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WILLIAMS' CASE. 259
according to his actual worth in property ? Or can the granting
of any such exemption be within the delegated and limited autho-
rity of the General Assembly of Maryland, any more than within
the scope of the limited prerogative of a king of England ?
In the Roman empire, under the reign of Augustus, a tax of five
per cent, was imposed upon all legacies and inheritances of a
certain value, which were not given to the nearest of kin on the
father's side; so that, when the rights of nature and poverty were
thus secured, it seemed reasonable that a stranger, or a distant re-
lation, who acquired an unexpected accession of fortune, should
cheerfully resign a twentieth part of it for the benefit of the
state. (I) The British government has imposed a similar duty on
legacies and shares of personal estate. The adjustment and im-
position of which tax upon all subjects of testamentary donation,
susceptible of being inspected, handled and valued, could give
rise to no difficulty. But it is otherwise as to the valuation of a
legacy given by way of annuity for life, which involves a consi-
deration of the expectation of the life during which it is given.
And therefore, as to such cases, the British statute has laid down
certain rules by which the present value of such legacies given by
way of life annuities might be calculated and ascertained, upon
which present value the tax is to be imposed, (m)
This direction of the Declaration of Rights of Maryland, that
every person ought to contribute his proportion of public taxes
according to his actual worth in property, must be extended to all
limited and life interests in property as well as to all absolute and
unlimited estates; and therefore here, as under the British statute,
to impose a tax in due proportion it becomes necessary, in like
manner, to ascertain the present value of all life interests which
may be made the subject of taxation, It would seem, that this
rule has been taken from the most approved writers on political
economy; according to whom, as we have seen, the contribution
of each citizen should be in proportion to his abilities; that is, in
proportion to the revenue which he enjoys under the protection of
the state. If this be the true meaning of this constitutional rule,
then he alone, who draws a revenue from his property, or has the
present command of its profits, can be made to pay a tax upon it.
A naked reversioner or remainderman cannot be taxed, as he not
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(l) Gibbon's Decl, and Fall Rom. Emp, ch. 6.—(m) 86 Geo. 3, c. 52; 55 Geo. 3,
c. 184; Matthews on Executors, 193, and App. B.; Ram. on Assets, 251,
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