798 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mals which is exhibited by the influences that have modified species 

 into fitness for their environment, are facts which must never be 

 lost sight of, for if we forget them our attempts to understand the 

 history of the properties of living things are certain to mislead us 

 and to end in failure. 



PRINCIPLES OF TAXATION. 



By DAVID A. WELLS, LL.D., D. C.L., 



CORRESPONDANT DE 1,'lNSTITUT DE FRANCE, ETC. 



XVII. THE CASE OF KIRTLAND VS. HOTCHKISS. 



THE above designation has been popularly given to one of the 

 most important questions that has ever come before the legal 

 tribunals of this country, and the record of which has been hereto- 

 fore so difficult of access that it has not attracted the attention it 

 merits, but which it is to be hoped will prove at no distant period a 

 subject of popular interest and future judicial consideration. 

 The particulars of the case are in the main as follows: 

 In 1869, or previous, Charles W. Kirtland, a citizen of Wood- 

 bury, Litchfield County, Connecticut, loaned money, through an 

 agent, a resident and citizen of Illinois, on bonds secured by deeds 

 of trust on real estate in the city of Chicago. Each of these bonds 

 declared that " it was made under and is in all respects to be con- 

 strued by the laws of the State of Illinois," and that the principal and 

 interest of the obligation were payable in the city of Chicago. The 

 deed of trust also contained a provision that all taxes and assess- 

 ments on the property conveyed should be paid by the obligor (bor- 

 rower) without abatement on account of the mortgage lien; that the 

 property might be sold at auction, in Chicago, by the trustee, in 

 case of any default of payment, and that a good title, free from any 

 right of redemption, on the part of the obligor, might in that case 

 be given by the trustee. Another interesting feature of the case 

 not to be overlooked was, that pending the proceedings to be next 

 related, the loans as originally made became due and were paid; 

 when the proceeds, without being removed from Illinois and re- 

 turned to Mr. Kirtland in Connecticut, were reinvested in Chicago 

 by his agent, under terms and conditions as before. 



These facts becoming known to the tax officials of the town of 

 Woodbury, they added in 1869 to the list of property returned by 

 Kirtland for the purpose of taxation, as situated within the State, 

 the sum of eighteen thousand dollars; and in 1870 the sum of twenty 

 thousand dollars, to represent the amount of property owned and 



