The Sun.
London, England, 1860-09-07 00:00:00

ments chargeable only with 2s. 6d. as agreements were used
to supply the place of leases, which if made would be liable
to higher duties. To protect the revenue from the loss the
above alteration was effected, an agreement for a lease being

now required to be stamped with ad valorem duty as a
lease, the lease itself, if it should at any time be made,
being chargeable only with the duty of 2s. 6d. If, how-
ever, a lease so stamped be required for the sake of evidence,
a denoting stamp, testifying the payment of the full and
proper duty on the agreement, will be impressed thereon.
The duty of £2 ss. upon a bill of exchange for any sum
of money exceeding £4,000 has been repealed, and in lieu
thereof an ad valorem duty of 10s. for every £l,OOO or frac-
tional part of £l,OOO, has been imposed upon bills exceeding
£4,000. A similar relative alteration has been made in the
duty upon a foreign bill drawn in a set of three or more,
each bill of a set being now liable to the duty of 3s. 4d.
We have not thought it necessary to provide a separate
and distanct stamp for every possible amount for which a
bill may be drawn above £4,000, it being immaterial who-
ther the requisite amount be designated by one stamp only
or any number of stamps.
A foreign bill of exchange, draught, or order, payable on
demand, drawn out of the United Kingdom, has been made
liable to the same rate of duty as a bill of exchange payable
otherwise than on demand. _ _

; Draughts on bankers, payable on demand to self, and pre
rented by the drawer or his servants, were considered ex
empt from stamp duty. No good reason could be assigned
for such an exemption, and it gave rise to difficulties in
practice. It has now been repealed, and with it the exemp-
tion of letters sent to bankers by post, ordering the remit-
tance or appropriation of money, has been swept away.
It is not material what shape the order assumes, or in
what words it is framed. A letter to a banker requesting
him to send money to the writer, whether in cash or by a
bank post bill, or in any other way, or directing him to pro-
vide for payments at any place, in discharge of acceptances
or otherwise, must, as well as instructions in any other form
to make or advise payments, be stamped ; in short, any
writing by which a banker is authorised to debit the custo-
mer's account is within the scope of the act. But a letter
from abroad, sent to a banker here, directing him to remit
or appropriate money, is not chargeable, inasmuch as a bill,
draught, or order drawn abroad is only liable to a stamp
when it is negotiated or presented for payment, and an order
sent to a banker without the intervention of a third person
is neither negotiated nor presented for payment. Whereon
adhesive stamp is used for a draught or order it. must be
cancelled or obliterated by the drawer, as required by the
16th and 17th Vic., cap .59, by writing upon it his name or
initials, under a penalty of £lO ; and by the recent act the
banker is enjoined, under a penalty of £2O, further to obli-
terate the stamp by writing or impressing upon it the word
6, paid."
The stamp duty upon a letter or power of attorney for
the sale, transfer, or acceptance of any of the Government
or Parliamentary stocks not exceeding in value £2O, or for
the receipt of any sum of money or check for any sum not
exceeding £2O, or for the dividends or interests for any such
stocks or funds, or any other periodical payments not ex-
ceeding the annual sum of £lO, is reduced from £1 or £1 10s.
to ss. The following are the new duties :
A duty of Id. is imposed upon every certified copy or ex-
tract from any register of births, baptisms, marriages,
deaths, or burials. This duty is to be paid by the person re-
quiring the document. The duty attaches only to a certified
copy or extract from the registries, and not to the marriage
certificate itself, to which a duty of ss. attaches under pre-
vious Stamp Acts.
Any document authorising the purser or other officer of
a mining company conducted on the cost-book system to re-
gister any transfer of any share or shares, or any note of
such transfer, is liable to a duty of 6d.
Declaration, the same duty as would be chargeable on an
affidavit of the same nature.
The duty of ld. is imposed on every document authorising
the delivery upon a sale or transfer of goods of the value of
4s. or upwards, provided such goods bo in a dock or port, or
in a warehouse in which goods are stored for rent or hire.
Two things are to be particularly noticed, viz., the order
must be made on sale or transfer of the goods, and the goods
must be lying in a dock, or port, or warehouse in which goods
are stored or deposited on rent or hire, or upon a wharf—
that is, the order must be given by the owner of the goods,
or his broker or agent, to deliver them to a purchaser, the
goods being in the custody of a dock company, or a ware-
house-keeper or wharfinger, or on board ship in port.
Where, therefore, the owner of the goods desires to take
them out for his own use, not having sold or transferred the
property in them, or contracted to do so, the order to deliver
them is not within the act; but if there be a sale or transfer
the stamp duty attaches, notwithstanding any attempt to
disguise the transaction by directing the delivery to be made
to the seller himself or his servant. A recourse to any such
mode of evading the duty would be, of course, fraudulent,
and would subject the person adopting it to a severe penalty.
Railway traffic involves the issue of numerous orders for
the delivery of goods conveyed, to which the Act has no re-
ference. But railway companies do not trade as carriers
alone ; they are also warehousekeepers ; they have, at the
various stations, warehouses in which goods are deposited
uu rout; and goods that may be lying in any of such ware-
houses are within the description of these for the delivery
of which, to purchasers, stamped orders are necessary, not-
withstanding warehouserent may not be specifically charged
by the company for the particular goods. But where the
goods conveyed are not warehoused, the order for their de -
livery, although upon a sale or transfer, does not require to
be stamped.
The foregoing remarks will apply also to canal companies.
An order to the owner's servant to deliver goods out of
his own warehouse is not within the contemplation of the
Act.

