these or similar acts are done by an individual cognizant of his rights.*

R. R.

On the Act 44 Geo. III. c. 4, to admit of the issuing of small Notes and Bills of Exchange.

IN a former number [No. 8, of your New Series,] you inserted some observations of mine, upon the Loan Act, 44 Geo. III. c. 47, and, as I am frequently occupied in examining the modern statutes, I shall offer you occasionally such remarks as occur to me concerning them, either with a view to the pointing out of what I conceive to be mistakes in the drawing, or peculiarities not already remarked in the construction of them.

In a commercial country like this, in which the greater part of its trade is carried on through the means of a paper circulation, which has increased of late to an enormous degree, whatever concerns the legal restrictions upon, or the obligations arising out of that paper medium, cannot fail to be highly interesting to your readers, and to the public in general. For this reason, I have examined the statutes which have lately passed with respect to the permitting of the issuing of small notes; and the following remarks have occurred to me.

By the 15 Geo. III c. 51, and the 17 Geo. III. c. 30, it is well known, that certain restrictions, were imposed upon the issuing of promissory notes and bills of exchange, under the sum of 31. These restrictions, during the last and the present war, have, for reasons which appeared sufficient to the legislature, been occasionally taken off; first by the statute 37 Geo. III. c. 32, and subsequently by 38 Geo. III. c. 7, 39 Geo. III. c. 47, 43 Geo. III. c. 1, and lastly, by 44 Geo. III. c. 4.

By the former statutes, the two first acts of 15 c. 51, and 17 Geo. Ill. c. 30, were suspended,

Geo. III. so far as

Cro. Jac. 320.

Roll. Abr. 731. 2 Bulst. 69.
2 Str. 690. 2 Ves. 125.

Vern. 132. 1 Atk. 489.

290, 294, note.

+ See Law Journal for 1804, p. 169.

Godb. 120. 3 P. Wms.

they relate to making void notes, &c. under 51. payable on demand to bearer, until May 1, 1797. That act was afterwards continued, and the two acts above mentioned were suspended until and upon the 30th Nov. 1802, so far as relates to any notes, draughts, or undertakings, made payable on demand to the bearer thereof. By the 43 Geo. III. c. 1, the same acts of the 15th and 17th years of the reign of his present majesty, "so far as the same relate to the making void of promissory notes, or other notes made payable on demand to the bearer thereof for sums of one pound and one shilling and of one pound each, and also so far as the same restrain the publishing or uttering and negotiating of any such promissory notes, or other notes, as last aforesaid, shall from and after the said 30th day of November, 1802, be suspended, until the expiration of six weeks after the commencement of the next session of parliament." This act, therefore, clearly admits of the issuing of such notes for only one pound or one guinea each, but not of other notes, below five pounds, and below or above one pound and one guinea, except according to the statutes 15th and 17th Geo. III. and it was said at the time of passing the acts of suspension, that a paper circulation of that kind was necessary for the convenience of the manufacturers in the great manufacturing towns in the country, where the small bank of England notes had a very limited circulation.

Whether from accident or design, 1 know not, but in the last act, 44 Geo. I. c. 4, this limitation is omitted, and the continuing clause, s. 1, is expressed as follows: "That an act made the 37th year of the reign of his present majesty, intituled, An act to suspend, for a limited time, the operation of two acts of the 15th and 17th years of the reign of his present majesty, for restraining the negotiating of promissory notes and inland bills of exchange, under a limited sum, within that part of Great Britain called England, which was to continue in force until the 1st day of May next after the passing thereof, and which has by several subsequent acts been AMENDED and continued, until the expiration of six weeks after the commencement of the present session of parliament, shall be, and the same is hereby further continued until the 25th day of Murch, 1805. In my opinion, the construction of this act is plainly, that notes may be issued to any amount from one farthing to 51. and upwards. A friend of mine, however, who possesses somewhat of the subtlety of the sorbonists and the ancient schoolmen, has suggested that it was not the intention of the legislature to permit the issuing of notes below one pound or one guinea, because

in the enacting clause, the 43 Geo. III. c. 1 is noticed and said to be amended and continued, and the 1st act of 37 Geo. III. is to be further continued; and, therefore, he says, it can only be intended to be continued, as it was amended; for, otherwise the act could not be continued, but must be rather said to be revived; since it was not in fact continued except as to notes of one pound and one guinea. Whether the expression would be more correct if it had been stated that the act should be revived, I shall not now dispute, but shall only add, that the construction for which I contend is strongly confirmed by the words of the last stamp act, 44 Geo. III. c. 99, whereby "Promissory or other notes, or notes for the payment of money to the bearer on demand [which may, within three years from the date thereof, but not at a later period, be reissued], where the sum expressed therein or made payable thereby, shall not exceed one pound one shilling, are made liable to a stamp duty of 3d ;" and other and higher duties are imposed on notes for two guineas and upwards, and also on notes of 51. This clearly shews the intention of the legislature to continue or revive, the 37 Geo. III. c. 32, in its full effect; otherwise, notes for a sum under one pound would be wholly void.

