29S 
THE MEDICINE STAMP AND LICENCE ACTS. 
articles inserted at different times in this Journal on the Medicine Stamp and' 
Licence Acts, but there is one especially, published more than twenty years ago, 
which gives a very full and clear explanation of the whole subject, and as we 
think it probable that many of our readers are, as we confess to have been our¬ 
selves, not fully cognizant of all the bearings of the case, we give here the article 
in full, with the exception of a few unimportant preliminary observations :— 
“It is not easy to give in a concise form the substance of these Acts, which 
are now in force, and which have never been understood by the parties to whom 
they refer. The difficulty of reducing this subject to an intelligible shape is 
pointed out by Mr. Price, who was engaged on behalf of the trade, in the year 
1829, in resisting the persecutions of the Commissioners of Stamps and common 
informers. Mr. Price observes, 1 Prior enactments are nullified or neutralized 
by subsequent provisions, and schedules have been added which cannot con¬ 
sistently be read with or reconciled to the language of the Acts; because it has 
been attempted to schedule what is incapable of being scheduled. Those 
schedules were appended for the purpose, it must be presumed, of supplying 
any supposed deficiencies in the statutes ; but there is an enactment in the body 
of the Acts for extending by construction the operation of those catalogues; 
and, finally, there are exceptions within exceptions, by which the exemptions 
appear at first sight to be resolved into the original enactments, and what was 
intended to give particular privileges has been nearly so generalized as again to 
exclude the exclusions/* 
“The second section of the 42 Geo. III. provides, that— 
“ ‘ For and upon every packet, box, bottle, pot, phial, or other enclosure, containing 
any drugs, herbs, pills, waters, essences, tinctures, powders, or other preparation or 
composition whatsoever, used or applied externally or internally as medicines or medica¬ 
ments for the prevention, cure, or relief of any disorder or complaint incident to or in 
any wise affecting the human body, which shall be uttered or vended in Great Britain, 
there shall be charged a stamp duty , according to the rates following (that is to say), 
where such packet, box, bottle, pot, phial, or other enclosure as aforesaid, with its con¬ 
tents, shall not exceed the price or value of one shilling, there shall be charged a stamp 
duty of one penny halfpenny ; and where above one shilling, and not above two shil¬ 
lings and sixpence, three-pence ; above two shillings and sixpence, and not above four 
shillings, sixpence; above four shillings and not above ten shillings, one shilling; above 
ten shillings and not above twenty shillings, two shillings ; above twenty shillings and 
not above thirty shillings, three shillings; above thirty shillings and not above fifty 
shillings, ten shillings; and above fifty shillings there shall be paid a stamp duty of 
twenty shillings.’ 
“ By the sixth section it is further enacted, that-— 
“ ‘Every owner , proprietor, maker, and compounder of, and every person in Great 
Britain, uttering, vending, or exposing to sale , or keeping ready for sale any such drugs, 
herbs, pills, waters, essences, tinctures, powders, or other preparations or compositions 
whatsoever, used or applied or to be used or applied externally or internally as medicines 
or medicaments, for the prevention, cure, or relief of any disorder or complaint incident 
to or in any wise affecting the human body, or any packets, boxes, bottles, pots, phials, 
or other enclosures aforesaid, with any such contents as aforesaid, subject to the duties 
herein before granted, shall annually take out a licence; and that for and upon every 
licence so taken out by any such person who shall reside within the cities of London or 
Westminster, the borough of Southwark, or within the limits of the twopenny post, or 
^“Abstract of the Medicine Stamp and Licence Acts, with Observations on their Legal 
Effect and Operation,” etc. By George Price, Esq., of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law. 
2830. 
