454 Memoir of the late Lord Denman. At length, however, in 1828, when Lord society. To quote but one example:-the Lyndhurst first became Lord Chancellor, conduct of the Court in the difficult case of to the credit of that distinguished lawyer and statesman, the barrier was removed, and Mr. Denman received a patent of precedence. Stockdale v. Hansard, when it was directly assailed by one branch of the Legislature, is a memorable instance of the exercise of that constitutional power which enables our In 1830, when Earl Grey became Prime Judges to interpose the authority of the law Minister, Sir Thomas Denman was pro- against the arbitrary pretensions of the moted to the office of Attorney-General, most powerful body in this realm, and to which he held during the debates on the combat privilege in the name of justice. Reform Bill. Whilst he filled the office of Most willingly would I decline,' said Lord first law adviser of the Crown, an applica- Denman, in giving judgment on that occation was made to incorporate the members sion, to enter upon an inquiry which may of the Law Institution, and to him and lead to my differing from that great and Lord Brougham-then the Lord Chancel-powerful assembly (the House of Comlor-that Society is indebted for the liberal mons). But, when one of my fellow-subgrant of its charter. jects presents himself before me in this In November, 1832, upon the death of Court demanding justice for an injury, it is Lord Tenterden, Sir Thomas Denman was not at my option to grant or to withhold appointed Chief Justice of the Court of redress. I am bound to offer it to him, if Queen's Bench, and received the honour of the law declares him entitled to it. Parthe peerage in 1834. We deem it unnecessary in these pages to enter into the consideration of the exact rank in which Lord Denman should be placed amongst the eminent Nisi Prius advocates of his day and generation, such as Lord Abinger;-nor of the station he should occupy as a Parliamentary orator, amongst men like Lord Brougham;-nor indeed shall we compare him with the judicial chiefs who preceded him on the Bench, or the eminent personage who succeeded him. Our duty rather leads us to consider his qualifications as a constitutional Judge and a Legislator. It is one of the advantages of a plurality of Judges over the "single-seatedness which Jeremy Bentham preferred, that whilst such learned and excellent Judges as Bayley, Holroyd, Tindal, and others may be perfect masters of the abstruse rules and technicalities of the Profession, there are such men as Mansfield, Stowell, and Denman, who consider the general principles of Jurisprudence, and, where it can be done safely, adapt them to the changes and exigencies of society. A man A man may be a wise and excellent Judge, though not an acute special pleader; and in these days a profound knowledge of the ancient and deep parts of our laws is not so essential as it was in the time of Lord Eldon and Lord Tenterden. We gladly extract from the able columns of The Times, the following judicial character of Lord Denman :-"As a Judge, no man ever took a loftier view of its duties to sent Vice-Chancellor, took a very prominent part in that memorable affair. liament is said to be supreme. I must fully acknowledge its supremacy. It follows, then, that neither branch of it is supreme when acting by itself.' In those few words, and in the judicial power of enforcing that truth, lies the supreme guardianship of the liberties of England." "Lord Denman lived the life of a reformer of abuses, and an enemy of all that in his judgment clouded the honour or impaired the public utility of our institutions. His hatred of Negro Slavery in every form rose to a passion, for he stood armed against cruelty and injustice, and in the wretched fate of kidnapped Africans and degraded slaves, he beheld the united and accumulated evils and wrongs which have most degraded humanity and profaned religion. He powerfully contributed to the furtherance of those reforms of the Criminal Law which Sir Samuel Romilly had commenced, and which Lord Denman brought to the test of his own judicial experience. To the cause of toleration and freedom within the boundaries of law, he at all times gave his hearty support, and in all the undertakings set on foot in our day for more extended popular education, for the diffusion of useful knowledge, for the reformation of criminal offenders, and for other acts of enlightened charity he readily bore his part." "For 18 years he filled the honoured seat of the Chief Justice of England, and, if any men excelled him by the vivacity of their genius or the acuteness of their intellect, none certainly surpassed, or perhaps equalled him, in the moral dignity which gave an appropriate and additional lustre to his Memoir of the late Lord Denman.