ASSESSMENT

assessment, (from lat. _assessare_, to sit beside, to judge), a term expressing either an official valuation of income or property for purposes of taxation, or the amount so determined (see taxation and valuation). it is also applied to the amount of damages fixed by a jury in a court of law (see damages). an _assessment committee_ is a statutory committee appointed under the union assessment acts 1862, 1880, for the purpose of making out the valuation lists upon which the poor-law rate is based. an _assessment policy_, in life insurance, is a policy issued at a fixed premium, the excess of which over the portion necessary to meet current claims and expenses goes to form a reserve fund which is devoted to various forms of benefit for the policy-holders. see insurance and friendly societies. assessor (lat. _assessare_, _assidere_, to sit by), a roman term originally applied to a trained lawyer who sat beside a governor of a province or other magistrate, to instruct him in the administration of the laws (see roll, _de assessoribus magistratuum romanorum_, leipzig, 1872). the system is still exemplified in scotland, where it is usual in the larger towns for municipal magistrates, in the administration of their civil jurisdiction, to have the aid of professional assessors. in england, by the judicature act 1873, the court of appeal and the high court may in any cause or matter call in the aid of assessors. the patents act 1907 makes special provision for assessors in patent and trade-mark cases. by the supreme court of judicature act 1891 the house of lords may, in appeals in admiralty actions, call in the aid of assessors, while in the admiralty division of the high court it is usual for the elder brethren of trinity house to assist as nautical assessors. in admiralty cases in the county courts, too, the judge is frequently assisted by assessors of "nautical skill and experience" (county court admiralty jurisdiction act 1868). in the ecclesiastical courts assessors assist the bishop in proceedings under the church discipline act 1840, s. 11, while under the clergy discipline act 1892, s. 2, they assist the chancellor in determining questions of fact. by the appellate jurisdiction act 1876, s. 14, the king in council may make rules for the attendance of archbishops and bishops as assessors in the hearing of ecclesiastical cases by the judicial committee of the privy council. the term "assessor" is also very generally applied to persons appointed to ascertain and fix the value of rates, taxes, &c., and in this sense the word is used in the united states. in france and in all european countries where the civil law system prevails, the term _assesseur_ is applied to those assistant judges who, with a president, compose a judicial court. in germany an _assessor_, or _beisitzer_, is a member of the legal profession who has passed four years in actual practice and become qualified for the position of a judge. assets (from the o. nor. fr. _assetz_, mod. fr. _assez_, "enough"), in english law, strictly the property of a debtor in the hands of his representative sufficient for the satisfaction of his creditors or legatees. thus the property of a bankrupt is termed his assets and is the fund out of which his liabilities must be paid. all property of the debtor is assets, and it is not necessary that it should have been reduced into possession by him. the creditors of a debtor are either secured or unsecured. a secured creditor, e.g. a mortgagee, has a prior claim to be paid his debt out of his security. if on realization of the security there is a balance after paying the debt, such balance becomes assets for the unsecured creditors; if there is a deficit, then the creditor becomes an unsecured creditor for such deficit. the unsecured creditors were formerly divided into creditors by specialty and by simple contract, the first being creditors secured by instrument under seal who ranked in priority to simple contract creditors. but by hinde palmer's act [the executors act] 1869 all unsecured creditors rank alike. assets are divisible into legal assets and equitable assets, and the former class is again divisible into assets real and personal. these distinctions, though formerly of great importance, have now lost most of their meaning, but it is necessary briefly to describe the nature of these divisions and their consequences. the distinction between assets legal and equitable depends entirely upon the remedy open to the creditor to recover his debt and in no way upon the nature of the property from which the debt is sought to be recovered. if the creditor had to sue the executor of a debtor at law to obtain payment out of the property, that property was legal assets; but if the only remedy open to the creditor to get at the property was to bring an action in chancery for the administration of the estate, then the assets were equitable. legal assets, as has been said, were divided into real and personal assets. the personal assets were those which devolved _virtute officii_ on the executor or administrator; such assets are since hinde palmer's act available equally for specialty and simple contract creditors. the real assets consisted of those descending to the heir or devised to a devisee, and were at law only liable for specialty debts. however, by the land transfer act 1897 it is provided that the real estate of a deceased shall devolve upon the executor and "shall be administered in the same manner ... and with the same incidents as if it were personal estate." the distinction, therefore, between assets real and personal has practically ceased to exist, and only