As the land became more valuable, this burdensome charge could not be endured. The agents of the bishop advise “merging,” and “commutation;” and, after the performance of these feats, on the twenty-third of July, 1844, the vestry receive a letter from Messrs. Budd and Hayes, informing them, “the Tithes of the Paddington Estate have been _merged_, and that the rent-charge for the tithes of the rest of the parish is £166 13_s._ 8_d._” And they considerately mention this, “in order that the future rates may be assessed with reference to that sum, _after making proper deductions_, and not on the amount they have been hitherto assessed upon.” Whereupon the _poor_ bishop and his lessees are relieved from some of the _great_ charges laid on them, for the support of the poor; the vestry resolving to assess “the tithes of the Paddington Estate in future, at £166, instead of £340, as heretofore!” At the end of 1810, it was found that out of a rental of £5,200 paid by the cottagers, only £535 of this was rated to the poor; and that the average of all the assessments in the parish, was but two-thirds of the real value; some being rated at one-third, others at one-half, and others at five-twelfths of the full value. The value of the property, as assessed in 1811, was £28,597, the assessment having been taken on 865 separate tenements. From the census of this year, 1811, I find that 4,609 persons then living in the parish, constituted 1,083 families, occupying 879 houses. In 1812, out of 935 dwelling-houses, only 393 were rated to the poor; “the rest being miserable huts, occupied by paupers and very poor people.” In 1821 there were 1,448 families in Paddington, four of whom are returned in the census of that year as being agricultural. In the same year there were 824 persons claiming relief as paupers; and the sum of £37 7_s._ 3_d._ was paid weekly for out-door and casual relief. In 1825 the assessment of this parish was £46,245 13_s._ 4_d._; and in 1831 it had increased to £71,528 18_s._ The rates levied in the former year, amounted to £6,025 10_s._ 8½_d._; in the latter, to £14,691 16_s._ 5½_d._ The number of families, according to the census of 1831, was 3,493. In 1841 Paddington was in union with Kensington, Hammersmith, and Fulham, and I find the average of the establishment charges for three years for Paddington, set down at £2,712.