Scottish Court of Session Decisions

The Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1913 (3 and 4 Geo. V, cap. 38) enacts—Section 65—“(1) As from the fifteenth day of May in the year Nineteen hundred and fourteen the expenses declared by this Act to be chargeable to the assessment authorised under the Lunacy Acts and this Act shall be ascertained and apportioned within the lunacy district upon the landward parts of counties and upon burghs respectively, as provided in the Act of 1857 as amended by any subsequent Act, with respect to the assessments for the purposes of the Act of 1857, and shall be assessed, levied, and collected as provided in the said Acts. (2) This section shall apply to the case where the district board of control is the parish council, with the substitution of the parish for the landward parts of counties and for burghs, and with any other necessary variations: Provided that the assessment leviable under the Acts aforesaid within the parish shall be separately set forth and demanded in the demand note, and shall be levied by the parish council acting as a district board upon the like valuation in all respects, and subject to the like deductions and exemptions, as the assessment hitherto leviable within the parish under the Lunacy Acts by the town or county council, but shall be collected along with the poor-rate and with the same remedies and modes of recovery, and provided also that the consent of the board shall be required to any assessment levied by the parish council acting as a district board; and provided further that moneys levied and collected by a parish council acting as a district board shall be kept separate and distinct from moneys levied and collected by the parish council for other purposes; and for purposes of audit the accounts of the parish council shall be deemed to include the accounts of such moneys and of the expenditure thereof.” Section 75 (2)—“Part II and Part V of this Act and the Lunacy (Scotland) Acts 1857 to 1887, the Lunacy Board (Scotland) Act 1864 (27 and 28 Vict. cap. 59), secs. 61 to 63, inclusive of the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1877 (40 and 41 Vict. cap. 53), and the Lunacy Board (Scotland) Salaries and Clerks Act 1900 (63 and 64 Vict. cap. 54), may be cited collectively as the Lunacy (Scotland) Acts 1857 to 1913 (in this Act referred to as the Lunacy Acts).”

The Lunatics (Scotland) Act 1857 (20 and 21 Vict. cap. 71) enacts—Section 54—“ Expense of District Asylum: How to be Raised.—The expense of providing, building, altering, enlarging and repairing, and fitting up and furnishing district asylums, and the whole expense of maintaining the establishment for the first year after the opening of the same, and also the after expense of altering, repairing, and keeping in repair such district asylums, and of the surveys, plans, and investigations in relation thereto, shall be ascertained by the board from the estimates or reports to be made thereof by the district boards; and the gross amount of such expense shall be apportioned by the board upon the landward parts of counties and upon the burghs respectively within such districts, according to the real rent of the lands and heritages, in terms of the Act of the seventeenth and eighteenth of Her Majesty, chapter ninety-one, within such landward parts of counties and burghs respectively; and the board shall give notice … to the chief magistrate or administrator of the affairs of each burgh for such burgh of the whole sum or proportion to be levied on such burgh and the landward part of such county respectively; … and the portion thereof which shall be apportioned as aforesaid on the several burghs shall, together with such further sum as may be necessary to cover expenses of assessment, collection, and remittance, and any arrears where such shall occur of preceding years, be assessed, laid on, and collected by or under the authority of the magistrates of each burgh respectively in the same way and manner in all respects, and upon such and the like property according to the real rent of such property, and from such persons, and by such and the like process and means of recovery, and under the like deductions and exemptions, and with and under the same powers and provisions as to any disputed matter and otherwise, and generally in all respects as if such portions of the said gross amount apportioned under this Act were portions of a gross amount of sums estimated in terms of the fortieth section of the said Act of the second and third years of Her Majesty, chapter forty-two, and directed by that Act to be assessed on the said counties and burghs respectively. …”

The Prisons (Scotland) Act 1877 (40 and 41 Vict. cap. 53) enacts—Section 63—“Where assessments under any Act of Parliament may be imposed, levied, and recovered in the same way and manner as the assessments imposed and levied under the Prisons (Scotland) Administration Act 1860, such assessments may be imposed, levied, and recovered in the same way and manner and with the like powers as any other assessment which may be leviable by the commissioners of supply within any county or the magistrates within any burgh upon the lands and heritages within the

