13 APRIL 1850, Page 14

Burten-on-.Trei8t, .8th-April 1850.

Sur—The suggestion of your corm dent "C. S." relative to the "lease for a year" duty has been anticipated by:the new bill. Thatduty is thereby repealed. There is, however, :one point in the new bill to which I think at-: tuition should be drawn. It 1.13, that whereas the stamp-duty on mortgages is properly governed by thesum borrowed, the stamp-duty on transfers and reconveyance,s of mortgages remains the same,- whatever the -amount of the mortgage money. Thus : a man mortgaging his estate for 501. pays 58., stamp-duty; but on paying off such mortg,a.s.e aud taking a reconve_yance ok his estate he has to pay 11. 158.; and should the mortgage, as 'frequently happens, be trmisferred to a-third person, a stamp of 1/, 158. would still be necessary. In both rases the stamp is the same mail' the mortgage had been for 50,0001. instead of 501. To remove the anomaly, it might be -enacted,, simply, that ,in all eases where the stamp on the mortgage did not exceed 1/. 1.58., the stamp on the transfer or reconveyance should be limited to :w like amount.

Under any trilling loss to the revenue arising from the alteration proposed; the Chancellor of the Exchequer may console 'himself by the contemplation of his new scale of stamps on mortgages ingenertiL For the information of such of, your readers as maynot have attended to the.subject, I will contrast a few of the items in the new scale With the corresponding items in the existing scale - and then leave them to judge whether the stamps on mod.' gages, even after the suggested alteration, are likely to be lees productive under the new scale than under the old.

Mortgage for ...Z2,000- Present stamp.. ..E6 Future ..... ......E10

3,000 7 15 4,000 5 - 20 . 5,000 9 25 10,000 12 50 .

15,000 15 75 20,000 20 100 - 50,000 -- 25 250

I am, Fir, your obedient servant, Iorrat RICHARDSON.