In some places a praetice prevails for the purchaser of the
goods himself to sign what is, in form, an order for their
delivery, but which is of no effect until it is countersigned
or endorsed by the seller, or his broker or agent. This mode
requires the use of one stamp, as for one order only.
If an order direct the delivery of separate quantities of
goods to different purchasers, it is to be treated as several
orders, and stamped accordingly.
The liability to the duty is not affected by any peculiarity
of terms used in the order. A direction to transfer the
goods, or to weigh them over, where the purchaser intends
to continue them in the same custody, must be stamped as
an order to deliver.
A delivery order may be transferred from one to another,
whether by endorsement or otherwise, without a fresh
stamp, so long as the goods continue in the name of the
person giving the order.
In the absence of any express agreement between the
psrties upon the subject, it is to be understood that the duty
is to be borne by the person requiring the order ; but when
an adhesive stamp is used it must be affixed by the person
giving the order, who is to cancel and obliterate it by writ-
ing upon it the name or initials of himself, or of his firm or
principal, and the date of so doing.
By giving an unstamped order, or, if an adhesive stamp
be used, by omitting effectually to cancel it, a penalty of
£2O is incurred. And the same penalty is imposed for de-
livering out goods under the authority of an order not
stamped.
If, by reason of the goods not being of the value of 405.,
no stamp is used, it must be stated in the order that the
value is under that sum ; and where this is in any case done
the person having the custody of the goods is relieved from
the liability of giving effect to an unstamped order, not-
withstanding the value may exceed the amount. But by
untruly stating the value to be under 40s. a penalty of £2O
is incurred.

Any warrant or document commonly called a dock war-
rant, or any other writing or document which shall evi-
dence the title of any person therein named, or his assigns,
or the holder thereof, to the property in any goods, &c.,
lying in any dock or warehouse, or upon any wharf, signed
or certified by or on behalf of the company or person in
whose custody such goods may be, is liable ta the duty of 3d.
This duty is not limited to any particular form of docu-
ment used by dock companies, warehouse-keepers, or
whatfingers, to the exclusion of others. Any documents
issued by them, signifying, no matter in what terms, that
the goods they have are held for such owners, are liable to
the duty. It is the custom in the case of certain goods im-
ported (chiefly tea) to give out for the convenience of sell-
ing, besides the ordinary warrant, a document called a
" weight note," containing all the particulars in the war-
rant, and adapted for the insertion of others by the broker.
These cannot in reference to the contracts be distinguished
from ordinary warrants ; it is therefore considered that they
are strictly chargeable with the same duty.
Again, where the owner of goods sells any portion, and
authorises a transfer in the books of the holders into the
name of the purchaser, a certificate of the transfer given
to the new owner is in effect a dock warrant; for, although
by a printed note it negatives the conferring of any property
in the goods, it would certainly seem to evidence the title of
the purchaser to them, as between himself and the com-
pany, which is all that the original Ntrarrant does.
A transfer of a warrant, by endorsement or otherwise, is
not liable to the duty.
Nor are warrants dated prior to the act.

The stamp, if adhesive,-must be cancelled in the same
manner as that on a delivery order. No provision is 'made
as to the party by whom the duty is to be paid, but this
charge seems necessarily to lie on the person requiring the
warrant.