xiv REPORT OF THE

unpaid purchase money for the land, in which case it is
easy for the Legislature to provide, that the portion of
the unpaid purchase money for land secured by mort-
gage thereon, shall be credited to the possessor of the
land, and charged to the owner of the mortgage debt, The
argument that the mortgagor will be compelled to pay the
taxes on the debt in the bauds of the mortgagee, is fallacious,,
if the Legislature makes it unlawful for the holder of the
mortgage debt to exact such taxes from the mortgagor, and by
law authorizes the recovery from such holder, of the amount
of such taxes, if the same have been extorted from the mort-
gagor.

A mortgage of land is an hypothecation of the land as a
security for the payment of a sum of money loaned upon the
faith of its adequacy to assure the certainty of the repayment
of the money, and I cannot see the difference in principle,
between the hypothecation of real property as a security, and
the hypothecation of some personal investment which is taxa-
ble, as a security. In the one case it is claimed to be double
taxation, while in the other, no such claim is pretended to be
made. To instance a case in point: Two men are owners of
an equal amount of property, the one has real property and
the other has a certificate of ownership of shares in a bank, of
equal value. Both the real property and the shares of stock
are assessed for the same amount, and are of equal value.
Both parties go to an individual who has money to loan, and5
negotiate a loan of equal amount, the one by a note and an
hypothecation of his real property, and the other by a similar
note, and the hypothecation of his shares of stock. Under
our laws, the individual holding these two interest bearing
notes, is free from taxation on the one, but is assessed with
the value of the other. Now, if the hypothecation of the real
property makes the taxation of the debt secured by its agency,
a double taxation, why does not the hypothecation of the
shares of stock render the taxation of the debt thus secured
also a double taxation ? Yet, no such argument has ever
been used to nay knowledge, in the latter case.

This theory of the taxation of mortgages on real property,
working a double taxation, (except in the case of the unpaid