EXCISE DUTIES. 



EXCOMMUNICATION. 



1004 



matters generally. The other division, or Exchequer of Pleat, is a 

 court of common law, in which all personal actions may lie brought 

 and prosecuted. This plea side of the court formerly comprised a 

 court of equity ; but by 5 Viet. c. 5, the jurisdiction of the court in 

 equity wan transferred to the Court of Chancery. 



A plaintiff, when bringing an action in this court, previously to the 

 Act for Uniformity of Process in personal actions (2 Will. IV. c. 89), 

 fictitiously alleged himself to be the king's debtor, in order to give 

 the court jurisdiction in the cause. He added that the defendant 

 owed him money 9110 minim suficifiis e.cistit, to pay the king's debt, a 

 state of things which the court, out of zeal for the revenue, immediately 

 proceeded to remedy. It is not necessary now to resort to this fiction 

 in order to bring an action in the exchequer; the proceedings of 

 which in personal actions are precisely the same as those of the other 

 superior courts. The procedure in suits, or more properly information, 

 in the crown side of the court have been, by the statutes 22 & 23 Viet. 

 c. 19, closely assimilated to proceedings in an ordinary action. 



An appeal lies from this court to the justices of the courts of 

 Queen's Bench and Common Pleas sitting in the exchequer chamber ; 

 and from their decision a further appeal to the House of Lords. 

 [COURTS.] 



The Court of Exchequer in Scotland was established by the 6 Ann. 

 c. 26. Its judicial powers and duties, after being subjected to various 

 modifications, have been transferred to the Court of Session (2 & 3 

 Viet. c. 36. 



The Court of Exchequer in Ireland visa established by the 40 Geo. III. 

 c. 39. Its jurisdiction resembles that of England. 



EXCISE DUTIES, the name given to taxes or duties levied upon 

 articles of consumption which are produced within the kingdom. This 

 description, which has usually been given of excise duties, is more 

 strictly applicable now than it was formerly, when the commissioners 

 of excise revenue were also charged with the collection of duties 

 upon various articles imported from foreign countries. Among these 

 foreign articles were wine, spirits, tobacco, glass, and tea. The last 

 named of these was the last that was withdrawn from the management 

 of the Excise and transferred to the Board of Customs. There are still, 

 it is true, certain duties to which the name of excise is applied, which 

 can hardly be called duties upon consumption, although they are acces- 

 sary to it, such as the duty on sales by auction and the sums charged 

 for licences to permit parties to carry on certain trades. 



Excise duties are said to have had their origin in this country in the 

 reign of Charles I., when a tax was laid upon beer, cider, and perry, of 

 home production. The act by which these duties were authorised was 

 passed by the Long Parliament in 1643. This act contains also a list 

 of foreign articles, and among others tobacco, wine, raisins, currants, 

 and loaf sugar, upon which excise duties were imposed, in addition to 

 duties of customs already chargeable. This act was adopted and 

 enforced under the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell ; and by the statute 

 12 Charles II. c. 24, the duties of excise were granted as a part of the 

 revenue of the crown. 



