§ MR. SANDFORDsaid, he would beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether Her Majesty's Government intend to bring forward any Measure to relieve the Compound-Householders from the personal payment of Rates, to which they have been made liable by the repeal of the Small Tenements Act?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERI infer, Sir, that my hon. Friend intends to limit his Question to those ratepayers who dwell in Parliamentary boroughs, but I need not remind him that in Parliamentary boroughs there are no compound-householders. The House will remember that the alteration in the position of those persons who were compound-householders was carried unanimously here, and also that the Act which terminated their existence has, comparatively speaking, only recently come into operation. So far as the compound-householders are concerned, it only came into operation on the 29th of September; and, generally speaking, I believe, that during the interval which has elapsed, from the passing of the 731 Act to this moment, only one rate has been levied throughout the country. It must be obvious, therefore, to the House that we are in possession of very limited experience upon the subject; and Her Majesty's Government would hardly think it seemly, as the result of so limited an experience, to impugn an alteration unanimously acceded to by the House of Commons.