembling that of England was instituted. There was, indeed, the important distinction that the Irish system at first permitted of no out-relief; but this feature was introduced in 1847, and has since received an extended application. The cost of the system was estimated beforehand at £295,000, but this sum appears to have been exceeded from the outset. The outbreak of the Irish famine rapidly swelled the outlay, which for the year ending September, 1849,

1 See Table XVIII.

2 Hancock on Local Taxation, 1875, p. 174.

amounted to no less than £2,177,649. In the following year it fell to £1,430, 108, and continued to decrease until 1859, when the total was only £413,712. From this point the cost has slowly risen, and for 1892 it amounted to £872,001. The boards of guardians have been entrusted with many new duties from time to time. These have swollen the expenditure for 1892 to £1,406,261, of which sum £960,205 was raised by poor rates, £209,816 by Parliamentary grants, and £128,515 by loans. Amongst the items of expenditure is one of £23,249 under the National School Teachers Act, which is the only entry in the Irish local taxation returns in respect of education.1 The poor law guardians consist partly of elected and partly of ex officio members, the latter being magistrates. The cost of the maintenance of paupers was, by the act of 1838, charged to the ratepayers of the electoral divisions to which they belonged; but considerable modifications of this principle were legalized by an act of 1876.

The harbor and pier authorities are forty-six in number, and their receipts amounted in 1892 to the considerable sum of £477,653. The outstanding debt of these bodies in 1892, so far as it is tabulated, was £2,497,654, but only twenty-six of the number are entered in the returns.2 There appear to be at least five others which are in debt to the imperial treasury, inasmuch as repayments are entered in the tables of expenditure. Some of the harbors, executed out of the imperial taxes for the purposes of steamboat traffic and of carrying the mails, are still under the imperial authorities, and although these are included in the tables of receipts and expenditure, they are excluded from those relating to debt. The others are controlled by special bodies of commissioners, and in no case belong to the town or county authorities.

Considerable public works have been undertaken during the great famine and in subsequent periods of distress, largely, if not chiefly, with a view to finding employment and affording

1 The bulk of the cost of primary education in Ireland is borne by the imperial The trifling sum contributed from the rates is now partly, if not wholly, repaid. Cf. infra p. 295, and Table XVIII.

taxes.

2 The amount in 1871 was £1,062,633.

relief. The principal of these are works of arterial drainage, inland navigation and light railways. A large share of the cost has been borne by the imperial treasury, and the balance has been lent to local bodies on the security of the rates. The funds required for maintenance are raised by rates on the benefited properties or districts, as prescribed by acts passed in 1842, 1863, 1866 and more recent years; by treasury grants; and, in the case of inland navigation, by tolls and other receipts.

There are a number of dues, duties, fines and fees of various kinds levied in Ireland, which are included in the returns of local taxation, but are not in all cases properly so described. Some of them are of considerable antiquity, and the arrangements under which they are exacted are bound up with private or professional vested interests. Apart from the tolls and dues levied by the harbor authorities, these miscellaneous receipts are not important (see Table XVII) and need not be explained in detail.

Ireland, like Scotland, is in advance of England in the matter of a uniform valuation for rates and taxes. The official valuation, commenced in 1827 by Sir Richard Griffiths and generally known by his name, was completed by his successor, and brought into full operation by the General Tenement Valuation Act of 1852. So far as the valuation relates to lands, it was fixed by a reference to agricultural prices, and can only be altered at intervals of fourteen years and with the consent of the grand juries. No revaluation has, in fact, been made since 1852. Buildings are subject to more frequent revaluation, and the value is ascertained in a manner more nearly corresponding to the English method.1

The case of Ireland also resembles that of Scotland, rather than that of England, in the matter of the division of the rates between owners and occupiers. The poor rate is equally divided, and provision was made in the Irish Land Act of 1870 for the extension of the application of the principle to all other

1 Hancock, Cobden Club Essays, 1875, pp. 217-218; O'Shaughnessy, ibid., 1882, p. 347; Local Taxation Returns, Ireland, 1871, p. 14; and Mr. O'Brien's report, 1878, p. 65.

rates in new lettings of agricultural and pastoral holdings. Owing, however, to the omission of a prohibition of contracts to the contrary effect, the operation of this provision has been greatly restricted, and the intention of the legislature defeated, by agreements imposing the whole burden of the rates upon the tenants.1 Town rates are wholly borne by the occupiers, as in England. The actual payment of rates in Ireland (except in respect of holdings under £4 valuation) is by the occupier, who deducts the share for which the owner may be liable from the rent.3

The collection of rates in Ireland is effected, in rural districts, under the two main heads of grand jury cess and poor rate; and in the smaller towns there is added to these the town rate. In Belfast, Cork, Limerick and some smaller places the town rate includes the grand jury cess, and in Dublin there is a complete consolidation of all rates in a single collection.*

The Irish share of the allocated taxes set out in Part I, Chapter V, in 1891-92, was applied as follows:5

(1) £5,000 of the probate duty grant to the Royal Dublin Society annually, for the improvement of the breed of horses and cattle;

(2) Half of the balance of said grant (in 1891–92, £119,615) to guardians of unions in respect of salaries, etc., of officers; (3) Remainder of said grant (£119,615 in 1891-92) to road authorities in respect of roads and bridges;

(4) £78,000 per annum of the proceeds of the customs and excise duties to the commissioners of education for national schools (including certain repayments to guardians of contributory unions); and

1 Mr. O'Brien's report, 1878, p. 67; Local Taxation Returns, 1871, p. 17; and other references as in last note, et seq.

2 Their equal division between landlord and tenant was unanimously recommended by a House of Commons committee in 1878, but nothing has been done. 3 Mr. O'Brien's report, p. 66; O'Shaughnessy, Cobden Club Essays, 1882, p. 347; Sir J. Lambert, Evidence, Local Taxation Committee, 1870, Q. 1719, 1748, etc.

4 Hancock, p. 208; O'Brien, pp. 38 and 41.

5 Probate Duties (Scotland and Ireland) Act, 1888, and Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act, 1890.