Thus in the Thorley Case,[1] Lord Lindley says: "All * * * taxing acts are to be read strictly; that is to say, they are not to be extended so as to have the effect of imposing on the subject a tax which Parliament has not clearly made him pay. These principles are perfectly familiar."
Again, Baron Pollock says in the Clifford Case:[2] "It is stated in Maxwell on Statutes, 1st ed,, page 259, that 'Statutes which impose pecuniary burdens are subject to the rule of strict construction. It is a well settled rule of law that all charges upon the subject must be imposed by clear and unambiguous language, because in some degree they operate as penalties. The subject is not to be taxed unless the language by which the tax is imposed is perfectly clear and free from doubt.' For this proposition several decisions and dicta are cited, and there is no doubt as to its being a correct statement of the law. * * * If the statute is so indefinite and uncertain that it can be treated in two ways, and the true construction of it is open to two views, the one more favorable to the Crown and the other to the subject, then the latter construction should be adopted."
Again, in the Beech Case,[3] Lord Justice Smith, quoting from Lord Chancellor Wensleydale, says: "It is a well-established rule that the subject is not to be taxed without clear words for that purpose. * * * The Legislature by the circuitous route it has adopted has obviously failed to carry out its object; but if this
