Parliament 403

and movables. This was the famous Saladin Tithe.1
An ordinance of 1188 imposed it upon England; the first
clause reads, " Every one shall this year give in alms a
tenth of his revenue and movables." This new scheme
for raising money was not likely to be lost sight of in
such a reign as Richard I.'s; and when his great ransom
was raised it was used for the first time in a domestic
concern, and at a higher rate. Prom this time, the tax
was levied with more or less frequency and at greatly
varying rates; and the difficulty in assessing personal
property and income was met by the use of juries of
neighbours that has been noted as so important in leading
to the origin of representation in Parliament.2 At first
some account was taken of the different classes of people,
as clergy, barons, knights of the shire, burgesses; but
;^; rtly owing to the union of the last two elements in
K^rliament and partly as a result of the inherent neces-
sities of such a tax,

the old distinction between Estates gave way to a new dis-
tinction based on the difference between town and country,
or, roughly, befrwe^^ and while

the ordinary proportion granted for dwellers outside a char-

one-tenth was the settlgdjshare

After 1332, because it was felt that this tax was being
excessively levied and because of the charge of corrupt
practices in connection with the 1332 assessment, it was
really decreased by allowing no new assessment of the
old type. In 1334, as a result of negotiations and agree-
ments between the collectors and the townships and
boroughs, a sum of about £38,000 was raised. After
that this sum was taken as a fixed charge and, properly
1 A. and S., document 19; W. and N., pp. 91, 92.
2 See above, p. 352.
3 Medley, English Constitutional History, p. 550. Boroughs and coun-
ties had not necessarily been taxed at the same time; the tenth had some-
times been levied at one time and the fifteenth at another. On the taxing
of the non-Parliamentary boroughs, see above, p. 392 and note 2.