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same as appearing on the valuation roll thereof: Provided that in a county such assessments shall be payable wholly by the owner of lands and heritages within the county, and that in a burgh such assessments shall be payable one—half by the owner and one-half by the tenant or occupier of the lands or heritages within the burgh, but the whole of such last-mentioned assessments may be levied on and recovered from the tenant or occupier who, on production of a receipt by the collector therefor, shall be entitled to deduct one-half of the amount from the rent payable to the owner: Provided also … that it shall be lawful for such magistrates to exempt from the whole or any part of such assessment in any burgh the tenant or occupier of any lands and heritages the annual value of which, as appearing from the valuation roll, shall not exceed five pounds sterling, on account of the poverty of such occupier.… Nothing herein contained shall prejudice the power of levying any assessments in any other way or manner not affected by the repeal of certain provisions of the Prisons (Scotland) Administration Act 1860.”

The Edinburgh Municipal and Police Act 1879 (42 and 43 Vict. cap. cxxxii) enacts—Section 66—“The Magistrates and Council shall annually … estimate and fix the sums of money necessary to be levied for the year … under the provisions of this Act, viz.—… (5) For the sums required for carrying out the provisions of any other local or any public general Act in operation within the city or burgh for the time being, … payable by the persons and in the proportions mentioned in such Acts respectively; … for which purpose of estimating the sums required under such other local or public general Act the persons charged with the execution of the same shall timeously in each year intimate to the Magistrates and Council the sums for which provision must be made.” Section 67—“… The Magistrates and Council… shall… lay on an assessment sufficient to provide the sums of money estimated as aforesaid; … provided also that such aggregate assessment shall be imposed as from the fifteenth day of May in any one year to the fifteenth day of May in the following year, and shall be called the burgh assessments.…” Section 74—“The yearly value of the lands and heritages, after specified, shall, for the purpose of the burgh assessments, be held to be the nearest aggregate sum of pounds sterling to one-fourth of the yearly value thereof, viz.—(1) All lands and works used as a canal or basin of a canal, or towing—path for the same, or as a railway constructed under the powers of any Act of Parliament for public conveyance, excepting stations, depots, wharves, and buildings connected therewith, which shall be assessable to the same extent as other lands and heritages. (2) All underground gas and water pipes and underground works connected therewith. (3) All woodland, arable, meadow, and pasture land, and other land used for agricultural purposes.” Section 79—“The treasurer shall from time to time transfer and pay over to the proper accounts from the produce of the burgh assessments the proportions thereof applicable to the heads of estimate for the purposes … of the Public General Acts under which the Magistrates and Council are or may be authorised to levy assessments.…”

The Glasgow Police Act 1866 (29 and 30 Vict. cap. cclxxiii) enacts—Section 6—“The general power and duty of carrying into effect the objects and purposes of this Act… are hereby vested in and shall be performed by a Board … who shall be a body corporate under the name and style of the Board of Police of Glasgow, … and who may, in pursuance and subject to the provisions of this Act, do any of the following acts:—They shall estimate, assess, levy, and apply the moneys by this Act authorised to be raised or received.”

The City of Glasgow Act 1891 (54 and 55 Vict. cap. 130) enacts—Section 36—“In imposing or levying all rates and assessments within the city—(1) The yearly rent or value of any land or heritage which is used as arable, meadow, or pasture ground only, or as woodland, market garden, or nursery ground, or as the line of any canal, or as a towing-path for the same, or as the line of any railway constructed under the powers of an Act of Parliament for public conveyance, shall be deemed to be one-fourth of the amount entered as the yearly rent or value thereof in the valuation roll of the city and royal burgh made up under the Valuation Acts. (2) The yearly rent or value of all the underground pipes or underground works of the Water Commissioners and Gas Trustees shall be deemed to be one-fourth of the amount entered as the yearly rent or value thereof in such valuation roll. (3) … (4) The yearly rent or value of all other lands or heritages shall be deemed to be the total amount entered as the yearly rent or value thereof in such valuation roll. …”

Edinburgh Parish Council, parties of the first part, and the North British Railway Company and the Caledonian Railway Company, parties of the second part, brought a Special Case in the Court of Session. Glasgow Parish Council, parties of the first part, the Corporation of the City of Glasgow, parties of the second part, and the Caledonian Railway Company, parties of the third part, also brought a Special Case in the Court of Session. The matter in dispute was as to the value upon which the first parties were entitled to assess the mental deficiency and lunacy rate, upon the value appearing in the valuation roll or upon one-fourth thereof of the properties belonging to the other parties; the questions for the opinion of the Court were similar in both cases: and the two cases were heard together.

