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• A Protest Against Law - Taxes.
• Notes to the Second Edition .
• Addition By a Learned Friend.

ADDITION BY A LEARNED FRIEND.

In the court of Chancery, two cases have recently occurred, which may serve as an illustration of the extnet in which the taxes upon law proceedings may operate as a denial of justice, In one case—Roe v. Gudgeon—the Defendant, in his answer to the Plaintiff's bill, submitted that he ought not to be compelled to set out certain accounts which had been required by the bill, as the expense of taking what is called an office copy of them,—a necessary preliminary to any further proceeding onthe part of the Plaintiff in the cause,—would amount to the sum of 29,000l.; an expense almost wholly arising from the Stamps on the Paper, on which the office copy of the answer is compulsorily made. In this case the court determined, that it was not necessary these accounts should be set out: but in coming to this conclusion, how far the court was determined by the nature of the particular case, or by the magnitude of the expense that would thus be occasioned;—or whether if, without any such objection, the Defendant had actually set out these accounts, the Plaintiff could have been relieved from pursuing the regular mode of procuring a copy of them, and thus incurring the above expense;—or whether, if the expense had been instead of 29,000l. only 28 or 27 thousand pounds, such an objection would have been listened to;—it is extremely difficult to say.

The other case alluded to is one in which from peculiar circumstances, it is not thought proper to mention the names of t he parties. It is optional with a man to be a plaintiff in a cause, it is not altogether so optional with him to be a defendant. The preceding case shews that it is not always safe for a man to become a Plaintiff, without 28,000l. at least in his pocket, to begin with, over and above what is necessary for his maintenance.—The following case shews that a man may not be always able to resist a demand, however unjust it may be, without being able to support an outlay of at least 800l. In the case in question, the writer of this has been assured,—and from authority, which he has peculiar reasong for relying upon,—that the expense of merely putting in an answer by one of the Defendants to a bill in Equity, amounted to the above sum of 800l.: what part of this expense was occasioned by the tax on law proceedings cannot be accurately ascertained, but it assuredly constituted a very considerable proportion of that sum.