employments (b); and also with regard to the licence which must be taken out by every person who keeps a dog (c), uses a gun (d), or deals in game (e). To this branch of the revenue,—which is under the management of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue (f),-have also been now assigned not only the duties payable in respect of the above licences, as well as the duties on stage and hackney carriages, on railway passengers, on racehorses, on wine licences and refreshment houses,-but also such as are known by the name of the assessed taxes, these last being duties assessed and charged upon persons in respect of houses they inhabit, and of certain articles by them used or kept (g). And such assessed taxes comprise the duties on male servants, on carriages, and on armorial bearings (h).

(b) See 27 & 28 Vict. c. 56, s. 6. Among these are appraisers, pawnbrokers, hawkers, pedlars and house agents. (Ibid.) And as to pedlars, see also 34 & 35 Vict. c. 96.

(c) See 30 & 31 Vict. c. 5; 41 & 42 Vict. c. 15, ss. 17-23.

(d) 33 & 34 Vict. c. 57. (e) 1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 32; 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 65, s. 9.

(f) As to this Board, and as to proceedings by it, see 43 Geo. 3, c. 99; 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 20; 9 & 10 Vict. c. 56; 12 & 13 Vict. c. 1; 24 & 25 Vict. c. 91, s. 46; 31 & 32 Vict. c. 124. As to compounding for these taxes, see 8 & 9 Vict. c. 36; 13 & 14 Vict. c. 96; 26 & 27 Vict. c. 33. It may be here remarked, that a person failing on demand to pay taxes may, if there be no sufficient distress on his premises, be committed to prison by two commissioners of taxes till payment be made. (See 43 Geo. 3, c. 99, s. 3; 32 & 33 Vict. c. 14, s. 30.)

(g) See 32 & 33 Vict. c. 14; 33 & 34 Vict. c. 32, Part V. As

to the excise, generally, see 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 53; 9 Geo. 4, c. 44; 1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 22; 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 16; 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 51; c. 76, ss. 9, 10; 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 49; 3 & 4 Vict. c. 17; 4 & 5 Vict. c. 20; 5 & 6 Vict. cc. 25, 79, 93; 8 & 9 Vict. c. 15; 10 & 11 Vict. c. 42; 11 & 12 Vict. c. 121, ss. 9-11, 18, 28; 12 & 13 Vict. c. 1; 15 & 16 Vict. c. 61; 16 & 17 Vict. cc. 37, 127; 17 & 18 Vict. cc. 27, 30; 18 & 19 Vict. cc. 38, 94; 19 & 20 Vict. c. 34; 23 & 24 Vict. cc. 90, 113, 114, 129; 24 & 25 Vict. c. 91; 25 Vict. c. 22; 27 & 28 Vict. c. 9; 28 & 29 Vict. c. 66; c. 96, ss. 2329; 30 & 31 Vict. c. 90, ss. 1-19; 33 & 34 Vict. c. 32, Part II.

(h) As to assessed taxes, see 43 Geo. 3, cc. 99, 161; 48 Geo. 3, c. 141; 3 Geo. 4, c. 88; 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 60; 3 Vict. c. 17; 5 & 6 Vict. cc. 37, 80; 6 & 7 Vict. c. 24; 7 & 8 Vict. c. 46; 14 & 15 Vict. c. 36; 16 & 17 Vict. c. 90, s. 8; 17 & 18 Vict. c. 1, s. 5; c. 85; 19 & 20 Vict. c. 80; 24 & 25 Vict.

IV. [Another branch of the revenue is the post office, or duty for the carriage of letters (i). As we have traced the original of the excise to the parliament of 1643, so it is but justice to observe that this useful invention owes its first legislative establishment to the same assembly. It is true there existed postmasters in much earlier times: but their business was probably confined to the furnishing of post horses to persons who were desirous to travel expeditiously, and to the dispatching of extraordinary packets upon special occasions. King James the first originally erected a post office under the control of one Matthew De Quester or De L'Equester, for the conveyance of letters to and from foreign parts. In 1635, King Charles the first erected a letter office for England and Scotland, and settled certain rates of postage (j); but this extended only to a few of the principal roads, the times of carriage were uncertain, and the postmasters on each road were required to furnish the mail with horses at the rate of twopence halfpenny a mile. On the breaking out of the civil war, great confusions and interruptions were necessarily occasioned in the conduct of the letter office (). And about that time the outline of a more extended and regular plan seems to have been conceived by Mr. Edmund Prideaux, who was appointed attorney-general to the commonwealth, after the death of King Charles. He was chairman of a committee of the House of Commons, in 1642, for considering what rates should be set upon inland letters (7); and was afterwards appointed postmaster by an ordinance of both

c. 91, ss. 45, 46; 30 & 31 Vict. c. 90, ss. 25, 26; 32 & 33 Vict. c. 14, Part V. and Sched. (E).

