Fee tail

“ Whatever other disadvantages the cost-plus-a-fixed-fee system mat have, no incentive to raise the cost arises from the fixed fee. But when a percentage fee or compensation is provided for, which diminishes or increases in proportion to costs, there is ample motive or at least tendency to increase such costs. ”

“ Nevertheless, this English system of fees has its good side, and I never travel without finding the advantage of it, especially on railways, where the officials are strictly forbidden to take fees, and where, in consequence, a fee secures twice as much good service as anywhere else. Be it recorded, that I never knew an Englishman to refuse a shilling,—or, for that matter, a halfpenny. ”

“ Up the inland they pay no duty on river fish, [Pg 622] but are liable to pay a capitation fee of one shilling per head for the liberty of passing down to the sea-shore either to traffic or attend the markets with their provisions or other sorts of the product of the land, and pay nothing at their return home, goods or no goods, unless they by chance leave their arms in the village, then the person so doing is to pay one shilling. ”

“ The fee-bill is intended to regulate only those fees and costs which are strictly chargeable as between party and party, and not to regulate the fees of counsel and other expenses and charges as between solicitor and client, nor the power of a court of equity, in cases of administration of funds under its control, to make such allowance to the parties out of the fund as justice and equity may require. ”

“ Not only has the candidate for membership to find these sureties for the protection of his creditors, and as a guarantee of his status, but he has, of course, to pay an entrance fee and an annual subscription, all of which money is collected by the Managers for the benefit of the proprietors. The amount of these entrance fees and subscriptions is varied from time to time by the Managers; needless to say, the variation has always been in the nature of an increase. At present the entrance fee for a member is five hundred guineas, and the annual subscription is forty guineas. ”

“ Then in a very curious section Littleton [54] has to face the fact that the parson with the assent of patron and ordinary can charge the glebe of the parsonage perpetually. Thence, so he says, some will argue that these three persons, or two or one of them, must have a fee simple. Littleton must answer this argument. Now this is one of those points at which a little fiction might give us temporary relief. We might place the fee simple in a fictitious person, whose lawfully appointed guardians give a charge on the property of their imaginary ward. ”

“ What is the use of fining a man a nominal sum, when he has a wealthy collector behind his back, ready and willing to pay all his expenses, with a substantial margin for himself to boot? Is this likely to prove any deterrent? I would have every bird that was not proved to be distinctly injurious to agricultural or horticultural produce properly protected for a certain season by a proper law, properly enforced; and should any bonâ fide collectors desire eggs or specimens of any particular species, they should, on payment of a fixed fee, receive a proper permit to acquire the same. ”

“ It seems but fair that a man who has 8000 sheep should pay more for his license to depasture them, than he who has but 4000, and that if he has to pay £20, while the latter pays but £10, he is only taxed to the same amount. Probably the fairest and most satisfactory mode of proceeding would have been to have done away altogether with the ten-pound fee for the license, and to have increased the poll-tax to three half-pence on each sheep, and so in proportion for cattle. ”

“ Besides these taxes payable to the Port Commissioner, there were the various sorts of ferry fees, which are also very interesting and equally indicative of a brisk trade and a throbbing commercial life. A man with a minor quadruped carrying some load had to pay a ferry fee of one masha. ”

“ There is no produce of the coast which has not been used to express gratitude, and 'to help the hospital along.' Codfish is a common fee. Sealskins, venison, wild ducks, beadwork, embroidered skinwork, feathers, firewood—nothing is too bizarre to offer."
"Do they never pay money?"
"Yes, sometimes. Of late years, a little more each year. But when we began work, they practically never got any with which to pay. The fur-trading companies settled in kind, values were often measured, not by so many dollars, but by so many pelts. ”

“ I suppose it is perfectly right to charge something, but the Dragon is not content with what is right. He knows he has finally lost a customer, and so he makes all he can out of him. The furniture so paid for, is not re-placed, and the walls are not papered again, but the Dragon doesn't abate a penny of his bill on that account. Now, I have inquired of the furnishing man, on the street back of the hotel, and he has written on his card just the cost of mattress, sheets, pillows, and all that sort of thing, and the amount comes to about 50 francs. ”

“ Such a fee need not be greater than $1 or $2 per season, an amount which could be paid by anyone who wished to shell seriously. Perhaps the idea of a fee of any kind would arouse some antagonism among a certain class of shellers who would enjoy the public stores without return of any kind. ”

“ Ficker consulting it with a view to his own business, I asked him his opinion of the charges.
“Why,” said he, “the scale of fees is too large for the client and too small for the lawyer. But suitors object less to the amount than to the intricacies and perplexities of the Table. In some districts the expense of recovering a sum of money is one-third more than it is in others; though in both the same scale of fees is in operation. ”

“ The man who employs an attorney in litigation where a large money value is at stake naturally expects to pay a much larger fee than the man who employs the same attorney in a minor case. The man who wants plans for a million dollar building pays the architect greatly in excess of the one who builds a one thousand dollar house. ”

“ Surely every thinking man will make a distinction between a fee and a tax. Poor people! I pity their ignorance and narrow, ill-natured spirits. But, my friend, consider that I could by no means give up this fee without affronting the Board of Trade and the Council here who established it. ”

“ But to see how every little fellow looks after his fees, and to get what he can for everything, is a strange consideration; the King's fees that he must pay himself for this L17,500 coming to above L100. Thence called my wife at Unthanke's to the New Exchange and elsewhere to buy a lace band for me, but we did not buy, but I find it so necessary to have some handsome clothes that I cannot but lay out some money thereupon. ”

