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17. What rate of interest does the following note bear: $500.00. BINGHAMTON, N. Y., June 30, 1879. Sixty days after date we promise to pay to the order of Brown & Co., five hundred dollars, at the first National Bank of Pittston, Pa., value received, with

use.

This note is for goods purchased in New York State.

JONES & Co.

A. The general rule is that the interest is to be paid on contracts according to the law of the place where they are to be performed, in all cases where the contract expresses or implies the payment of interest. Story on Conflict Laws, sec. 292, 293, 304. A note made at Canada where interest was at 6 per cent., payable with interest in England, where it was 5 per cent., was decided to bear English interest only. See Scholfield vs. Day, 20 John., 102. The above note will therefore bear only Pennsyl vania interest, which is 6 per cent.

18. A merchant of Bangor buys merchandise of a New York merchant or vice versa. The question is, how interest in the case is to be charged or credited, the rate being 6 in New York and 7 in Bangor, in the absence of any agreement between the parties? e. g., New York sells to Bangor merchandise to arrive, payable in 30 days from the delivery in Bangor. On its arrival Bangor pays prompt cash, deducting 7 per cent. interest for the 30 days. New York demurs, and says only 6 per cent. should be deducted. Which is right ?

Suppose Bangor had taken 30 days additional to the 30 of the contract, for that additional time would interest be due at 7 or 6 per cent. per annum, there being no agreement in either case?

A. Where no rate of interest is specified, the law of the place where payment is to be made will govern. Parsons on Contracts, vol. 2, 585. The rules laid down by Judge Redfield in a celebrated case are now accepted: 1. If a contract be entered into in one place to be performed in another, and the rate of interest differs in the two places, the parties may lawfully stipulate for the rate of interest in either.

2. If the contract calls for interest generally, and no rate is specified, it shall be governed by the place of payment, unless it appears that the parties intended to contract with reference to the rate ruling in the other place.

What is sufficient to indicate such intention may sometimes be gathered from the terms of the contract, or from custom, or from outside evidence.

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19.

OHIO.-Can a person after agreeing to and paying ten per cent. for three years on money loaned at the end of that time, on paying the principal, keep back such part as would virtually reduce the interest to six per cent. ?

A. The statute in Ohio forfeits the excess of interest where more than the legal rate is exacted, and only the principal with legal interest thereon can be collected in case of a suit.

INTERNAL REVENUE AND LICENSE.

INTERNAL REVENUE.

1. Is a man who has no license or permit, doing anything wrong or violating the law if he, for the sake of curiosity and study, cultivates some few plants of tobacco, but does not sell the crop?

A. There is no tax on the cultivation of tobacco to any extent. Only those engaged in the manufacture or sale are required to contribute to the internal revenue.

2. Can cigars manufactured in this country be exported without paying an internal revenue tax?

A. A drawback equal to the value of the stamps affixed, is allowed upon cigars that are exported. The exporter's bond is cancelled on proof that the goods have been landed at a foreign port.

3. Is an article manufactured from another article that is subject to internal revenue tax, and on which the tax is supposed to have been paid, subject to such tax? The article in question, or the manufac tured article as I may term it, being made of what remains of the other after it has served its purpose, and used for the same purpose in another form after being subjected to certain processes.

A. If we understand the question, it is subject again to a tax. Thus cigars are fully taxed; but if a man takes old cigar stumps, and out of this tax-paid tobacco makes new cigars, they are subject to a fresh tax. It would be the same thing if he could reconstruct the cigar out of the old ashes and vanished smoke.

4. Will you inform me, first, whether a license is required to sell liquors or cigars on commission? Second, whether I can buy liquors for shipment on commission without a license?

A. No city license is required, but the internal revenue tax in each case must be paid before a person can legally deal in

either liquors or cigars. A wholesale dealer in liquors pays $100, and in cigars $5, to the United States government.

5. I keep a small assortment of drugs, and would like to know if I can compound a physician's prescription containing among several other things "spirits frumenti or whiskey" without paying revenue as a dealer in whiskey?

A. Compounding in good faith a physician's prescription, in which is only a small amount of spirits as one of the ingredients, would not in our judgment subject the author to a revenue

tax.

6. Do medicines, such as oil of turpentine, castor oil or any other medicine prepared according to the United States Pharmacopoeia and labeled accordingly, become subject to stamp duty when put into gela. tinous bottles generally known as capsules, globules, etc.?

