Star.
London, England, 1830-04-14 00:00:00

PROBATE DUTY.

•
This Is the most unjust tax ever laid on any country.
If the newspapers would grant this subject an amount of space
and of attention at all commensurate with the widespread influence
of this branch of taxation over the private affairs of life, and over
the general comfort of society, every column of them, on each suc-
cessive day of publication, would contain an echo of murmurs, be.
Failings, and the curses poured out against It. No fiscal burden
ever fell upon the community with a shock so barbarously timed,
and so out of proportion to its advantages as a source of revenue.—
The first moment of domestic anguish is that wherein the functions-
ries of the law are authorised to prey upon the widow, the childless,
or the fathetless. Duties are called for from a family, who, it is
MOTE than possible, have not the command of a shilling, except by
converting a potion of that property, which they are neverthpless
forbidden to touch until they shall have paid the King. Again, the
tax must be advanced, in the first instance, upon the gross value of
the property, without allowing for debts or incumbrances, although
a drawback is afterwards made of a part of the duty proportioned to
the amount of " debts lawfully due" at the time of the testator's or
intestate's death. This grievance acts in sundry ways.
First,—Suppom the deceased dies between the acceptance and
payment of his bills to the amount of 5,0001. he leaves behind him
a gross fortune of perhaps 10,0001: Ms acceptances, though justly
due, are grounds of action in a court of law; so that if the repre-
sentative of the deceased should, like an honest man, pay off the
acceptances, he cannot deduct the amount from the gross property,
but must be charged with the duty on 10,000/.
Secondly—ln many instances large duties have been wrung from
insolvent estates, where there was not a penny forthcoming to pay
debts amounting to thousands of pounds, yet where the whole im-
post was inexorably levied. Such a sullies this rpmthe humanity
of English legislation ought surely not to continue.
Moreover, besides its grinding, capricious, and demoralising
agency, the tax is of a nature so searching and intrusive into the
private concerns of life, that it is astonishing how it outlived the
or property tax, which owed its abolition more exclusively
to the natural abhorrence of Englishmen to inquisitorial expedients
disturbing the repose of famines, and ransacking the secrets of the
living and the dead, than to any other definitive motive.
Lastly, as a matter of finance, this and the legacy duty will every
hour become less productive; rudent persons have foe some years
past been driven to the necessity of conveying, before death, what,
under different circumstances, they would have devised by will, and
their numbers will increase from year to year, until the nuisance
shall be abated.

Tbae may, however, be some excise fora legacy tax, provided
not extended to the children of deemed, and which legacies can be
known fan the will, without any inquisitorial prying into family
akin, or counting a man's spoons and goods, even to an old wig
or pair of shoes.
But it may be put to Parliament—if, when the head of a family,
for instance, dies, it is just, equitable, or charitable, or in the spirit
of the English constitution, to mark out that family as objects of
increased taxation ? and at a moment when possibly deprived of the
means of its existence, can there be a more severs or unjust tax ? It
is, in fact, inflicting a penalty or fine on a family for having the
misfortune to lose its head.

It may be also observed, that, strictly speaking, an executor can.
not comply with the law ; because, bAre he interrneddles in the
meets, be mum take out probate; sal this he cannot do till he has
paid the duty, and, consequentlpommt meddle before he takes out
probate, unless he pays it out Olds mrsi packet.
Every exertion in and out sePadlamm, therefore, is necessary to
obtain a repeal of this most Amiss; probate duty tax.