(i) By the 38 & 39 Vict. c. 22, s. 6, the duties authorized by the Post Office Acts are to be deemed stamp duties, and are to be under the management of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue.

(j) 20 Rym. Foed. 192, 630.

(k) Blackstone says (vol. i. p. 322) that at one time the office of postmaster was claimed by Lord Stanhope (Latch. 87), but was confirmed by Charles the first to one William Frizell, then to Thomas Witherings, and afterwards to Philip Burlamachy. (20 Rym. Fœd. 429.)

(4) Com. Journ. 28th Mar. 1642.

annum.

[the Houses (m), in the execution of which office he first established a weekly conveyance of letters into all parts of the nation ("); thereby saving to the public the charge of maintaining postmasters, to the amount of 7,0007. per And his own emoluments being probably very considerable, the common council of London endeavoured to erect another post-office in opposition to his, till checked by a resolution of the House of Commons, declaring that the office of postmaster is and ought to be in the sole power and disposal of the parliament (o). But in 1657 a regular post-office was erected, by the authority of the Protector and his parliament, upon nearly the same model as has been ever since adopted, and with the same rates of postage as continued till the reign of Queen Anne (p).] After the Restoration a similar office, with some improvements, was established by statute 12 Car. II. c. 35; but the rates of letters have been since altered, and further regulations added by many subsequent statutes (7).

It has been asserted that no more eligible method of raising money upon the subject can be devised than this tax, inasmuch as it affords to both the government and the people a mutual benefit; because the government acquire a revenue, and the people do their business with greater ease, expedition, and cheapness, than they would be able to do if no such tax, (and of course no such office,) existed (r). Of late, however, the post office has been regarded less as a source of revenue, than as affording an easy, ready, and cheap transmission of correspondence,-for the convenience of the public and the promotion of the commercial interest of the country. Accordingly the postage has gradually since the year 1840 become reduced to an uniform rate,

(m) Com. Journ. 7th Sept. 1644.
(n) Ib. 21st Mar. 1649.
(0) Ibid.

(p) Ib. 9th June, 1657; Scobel, 511.

(2) See the later Acts 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. cc. 33, 36; 1 & 2 Vict. cc. 97, 98; 2 & 3 Vict. c. 52; 3 & 4

Vict. c. 96; 10 & 11 Vict. c. 85; 11 & 12 Vict. c. 88; 23 & 24 Vict. c. 65; 33 & 34 Vict. c. 79 ("The Post Office Act, 1870"); 34 Vict. c. 30; and 38 & 39 Vict. c. 22. And as to colonial posts, see 7 & 8 Vict. c. 49.

() 1 Bl. Com. 323.

irrespective of distance, and amounting at present only to the sum of one penny for every letter conveyed between places in the United Kingdom, provided it does not exceed one ounce in weight (s). And in further development of the system, books, newspapers and other postal packets are now also conveyed at even lower rates than letters, in proportion to the weight conveyed. Yet the produce arising from this branch of the revenue appears to be steadily increasing (t).

V. A fifth branch of the revenue (also under the management of the commissioners of inland revenue) consists in the stamp duty, which is a tax imposed upon a great variety of legal and other documents (u); and in fact on almost all instruments between man and man which are written on parchment or paper; as also upon cards and dice (x). This tax (which varies in its amount according to the nature of the thing stamped), though in some cases heavily felt, yet affords some compensatory advantage to the public, by authenticating instruments, and rendering it more difficult to forge deeds of any antiquity; since, as the officers of this branch of the revenue vary their stamps frequently, by marks known to none but themselves, a man that would forge a deed of antient date, must know and be able to counterfeit the stamp of that time (y). The first institution of the stamp duties was by statute 5 & 6 W. & M. c. 21 (≈) ; but they

(8) The rate for a post-card is, indeed, not to exceed the sum of one halfpenny (38 & 39 Vict. c. 22, 8. 1). It may be observed that by 3 & 4 Vict. c. 96, the privilege formerly exercised by all members of parliament, of franking, or sending and receiving letters free of duty, was wholly abolished.

(1) The machinery of the Post Office is now also used in managing savings banks and providing small insurances and annuities with go

vernment security. Moreover the electric telegraphs are now placed under the same direction. (See 31 & 32 Vict. c. 110; 32 & 33 Vict. c. 73; 33 & 34 Vict. c. 88.)

(u) See 28 & 29 Vict. c. 45, as to court fees; 32 & 33 Vict. c. 49, as to fines and fees to local authorities; et vide sup. p. 570, n. (i).

(x) See 25 Vict. c. 22, ss. 27-37. (y) 1 Bl. Com. 324.

(z) Ib.

have long since been increased vastly beyond the original design (a). And there are two duties classed by act of parliament under this branch of the revenue, (though of a different nature from the rest,) which are of such importance as to deserve a particular mention, viz., that payable under the Legacy Duty Acts (b), and that payable under "The Succession Duty Act, 1853” (c).