_realised_ property (other than what falls within the legal description of _real_) which existed in Elizabeth’s time, and for 150 years after, and owing to the difficulty of ascertaining it for assessment purposes, it escaped its due share of the burden; and, indeed, until about eight years ago most people fancied that it was _real_ property only, and not _realised_, that was contemplated in the original Act. The enormous strides, however, that other descriptions of _realised_ property (besides lands and houses) have made of late years have opened people’s eyes to the true intent and purport of the Act; and hence moneymongers, scrip-holders and annuitants must no longer expect to escape and throw their burden upon shopkeepers, mechanics, and needy professionals. In truth, it is not their interest to do so, unless they choose to risk their all for the sake of a beggarly saving of a few pounds a year, which they, of all others, ought least to begrudge the poor, their especial victims. As to centralizing the rate, the selfish conduct of landed proprietors and others has made such a step almost inevitable. By preventing the building of cottages on their respective estates in town and country, and by working the law of settlement to their own selfish ends so as to debar the poor from having any legal claim in their respective townships, they have so effectually overcrowded some parishes with paupers, to spare their own, that nothing but a centralised rate (to be dispensed according to the number of claimants in each) can now restore justice as between parish and parish and union and union. But let those who may entertain any doubt as to the expediency or necessity of centralization but read Mr. Hutchinson’s admirable work on the subject, and we think they will at once admit that such an arrangement ought no longer to be deferred. As to the liberal and kindly treatment we demand for the unemployed and destitute poor, it is no more than a fraction of their right. If they had _justice_ done them they would need no _charity_, and, till justice is done them, we demand that their treatment shall be what our resolution describes, and that it shall be considered their _right_, and not grudgingly doled out as a boon. Thus far for Resolution No. 1. In the following chapter we shall show cause for Resolution No. 2. [Illustration: Decoration] CHAPTER XVIII. GRADUAL RESUMPTION OF PUBLIC LANDS BY THE STATE. Necessity of Agrarian Reform--Crown Lands, Church Lands, and Corporation Lands to be immediately resumed, and their Rent applied to the relief of Taxation--The Rich have no right to meddle with them--Needed, by the exploited Millions, as a Fulcrum to raise them from the Earth.