-The New Stamp Duties' Act. 455 office. The personal aspect and outward | 63, certain stamp duties were granted and bearing of Lord Denman in the administra- made payable upon conveyances, charters, distion of justice, were strongly impressed positions, and contracts, described under the with those moral qualities which he displayed in all the duties of life, and we cannot but bear testimony to his unflinching rectitude of purpose, his love of truth, his sincerity and simplicity of character. His extreme benevolence and humanity were the fittest ornaments of the chief legal guardian of the public morals, and these qualities deserve to confer lasting honour upon his name." "His closing years, though afflicted with severe illness, were serenely devoted to that contemplation which is the worthiest termination of human life-to those acts of kindness which endear the memory of the departed and to the exercises of religion which anticipate the final change. We rank him not with the greatest, but with the worthiest of our contemporaries, and the life he led affords, in our judgment, a better example to those who follow him than that of more eager and impetuous aspirants after power and fame." His lordship resigned his high office in 1850, and died at Stoke Albany, in Northamptonshire, on the 22nd Sept. last, aged 75. An admirable Bust of his lordship by Mr. Christopher Moore, has been placed in the Hall of the Incorporated Law Society. We have availed ourselves in this memoir of some of the eloquent passages which appeared in The Times. The biographical facts stated in that journal are remarkably accurate, except on two or three points. It seems not to have been known to the writer that young Denman, after leaving Mrs. Barbauld's school, went to Eton for many years. There is also a mistake in describing the ladies who married Sir Richard Croft and Dr. Baillie as the sisters of Dr. Denman (the father of the Chief Justice). They were his daughters, sisters of Lord Denman. head or title of "Conveyance," but no provision was made for charging the duplicates or duced duties, it is therefore enacted, that the counterparts of conveyances, &c., with the reCommissioners, upon production to them of any such conveyance, &c., duly stamped, and of the duplicate or counterpart thereof stamped for denoting the amount of duty chargeable upon a duplicate or counterpart under the 13 & 14 Vict., may stamp the duplicate or counterpart with the particular stamp directed by the last-mentioned Act to be impressed upon a duplicate or counterpart for denoting or testifying the payment of the full and proper stamp duty on the original deed or instrument; and if the duplicate or counterpart shall be stamped with any ad valorem stamp duty of greater amount than the amount of stamp duty so chargeable on a duplicate or counterpart, the Commissioners shall repay stamps accordingly; s. 15. such excess of stamp duty, and rectify the Where any conveyance, &c., described in the schedule to this Act shall be made partly in consideration of such annual sum as in the schedule is mentioned, and partly in consideration of a sum of money or stock as mentioned under the head or title of "Conveyance" in the schedule to the 13 & 14 Vict. c. 97, such ad valorem stamp duties granted in respect of conveyance, &c., shall be chargeable with the each of the considerations; and in any case where any deed or instrument which shall be chargeable with any ad valorem stamp duty in respect of any sum of money yearly or in gross or any stock or security shall be made also for any further or other valuable consideration, such deed or instrument shall be chargeable (except where express provision to the contrary is or shall be made in any Act of Parliament) with such further stamp duty as any separate deed or instrument made for such last-mentioned consideration alone would be chargeable with, except progressive duty; s. 16. The following are the further provisions as to the Evidence necessary to be adduced to the Commissioners to assess the proper duty or affix denoting stamps : To prevent fraud and evasion of stamp duty in any case where application is made to the Commissioners to assess and charge the stamp duty to which any deed or instrument is liable or to impress on any deed or instrument the particular stamp provided to denote the payment of the full and proper duty on the same or on any other deed or instrument, or that any deed or instrument is not liable to any stamp duty, the Commissioners may require such evidence by affidavit as they may deem necessary in order to show to their satisfaction deed or instrument, and whether or not the the quantity of words contained in any such consideration, or any definite or certain sum or sums of money, stock, or other valuable matter are hereby declared to be respectively freed, or thing capable of being ascertained and set discharged, and indemnified from and against forth, or any other facts, upon the full or pro-any penalties, forfeitures, and disabilities, conper statement of any of which matters and tained in or imposed by the said last-mentioned things in such deed or instrument the stamp Act which may have been incurred by reason duty which shall be or which ought to be pay- of any omission to express or set forth in any able thereon shall in any measure depend, is such instrument the full and true purchase or or are truly and fully set forth therein; and consideration-money upon the sale of the prothe Commissioners and their officers may in perty thereby conveyed, transferred, assigned, any case refuse to impress on any such deed or assured, or vested in the purchaser; and all or instrument, or any duplicate or counterpart such instruments shall be available in evidence respectively, the particular stamp to denote the notwithstanding the