REVOCATION OF

different contents, we must reverse the judgment of the court below, and pronounce for the will propounded by Mr. Cutto. Each party to pay their own costs in this court.

SUCCESSION DUTY.

BELL V. THE MASTER OF EQUITY OF THE SUPERIOR COURT

OF VICTORIA1 70. In England, the probate duty is a stamp duty payable according to the value of the estate referred to in the will proved. In Victoria, it is more in the nature of succession duty, and is payable by the estate, whether the will is proved or not.

ARMYTAGE V. WILKINSON 2

71. Where a testator bequeathes all his property, real and personal, to his widow and children, with limitation in favour of his grand-children, and in trust in the hands of executors, duty is chargeable only at the lower rate contained in the Statute, that is five per cent.

BLACKWOOD V. THE QUEEN

72. The probate duty is a tax on the property to which probate gives title, and is levied at a time prior to administration The legacy duty is imposed on the property which actually falls to the legatees and is levied at the time when the enjoyment accrues.

The Act of 1870: "Duties on the estates of deceased persons", does not make any such distinction; it imposes a single duty on the property of deceased persons.

WRIT OF ERROR

See APPEAL: iisdem verbis.

HABEAS CORPUS.

WRITS OF PREROGATIVE

In re BELSON'

73. The Lord Chancellor in England may issue under his fiat a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to an order of the court of Chancery in vacation, and this writ of habeas corpus sealed in the office of the Clerk of Records and Writs, is a common law prerogative writ which the Royal court in Jersey is bound to register and to execute.

MANDAMUS. See MANDAMUS.

1 Victoria, 1877, April 24, L. R. II Appeal Cases 560.

2 Victoria, 1878 Feb. 22, L. R. III Appeal Cases 355.

3 Victoria, 1882 Nov. 22, L. R. VIII Appeal Cases 82.

4 Jersey, 1850 Jan. 24, VII Moore 114.

SCIRE FACIAS.

1

THE QUEEN V. HUGHES 74. The proper remedy against charters or grants of the crown which are contrary to law, or uncertain, or injurious to the rights and interests of third persons is by writ of scire facias. And, if the grant or charter is to the prejudice of any person, he is entitled as of right to the protection of this prerogative remedy. The Eastern Archipelago Company v. The Queen, 2 E. & B. 94; The Queen v. Clarke, 7 Moore P. C. Cases 77.

75. The writ of scire facias to repeal or revoke grants or charters of the crown being a prerogative judicial writ must be founded on a record.

76. In South Australia, leases of waste lands sealed, but not recorded in any court, are not record, and cannot be annulled by scire facias.

LORD CHELMSFORD, p. 448;-For, as was said by Chief Justice Jervis, in the case of The Eastern Archipelago Company v. The Queen 2 E. & B. 94, "To every crown grant there is annexed by the common law an implied condition that it may be repealed by Scire Facias by the crown, or by a subject grieved using the prerogative of the crown upon the fiat of the Attorney-General."

1 South Australia, 1865 Dec. 22, III Moore N. S. 439.

a. The authority of the British Crown over the numerous colonies which form part of the empire is derived from various sources. Some of them are countries conquered over the native inhabitants or over independent States; others were uninhabited countries discovered and peopled by English subjects these are generally called "settlements"; others again are lands peopled by infidels and acquired either by treaty or by progressive settlement which introduced into them, first, European civilization, and afterwards, as a consequence, English authority.

In conquered countries, as a general rule, the existing laws of the inhabitants remain in force. In settlements, the English law is alone applicable. In colonies created by settlement, conquered, or obtained by treaty with the infidels, the law of England is applied to British subjects, and the native law to the infidels. However, where no native law is found for special cases, recourse is had to English law. Of course, these principles may be, but seldom are, modified by treaty or by the authority of Parliaments.

In all the colonies, the criminal law is that of England. But, to a greater or less extent, both the civil and criminal law have been, in every colony, altered by Parliaments, Charters of justice, Crown's and Governors' ordinances.

b. Maltese Law. The laws of the Island of Malta were codified, in 1784, by the Great Master of the Order of Malta, Emmanuel de Rohan. They consist of the Sardinian law, amended by the local ordinances. In cases not provided for, the dispositions of the Sardinian civil code or of the Roman law as found in the Corpus Juris civilis are applied.

c. French Law.-France, before the Code Napoléon, which came in force in 1803, was divided in pays de droit écrit and pays de droit coutumier. The first comprised all the provinces which admitted

the Roman law; the others were governed by their own Customs. There were three hundred and sixty Customs; sixty of which were general, and three hundred, local; the principal ones were those of Paris, Orléans and Normandie. Most of them were reduced to writing. Notwithstanding this distinction, the Roman law was everywhere, throughout France, considered as the common law. The only difference was that in the pays de droit coutumier, the Roman law was applied only in the absence of any provisions in the Custom (Loyseau liv. 2. ch., 6, 5.). The Code Napoléon has abolished all previous laws.

d. Roman-Dutch law.-The Roman-Dutch law is the old Roman law as altered by the ordinances of the kingdom of Holland. Hollanders or Dutchmen where in the last centuries great navigators. They discovered and extablished numerous colonies in Asia and Australia, a great number of which are now under the authority of the English Crown. In these countries, they introduced their laws, and the inhabitants have preserved them until our time. A Dutch code was made in 1838.

e. Spanish Law.-The kingdom of Spain established its laws in the colonies created by it in America. They were the old Spanish laws having its sources in ancient usages, Canonical law, Roman law, decisions, decrees and Government ordinances. Spanish laws have been since codified.