provided it has a stamp proportioned to the consideration expressed in the deed, and though that consideration proved not to be the true one, 13 Price, 455, E. T. 1824. But, on the other hand, persons are liable to a heavy penalty in not setting forth the full purchase or consideration money.

The Common Law Procedure Act, the 17 & 18 V. c. 125, makes provision for stamping documents at the trial of a cause. By s. 28, upon the production of any document as evidence, it is made the duty of the officer of the court, whose duty it is to read such document, to call the attention of the judge to such omission or insufficiency of the stamp; and the document, if unstamped, or not sufficiently stamped, will not be received in evidence, unless the whole, or the deficiency of the stamp duty, and the penalty required by statute, and an additional £1, he paid.

CHAPTER X.

Assumpsit.

ASSUMPSIT, from the Latin assumo, is an implied contract, by which a man assumes or takes upon him to perform or pay anything to another, and to which he is bound upon the principles of equity and the just construction of law.

1. If I employ a person to transact any business for me, or perform any work, the law implies that I undertook or assumed to pay him so much as his labour deserved. And if I neglect to make him amends, he has a remedy for this injury by bringing his action on the case; in which he is at liberty to suggest that I promised to pay him so much as he reasonably deserved, and then to aver that his trouble was really worth such a sum, which valuation is submitted to the determination of a jury.

2. If one take up goods or wares of a tradesman, without expressly agreeing for the price, there is an implied understanding that the real value of the goods shall be paid, and an action may be brought accordingly.

3. Another implied undertaking is, when one has received money belonging to another, without a consideration given on the receiver's part; for the law construes the money received for the use of the owner only, and implies that the person so receiving it undertook to account for it to the owner. And if he unjustly detain it, an action lies against him, and damages may be recovered. This is an extensive and benefical remedy, applicable almost to every case where a defendant has received what, in equity and fairness, he ought to refund. It lies for money paid by mistake, or on a consideration which happens to fail, or through imposition, extortion,

or oppression, or where any undue advantage is taken of the plaintiff's situation.

4. When a person has laid out and expended his own money for the use of another, at his request, the law implies a promise of repayment, and an action will lie on this undertaking. On this principle it is established that a surety in a bond, who pays the debt of his principal, may recover it by action on the assumpsit, for so much advanced for the use of the principal. But an action will not lie for money paid, when the money has been paid against the express consent of the party for whose use it is supposed to have been paid. Neither can money be recovered back when paid for carrying on an unlawful undertaking, as an unlicensed theatre, 10 Bing. 107.

5. Upon a stated account between two merchants or other persons, the law implies that he against whom the balance appears has engaged to pay it to the other, though there be not any actual promise. Actions, however, to compel a person to bring in and settle his account are now seldom used; the most effectual way to settle these matters is to file a bill in equity, when a discovery may be had on the defendant's oath without relying merely on the evidence which the plaintiff may be able to produce; though, when an account is once settled, nothing is more common than an action on the assumpsit to pay the balance.

6. The last class of implied contracts arises upon the supposition that every one who undertakes any office, employment, trust, or duty, contracts, with those who employ or entrust him, to perform it with integrity, diligence, and skill. And if, by the want of either of these qualities, any injury accrues to individuals, they have their remedy and damages by a special action on the case. few instances will suffice.

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If a public officer be guilty of a neglect of duty, or a sheriff or jailor suffer a prisoner in custody for debt to escape, or if an attorney betray or wilfully neglect the cause of his client, he is liable for damages.

With an innkeeper, there is an implied contract to secure his guest's goods in his inn; with a common carrier to be answerable for the goods he carries; with a common farrier, that he shoes a horse well, without laming him; with a tailor, shoemaker, or other workman, that he performs his business in a workmanlike manner; in which, if they fail, an action on the case lies to recover damages for such breach of their general undertakings. So, too, a surveyor being employed to survey and value premises, upon the security of which money is about to be advanced; if he, through ignorance or negligence, represent the value of the security greater than it is, by which his employer is deceived, he is liable to an action for dainages.

But if a person be employed to perform any of these offices, whose common profession or business it is not, the law implies no

such general undertaking in order to charge him with damages, a special agreement is necessary.

If any one cheat me with false cards or dice, or by false weights and measures, or by selling me one commodity for another, an action lies for damages upon the contract; since the law implies that every transaction ought to be fair and honest.

In contracts, likewise, in sales, it is constantly understood that the seller undertakes that the commodity is his own. In contracts for provisions, it is implied that they are wholesome: otherwise, in either case, an action lies for damages.

