To a child or parent, or any lineal descendant or ancestor of the deceased, £1 per cent. ; to a brother or sister, or their descendants, £3 per cent.; to an uncle or aunt, or their descendants, £5 per cent.; to a great uncle or great aunt, or their descendants, £6 per cent.; to any other relation, or any stranger in blood, £10 per cert. Legacy to husband or wife exempt It was in 1853, by 16 & 17 V. c. 51, the legacy duty was extended to real estate, and the duty made payable on succession both to landed and personal property. By s. 18, a succession of less value than £100 is exempt from duty; and no duty is payable upon any succession estimated of less value than £20 in the whole, or which would be exempted under the Legacy Duties Act. Leasehold estates not chargeable with legacy duty as personal estates, 8. 19. Succession duty made a first charge on property. Notice of a succession to be given to the commissioners, and a return made of the property. Penalty for neglect to make return proportioned to the rate of duty payable. Returns to be verified by production of books and documents. Stamps are now used instead of payments by fees in proceedings in Bankruptcy and Insolvency, in the High Court of Admiralty, and in Chancery. VI. THE ASSESSED TAXES.-EXEMPTIONS. The assessed taxes include various domestic taxes, assessed or levied on houses, menial servants, carriages, pleasure-horses, and other articles of private use and luxury. In 1851, duties on windows were abolished and replaced by a duty on inhabited houses being worth the rent of twenty pounds or upwards by the year. Inhabited House Duty.-If used wholly or partly for the sale of goods, as a shop or warehouse, the shop or warehouse being on the ground floor; or for the sale of beer, wines, or spirits; or if occupied by a tenant or farm servant for husbandry purposes only; for every 208. of yearly value, the sum of 6d. If occupied for any other purpose, for every 20s. of yearly value. 9d. . By s. 11 of 32 & 33 V. c. 14, any tenement or part of a tenement occupied as a house for the purposes of trade only, or as a warehouse for the sole purpose of lodging goods, wares or merchandise in it, or as a shop or counting house or being used as such, is exempt from inhabited house duties, although a servant or other person may dwell in such tenement or part of a tenement for its protection only; and by s. 31 of 34 & 35 V. c. 103, every inhabited dwelling-house of £20 yearly rental or upwards, which is occupied by a person who carries on the business of a hotel keeper, innkeeper, or coffee-house keeper, although not licensed to sell liquor by retail on the premises, is to be charged annually at the rate of 6d. in the pound on the rental. By s. 8 of 32 & 33 V. c. 14, the land tax, inhabited house duty, and income tax (except such income tax as is payable by way of reduction), are to be payable every year on the 1st of January, instead as formerly quarterly. By s. 18 of the same act the duties on carriages, horses, armorial bearings, male servants, and horse dealers, were made excise duties, and were placed under the management of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue. It is not necessary for licenses to be taken out in the following cases (1.) By any officer in the army for any borses required by the regulations of the service to be kept by him. (2.) By any effective officer commanding a volunteer corps for any number of horses not exceeding two, kept by such officer for service in such corps (3.) By any person for any horse or mule kept by him solely for the purpose of husbandry, or use in his business as a market gardener, and which shall not be used for riding or for drawing any carriage for which a license is required. (4.) By any person for any mare used solely for breeding purposes, or for any horse or mule used solely in an underground mine. (5.) By any horse dealer duly licensed for any horse or mule being his property and kept on his premises for sale, and which shall not be let for hire. The term carriage means any vehicle drawn by a horse or a mule except a waggon, cart, or other vehicle used solely for the conveyance of any goods or burden in the course of trade or husbandry, and whereon the christian name and surname, and place of abode or place of business, of the owner or of the company or firm owning the same, is visibly and legibly painted in letters of not less than one inch in length. By 35 & 36 V. c. 20, s. 6, no person is required to take out a license as above, for any waggon or cart used for conveying the owner or his family to or from any place of divine worship on Sunday, Christmas day, Good Friday, or on any day appointed for a public fast or thanksgiving, provided that such waggon or cart is marked in the manner provided in s. 19 of 32 & 33 V. c. 14, and mentioned above. By s. 24 of 34 & 35 V. c. 103, horses belonging to officers in the militia, yeomanry, and volunteer services, and kept for such services, are exempt from license duty. By 36 & 37 V. c. 18, s. 4, on and after the 1st of January, 1874, it shall not be necessary for a license to be taken out under 32 & 33 V. c. 14, by any hotel keeper, retailer of intoxicating liquor, or refreshment-house keeper, for any servant wholly employed by him for the purposes of his business. A duty of £3 178. is, by 19 & 20 V. c. 82, to be paid for every horse which shall start or run for any plate, prize, or sum of money, and to be the duty for one year ending April 5th next after the day on which the horse starts or runs. Duty to be paid to the clerk of the course previously to the starting of the racehorse. Penalty on the owner refusing to pay the duty, or not producing receipt of previous payment, £50, and a like penalty on the clerk of the course not demanding the duty before the race, or otherwise neglecting his duty as the act directs. Dogs.-By 30 V. c. 5, in lieu of assessed tax on dogs, a license duty, under the excise, of 58. to be paid on every dog, of whatever description, by the person keeping the same. Keeping a dog without a license in force, or a greater number of dogs than licensed, to forfeit £5, and the person in custody or charge of the dog deemed to be the keeper. Penalty of £5 on not producing license on request to an excise officer or police constable. Dogs under six months old not liable to duty, s. 10. No person chargeable with duty to any greater amount than £39 128. for any number of hounds, or £9 for any number of greyhounds kept by him in any year. Exemption.