644 Dr. Percival's Notes and lllujivatiom. 



Note (G) fee page 29. 

 STATUTES OF EXCISE. 



It is the complaint of an enlightened French ftatefman, 

 M. Turgot, that the eftabliihed rule of finance, in all doubtful 

 cafes, is to make the decifion in favour of the revenue ; and that, 

 by the complication of laws, almoft every cafe is rendered doubt- 

 ful. M. Necker alfo obferves that, when the taxes are immo- 

 derate, when they even exceed certain limits, exaftnefs is aug- 

 mented in proportion to the difficulty of colledlion : It becomes 

 neceffary to give greater authority to the coUeftors ; to be infen- 

 fible to complaints ; to venerate the fcience of finance ; and to 

 honour all the profeflbrs of it, without diftinftion. 



As the finances of the kingdom are now faid to be in a flourifli- 

 ing ftate, and as the annual colleiStion of more than fifteen millions 

 bears fo large a proportion to the whole capital flock and income 

 of the community, it may be hoped that the legiflature will 

 engage in a thorough revifion of the laws of revenue, with a 

 view, not merely to their produftivenefs, but to their equity and 

 confiftency with the rights of the people. Tacitus records the 

 juftice of an edift of Nero, commanding the praetor of Rome, 

 and fimilar officers in the provinces, to receive complaints againft 

 the publicans, and to redrefs the wrongs, committed by them, 

 on the fpot.* Let us compare this with the conduft of Fre- 

 deric II. king of Pruflia, whofe tax gatherers fupported tlie double 

 office of excifeman and judge ; fo that if a tenant did not pay his 

 affeffment, on the very day appointed, the colledor put on the 

 magifterial robes, and fined the delinquent in double the fum. f 



• Annal. xiii, 51. 

 f Towers's Life of the King of Pruffia, 



A Vtif 



