A.-G. v. ABDY. [275] [ 276 ] widow or other claimant under any of the provisions of the said Act should be assignable, except with the permission of the said directors, or liable to be affected by arrestment, or otherwise attachable by any creditor, or be subject to the jus mariti of any husband with whom any such widow or other claimant might intermarry, or be subject in any manner to any debts, or deeds, or control of any such husband; but the same should be paid to each widow, or other claimant entitled thereto, upon her own receipt only, notwithstanding such arrestment, attachment, or marriage.' 9. In order to obtain further assistance to the fund without increasing the annual subscription of the members, and thereby to adapt it more completely to the circumstances of the persons for whose benefit it was chiefly intended, it was thought desirable to provide additional sources of profits, besides the general contribution of poundage authorized by the said Act, and the ordinary annual payments of subscribers. 10. With that view the attention of the directors of the said fund (who were themselves officers in the various departments of the Customs, and whose services from the first establishment of the fund have in all respects connected with its management, as also with the Bill of Entry Office hereinafter referred to, been entirely gratuitous), was soon after the passing of the said Act directed to two periodical publications, called "The Customs Bills of Entry," issued at the ports of London and Liverpool respectively, and containing various accounts relating to the imports and exports of merchandise into and from the said ports, which had for many years previously been published by or on behalf of the clerk of the bills of his Majesty's Customs, under the powers belonging to his office, and from the sale of which considerable profits were derived. 11. The office of clerk of the bills of his Majesty's Customs had been then for upwards of 100 years held under grants thereof made from time to time by successive letters patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain whereby the person for the time. being holding the said office was authorized, under due control, to have access to the books and documents kept by the officers of the Customs, and to extract therefrom the particulars of all imports, exports, and shipping into and out of the different ports of England and Wales, and to publish the same for the use and information of the public. 12. The directors of the Customs Fund having, in the year 1819, with the sanction of the Lords Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury, obtained a lease of the said office, to be granted to them by the patentee thereof, for the benefit of the said fund, and having thereby obtained the management and control of the publication of the bills of entry, caused divers important improvements to be made in the said publications, and thereby so greatly enhanced their public utility, and consequently so increased the profits derived therefrom, that ever since that time. a considerable annual income has been obtained by the means aforesaid, and applied in aid of the contributions of poundage authorized by the said Act of the 56 Geo. III. c. lxxiii., for the benefit of the subscribers to the Customs' Annuity and Benevolent Fund. 13. In the year 1846, the then existing patent under which the said office was holden being about to expire, a memorial was presented to the Lords Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury by the then directors of the Customs' Annuity and Benevolent Fund and the patentee of the said office, praying that their Lordships would be pleased to recommend the grant of a new patent to the directors of the said fund for the benefit of the subscribers thereto, upon the terms and subject to the conditions therein mentioned or referred to, and accordingly by letters patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the 1st day of August, 1846, the said office or place of clerk of the bills of the Customs of and for all goods and merchandise from time to time to be imported into and exported out of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with all the powers, privileges, and emoluments thereto belonging, was granted to the said directors and their successors, directors for the time being of the said fund, from the 15th day of July, 1848, for the term and subject to the conditions *therein mentioned, to the intent nevertheless that the said place or office, and all the sums of money, fees, allowances, wages, and rewards thereto belonging, or therewith received or enjoyed, should be held, received, and taken by the said directors and their successors in trust for the sole use and benefit of the Customs' Annuity and Benevolent Fund, and for no other use, trust, or purpose what soever. 14. Since the grant of the said last-mentioned letters patent, the directors of the Customs' Fund have, at great expense, and by means of the peculiar advantages possessed by them of superintending the publication of the said bills of entry, considerably increased their circulation; and they have also established similar publications at other parts of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, containing important information to all persons engaged in mercantile pursuits, whereby the profits derived from the said office have been greatly increased; and all such profits have from time to time, in pursuance of the provisions of the said A.-G. v. ABDY. [ *277 ] A.-G. v. ABDY. [ *278 ] letters patent, been carried to the credit of the Customs' Annuity and Benevolent Fund, and apportioned, with the other profits accruing to the said fund, among the subscribers thereto, according to computations made of their respective claims on the fund, by virtue of their assurances, in the manner directed by rule 15 of the rules, regulations, and table of rates of subscription and payment from time to time in force for the management of the said fund. 15. I have been informed and believe, that the assistance obtained to the said fund from the profits accruing in manner aforesaid from the publications aforesaid, has been the chief means of enabling the great bulk of the subscribers thereto to secure the benefits of the said fund for their families and relatives, and that by means of such assistance the directors of the said fund have been enabled so to reduce the number of annual payments required from subscribers, as in the great majority of cases to free them from all further payments at the usual period or age of retirement or superannuation. By the rules in force from 1827 to 1854, the profits awarded to subscribers were applied in limitation of the estimated number of their prospective annual subscriptions, if payable for the whole term. of life, or in reduction of the number of such annual subscriptions where the same were already limited, and in the event of such annual subscriptions becoming ultimately discharged, in an equivalent increase of the annuities or capital moneys insured; but, by rule 15, as altered in 1854, an option was conferred upon subscribers to have the profits awarded to them applied, first in an equivalent increase to their insurances, or secondly, in reduction of the amount of their annual subscriptions, or thirdly, in limitation of the estimated number of their prospective subscriptions, if payable for the whole term of life, or in reduction of the number of such subscriptions, where the same are already limited, and in the event of such subscriptions being ultimately discharged, in an equivalent increase of their insurances. 