- Any dog kept and used in the care of sheep or cattle, or in driving or removing the same; provided no such dog shall be a greyhound, hound, pointer, setting-dog, spaniel, lurcher, or terrier. Duties on passengers conveyed for hire by carriages travelling upon railways-£5 per cent. on the gross amount of fares And by s. 13 of 26 & 27 V. c. 33, the accounts for sums received for the conveyance of passengers upon railways are to be made up at the close of each calendar month. The mileage duty on stage coaches and omnibuses was reduced in 1866, and was repealed entirely in 1869, by 32 & 33 V. c. 33, 8. 17. It may be interesting to mention Dr. Johnson's description of the excise, which was as follows:-"A hateful tax levied upon commodities and adjudged, not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid." VII. INCOME TAX. Income or property tax is the duty on profits or income arising from property, professions, trades, and offices, and which, by 16 & 17 V. c. 34, was altered and continued from 1853 to April 6, 1860. The chief alterations introduced by the act were the extension of it for the first time to Ireland; second, the extension of the tax to incomes below £150, but not below £100; third, the progressive reduction of the tax at intervals of two or three years; and, lastly, its final abandonment in seven years, simultaneously with an equivalent gain to the exchequer by the expiration of the Long Annuities in 1860. During the term of two years from April 5, 1853, the assessment of property, annuities, dividends, salaries, pensions, profits, and gains, would be, for every 208. of the annual value or amount thereof, 7d. During the further term of two years from April 5, 1855, the assessment would be 6d. in the pound; and during the further term of three years from April 5, 1857, the assessment would be 5d. in the pound. These prospective reductions were suspended by the war with Russia in 1854 ; and by 17 V. c. 10, additional rates and duties, amounting to one moiety of the whole of the duties payable under the act of 1853, are made chargeable for the year commencing April 6, 1854. In 1855, by 18 & 19 V. c. 20, an additional rate of duty of 2d. in the ponnd was imposed, to continue during the war. By the act of 1853, the 16 & 17 V. c. 34, s. 56, persons knowingly and wilfully inciting or assisting any one to make false returns of profits or value, are subject to a penalty of £50. By 24 & 25 V. c. 91, s. 36, the income tax on interest and dividends payable in the United Kingdom, arising out of foreign companies, is made to include also colonial possessions. In the budget of 1866 the duty was continued at 4d, in the pound, and for occupiers of farms 2d in the pound on the rent in England, and 14d. in Scotland and Ireland. Persons whose income from every source is under £100 a year are exempt. A deduction of £60 to be allowed from incomes below £200 a year, and balance taxed at 4d. in the pound. The expense of the Abys sinian expedition caused a temporary augmentation of the rate, but it was afterwards reduced, and in 1870 the fourpenny rate was regranted for one year. The income tax is this year (1873) 3d. in the pound, and a deduction of £80 is allowed from all incomes below £300 a year, the balance to be taxed at the rate of 3d. A penny in the pound of income tax makes a difference of £1,600,000 in the public revenue. PART V. CIVIL INJURIES. WRONGS are of two kinds; private wrongs and public wrongs : the former are an infringement of the rights of individuals, and termed civil injuries; the latter are a violation, not only of the rights of individuals, but of the community, and distinguished by the harsher names of felonies or misdemeanours. Redress for private wrongs must be sought at the risk and cost of individuals, while the prosecution of criminal wrongs is carried on in the name and at the suit of the crown as conservator of the general peace and security. It is the nature and character of the former, or civil injuries, that will now engage attention, reserving public crimes for the concluding part. While the number of criminal offences recognized by the law is great, those of a civil nature are comparatively few, and the principal of them may be comprised under the following classification: 1. Libel. 2 Slander. 3. Personal Injuries. 4. Adultery. 5. Seduction. 6. Trespass. 7. Malicious Prosecution. 8. Nuisance. 9. Negligence. CHAPTER I. Libel. LIBEL is usually defined a malicious defamation of another, expressed in writing or printing, or by signs, pictures, or representations, and differs from slander, which is verbal or spoken defamation. In general any publication is libellous that hurts or disparaves either an individual or the state; with respect to individuals, whatever tends to hurt their feelings or reputation is a libel; and with respect to the government, anything is construed libellous that tends to hold it up to hatred, contempt, or disesteem. The remedy for libel is either by indictment, by action, or information; the former for the public offence, as tending to provoke the person libelled to a breach of the peace, which is the same whether the matter of the libel be true or false; and therefore the defendant, on an indictment for libel, will not be allowed to allege the truth of it by way of justification, unless he can show that it was for the public benefit the matters charged were published. In a civil action, however, a libel must appear to be false as well as scandalous for if the charge be true, the plaintiff has no ground to demand compensation for himself, whatever offence it may be against the public peace; and, therefore, in a civil action for damages, the truth may be pleaded in bar of the suit. eeeding by information is generally directed against libels on the established religion or government, and is instituted ex officio by the attorney-general. In a criminal information by an individual, the court will exert a discretionary power in sanctioning such a A pro |