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

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
which 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.