THE general aim of these laws has been to encourage British shipping, by securing the carrying trade of the country, both foreign and coastwise, to British-built ships, owned and navigated by British subjects. They are of ancient date; but the policy of them was most directly resorted to and matured to counteract the maritime ascendancy of the Dutch, by the famous statute of the Long Parliament in 1651, afterwards confirmed in 1660 by the Navigation Act of 12 Car. 2, c. 18. In this act it is provided that no merchandise, either of Asia, Africa, or America, shall be imported into England except in British-built ships, navigated by an English commander, and manned to the extent of three-fourths of the crew by Englishmen ; and that certain enumerated articles of European merchandise, embracing all the bulky and chief products of the Continent, as well as all Turkish and Russian goods, should not be imported in foreign ships, except such as should be brought directly from the country or place of growth, or manufacture, in ships belonging to such country or place. Besides these exclusive

privileges granted to English shipping, the object intended was further sought to be gained by the imposition of discriminative duties, so that the enumerated goods which might be imported in foreign ships in Europe were, in that case, more highly taxed than if imported in our own vessels.

A policy so selfish could hardly fail to encourage, if not to provoke, imitation; and the North Americans after achieving their independence, promptly followed the example of the mother country, by passing a Navigation Act. But experience soon showed that a Navigation Act, if a national benefit at all, is only one-sided, and that two conflicting acts are mutually detrimental; compelling the ships respectively of the competing States in the outgoing voyage to sail in ballast. Negotiations ensued, and a treaty was concluded in 1815, guaranteed by an act of parliament, which, for the first time, allowed of a deviation from the strictness of our protective enactments. By this treaty the ships of the two countries were placed reciprocally on the same footing in the ports of England and the United States, and all discriminative duties chargeable upon the goods thus conveyed were mutually repealed.

A few years later, further modifications of our exclusive system had become unavoidable, and five acts were passed, the 3 G. 4, c. 41 to c. 46, which greatly mitigated our shipping laws. From various causes, foreign countries had up to this time generally submitted to the discriminative duties imposed upon their vessels in our ports without retaliation. But it now appeared that the imposition of preference duties was a game that two or more States might play at, and that the forbearance of our neighbours was no longer to be calculated upon. In 1823, Prussia notified that, until an alteration of our system was made in favour of her vessels, similar heavy duties would be imposed upon British ships that should enter any of her ports; and it was observed that a corressponding movement would have followed in other countries. Our merchants, in consequence, became anxious for the removal of the English discriminative duties; and with this view the Reciprocity Acts, the 4 G. 4, c. 79, and 5 G. 4, c. 1, were passed. These statutes authorized the crown to permit the importation and exportation of commodities in foreign vessels, at the same duties as were chargeable on British vessels, in favour of all such countries as should not levy discriminative duties on British vessels. Under these acts reciprocity treaties were concluded with the chief German States, with the States of South America, and with France, Austria, Holland, and Greece.

From the legislative retrospect it is manifest, that whatever might be the primary policy of the Navigation Laws, or their influence on the maritime progress of the country, the relaxation of them had become expedient to avert a hurtful retaliatory course in other nations. As the greatest of commercial countries, as having more ships to employ, and more commodities to exchange, England

doubtless appeared more than any other country interested in their peaceable and unrestricted intercourse. By these comprehensive views the Legislature seems to have been influenced in the gradual abandonment of the Navigation Laws, especially by the acts by which British ships ceased to be required to be manned by a certain proportion of British seamen, and by the opening of the coasting trade to foreign vessels.

It is by 16 & 17 V. c. 131., s. 31, that so much of a former act as requires every British ship to be navigated by a master who is a British subject, and the whole or a certain proportion of her crew to be British seamen, is repealed.

By 16 & 17 V. c. 107, no goods or passengers can be carried coastwise from one port of the United Kingdom to another, nor to or from the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands, except in British ships. These restrictive enactments on foreign vessels are repealed by 17 V. c. 5, subject to the Customs Act, 1853, and the retention by the Queen of the right to exercise retaliatory restrictions. Foreign ships in the coasting trade to be subject to the same regulations as British ships; likewise foreign steam vessels carrying passengers.

II. BOARD OF TRADE, (WNERSHIP, REGISTRY.

By the 17 & 18 V. c. 104, the Board of Trade has the general superintendence of matters relative to the mercantile marine, assisted by Local Marine Boards, the members of which are to be elected by the shipowners. Examinations to be instituted into the qualifications of masters and mates of foreign-going ships, and certificates of competency granted to those who pass. If any local board fail to discharge its duties, the Board of Trade may assume its duties, or direct a new election. If a master or mate be convicted of felony, the Board of Trade may cancel his certificate of competency for service; or if upon inquiry he has been found guilty of gross or repeated acts of dishonesty, drunkenness, or tyranny, certificate may be suspended or cancelled. Certificate of master or mate may be appropriate to station of holder or a superior grade. Local Marine Board to establish a shipping-office, and appoint superintendents of such office, to be called shippingmasters, with any necessary deputies, clerks, and servants, and regulate the mode of conducting business at such office, and have complete control over the same. Every act done by any deputy shall have the same effect as if done by a shipping-master, s. 122. Ownership of British Ships.-No ship deemed to be a British ship, unless belonging wholly to owners of the following description: Natural-born British subjects, who have not taken an oath of allegiance to a foreign State. 2. Persons made denizens, or naturalized by act of parliament. 3. Bodies corporate, having