The Edinburgh case stated—“… 2. By the 4th section of the Lunatics (Scotland) Act 1857 (20 and 21 Vict. cap. 71) a General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland was constituted. By the 49th section of the said Act, and for the purposes of the said Act, Scotland was divided into eight

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lunacy districts, one of which was called the Edinburgh District, which at the date of the passing of that Act comprised the counties of Edinburgh, Haddington, Berwick, Linlithgow, Roxburgh, Selkirk, Peebles, and Orkney. By section 61 of the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1877 it is provided that for each of the districts into which Scotland is or might thereafter be divided for the purposes of the said Lunatics (Scotland) Act 1857 there should be chosen a board to be called the District Board of Lunacy.

3. In 1897, by virtue of the powers conferred upon it by section 1 of the Lunacy Districts (Scotland) Act 1887 (50 and 51 Vict. cap. 39), the said General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland, on the application of the first parties, erected the City Parish of Edinburgh into a separate lunacy district to be called the Edinburgh Lunacy District.

4. In virtue of the 54th section of the said Lunatics (Scotland) Act 1857 the said General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland from and after the passing of that Act ascertained annually the gross amount of expenditure required to carry out the provisions of that Act from estimates or reports made to them by district boards, and apportioned the same upon the landward parts of counties and upon burghs within these lunacy districts in terms of the said Act.

5. Prior to 15th May 1914 the gross amount required to meet the necessary expenditure under the said Lunatics (Scotland) Act and Amending Acts was ascertained and apportioned by the said General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland upon the landward parts of counties and upon burghs within the lunacy districts. The lunacy rate was assessed, levied, and collected by the Town Council of Edinburgh within the burgh of Edinburgh as part of a lunacy district prior to 1897, and thereafter down to 15th May 1914 within the burgh as a lunacy district. The lunacy rate so collected was paid over by the Town Council to the Edinburgh District Lunacy Board. Neither the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy nor the said Edinburgh District Lunacy Board took any part in the assessment of or the levying of said lunacy rate by the Town Council of Edinburgh.

6. The said lunacy rate so assessed, levied, and collected by the Town Council of Edinburgh was levied from the second parties on one-fourth of the annual value of their railways as entered in the valuation roll.

7. On the 15th May 1914 the Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1913 came into operation, and the power and authority of the Town Council to assess, levy, and collect the lunacy rate then terminated, and since that date the power to assess, levy, and collect the lunacy rate has been transferred to the first parties as the District Board of Control for the Edinburgh Lunacy District in terms of section 65 (2) of the statute.

By the 19th section of the statute it is provided also that the said General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland should be reconstructed subject to the provisions of the statute, and from and after the 15th day of May 1914 should be designated the General Board of Control for Scotland. By section 22 it is provided that as and from the 15th day of May 1914 District Boards of Lunacy should cease to be so called, and should be designated District Boards of Control.

8. For the year 1914–15 the first parties have assessed the second parties for the lunacy rate on the annual value of their railways respectively as appearing in the valuation roll.…

9. The second parties have declined to pay the said assessments as levied by the first parties. …”

The first parties contend that on the just construction of the Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1857 and amending Acts and the Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1913 they are entitled to assess, levy, and collect the said lunacy rate upon the second parties in respect of the annual value of the railways which they respectively own as appearing in the valuation roll in force for the time. They further contend that their powers of assessment are in no way affected by any of the provisions of the Edinburgh Municipal and Police Act 1879 or by any of the proceedings taken by the Town Council of the city of Edinburgh in regard to the collection of the lunacy rate prior to 1915.

The second parties maintain that in view of the provisions relating to assessments contained in the Edinburgh Municipal and Police Acts, and particularly the 66th and 74th sections of the Edinburgh Municipal and Police Act 1879, the Town Council of Edinburgh were bound to assess said railways for the said lunacy rate on one—fourth of the annual value, and were not entitled to assess said railways on the full annual value. The second parties contend that on a sound construction of the Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1913 the first parties can only assess the railways of the second parties for the lunacy rate upon the nearest aggregate sum of pounds sterling to one-fourth of the yearly value thereof as appearing in the valuation roll in force for the time.”

