The Press. — London, England, 1856-07-12 00:00:00

JULY 12, 1856. From political speculation, let us turn to more pleasing topics. Upon music let us hear Mr. St. John discourse : Music is an exquisite accomplishment and a beautiftll art; but the frantic admiration felt by some people for its professors seems to me the evidence of a mind more deeply immersed than usual in matter. At any rate, those who can 10 rapturously appreciate pretty sounds are generally little capable of understanding the value of words ; and as speech affords the chief element in the definition of our species, I may be permitted to place merely " musical people " on the extreme verge of humanity towards the frontiers of beastdom. I know that in so saying T expose myself to all manner of sneers and witty retorts,—" The man that has no music," &c. But I have all political philosophers and stern moralists on my side. Observe in private life : whenever you meet an individual whose occu• potion or chief pleasure is music ; who talks much of Erard ; who pesters you with his opinion that Beethoven and gbakspeare are on the same level ; who produces a Jew's. harp, or any other instrument, in the midst of conversation, and proposes a " little rational amusement," be sure he will take an opportunity of telling you that lie does not care about polities,—that is to say, is indifferent to the general interests of humanity. It is my private conviction that every man in a free country who tells you that he doesn't care about politics, makes a profession of dishonesty —because he profits by the advantages without sharing the fatigues of freedom: but this is not the thesis I would now maintain. I speak especially of Italy, and must attribute a considerable amount of its misfortunes and degradation to the prevalence of catgut and squalling. There is truth exaggerated into absurdity in the foregoing passage. Frantic enthusiasm about scenery, poetry, or even politics, is just as ridiculous as about music. As a general rule, however, our own great British states man, and orators, and politicians, have not been musical in their tastes. The only one that we can call to mind as a musical per former of skill was Curran. There are some nice descriptions of scenery scattered through the first of these volumes; and to any one meditating a " Subalpine " tour this work, with its varied contents, will be a capital guide-book. The best passage in the work is the description of the scenery about Turin:— The resident in Turin, however, when in search of something to gladden his eye, and repose or elevate his mind, has a resource the equal of which is found in few places. He can go to any commanding point of the Hill of Turin across the river, to gaze at the panorama of the Alps. The nearest and best position is, perhaps, the ter- race of the convent of the Capucins of the Hill. There from you receive the most agreeable impression of the city of Turin itself ; indeed, you are led to suppose that few cities are more admirably laid out. The uniformity of Turin is a uniformity that pleases in a map or a model, and in a bird's-eye view. The church towers and spires, rising on all hands, break the straight lines. Even the un wieldy castle, with its observatory, seems a fine feature. But what makes the scene so pleasing, and really gives a wonderful character to the city, is its magnificent position on the edge of a plain covered with trees and woods, and clotted with houses and villages, and intersected by large avenues, stretching out like the ribs of a fan, in all direc tions, up to the foot of the Alps, which rise abruptly like stage•mountains from the green level in one wide semi circle all round from Mon Viso on the left to Monte Rosa on the right. But you do not immediately conceive the noble grandeur of the scene. Those must be lofty hills certainly, but you have nothing to compare them with. The sun is perhaps behind the convent tower, and overhead is nought but a fbrmless solitude of light. You bring your glances near, and look over the parapet down the steep green slope, half concealed by chestnut-trees. There is a road at the bottom, on which the people look very small indeed; and, after a slip of land with a fringe of houses, there is the broad river, with a sort of tiny gcndolas passing to and fro in the shining reach, between the bridge of iron and the bridge of stone. The Valentino Palace out there to the left, among groves and avenues, is already a dis tant object. The city, which yet is more than a league in circumference, may be taken in at a glance. All the palaces and borgoes in the environs, though visible, seem far off. The great cemetery is reduced to a little inclosnre. The Veneria cannot be made out. Where the plain begins to undulate, forms have ceased to be distinguishable. Colours, faint and melting into one another, alone are visible. It is no haze, but distance, that makes all out lines indistinct. But yon lift up your eyes, and there, close by, as it were within reach of the hand, are wild slopes, and valleys, and rocks, and woods, and white peaks; and then at length you know and feel that those slopes are provinces, those valleys plains, those rocks huge deserts, those woods primeval forests, those white peaks measure less expanses of snow and ice. The volumes are decidedly "seasonable ; " their contents are various, as there is some thing in them to interest every person, and we can cordially recommend them to general readers. But, for the reasons hinted at by us, politicians will cautiously accept Mr. Bayle St. John's views upon Piedmontese statesman ship. THE PRESS. The Taxes on Succession: A Digest of the Sta tutes and Cases relating to the Probate, Legacy, and Succession Duties, with Practical Observa tions and Official Forms. By Charles Cecil Trevor, M.A., Barrister-at-Law. London : Stevens and Norton. THE Succession Duty Act of 1953 has greatly increased the importance of the law regulating the taxes to be paid on the transfer of pro perty at death. From its nature the statute could not be otherwise than of a complicated kind ; as it had to deal with various kinds of successionary interests, and establish rules for many descriptions of property never sub ject before to Government valuation. Hence a lucid explanation of the Act, with the various official forms provided for its practical working, could not be otherwise than useful. But Mr. Trevor has done more than this. In one compact and handy volume he has presented us with the whole law relating to taxes on succession, combining the provisions of the new statutes with those of the former ones on probate and legacy duties ; and has given in a judicious manner the substance of those cases which have come before the courts for the elucidation of doubtful points. In the pre paration of his volume Mr. Trevor has had singular advantages. He states in his pre face : Throughout this work I have availed myself to a con• siderable extent of the valuable notes which my father, during a period of upwards