16. I have been informed and believe it to be the fact, that the profits derived to the fund in each year from the contributions of poundage, and the publications of the Bill of Entry Office, together amount upon an average to upwards of one-third of the sums received for annual premiums or subscriptions from the members insured, and form nearly one-fourth part of the total receipts from all sources accruing to the fund in each year. It appears also from a report of the Customs Fund, published by order of the directors in the year 1856, that among the subscribers whose names were then standing on the books of the fund, there was scarcely one member who had retired from the service at the usual period or age of superannuation, and who had applied his profits in reduction of the number of annual *payments, who was not then entirely free from any further payment of premiums during the remainder of his life; whilst it also appears, from the same report, that the additions from time to time made to the capital moneys forthcoming at the deaths of subscribers by virtue of their insurances in the said fund, have been and are rendered, by the means aforesaid, far larger than the ordinary accumulations of the annual payments or premiums in respect of such insurances would allow of being made. 17. For the reasons and under the circumstances herein stated, I am advised and submit, that the said George Burlton Abdy had no property or interest whatever in the capital money forthcoming at his death by virtue of his insurance in the said fund; that the said capital money was not in any respect placed at his disposal by the rules and regulations of the said fund as alleged by the said information; and that he had not even a limited power of appointment over the same under any disposition taking effect upon the death of any person dying after the time appointed for the commencement of the Succession Duty Act, 1853, by the exercise of which I can be deemed to have taken the said sum of 4981. 13s. 1d. as a succession derived from the said George Burlton Abdy, or from any other person creating the said alleged power as predecessor; and I submit that I am not liable to pay any succession duty in respect of the sum in the said information in that behalf mentioned. The Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General, Locke and Tho defendant is liable to pay succession duty. She became entitled to this money under the will of her brother, an officer of the Customs, who, by reason of his contribution to "The Customs' Annuity and Benevolent Fund" acquired the right to dispose of it. The fund *was established under the provisions of the 56 Geo. III. c. lxxiii. By section 1 (1), after reciting "that (1) Enacts: "That all the established officers, clerks, and other persons permanently employed in the department of the Customs in the port of London, who shall have signed a notice in the form in the schedule to this Act annexed marked A, signifying that they accede to the contribution of poundage authorized by this Act in aid of the general purposes of the Customs Annuity and Benevolent Fund, and shall have delivered such notice to the person to be appointed by the Commissioners of the Customs to re ceive the same, shall meet on some A.-G. v. ABDY. [ *279 ] [ *280 ] A.-G. v. ABDY. [ *281 ] [ *282 ] the establishment and regulation of a fund for the conditional benefit and relief of the widows and children or other relatives of the established officers, clerks or other persons employed in the department of the Customs in England would be highly beneficial," certain officers of the Customs are required to meet and elect a committee for the formation of the fund. This committee is in fact the association; and they are required to make rules and regulations for the establishment and formation of the fund. By section 2, as soons as the rules, regulations and tables of rates of subscription and payment, have been made by the committee, and approved by the Commissioners, and ratified by a Judge, they become of the same force and effect as if they had been enacted in that Act. By section 4 (1) provision is made for a contribution of poundage in aid of the general purposes of the fund, which is to be deducted from the salaries of all officers, who shall not decline to make such *contribution. By section 9, the directors may admit any person as nominee of a subscriber, although not a relative. By section 11, no annuity payable to a widow or other claimant shall be assignable, except with the permission of the directors, or attachable by any creditor, or subject to the jus mariti of any husband whom a widow may the president and chairman of such tary, or other officers necessary for managing and conducting the said fund, and the collection and safe custody of the monies from time to time to be raised and subscribed, and the interest and growing produce arising therefrom, and paying all sums to be paid thereout according to such rules, regulations and tables; and it shall be lawful for the said committee in such rules and regulations to specify the respective powers, authorities and duties of such directors, trustees, auditors, secretary, or other officers respectively, and the mode of appointing a new director, trustee, auditor, secretary, or other officer to supply any vacancies or otherwise; and all questions which may arise at any such meeting of the said committee shall be decided by the majority of persons present at the meeting; and in case of equality of votes the president or chairman, or in case of his absence the officer or person appointed by him to be his deputy at such meeting of the committee, shall have the casting and second vote." (1) This section is set out in the 7th paragraph of the defendant's answer. |