The Sun.
London, England, 1840-02-25 00:00:00

EVENING EDITION

CHRIST CHURCH, SURREY.
(MONDAY.)

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,—In your paper of Friday last, a report appeared
of the proceedings in the case of " Hawes and Vicat v.
Pellatt," which must,:f think, convince every man that im-
partial decisions are not to be expected in Ecclesiastical
Courts. Sir H. Jenner had previously decided that all pro-
perty rated to landlords, and not to occupiers, was illegal.
The defendant, in his responsive allegation, gave a schedule
of property to the amount of 9,0001., not 9001., as statedlin
your report so assessed in the rate in question ; the total
amount of property assessed amounting to about 53,0001.,
but this was not deemed by the Learned Judge as sufficient
to invalidate the rate, as the landlords had generally paid
the rate. Now, Sir, lamat a loss to know how payment
or non-payment altered the question of the validity of the
rate in which this illegal rating a peered ; ogal, be it
remembered, according to the Judges' own dictum ; and
this property also rated at one-half its estimated value, mad
all the rest at five-sixths. I was lately in the Queen's
Bench, and heard a case quoted, in which Lord Tenterden
decided that a rate appealed against at a Quarter Sessions,
confirmed and collected, was illegal and a nullity, on a
question of qualification for a Municipal office, when it
was necessary to prove that the party was duly rated. If
the sum stated above is not sufficient to invalidate a rate, I
am at a loss to understand what proportion will do so, and
if a rate is illegal, all proceedings to recover on it is, I
should think, illegal.
Mr. Pellatt is proceeded against for the subtraction of
11. 19s. 2d. : this he proved, to the satisfaction of the
Learned Judge, to be an illegal demand ; but he has di-
rected the Churchwardens to reform their libel, and they
have now reduced it to 1/: Gs. 9d. ; and this suit is allowed
to continue, notwithstanding no demand has been made on
him for that sum, and, of course, no refusal to pay on his
part. I have hitherto thought that in all parochial rates,
the rate must be clear and distinct as to the parties rated,
and the sum at which they are assessed ; but here I suppose
a demand:for 1/. 19s. 2d. is considered sufficient, and would
admit of any sum being fixed on below the amount first
demanded. This appears to me a very strange dictum for
any Court.
Another strange decision of the Court is, that various
items included in the notice of Vestry, which Mr. Pellatt
considered illegal, are not so, because the majority con-
curring in the rate legalised them ; thus the resolutions of
the Vestry are powerful in this case ; but when it was
pleaded that resolutions for calling the Vestry together in the
evening, as more convenient to the rate-payers, remained
unrescinded on the Vestry-book, and a motion of adjourn-
ment to the evening of the following Monday was moved
and seconded, and the Rector refused to put it, this was
held by the Judge he had no right to do. Thus Vestries
are powerless as to fixing the most convenient time for
their meeting ; and in this parish they are called at the
inconvenient hour of nine in the morning, that the wealthy
may carry such measures as they may think desirable,
without the troublesome intervention of the humbler class
of rate. payers.

The decided part you have taken in exposing the evil of
Ecclesiastical Courts, and the grievous oppression of
Church-rates, has induced me to address the above ob-
servations on this case to you, requesting its insertion in
your paper, in the hcie that it may aid in rousing the at-
tention of liberal-minded Churchmen and Dissenters to
the necessity of strenuous efforts to obtain Legislative
relief.—l am, Sir, your obedient Servant,

A RATEPAYER.

THE I%IARKETS.._7(YESTERDAY.)

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