full and proper ad valorem payment of the full and proper duty, except duties which ought to have been paid in respect on payment of the full stamp duty which of the purchase or consideration-money therein would be chargeable on such deed or instru- expressed for the conveyance, transfer, or asment if all or any of such matters and things signment of any such trade, business, or goodhad been truly set forth therein; s. 17. will shall not have been paid and denoted thereon; s. 19. Provided, that no such affidavit shall be used against any person making the same in any proceeding whatever, except only in any inquiry as to the stamp duty with which such deed or instrument is chargeable, and every such person shall, upon payment of such full stamp duty, be relieved from any penalty, forfeiture, or disability he may have incurred by reason of the omission to state truly in such deed or instrument any of the facts, matters, and things aforesaid; s. 18. As to the statement of the full consideration in deeds, the following are the further enactments: - The 22nd section exempts maps, plans, surveys, &c., and enacts that The 55 Geo.3, c. 184,and the 13 & 14 Vict. c. 97, shall not extend to any public map, plan, survey, apportionment, allotment, award, or other parochial or public document or writing whatof Parliament, and deposited or kept for refer soever made under or in pursuance of any Act ence in any registry, or in any public office, or with the public books, papers, or writings of any parish, by reason of any such documents or writing being referred to in or by any deed or instrument whatever, provided that such document or writing be not endorsed on or annexed to such deed or instrument. 2. LEASES. By the 48 Geo. 3, c. 149, certain penalties and disabilities were imposed upon the parties to any deed or instrument of conveyance of property upon sale, wherein the full consideration-money directly or indirectly paid or secured should not be truly expressed, and also By the 13 & 14 Vict. c. 97, certain ad vaupon the attorney, solicitor, writer to the signet, lorem stamp duties were granted and imposor other person employed in or about the pre-ed upon leases or tacks of any lands, teneparing of any such deed or instrument and ments, hereditaments, or heritable subjects the sale of a trade or busiuess, or the goodwill at a yearly rent, and doubts were entertainthereof, has been erroneously considered by ed whether such duties extended to any some persons not to be a sale of property with- lease or tack for any term or period less in the meaning of the Acts imposing ad valorem than a year for the removal of such stamp duties on the conveyance thereof, and the instruments whereby property of that de- doubts, it is enacted, that where any lease scription, or whereby certain messuages, lands, or tack of any lands, tenements, heredita or other property wherein or whereupon such ments, or heritable subjects shall be made trade or business has been carried on, has or for any term or period less than a year at a have been in such cases assigned or otherwise rent reserved or payable for the same, such conveyed to a purchaser may not have been lease or tack shall be chargeable with the stamped with the full and proper duties: it is same ad valorem duty as a lease or tack at therefore enacted, that in any such case the parties to any such instrument made and a yearly rent of the same amount as the bearing date on or before the 15th day of June, sum so reserved or payable; s. 23. 1854, and every person employed in or about the preparing of the same, shall be and they : The following is the Schedule to this part of the Act : Lease or Tack of any lands, tenements, hereditaments, or heritable subjects, for any term of years exceeding 35, at a yearly rent, with or without any sum of money by way of fine, premium, or grassum paid for the same, the following duties in respect of such yearly rent, 50 75 457 Above 100 Years. £ s. d. £ s. d. 0 12 0 1 4 0 25 0 15 0 1 10 0 50 1 10 3 0 0 And where the same shall exceed £100 then for every £50, and also for any fractional part of £50 And where any such lease or tack as aforesaid shall be granted in consideration of a fine premium, or grassum, and also of a yearly rent, such lease or tack shall be chargeable also, in respect of such fine, premium, or grassum, with the ad valorem stamp duties granted under the head or title of "Conveyance" in the schedule annexed to this Act passed in the 13 & 14 Vict. c. 97. Exemption.-Any lease made in pursuance of the Trinity College, Dublin, Leasing and Perpetuity Act, 1851. Conveyance of any kind or description whatsoever in England or Ireland, and charter, disposition, or contract, containing the first origi nal constitution of feu and ground annual rights in Scotland (not being a lease or tack for years), in consideration of an annual sum payable in perpetuity or for any indefinite period, whether fee farm or other rent, feu duty, ground annual, or otherwise. The same duties as on a lease or tack for a term exceeding 100 years, at a yearly rent equal to such annual sum. 3. EVIDENCE IN CRIMINAL CASES. By the 27th section, instruments liable to stamp duty are rendered admissible in evidence in any criminal proceeding, though not properly stamped. 