“ The deductions, including the expenses of curing and bringing the fish to market, and master's and mate's fees, score-money, and cost of bait, are made from the gross proceeds, and then the balance is divided into two-one half going to the men, and the other to the owners. ”

“ The usual fee at the institutions was five guineas. There were a few that could afford more; but against this there was a good fifty per cent. of institutions that begged of the lecturers to knock off a guinea or two. Some were not quite so exacting, and begged that only the "shillings" might be deducted.
My father used to relate an amusing adventure he had experienced concerning the reduction of fees. At some out-of-the-way spot in Scotland he was met on the railway platform by a deputation of old gentlemen, who conducted him to his hotel. ”

“ Suppose a man were to ask a fish-curer for an advance of money in July, would not that advance of money in July, would not that advance be looked upon as if he were asking for a loan of money?-No; that is not generally the way they would do. If I were fishing to a fish-curer, and giving him my fish, and if I were to ask for some money, it would just go to my account in the same way as if I was taking out goods until the fish were sold at the end of the year when I settled, and my fish would pay for that money as well as for the goods. ”

“ Those who have managed to steer clear of debt will now do very well. But many bought their sheep originally on long credit, and at high prices, hoping to be able to sell them again at the same rate, so as to meet their bills, and to be able to retain the increase. All these men, I need scarcely say, are insolvent. Others purchased to the utmost of their means, and had to go in debt for stores to the merchant who supplied them, who was enabled to charge what he liked, and to take the wool in payment at his own valuation. ”

“ At a horse auction you see a singular collection of good and bad horses; and it is one of the jokes of the Islands to go to a horse auction and buy a horse for a quarter of a dollar. The Government has vainly tried to put a check to the reckless increase of horseflesh by laying a tax on these animals, and by impounding them if the tax is not paid. ”

“ The auditor allowed all actual, direct, and necessary expenses in the collection of fees, such as bank charges, express charges, and attorney's fees, the total amount of such expenses having been deducted from the gross fee charged by Spalding under the contract with claimants, the net sum received by Spalding being returned as the gross amount of fees which he had collected. ”

“ The collecting of the license fee was from the first an invidious duty, which demanded a vast deal of tact on the part of the Commissioners and staff, for the diggers were always opposed to the tax, and many were the ruses they adopted to escape its payment. ”

“ The bride responded: "You expect to enrich yourself and your family by means of your cat. I and my family also want money. [page 480] Since you cannot give back the ladle, we will both go before the magistrate and present our cases. If your cat is adjudged to be worth more than my ladle I will pay you the excess; and if my ladle be worth more than your cat, then you must pay me." Being sure that the cat would, by any judge, be considered of greater value than the ladle, the old woman agreed to the proposition, and the two went before the magistrate. ”

“ If we take a sheep or a bullock, and to his first cost add the rent of the land on which he has pastured, and something for insurance and interest on capital, the transaction is not a very profitable one in the long run. But in the case of the Salmon, we send a little fish down to the sea which is not worth a penny, and he remains there, paying neither rent nor taxes, neither gamekeepers' nor bailiffs' wages, costing nothing to anyone, until he returns to the river, worth ten or twenty shillings, as the case may be. ”

“ In the case of a man who engages with you for the Faroe fishing, is it usual for an account to be opened in his name in the same way as with the others?-Yes; we are obliged to supply him with an outfit. The principle of that agreement is, that the men get one-half the value of the fish after deducting curing, and the expenses of converting the fish into cash. They are also allowed 8 lbs. ”

“ These Tables show that from one third to one half of the fishermen are in debt to the curers each year at the time of settlement, after their fishing has been credited to them. It is not less true, as shown by the evidence, that during the rest of the year nearly the whole of them are in debt to the curers, because the goods and advances are debited to them as they get them, while the credit for fish only comes at the end of the year. ”

“ And you trust entirely to the owners to obtain that price, and to account to you for one half of that, under certain deductions?-Yes.
13,568. Do you know what deductions are allowed before the proceeds of the fish are divided?-I cannot tell; I have seen it all in the agreement, but I cannot recollect what it is just now. It is every man's wish to see a bill of sale for their fish at settling time, but such a thing has never been asked for. ”

“ The appeal even to expense falls flat in a country like ours, where about 200,000 horses, valued at £12,000,000, and maintained at a charge of £8,000,000 a year, are kept entirely for the pursuit of foxes, which are preserved alive at great cost in order that they may be pursued to death. ”

“ Should any one take a loan of cattle, yaks, sheep, &c., and they die in his charge, he must pay for them. Should they die one night after being returned, it is the owner’s loss. If they die before midnight of the night they are returned the borrower has to pay.
Should a horse die from a wound whilst on loan, one-fourth to one-third its value will have to be paid. ”

“ But part of the price might be paid as a bounty, as it were, and the balance might be payable according to the current price?- Such an arrangement might be made; but I don't see any object it could serve because, if our men wish an advance of money during the fishing season at present, they can get it. If they wish money to pay for anything they require while the fishing is going on, we make no difficulty in giving them that advance, because we know they are delivering fish which will cover it. ”

“ There would be no sense in taking the judgment of the claimant as to the value of his own horse. Neither would there be any sense in giving good money, to the amount of the false money, to every claimant whose horse was not there to give him. ”

“ John Bruce, jun., whose 'bondage' and prices were most loudly complained of, never refuses money advances before settlement, when asked, to the full amount of the fish at a man's credit, and, in the case of a good man, to any reasonable amount he may ask for. In some places, advances are mostly made at the settlement of the previous year, to men who have got as much money as they require. ”