The courts cs law Lave usually inter preted the stamp acts with the same strictness with which penal statutes are interpreted, giving to exemptions as large an extension as the words will admit. On the other hand, feeling it a duty to en farce the payment of this branch of the judges udges oppose the admission of an instrument so constructed as to evade the payment of the stamp duty.
The main rule in the levying of these duties is that each distinct transaction be tween separate parties, recorded by a written instrument, shall have a separate stamp attached to it.
An agreement not under seal may be stamped within twenty-one days after it has been signed ; but in all other cases the instrument must be written upon pa per previously stamped ; nor will the attaching a blank piece of paper properly stamped to the instrument already exe cuted render the instrument admissible as evidence in a court of law. We shall pre sently mention the penalties by payment of which the severity of these provisions may be mitigated. The value of spoilt stamps, if claimed within twelve months, may be recovered, if the absence of all *and is established on oath.
If the court has sufficient evidence that an instrument has been properly stamped, but has been lost, or is withheld by the opposite party, it will receive an un stamped copy as evidence. If a debt which has been contracted under a writ ten agreement can be established by parole evidence, so that the existence of the agreement shall not come under the notice of the court, the plaintiff may re cover without production of the agree ment ; but if the existence of the written agreement appears from the testimony of the plaintiff's witnesses, or from some condition coming into question which necessarily implies the existence of a written instrument, then the agreement must be produced as the best evidence ; and the plaintiff cannot recover unless it is duly stamped. Nevertheless an un stamped instrument, such as a receipt or a signed account, may be used by a wit ness to refresh his memory as to the amounts paid in his presence or acknow ledged in his presence to have been re coved ; in such instances the case rests not on the document, but on the testimony of the witness.
An unstamped instrument, though an insufficient foundation for proceedings at law, may be used as evidence to defeat fraud, and with certain limitations to establish a criminal charge. An unstamped agreement containing matter not requiring a stamp, pay be used as evidence of that matter, although it is invalid as evidence of the terms of the agreement. An in dictment for forgery likewise may be maintained, although the instrument forged may be invalid for want of a proper stamp ; but such an invalid in strument is not sufficient to support an indictment for larceny.
Originally a stamp was invalid if the denomination was erroneous, although the amount paid was correct; but by the 55 Geo. III., wrong stamps, if of sufficient valpe, are rendered valid, unless upon the race of them they are appropriated to a different instrument from that to which they are attached. In this case the stamp
is forfeited, but the instrument may be upon payment of the penalty ; by a previous act (37 Geo. III., c. 127, s. 2) any instrument, excepting bills and promissory notes, is allowed to be stamped upon payment of the duty, and a penalty of 101. (or if it is a deed, 101. for each skin) ; if it is to be stamped within a twelvemonth after its execution, the com missioners are allowed to remit the pe nalty (44 Geo. III., c. 19). Thus even during a trial an instrument may be stamped so as to render it admissible; but as this is rarely possible, it has been suggested that an officer of the court ought to be enabled to affix the proper stamp and levy the penalty ; so that justice may not be defeated, or at least deferred, from the want of this formal circumstance.
The general principles which regulate the courts in the interpretation of the Stamp Acts are, that fraudulent evasion of the stamp duties shall be punished by forfeiture of all benefit from the docu ment which ought to have been stamped ; and that a just claim shall not be evaded or a fraud be effected because the just claimant has unintentionally violated the stamp laws.
The stamp duties and the custody of the dies are placed under the superintend ence of commissioners appointed under the great seal. The 4 & 5 Wm. IV., e. 60, amended by 5 & 6 Win. IV., e. 20, consolidated the Board of Stamps. The commissioners transact their business in Somerset House, London. The endeavour to impose stamp duties upon our Ameri can colonies in 1765, was one of the approximate causes of the American revolution.
The law respecting stamps, and a refe rence to the principal cases cited, are contained in Chitty's Practical Treatise on the Stamp Laws. That work has been mainly used for this article.
The stamp duties act very unequally on small and on large transactions, and /Idly justify the statement that the legis lature that imposed them were desirous to shift the burden of taxation from the rich to the middling classes. The stamp duty on the sale of land of the value of 50/. (taking a certain average length of conveyance) is 1241. per cent.; of the value of 1001. it is 5 per cent.; of the value of 5001. it is 1/. 14s. 3d. per cent. ; butof the value of 50001. it is only one per cent. The same unequal scale applies to mortgages. " A mortgage of 501. would cost in stamps and law expenses, 30 per cent ; a mortgage for 12,5001. would cost one per cent. ; and for 100,000l. it would cost 12s. per cent." This scale of taxa tion is manifestly framed to shift the burden from great landowners and capi talists to those of very moderate means. These facts appear from a Report of a Committee of the Lords (1846) on the peculiar burdens which the land has to bear. The result of this inquiry shows clearly the peculiar burdens which the comparatively poor sustain in consequence of the legislation of the rich.
The net produce of the stamp duties in the year which ended October 10, 1844, was 6,533,3851.; in the year which ended October 10, 1845, it was 6,961,370/.