In ordinary times a man, or at any rate a lady, may live and die in his or her own house without much noticing the limits or peculiarities of each district.

In one the rate may be one and a penny in the pound, in another only a shilling.

But the difference is not large enough to create inquiry.

It is divided between the landlord and the tenant, and neither perhaps thinks much about it.
But when the demand made rises to seventeen or eighteen shillings in the pound--as was the case in some districts in those days,--when out of every pound of rent that he paid the tenant claimed to deduct nine shillings for poor rates, that is, half the amount levied--then a landlord becomes anxious enough as to the peculiarities of his own electoral division.
In the case of Protestant clergymen, the whole rate had to be paid by the incumbent.

A gentleman whose half-yearly rent-charge amounted to perhaps two hundred pounds might have nine tenths of that sum deducted from him for poor rates.