I have offered the above observations to you for the reasons above stated; and I make no doubt they will be found the more useful, as from several persons I have learnt, that notes for small amounts are in circulation, and the bankers and tradesmen who issue them have had great doubts concerning their validity; insomuch that applications have been made to the commissioners of the stump office, who have had also great doubts upon the subject, and have not yet made public their opinion.

In my former communication, Ì committed a slight mistake in saying of the statute 44 Geo. III. c. 47, § 8, that the funds created thereby are made liable to the payment of the income-duty after a certain period. It appears, however, from the clause set out there verbatim, that it is not expressly made liable to such duty, but is, ou the contrary, expressly exempted therefrom up to a certain time, or till the happening of a certain event. I should have added also, that the income act, 43 Gro. III. c. 122, § 56,“ imposes the duty upon all profits arising from annuities, dividends, and shares of annuities, payable to any person or persons, &c. out of any public revenue;" which it is there said "shall extend to all public annuities &hatever, except the stock of public companies otherwise charged by that act, and except as therein after is excepted."

These are merely general words, and cannot have a prospeetive view to other and new funds, particularly not to such as are in their very creation exempted from all taxes. The 44 Geo. III. c. 47, § 8, does not expressly impose the duty, but by implication may be considered to impose it. The other clause, however, expressly exempts it; and though there was a similar clause in all former loan acts, previous to the 48 Geo. III. c. 122, and that exemption was taken away by that statute, yet the exemption in the 44 Geo. III. c. 47, will not be governed by the same rule, because that is itself the latter statute, and has the stronger operation. Yours,

11th Dec. 1804.

AMICUS.

We have received the following Letter, which we insert by way of example, and as a sort of caution against any other of a similar nature.

"I shall consider myself much obliged (if not incompatible with the plan of your valuable publication) by your inserting the following queries in your next number; that some of the subscribers, more learned than myself in the law, may (if thought worth while) answer them. Those are subjects I know to be very familiar to all but a mere novice like myself. Yours, &c.

Dec. 8, 1804.

INFULSUS.

"In the case of a settlement by husband and wife, of freehold estates of the husband, made after marriage, not in pursuance of articles, is it necessary to levy a fine?

"A debtor discharged under the Insolvent Act afterwards acquiring property, can his creditor issue a ff. a. upon the old judgment (if it has not stood a year), or must he revive the same by sci.ffu?

With all our wishes to oblige our correspondents, we are compelled to decline the insertion of any answers which may be offered to these queries. The reason for our doing so the querist has himself anticipated. To admit them would be incompatible with the plan of our work, with the interest of the profession, and with the duties which we owe to it as nembers of a community. We mean no unjust insinuation to NULsus or others, in supposing that they would designedly put to

us questions which they ought to send to others. In this case, we are persuaded the querist, as he expresses it, has mistaken the objects of our work; but we take this oppor-tunity of explaining ourselves, and, we trust, we can give offence to no one.

Not only by giving general advice to students, by pointing out plans of study, by marking the excellencies or defects of particular publications, but also by exploring hidden treasures of law slumbering on the shelves of public libraries or in private collections, we hope to be of some service to the profession. We go yet farther: there are many moot points which have been deemed vexate questiones, difficulties which have embarrassed the learned, and which, by liberal inquiry, may, through the means of this work, be fairly discussed and, perhaps, happily elucidated. For the discussion of these questions, in separate essays or letters, we shall always preserve a place. But where the questions are really simple, such as every pleader and every counsel at the bar is in the habit of answering daily for a quiddam honorarium, or such as we can have any reason to suspect are cases occurring in practice, we cannot admit them. If we did, we should consider ourselves as doing injustice to the profession. For this reason also, we assure our correspondents we shall not answer any questions ourselves.

As we have been in some sort compelled to insert the above letter, in explanation and in justification of our own views, we will now endeavour to make such use of it as may, perhaps, render it not wholly unserviceable to such of our readers as consider themselves, like our correspondent, mere novices. We advise him and them to answer to themselves the following questions.-On the first query: 1. What estate is to pass by the conveyance; and from whom? 2. What mode of conveyance is necessary to pass such estate out of the person conveying? 3. What is the purpose for which the wife joins in the settlement? 4. By what means can she effectuate that purpose? 5. What would be the consequence of her not joining?

As to the second query: 1. What are the words of the insolvent act alluded to ?-Consult the act. 2. What are the purposes and the reasons for which a judgment must be revived? 3. What is the time after which it must be revived? -On these heads consult Tidd's, Sellon's, and Impey's Practice. In less than half an hour the questions will be solved, and INFULSUS will have acquired more information than he would have gotten by our answering aye or no.