continues in regard to such property as is not included in the act, the most important of which is land held in copyhold. the equitable assets were treated otherwise. in the eyes of equity all unsecured creditors stand upon the same footing, and a creditor suing for administration of the estate sued on behalf of himself and all other creditors of the estate, and the distinction between specialty and simple contract creditors was ignored. land was not at law liable to satisfy simple contract creditors; but if a testator expressly charged it with payment of his debts or devised it to his executors upon trust to pay his debts, equity treated it as equitable assets and so made it available to satisfy simple contract creditors; and finally by an act of 1833 it was provided that real estate should in all cases be assets to be administered by equity for the benefit of simple contract creditors as well as creditors by specialty. it will be seen therefore that, generally speaking, all creditors have now the same remedies against the executors either at law or in equity. the only property as to which these distinctions at all survive is that not touched by the land transfer act 1897. the act of 1833 just mentioned does not, however, deal with legacies, which continue to be payable only out of personalty unless they are expressly charged upon the realty by the testator; it has been contended that the effect of the land transfer act 1897 has been to alter this and make the realty assets for the purpose of paying legacies, but this view is believed to be unsound. it is necessary for the representative so to distribute the assets that any fund primarily liable shall bear its proper burden, and that as far as possible all debts and legacies may be paid; this is said to be "marshalling the assets," and a few examples of the principal cases of marshalling will make this clear. if the personalty is exhausted in satisfying the creditors the legatees are left without a fund from which to be paid. but inasmuch as the creditor could have got paid out of the realty, as well as the personalty, it is not fair that the legatee should suffer by the creditor's choice, and he will therefore get payment from the real estate. so again if one legacy is charged upon the real estate and another is not, then if the former be paid out of the personalty the latter will stand in its place and be paid from the real estate. finally it shall be noticed that an insolvent estate may be administered in bankruptcy. in such a case the law of bankruptcy regulates the order in which the assets are divided among the creditors (see bankruptcy), but by the judicature act 1875, it is provided that an insolvent estate may be administered in the chancery division, and in such a case "the same rules shall prevail and be observed as to the respective rights of secured and unsecured creditors and as to the debts and liabilities provable and as to the valuation of annuities and future and contingent liabilities respectively as may be in force for the time being under the law of bankruptcy." this clause must be construed strictly, and it is only in the three cases specifically mentioned that the rules of bankruptcy will be imported into the administration of an insolvent estate by the chancery division. in a less strict sense, the term "assets," or "an asset," is used derivatively as a synonym for any property, or as opposed to "liabilities." cecil rhodes once spoke of the british flag as a "great commercial asset" in south africa, meaning merely that the imperial connexion was a source of strength and credit. assideans (the anglicized form, derived through the greek, of the hebrew _hasidim_, "the pious"), the name of a party or sect which stood out against the hellenization of the jews in the 2nd century b.c. after the massacre of those who fled from the forces of antiochus epiphanes and would not resist on the sabbath, mattathias (or judas) decided to set aside the law and was joined by a company of assideans, brave men of israel every one, who offered themselves willingly for the law (1 macc. ii. 42, cf. 2 macc. viii. 1). on the appointment of alcimus (162 b.c.), "a descendant of aaron" as high-priest, "the assideans were the first who sought peace" (1 macc. vii. 13 f.); but the treacherous murder of sixty of them (ib. 16) threw them back into the arms of judas. according to 2 macc. xiv., alcimus identified them with the whole party of the rebels, of which they were only one, though the most important, section. see schurer, _geschichte des judischen volkes_, i. 203; art. in _jewish encyclopaedia_, s.v. "hasidim" (s.m. dubnow). (j. h. a. h.) assignats (from lat. _assignatus_, assigned), a form of paper-money issued in france from 1789 to 1796. assignats were so termed, as representing land _assigned_ to the holders. the financial strait of the french government in 1789 was extreme. coin was scarce, loans were not taken up, taxes had ceased to be productive, and the country was threatened with imminent bankruptcy. in this emergency assignats were issued to provide a substitute for a metallic currency. they were originally of the nature of mortgage bonds on the national lands. these lands consisted of the church property confiscated, on the motion of mirabeau, by the constituent assembly on the 2nd of november 1789, and the crown lands, which had been taken over by the nation on the 7th of october (see french revolution). the assignats were first to be paid to the creditors of the state. with these the creditors could purchase national land, the assignats having, for this purpose, the preference over other forms of money. if