4. RECEIPT STAMPS. Adhesive stamps, denoting the duty of one penny, may, by the 10th section, be used for receipts or drafts or orders payExemptions.-Any lease or tack for a life or able to the bearer or to order on demand, lives not exceeding three, or for a term of without regard to their special appro-years determinable with a life or lives not ex-priation. ceeding three, by whomsoever granted. The 13th section repeals the former Any grant in fee simple or in perpetuity, exemption from receipt stamps of letters made in Ireland, in pursuance of the Renew-by the General Post acknowledging the able Leasehold Conversion Act, or in pursuance of the Trinity College (Dublin) Leasing safe arrival of bills or notes or other seand Perpetuity Act, 1851. All which said leases or tacks and grants respectively shall be chargeable with the stamp duties to which the same were subject and liable before the passing of the Act 16 & 17 Vict. c. 63. Duplicate or Counterpart and Progressive Duty. curities. But receipts for money paid to the Crown is, by section 14, exempted from stamp duty. 5. ORDERS OR DRAFTS.. No draft or order shall, unless the same Every such lease or tack, and every such be duly stamped as a draft or order, be reconveyance, charter, disposition, or contract mitted or sent to any place beyond the as aforesaid hereby charged with duty, and distance of 15 miles in a direct line from the the duplicate or counterpart thereof respec- bank or place at which the same is made tively, shall be chargeable with the respective payable or be received in payment, or as a stamp duties granted and made payable under security, or be otherwise negotiated or cirthe several heads or titles of " Duplicate or Counterpart," and "Progressive Duty," in culated at any place beyond that distance; the schedule annexed to the Act of the 13 & and if any person shall remit or send any 14 Vict. c. 97. draft or order not duly stamped to any Licence to demise copyhold lands, tene- place beyond that distance, or shall receive ments, or hereditaments, or the memorandum the same in payment or as a security, or in thereof if granted out of Court, and the copy any manner negotiate or circulate the same of Court Roll of any such licence if granted in at any such last-mentioned place, he shall forfeit the sum of 501.; s. 7. Court: Where the clear yearly value of the estate to be demised shall be expressed in such licence and shall not exceed 751.-The same duty as on a lease at a yearly rent equal to such yearly value, under the Act of the 13 & 14 Vict. c. 97. And in all other cases,-10s. Provided, that any person who shall receive any such draft or order at any place within 15 miles from the bank or place at which the same is made payable, which draft or order shall have been lawfully issued unstamped, may affix a proper ad- The following is the Schedule as to Inhesive stamp, and cancel such stamp by land and Foreign Bills and Promissory writing thereon his name or the initial Notes :letters of his name, and thereupon such draft or order may lawfully be received and negotiated at any place beyond such distance; s. 8. The provisions of 17 Geo. 3, c. 30, as to drafts on bankers, repealed; s. 9. Adhesive stamps denoting the duty of one penny payable on receipts and on drafts and orders, may be used for receipts or drafts, without regard to their special appropriation for the other of such instruments; s. 10. 6. BILLS OF EXCHANGE. By the 1st section, stamp duties on instruments mentioned in the schedule to this Act, payable under other Acts, are repealed, and the duties named in the schedule are granted in lieu thereof: provided, that nothing herein contained shall repeal or alter any of the stamp duties now payable in relation to any bill of exchange, promissory note, or other instrument drawn, made, or signed, or which shall bear date before or upon the 10th October, 1854. And by the 2nd section, the new duties by this Act granted are to be denominated stamp duties, and to be under the care of Commissioners of Inland Revenue; and the powers and provisions of former Acts are to be in force. Under the 3rd section, the duties by this Act granted in respect of bills of exchange drawn out of the United Kingdom shall attach upon all bills paid, indorsed, or otherwise negotiated within the United Kingdom wheresoever the same may be payable, and the duties shall be denoted by adhesive stamps affixed to such bills. And the 4th section provides, that every bill of exchange which shall purport to be drawn at any place out of the United Kingdom shall for all the purposes of this Act be deemed to be a foreign bill of exchange, and shall be chargeable with stamp duty accordingly, notwithstanding that in fact the same may have been drawn within the United Kingdom. The holder of a bill drawn out of the United Kingdom must affix an adhesive stamp thereon before negotiating it; s. 5. A penalty is inflicted of 1007. for drawing and issuing, or transferring or negotiating bills purporting to be drawn in a set, and not drawing the whole number of the set; and persons taking or receiving such bills shall not be entitled to recover; s. 6. Inland Bills of Exchange, Not exceeding . Duty. £ £ s. d. 5-0 01 Exceeding £5 and not exceeding 10-0 0 2 10 25-003 50-0 06 25 50 75-0 0 9 75 100-0 1 0 100 200-0 2 0 200 300-0 3 0 300 400-0 4 0 400 500-0 5 0 |