of thirty years' public service as solicitor and afterwards as controller of the legacy duties, has from time to time collected. The book, in passing through the press, has had the advantage of his revision, and to his practical knowledge any success it may attain will be mainly attributable. The volume may, therefore, be fairly con sidered an authority on the subject to which it relates, while the chapter containing offi cial forms, tables, and regulations, is so full and complete as to furnish all necessary in formation on the practical working of the law. Though of comparatively modern date in England, the succession duty was established in the reign of Augustus. The " Vicesima Hereditatum et Legatorum " was, says Mr. Trevor, A tax of fire per cent., or rather of the twentieth penny, upon every succession, legacy, and donation in case of death, except those to the nearest relatives, and to the poor, and such as did not amount to a certain sum. In modern Europe, the ingenuity of the Dutch, sorely tried at the commencement of their Republic to raise funds to meet their heavy expenses, first suggested an impost on stamped paper ; and the tax was naturally thought of by William when pressed for ways and means " towards carrying on the warr against France." To the American war we owe the first tax on legacies (1780); but neither the influence of Mr. Pitt, nor the pressure on the finances caused by the enormous expenses of the war with France, could induce the Legis lature to sanction the extension of the duty to succession to real estate. The bill intro duced by Mr. Pitt (1795) was strongly opposed at every stage in the Commons, and, only saved from defeat by the casting vote of the Speaker, was at last withdrawn. The ease with which the succession duty was carried by Mr. Gladstone, marked the change which time and events have made in the sentiments of the Legislature. Some nice points have been raised on the interpretation which should be given to the Legacy Duty Act. The Duke of Queensbury, who died in 1810, left legacies to a large amount which were not finally settled till 1824. The question was then raised whether duty should be charged on the interest which had accrued as well as on the principal sums. Lord Lyndhurst decided in the affirmative ; and, though at first sight the decision appears harsh, yet a closer view shows its equity ; for said his Lordship : It appears to me to be the justice of the case, and not contrary to the Acts of Parliament, but rather consonar.t to their whole scope and spirit, that the legatees should have that part of the fund which they would have had if the appropriation had been made at the time fixed by the will, and that the Crown should have the full benefit (f that part (4 the fund which it would have been incumbent on the Court at the same time to have set apart for the discharge of the duty, The decision is distinguished by the lucidity characteristic of Lord Lyndhurst's mind. Supposing that a legacy of 1,0001. was left to a person who would have to pay on that amount duty at ten per cent., then, in justice, the legatee would only be entitled to interest on 9001., while the Crown would be entitled to interest on 100/.; and this is exactly the effect produced when, in the case of accumulation of interest, a legatee is charged duty on the whole sum receivable by him. We do not, however, understand why the same rule should not apply when a specific sum is bequeathed. It is a point worth notice, though not directly relating to Mr. Trevor's subject, that when a bequest is given in a will free of legacy duty, and an addition is made to it in a codicil without that express stipulation, the legatee is chargeable with the duty under the codicil, though the latter be plainly but a continua tion or fulfilment of the bequest of the will. The judgment shown in the editing this volume is as conspicuous as the care with which the details have been collected and arranged. It is not often the case that legal books can be recommended for their general usefulness, but this volume on Taxes en Succession" contains so much practical infer. mation in an intelligible form, that, while adapted to the use of the profession by the minuteness and precision of its legal parti culars, it is well calculated to serve the public' at large by the details furnished on the prac tical working of the law, and the rules estab lished for the valuation of different kinds of property. The TVill, Divine and Human. By Thomas Solly, late of Caius College, Cambridge. Cambridge : Deighton, Bell, and Co. Ix some disparaging remarks on metaphysical speculation made several years back, Mr. Macaulay ventured to pronounce that the age for it was past, and he contrasted its achieve ments with those accomplished by physical science to the infinite disadvantage of the former. But Mr. Macaulay's mind is one of those which cannot take a roundabout view of any subject. The use of metaphysical specu lation—for we certainly doubt whether meta physics are entitled to be termed a science—is not to establish fixed principles, and on those principles to build a solid and incontroverti ble system, but to keep the mind in a state of healthy agitation on those subjects which are of the very highest importance not only to its immortal destiny but even to its mortal state. It may be, and we believe it is, true, that there are barriers which the mind cannot pass, yet it can never be wholly unprofitable to skirt those barriers, to peer over and through them, and so, while recognising the limits of human intelligence, to catch by analogy and imagina tion faint glimpses of the effulgence of Divine Truth which lies beyond. An inquiry into the real and practical benefits conferred on man kind by metaphysical speculation would not be without interest and would disclose some curious results. The fact is, that at the present time meta physical speculation is not out of date, and is not abandoned as unprofitable. Living in the midst of literature, we can speak on this point with certainty. We doubt whether there ever was a time when metaphysical speculation was pursued more ardently, or when it engaged a larger portion of the intellectual acuteness of the age. Indeed, we think the tendency to resolve all natural theology into intellectual analysis has been pushed too far, and that the facts of the external world are in some danger of being overlooked through devotion to meta physical idealism. The object of this very delicate and subtle treatise is to vindicate the liberty of man's will from the restraints which the doctrines of the Necessarians would impose on it. The controversy is as old as philosophy itself; nor, considering the character of the reasoners on each side, does it seem possible to determine w hi c h way the weight of authority inclines. On this, as on many other metaphysical points, we are compelled to believe things apparently inconsistent with each other, if we would not deny conclusions which reason irresistibly prompts us to form.