the creditor did not care to purchase land, it was supposed that he could obtain the face-value for them from those who desired land. those assignats which were returned to the state as purchase-money were to be cancelled, and the whole issue, it was argued, would consequently disappear as the national lands were distributed. a first issue was made of 400,000,000 francs' worth of assignats, each note being of 100 francs' value and bearing interest daily at a rate of 5%. they were to be redeemed by the product of the sales, and from certain other sources, at the rate of 120,000,000 francs in 1791, 100,000,000 francs in 1792, 80,000,000 francs in 1793 and 1794, and the surplus in 1795. the success of the issue was undoubted, and, possibly, if the assignats had been restricted, as mirabeau at first desired, to the extent of one-half the value of the lands sold, they would not have shared the usual fate of inconvertible paper money. mirabeau was a strenuous advocate of the assignats. "they represent," he said, "real property, the most secure of all possessions, the soil on which we tread." "there cannot be a greater error than the fear so generally prevalent as to the over-issue of assignats ... reabsorbed progressively in the purchase of the national domains, this paper-money can never become redundant." in 1790 the interest was reduced to 3%, and as the treasury had again become exhausted, a further issue was decided upon; it was also decreed that the assignats were to be accepted as legal tender, all public departments being instructed to receive them as the equivalent of metallic money. this second issue amounted to 800,000,000 francs and carried no interest. it was solemnly declared in the decree authorizing the issue that the maximum issue was never to exceed twelve hundred millions. this pledge, however, was soon broken, and further issues brought the total up to 3,750,000,000 francs. the consequence of these further issues was instant depreciation, and the note of 100 francs nominal value sank to less than 20 francs coin. recourse was then had to protective legislation. the first step was to decree the penalty of six years' imprisonment against any person who should sell specie for a more considerable quantity of assignats, or who should stipulate a different price for commodities according as the payment was to be made in specie or in assignats. for the second offence the penalty was to be twenty years' imprisonment (august 1, 1793), for which the death penalty was ultimately substituted (may 10, 1794). this severe provision was, however, repealed after the fall of robespierre. notwithstanding these precautions, the value of assignats still declined, till the proportion to specie had become that of six to one. then came the passing by the convention on the 3rd of may 1793 of the absurd "maximum." the decree required all farmers and corn-dealers to declare the quantity of corn in their possession and to sell it only in recognized markets. no person was to be allowed to lay in more than one month's supply. a maximum price was fixed, above which no one was to buy or sell under severe penalties. these measures were soon stultified by further issues, and by june 1794 the total number of assignats aggregated nearly 8,000,000,000, of which only 2,464,000,000 had returned to the treasury and been destroyed. the extension of the "maximum" to all commodities only increased the confusion. trade was paralysed and all manufacturing establishments were closed down. attempts by the convention to increase the value of the assignats were of no avail. too many causes operated in favour of their depreciation: the enormous issue, the uncertainty as to their value if the revolution should fail, the relation they bore to both specie and commodities, which retained their value and refused to be exchanged for a money of constantly diminishing purchasing power. even between the assignats themselves there were differences. the royal assignats, which had been issued under louis xvi., had depreciated less than the republican ones. they were worth from 8 to 15% more, a fact due to the hope that in case of a counter-revolution they would be less likely to be discredited. the directory was guilty of even greater abuses in dealing with the assignats. by 1796 the issues had reached the enormous figure of 45,500,000,000 francs, and even this gigantic total was swollen still more by the numerous counterfeits introduced into france from the neighbouring countries. the assignats had now become totally valueless--the abolition of the "maximum" the previous year (1795) had produced no effect, and, though, by various payments into the treasury, the total number had been reduced to about 24,000,000,000 francs, their face-value was about 30 to 1 of coin. at this value they were converted into 800,000,000 francs of land-warrants, or _mandats territoriaux_, which were to constitute a mortgage on all the lands of the republic. these _mandats_ were no more successful than the assignats, and even on the day of their issue were at a discount of 82%. they had an existence of six months, and were finally received back by the state at about the seventieth part of their face-value in coin. authorities.--l.a. thiers, _histoire de la revolution francaise_, gives a full and graphic account of the assignats, the causes of their depreciation, &c.; j. garnier, _traite des finances_ (1862); j. bresson, _histoire financiere de la france_ (1829); r. stourm, _les finances de l'ancien regime et de la revolution_ (1885); f.a. walker, _money_ (1891); henry higgs, in the _cambridge modern history_, vol. viii. (1904). (t. a. i.)