A. We know of no ruling on the point above raised, but the law appears to be tolerably clear. Section 3,436 of the United States Revised Statutes, exempts from stamp tax any uncompounded medicinal drug or chemical, and any medicine compounded according to the United States or other national Pharmacopoeia, etc., "when not sold, or offered for sale, or advertised under any other name, form or guise than that under which they may be severally denominated and laid down in said Pharmacopoeias, Dispensatories or Journals." If "put up in a style or manner similar to that of patent or proprietary medicines in general," they lose the benefit of this exemption, and become subject to the stamp tax.

7. Is it lawful to sell quinine in packages of five grains and upward, either by peddling or at residence, without a drug license? If not, would it be lawful to sell the same if put up and labeled by a licensed druggist? If unlawful, what penalty could be inflicted.

A. If the drug should be sold under any other designation than its proper medicinal name, or in such a way as to imitate a patent or proprietary medicine, each package would be liable to a stamp duty of one cent, if sold at 25 cents or under, or two cents, if sold at over 25 and under 50 cents, and the penalty for each offense would be $50. The article might be sold, however, without tax, simply as so many grains "sulphate of quinine," or in the form of a prescription compounded according to the regu-

lar formulas, if not put up in the shape of a patent medicine, or making any pretension to peculiar merits as a proprietary preparation. A State license as a peddler would, however, be needed, at a cost of $20 a year, for a person traveling on foot, and the penalty for selling without such a license would be $25 for each offense.

8. Does imported bay rum, when drawn from the original cask into packages of five and ten gallons, require stamping? If so, please inform us what kind of stamp is required.

A. All distilled spirits when drawn into packages of not less than five gallons, for sale, must be gauged and stamped by the Government official, the form of which is prescribed in section 3,321 of Revised Statutes.

9. Are manufacturers of any article other than tobacco or distillers obliged to pay a United States revenue tax? Some three or four years ago there was such tax imposed upon manufacturers generally; has it not been repealed?

A. The Internal Revenue Stamp act applies to manufacturers of matches and proprietary compounds (as patent medicines and the like), and also to brewers, neither of which is included in our correspondent's. enumeration. The manufacturers' tax, known as such, was partly repealed in 1868, and the remainder ceased October 1, 1870.

LICENSE.

10. Is it necessary for an officer on an execution sale of liquors or cigars, to obtain a permit or license from the Collector of Internal Rev. enue, and would he infringe on the internal revenue laws by selling such articles on execution without license or permit?

A. A special tax is not required to be paid by an officer of State, or of the United States, for selling liquor or tobacco on execution, or other judicial process. Nor is any permit for that Furpose required under the internal revenue law.

11. We may have occasion to send traveling salesmen to the different States in the Union, for the purpose of selling our goods by sample. Can you inform us whether special licenses are required in separate States, and if so, which and where we shall make application for same?

A. In most of the States licenses are necessary. Pennsylvania is gridironed with local license laws, too numerous to be

separately referred to. In Philadelphia, and some other counties, the County Treasurer is the official to whom application must be made for license to sell by sample; hawkers' and peddlers' licenses must be obtained from the courts of Quarter Sessions. In New Jersey hawkers' licenses are granted by the Governor, on recommendation of the inferior court of Common Pleas; a fee must also be paid to the County Clerk. In Ohio and Iowa, County Auditors issue licenses. In Indiana, County Treasurers. In Illinois, such licenses, where they are required, are local, and the town or city financial officers have the matter in charge. In Missouri, the County Collector. In Wisconsin, the Secretary of State. In Virginia, the township Assessor or City Commissioner. Texas imposes an annual occupation tax upon every commercial traveler, payable to the State Comptroller, but a three months' license may be had pro rata. In West Virginia, the Assessor for the proper assessment district must be applied to.

12. Is it necessary for us to take out a city license for one or more trucks, owned and employed by us in receiving and delivering goods, in the regular course of our business; and also whether the fact of our making any charge for cartage affects the question?

A. If our correspondent uses his own trucks to deliver his own goods, and makes no charge for such delivery, he need not have them licensed. But, if he charges for cartage, he must pay two dollars a year for one-horse, and three dollars for twohorse carts.

13. Has the grower of tobacco the right to sell a case, or a part of a case of tobacco without internal revenue license, such as jobbers have? And what license do they have to pay? If growers are required to have license in the above case, would it be a penalty for the grower to accept pay from jobbers who are around collecting samples?

A. A dealer in leaf tobacco is required to pay a tax of $25, but no farmer or planter is required to pay a tax for selling his own production or that of his tenants paid to him as rent, provided he must not retail or peddle it to consumers, or to persons who are not licensed dealers, or for exportation.

14. A fruit vender sets up a large stand on the sidewalk in front of my house without permission; have 1 a right to order him away,

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