The Express.
London, England, 1847-10-09 00:00:00

SCOTLAND.

EDINBURGH, OCT. 7.
The city and county of Aberdeen have been
worthily occupied in endeavouring to remove several
differential laws that affect Scotland and not England.
The town effort has been directed to the vexatious
system of exacting duties on the inventories of perso-
nal or moveable estates, and generally to the partial
and oppressive character of the stamp laws. The
hardships complained of are well explained by an
Aberdeen councillor :
By the existing law, the reprecentatices of every individual in Soot-
la= who at his decease is possessed of perceard props; ty beyond the
value of 20/. are bound to exhibit upon oath, and record in the Com-
missary Court, a full and true inventory of all the personal and move-
able estate of the deceased. Such inventory must specify the parti-
curer amount of every one sum due to the deceased, the name of every
person indebted to him, and give an account besides of the value and
date of his concerns in every department of trade or business where
ha may have a share. Now, as the confirmation which completes the
executor's title contains an exact copy of the inventory, and Is re-
quired to be banded to the managers and directors of companies in
which the deceased was interested, as well as to purchaser. of his
stock, to show the executor's title, the deceased's whole affairs, as
well as the sums selfish had been lent by him to others, come to be
known to these parties, and if these men were imprudent, and given
to much talk, the most private transactions might be made public.
The hardship is still more, when it is considered that the executor is
bound to give up and record such inventories, and pay duty open
them to the full amount of the visible means, without any deduction
for debts. Thus, if the deceased had 8001. of personal at de belong-
ing toht eautetea time of his death, and yrashtheaetn; dsutll his executor
would have a lot. inven the men
tory stamp to pay, and, before he could woes r
that surn, would be subjected to much trouble and expense. In a
small case which lately came under his observation, in a neigh-
bouring county, where the personal means of the deceased
amounted to little more than 1001., and bis debts to 140!.,
or thereby, the executor was bound, notwithstanding the deficiency,
to pay an inventory duty of some 31. He had to go through the
same forms as if he had been making up a title to a free property.
He had some 101. of expenses to defray in making up a title, and,
rather than adopt the tedious and expensive measures nexteary to
recover the V. stamp, he submitted to the lose, which w. 13 a gain to
the government, at his cost. It may be said that the statute provide.
for a return of duty ; hut the fact is, rather than go through a tedious
and vethtems proceas of the kind, parties frequently yield their sight,
and submit to the love. Again, suppose an executor were to give up
an inventory of a personal estate, believed at the time to be of the
value of 19,000/., the stamp would, in that case, if a testate suereence,
be 310/. • but suppose the estate should, through some ciraumetanot,
yield 2;100/. additional, then the executor would have to writs
his additional inventory on a new stamp of 3502. value, being the
stamp corresponding to 21,0001., and would have, fur a
considerable time, to lie out of the money he had paid
for the first stamp, and incur much trouble and expense in recover.
tug it. By tae Laws of England an executor required only to
make oath to the gross amount of the personal estate, and did
not require to specify sums and names. An alteration to this
extent would be a great improvement on the present system, and it ts
difficult to assign a good remon for the law in Scotland being dif-
ferent. The second branch referred to the partial amid oppressive
nature of the stamp act. generally. For instants, in every succeed=
to a moveable or personal estate above 201. value duty was payable;
but, on a landed estate, suppose the mime was of the value of
100,0001., no duty whatever was payable—the same was transmitted
from father to son, or to the nearest heir, or convey= by deed to a
stranger, free of duty. Again, the same stamp was required for •
deed of settlement to convey a 30/. heritage that was required for an
estate of 50,000/. The law making a bill written on a wrong stamp
null and void, or of no force as a legal document, was often a great
hardship to parties, and was frequently the sure of great injustice
and serious wrongs. And the law enacting a duty of 10 per cent. on
legacies left to charitable and religious institutions was an anomaly
and great grievance.
Petitions to parliament, in conformity with these
views, were unanimously agreed to by the council.
The county proceedings in another matter will be
best explained by their own resolutions, slightly
abridged.:
1. That an act was parsed during the last session by which, amongst
other provisions, authority Is given to draw from the consalidated
fund a sum of money sufficient to defray the whole expence of main-
taining prlioners in gaol, which expense was previou-ly defrayed from
local assessments on the land. 2. Thee this ace has been in operation
in England for several months, but has not yet been extended to Scot-
land. 3. That, as the landed interests of England and Scotland will be
affected ion sr. manner by the abolition of the corm duties, any
raraßllre requisite as a oompensation to the landed interest in
the our country ought to be extended to the other.
In Edinburgh, the Chamber of Commerce has been
discussing certain points connected with mail accele-
ration in the north, and also making further arrange-
ments for a simultaneous Scotch movement against
the Bank Act. At the Edinburgh county meeting,
the county and parish rates on railways were an-
nounced as having been fixed at 1,8001. per mile for
the Edinburgh and Glasgow and North British lines,
and it is likely that this rate will be assumed as a
standard for other lines. It has been fixed on
the principle that, allowing one-third of the income
of a line as an eluivalent for working expenses,
assessment on four-ninths of the gross income, or 56
per cent. thereon, is a fair taxable proportion. At the
Perthshire meeting the principal topic discussed was
the licensing of public-houses. It was stated, in re-
ference to an appeal case from Dunkcld, that in that
town, including a part of an adjoining parish, there
were 638 males and females above fourteen years of
age, and for their accommodation there were fourteen
public-houses, or a public-house to every forty-five
individuals, men and women, in the town above four-
teen years of age, or a public-house to every nineteen
men. And it was further stated that, notwithstand-
ing this, there were proportionably fewer alehouses
in Dankeld than in the adjoining towns of Perth
and Coupar Angus, and yet the additional licenses
were granted on the ground that allowance was to be
made for travellers.
The Scotch dissenters are rather pleased at not
being commanded to observe the Sunday fast in
common with the Established and Episcopal churches,
and they have resolved to set apart a week-day in
October as a day of thanksgiving for the abundant
harvest - - -

