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THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

The Vicesima Ilereditatum, the twentieth penny of inhe-ritances, imposed by Augustus upon the ancient Romans, wasa tax upon the transference of property from the dead to theliving. Dion Cassius,* the author who writes concerning itthe least indistinctly, says, that it was imposed upon all suc-cessions, legacies, and donations, in case of death, exceptupon those to the nearest relations and to the poor.

Of the same kind is the Dutch tax upon successions.'!'Collateral successions are taxed, according to the degree ofrelation, from five to thirty per cent, upon the whole valueof the succession. Testamentary donations, or legacies tocollaterals, are subject to the like duties. Those from hus-band to wife, or from wife to husband, to the fiftieth penny.The Luctuosa Ilereditas, the mournful succession of ascend-ents to descendents, to the twentieth penny only. Directsuccessions, or those of descendents to ascendents, pay notax. The death of a father, to such of his children aslive in the same house with him, is seldom attended with anyincrease, and frequently with a considerable diminution ofrevenue ; by the loss of his industry, of his office, or of somelife-rent estate, of which he may have been in possession.That tax would be cruel and oppressive which aggravatedtheir loss by taking from them any part of his succession. Itmay, however, sometimes be otherwise with those children,who, in the language of the Roman law, are said to be eman-cipated ; in that of the Scotch law, to be foris-familiated;that is, who have received their portion, have got families oftheir own, and are supported by funds separate and inde-pendent of those of their father. Whatever part of his suc-cession might come to such children would be a real addi-tion to their fortune, and might, therefore, perhaps, withoutmore inconveniency than what attends all duties of this kind,be liable to some tax.

The casualties of the feudal law were taxes upon the trans-ference of land, both from the dead to the living, and from theliving to the living. In ancient times they constituted inevery part of Europe one of the principal branches of -the re-venue of the crown.

The heir of every immediate vassal of the crown paid a cer-tain duty, generally a year’s rent, upon receiving the investi-ture of the estate. If the heir was a minor, the whole rents of

* Lib. 55. See also Burman de Vectigalibus Pop. Rom. cap. xi. and Bouchaud d«l’inipdt du vingtieme sur lea successions.

t See Memoires concemant les Droits, icc. tome i. p. 225.