The questions for the opinion of the Court were—“1. Are the first parties entitled under section 65 of the Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1913, and the provisions of the statutes therein mentioned, to assess the second parties on the annual value of the railways owned and occupied by the second parties respectively within the Edinburgh Lunacy District? or 2. Are the second parties entitled to be assessed on one-fourth only of the annual value of the railways owned and occupied by them respectively within the Edinburgh Lunacy District?”

The Glasgow case stated—“2. The parish of Glasgow forms the Glasgow Lunacy District and is composed of a burghal portion which lies north of the Clyde and east of the Kelvin within the boundaries of the city of Glasgow, and of a landward portion

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which lies in the county of Lanark north and east of the northern and eastern boundaries of the city. Prior to the passing of the said Mental Deficiency and Lunacy Act the lunacy rate payable by owners and occupiers was assessed, levied, and collected for the county portions of lunacy districts by county councils, and the lunacy rate for the landward portion of the parish of Glasgow was assessed, levied, and collected by the County Council of the county of Lanark under the Lunacy Act 1857 and amending Acts, and paid over to the first parties, then designated the Glasgow District Lunacy Board. Under the said Lunacy Act and amending Acts the rate was assessed, levied, and collected by town councils in the burghal portions of lunacy districts, and the second parties assessed, levied, and collected the said rate in the burghal portion of the parish of Glasgow and paid over the same to the said Glasgow District Lunacy Board.… Since the said Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1913 came into operation on 15th May 1914 the power to assess, levy, and collect the said rate, now called the mental deficiency and lunacy rate, has been by section 65, subsection (2), of that Act transferred to the first parties as the Board of Control for the area of the parish of Glasgow as a lunacy district.

3. The second parties are the owners and occupiers of gas, water, and electric lighting undertakings, with underground pipes, mains, lines, cables, and works, within the parish of Glasgow. The third parties are the owners and occupiers of lines of railways and of the Forth and Clyde Canal and towing path for the same, also lying within the said parish.

4. On receipt by the first parties from the Town Clerk of the second parties in each year of the valuation roll made up by them and the valuation rolls made up by the County Assessor and the Assessor of Railways and Canals, the first parties forthwith make up a parish assessment roll or book under section 40 of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1845, which roll or book contains a note of the persons liable in payment of the parish council assessments, including the mental deficiency and lunacy rate, and of the sums to be levied from each of such persons, a description of the subjects in respect of which said rates are leviable and the valuation thereof, and the roll so made up is the rule for levying the said assessments for the year then current throughout the area of the parish of Glasgow

9. As regards lunacy assessment upon the said underground works and others of the second parties and the third parties, being the gas, water, and electric lighting undertakings, and the lines of railways, canal, and towing path after specified, the second parties, prior to the said Mental Deficiency and Lunacy Act 1913 coming into operation, dealt with the matter in the city of Glasgow, including the burghal portion of the parish—that is, of the lunacy district of Glasgow—as follows:—Up to and including the year ended Whitsunday 1908 they assessed upon the full annual value of the said subjects, and for the year ended Whitsunday 1909 and the following years they assessed on one-fourth of the said annual value of the said subjects. The County Council of the county of Lanark have always assessed upon the full annual value of the similar subjects in the county of Lanark, including the landward portion of the said parish—that is, of the said lunacy district.

10. For the year 1914–15 the first parties have assessed the second parties and the third parties under the said Lunacy Acts, and particularly the said Mental Deficiency and Lunacy Act 1913, on the full annual value of the said underground pipes, mains, lines, cables, and works, and lines of railway, canal, and towing path, as appearing from the valuation roll in force at the time. The said subjects, the amount of the mental deficiency and lunacy rate, and the sums payable, are shown in the following table:—

Year 1914–15.

The Glasgow District Board of Control.

Mental Deficiency and Lunacy Rate per £ in the Parish of Glasgow.

Owner's proportion	2·391d.
Occupier's proportion	2·391d.
Total	4·782d.

Pipes, Mains, &C.

Glasgow Corporation Undertakings.