Scientific readers will be interested in knowing,
that according to an announcement made by Professor
Nichols, in one of his Glasgow popular lectures,
the Marquis of Breadslbane will make up the defi-
ciency in astonomical instruments for taking original
observations in Glasgow University. Mr. Robert
Chambers has also been exploring and measuring the
various heights in the parallel roads of Glenroy. The
Inrerness Courier says that Mr. Chambers has ascer-
tained that the roads correspond exactly in elevation
with the lines of ancient sea-beach or mountain terraces
throughout Scotland, and hence concludes that they
were caused, not by some great inland lake, or by the
action of glaciers, as M. Agana supposed, but by the
waters of the sea, which had overspread the whole
country. The different lines of elevation may be
considered as so many epochs of the geological era.
Mr. Chambers has been engaged, for some years, in
investigating and measuring the ancient sea-beaches,
and will publish the results of his researches. Glen-
roy has given rise to much conjecture, and his mea-
surements will be an important element in the dis-
cussion.

AN ABERDEEN FAOTN.—William Campbell, an old man,
who, at 'previous Aberdeen Circuit, figured most unenviably
as a witness, and was sharply reproved by the Lord Justice
Clerk, on the trial of five boys (called the " Copper Com-
pany"), who were transported for theft, was, at last assize,
brought up for his share in that transaction, on en indict-
ment for reset. Campbell pleaded not guilty but it came
out in evidence that he had received the property stolen by
these boys, namely, 122 pieces of iron, marked with the
harbour brand, and weighing in all between 4 and 6 cwt.
The prisoner had long been known to the police as an habi-
tual natter and encourager of theft, and clearly reapon•ible
for the thefts committed by these boys, and all other delin-
quents who knew that such persons as he were at all times
ready to purchase from them the produce of their nefarious
trade. The unanimous finding of the jury was guilty ; and
the sentence, transportation for seven years.
DEER-BiLLILING.—This sport, now nearly closed, kw for
the last ten days been followed with great activity—a favour-
able change of weather having collected the herds to their
usual corriet—and the result to sportsmen btu been many

fine additinis to their collections of antlered heads. In the
Black Mount forest, the Marquis of Bendalbans and friends
had a splendid day's sport last week. The Duchess of Jlont-
rose, Lord Own Won, and the Hoe. Fox Maule, were of the
party. They shot altogether thirteen choice stags. From
his forest of Gleastrathisrar, Lord Lovat has selected several
f►t stags with good heads; and Capt. Inge, at Funs,
kyle, has also secured • number of fine antlers.
In the woods of Erchleu, Mr. Boulderson and friends
shot some large stags—one of their heads counted
fourteen antlers. At Rhidorroch, John Hay Mackenzie,
Esq., killed two stags, one with a royal head; and Lord
Grosvenor, while on • visit at the same place, shot • stag
with a fine head. Among the numerous parties who have
been likewise fortunate, are the Hon. Messrs. de Grey, at
Coignafearn ; W. 0. Jackson, Esq., Glendoe ; Walter Boyd,
Esq., Stray, and Mr. Forde, Glenmaserin. Roe•deer are
everywhere abundant; and, as a peculiarity of the season, it
has been observed, that, while the red deer's antlers are in
general of less bulk than usual, those of roe deer are particu-
larly large and well marked, Sidney Hadwin, Esq., Kildo-
nen Lodge, shot, on his shooting grounds in Kildonan, on
Tuesday last, one of the finest stags killed in this part of the
country for many years. The stag weighed 25 stone—bad
a very beautiful head—and there was a depth of no less than
three inches of fat on the haunches. Mr. Hadwin shot
another fine stag on Friday last, very little inferior to the
former. A fine young stag, weighing seventeen stone when
clean, was shot by Donald Horne, E:q., on the Longwell
preserves, on the 25th ult.