422 



in brutality, outrage, and riot, at the expence of fober modera- 

 tion, legal order, and peaceable induftry. The checks, at prefent, 

 provided againft illegal combinations, in this country, are infufEci- 

 ent. All the regulations, which have been eflabliflied for this pur- 

 pofe, and found highly falutary, in London, ought to be adopted 

 in this country. A cheap, and fummary tribunal, acceffible to all, 

 applying an immediate remedy to the difeafe, and deterring men 

 from aggreffion, and contempt of the laws, by the certainty of 

 immediate punifliment, is abfolutely neceffary to meet the growing 

 fivil of combinations. Very fevere penalties, and particularly corpo- 

 ral punifliment, ought to be enacted againft the crime of illegal 

 jcombination ; and alfo againft the offence, of wantonly deferting 

 work once commenced ; and the magiftrates, or even a fingle ma- 

 ^iftrate, fhould be authorized to animadvert on fuch offences. 



The fyftem of excife is, no doubt, the mofl equitable, and moft con- 

 venient mode of collecting the revenue^ which it is neceffary for the 

 ftate to raife, from the wants of the confumption of individuals, 

 for its own fupport; but, in fome inftances, the jealous avarice of 

 the excife laws, guarding againft frauds, with a fuperfluous care, 

 and multiplying reftraints and regulations, without end, defeats its 

 own purpofe ; and finds, with furprife, in the annihilation of trade, 

 and dereliction of manufactures, a decreafe of that revenue, which 

 it feeks to augment. Many of the details of the revenue code are 

 hoftile, in a fupreme degree, to the exiftence of manufactures. The 

 conftant vifitation, through every ftage, that is thought requifite to 

 the jealous, and vigilant fpirit of excife collection ; the regiftry of 

 every veffel and utenlil ; the right of commanding an entrance, at 

 all times, into the dwellings and workfliops of manufacturers ; all 

 thefe, by compelling them to difclofe the fecrets of their trade, and 

 fubjecting them to the caprice, the infolence, and the rapacity of 

 petty tyrants, too generally taken from the loweft claffes of fociety, 

 alike unprincipled and ignorant, difcdurage the manufacturers, in 



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