Burgh.	Landward.
			Gross Value.	Owner's and Occupiers' Assessment.	Gross Value.	Owners'and Occupiers' Assessment.
Water	£30,130 0 0	£600 6 8	£1915 0 0	£38 3 2
Electricity	50,767 0 0	1011 10 8
Gas	25,423 0 0	506 11 0	768 0 0	15 6 1
	£106,320 0 0	£2118 8 4

Lines of Railway, Canal, &

Caledonian Railway Company.

Lines of Railway,&c.

£12,857 0 0

£256 3 6

£3896 0 0

£77 12 7

11. The second parties and the third parties have refused to pay the foregoing assessments assessed and levied by the first parties upon them respectively for the portion of the lunacy district within the burgh of Glasgow, and have claimed in virtue of the foregoing provisions of the Acts of Parliament relating to the burgh of Glasgow that they are entitled to be rated upon one-fourth only of the annual value of the said subjects appearing on the burgh valuation roll. If the contention of the second parties is correct, the valuation and the sum payable by them in the burgh of Glasgow are—value, £26,580, and assessment, £529, 12s. 1d. If the contention of the third parties is correct, the valuation and the sum payable by them in the burgh of Glasgoware—value, £3214, 5s., and assessment, £64, 0s. 10d. A question has thus arisen between the first parties on the one hand, and the second parties and the third parties on the other hand, as to the value upon which the first parties are entitled to assess and levy the mental deficiency and lunacy rate upon the second parties and the third parties in respect of the said subjects.”

The first parties contend as follows—that in terms of the Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1913 they are entitled and bound to assess and levy the mental deficiency and lunacy rate upon the second and

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third parties in respect of the whole of the said subjects according to the full yearly—rent or value of the said subjects as appearing from the valuation roll in force for the time, and that their powers of assessment under the said Act are not affected by any of the provisions of the Glasgow Police Act 1866 or the City of Glasgow Act 1891 or the Glasgow Boundaries Act 1912, and that no deduction or exemption from the said rate is allowable in respect of any of the said subjects.

The second and third parties contend as follows—(1) that under sub-section 2 of section 65 of the Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1913 the second and third parties are entitled to have the underground works of the gas, water, and electric lighting undertakings of the second parties and the lines of railway of the third parties assessed on a fourth of the value, being the valuation for lunacy assessment purposes as regards these subjects immediately prior to the passing of said Act of 1913; and (2) that section 36 of the City of Glasgow Act 1891 applies not only to municipal assessments but to all rates and assessments imposed in the city, whether by the second parties or by any other authorities.”

The questions for the opinion of the Court were—“1. Are the first parties entitled under section 65 of the Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1913, and the provisions of the statutes therein mentioned, to assess the second parties and the third parties for mental deficiency and lunacy purposes on the full annual value of the said subjects respectively owned and occupied by them? 2. Are the second and third parties entitled to be assessed on one—fourth only of the full annual value of the said subjects respectively owned and occupied by them?”

Argued for the second parties—The Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1913 (3 and 4 Geo. V, cap. 38) merely made an administrative change, transferring to the parish council as the district board of control the duty of collecting the lunacy assessment but without altering the incidence of that assessment—sections 65 (1) and (2). The deductions and exemptions formerly allowed were to subsist. Prior to 1913 the lunacy assessment was by the Lunatics (Scotland) Act 1857 (20 and 21 Vict. cap. 71), section 54, assimilated to the assessment under the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1839 (2 and 3 Vict. cap. 42), and was to be subject to the like deductions and exemptions as that assessment. The assessment under the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1839 was to be laid on and collected in every respect in the same way as any municipal or police or general assessment the magistrates might choose. Its incidence and the incidence of the lunacy assessment depended on what assessment was chosen, and that was within the discretion of the magistrates. Further, so long as the money was provided the lunacy authorities had no concern with the means adopted to raise it. The Prisons (Scotland) Amendment Act 1860 (23 and 24 Vict. cap. 105), repealing the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1839, adopted the valuation roll as the basis of assessment (section 36), but continued the same system of collecting the lunacy assessment in the same way as any municipal, police, or general assessment as the magistrates might choose, and it again provided for exemptions. In 1877 the prisons assessment ceased to be raised locally, and by the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1877 (40 and 41 Vict. cap. 53), secs. 62 and 63, the lunacy assessment became a charge on any half-and-half assessment levied within a burgh. That still remained the machinery for raising the lunacy assessment. That assessment was a charge upon a burgh rate, and consequently the lunacy authorities were not concerned with the incidence of the assessment. In Edinburgh the prisons assessments had been collected from 1867 to 1877 in the same way as the assessments under the Edinburgh Act 1867 (30 and 31 Vict. cap. 58), and in the case of railways only upon a quarter of the value of the railway. Prior to 1897 the lunacy assessment was rarely collected, but when collected was collected in the same way as the prison assessment. Since 1897 it had been collected under the Edinburgh Municipal and Police Act 1879 (42 and 43 Vict. cap. cxxxii), sec. 66 (5), which assessment was a burgh assessment (section 67), and was to be transferred to the proper authority to receive it by the treasurer (section 79), and in the case of railways their value for the purpose of assessment was to be taken at a quarter (section 74). In Glasgow the only difference was that the parish contained a burghal and a landward portion. That, however, only raised the question of the proportion leviable from each part, and made no difference in this case where the burghal part alone was in question. In Glasgow the lunacy assessment was collected in the same way as the assessments under the Glasgow Police Act 1866 (29 and 30 Vict. cap. cclxxiii), secs. 6, 39, and 42, and the assessment was on a quarter of the value of railways and of the underground pipes and works of the Glasgow Gas Companies. This exemption was extended by the Glasgow Corporation Water-works Act 1885 (48 and 49 Vict. cap. cxxxvi), sec. 35, to the underground works of the Water-works Commissioners. These exemptions were applied to all rates and assessments leviable within the city by the City of Glasgow Act 1891 (54 and 55 Vict. cap. cxxx), sec. 36, and these rates and assessments included the lunacy assessment. Consequently both in Edinburgh and Glasgow prior to 1913 the lunacy assessment was legally leviable only on a quarter of the value of the subjects referred to owned by the Railway Companies and the Corporation, and the Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1913 did not alter that, but made it obligatory on the collector it introduced to allow that exemption. If the contrary were decided subjects of this kind relieved to the extent of three-fourths from all other rates would have to pay on the full value in respect of lunacy assessment. Further, the argument for the first parties necessarily came to this, that there never could be any deduction, exemption, or limitation with regard to the lunacy assessment.

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But the Edinburgh Municipal and Police Act 1879 made the assessments according to the yearly value (section 75), yet it allowed remissions, limitations, and deductions (sections 71, 72, and 73).

Argued for the first parties in both cases—The word used in the Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1913, sec. 65 (2), was “leviable,” not levied, and the assessment leviable prior to that Act was by the Lunatics (Scotland) Act 1857, sec. 54, to be upon the real rent of the lands and heritages. The Prisons Acts merely provided a machinery to recover the assessments the incidence of which was fixed by the Lunatics (Scotland) Act 1857. The real rent was explained by the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1839, sec. 48, and that section also set out the exemptions allowable. The deductions allowable were the deductions allowable under the Lunacy Acts as defined by section 75 of the Mental Deficiency and Lunacy (Scotland) Act 1913, and were the deductions referred to in the Lunatics (Scotland) Act 1857, secs. 57 and 58. The deductions, &c., here claimed did not fall within the deductions, &c., in the Lunacy Acts. The Lunacy Acts did not refer to the Municipal Acts, and the lunacy assessment had nothing to do with the assessments under the special Edinburgh and Glasgow Acts. In Edinburgh it was not a burghal assessment. It differed from the other assessments authorised by the Edinburgh Municipal and Police Act 1879. No doubt it was collected by the burgh collector, but it was not like the other assessments for a burgh purpose, for the burgh did not expend it, which it did with all burgh rates; neither did the burgh estimate the amount required. The result was, it was not subject to the deductions, &c., which affected the burgh rates. In Glasgow the same considerations applied. The lunacy assessment was not estimated for under, nor authorised to be raised for the purposes of, the Special Acts, nor was it levied within the city. Further, if the contention of the other parties was given effect to within the burghal part of the parish, the railway, e.g., would be assessed on a quarter, while in the landward part it would be assessed on the whole. To give effect to the contention of the other parties would produce want of uniformity.

At advising—