For a long time this class of duties was viewed with particular dis- 

 like by the people, on account of its inquisitorial interference with 

 various industrial pursuits, and it certainly forms a very strong ground 

 of objection against excise duties, that the security of the revenue 

 which they yield is held to be incompatible with the perfect freedom 

 of the manufacturer as to the processes which he may apply in his 

 works. In every highly-taxed country where consumption-duties form 

 part of the public revenue, it would seem, however, to be hardly pos- 

 sible to avoid the adoption of this class of duties. If, taking for our 

 example an instance which is now exercising an injurious effect in a 

 neighbouring country, it is found expedient to impose a customs' duty 

 upon the consumption of foreign-made sugar, it is clearly necessary, 

 for the protection of the revenue, that an excise duty should be im- 

 posed upon sugar of domestic production, otherwise the community at 

 large is made to bear the load twice, once in the form of some other 

 tax, and again to the producer of indigenous sugar, who will charge 

 the consumer nearly as much as he would pay to the importer 

 of foreign sugar, including the amount of the duty. By such means a 

 branch of industry would be fostered^ unprofitable to the country at 

 large, and profitable only to the few persons by whom the indigenous 

 sugar is produced, but whose profits will not long continue greater than 

 the usual profits upon the employment of stock obtainable in the 

 same country from other branches of industry. An attempt was 

 made, some years ago, to set up a beet-root sugar manufactory in 

 England, but parliament having imposed an excise duty upon the 

 produce equal to the customs' duty charged upon colonial sugar, the 

 attempt was not successful, which indeed is little to be regretted, for 

 the reason already assigned. 



Excise duties are liable to this among other very serious objections, 

 that the regulations under which they are collected are made, perhaps 

 unavoidably, to interfere with processes of manufacture, so as to pre- 

 vent the adoption of improvements which would be beneficial first to 

 the manufacturer and afterwards to the community at large, which 

 must always be interested in their adoption, because of the greater 

 excellence of cheapness of the products which it is the object of the 

 experimenter to attain. It will give some idea of the extent to which 

 this interference is injurious, if we state, on the authority of a gentleman 

 conversant with all the details of the art of calico-printing, that upon the 



same premises, with the same capital, and employing the same amount 

 of labour, double the quantity of cloths are now printed which could 

 have been printed previous to the repeal of the duty, and to the 

 consequent withdrawal of the excise officers from the works. Another 

 great objection that may be urged against excise duties is, the faci- 

 lities which they offer for the commission of frauds against the 

 revenue, nn offence which, in the eyes of many persons, is of a 

 venial kind, but which too often ultimately demoralises those by whom 

 it is committed. 



In 1845, Sir Robert Peel commenced a reform in the excise laws by 

 repealing those on glass and sugar, and substituting a licence 1 fm- 

 auctioneers instead of the excise duty on the sale. The duty on bricks 

 and soap was also subsequently removed. In 1849, the Board of 

 Excise was incorporated with that of Stamps and Taxes, under tin- 

 name of the Board of Inland Revenue. The gross amount of the excise 

 duties in 1844, before the remissions began, was 14,469,366/. ; in 

 they amounted to 17,884,300/. 16. 3d., from the following sources : 



.. d. 



Spirits 8,950,195 8 3 



Malt 5,412,777 1 8 



17,884,300 16 3 



The excise duties are now confined to hops, malt-, paper, spirit*, an . I 

 (beet-root) sugar, of which last none has been brought to charge >\ii' < 

 1856. In 1858, of hops there were charged 53,125,101 Ibs., of which 

 4,177,251 Ibs. were exported ; of malt there were charged 41,605,665 

 bushels, and 5,049,321 bushels were made free of duty for the use of 

 distillers, and 1,549,213 bushels were exported; of paper there were 

 charged 192,847,825 Ibs., of which 16,548,828 Ibs. were exported ; of 

 spirits there were charged 23,686,751 gallons, 1,096,409 gallons u civ 

 made free of duty for exportation, and 1,570,548 gallons of that 

 charged were exported. In 1857,5,190,538 gallons had been exported. 

 On all the quantities exported, which had been subjected to duty, a 

 drawback is allowed, and the malt exported includes the estimated 

 quantity used in beer exported. 



The trades in which licences are necessary in order to carry them on, 

 are shown in the following list, with the number of persons in each 

 trade to whom licences had been granted in the year ending March 31, 

 1858, and the gross amount of tax paid. In some of the trades, as 

 brewers, maltsters, &c., a different amount is paid for the licence, 

 according to the extent of the trade. 



Auctioneers .... 

 Brewers .... 

 Beer and cider sellers . . 

 Maltsters and dealers in malt 

 Paper-makers . . . 

 Soap-makers 



Distillers .... 

 Rectifiers . . . 



Makers of stills . . . 

 Chemists using stills . 

 Spirit-dealers . 

 Retailers of sweets . 



Tea-dealers 151,975 



Tobacco manufacturers and dealers 252,048 

 Vinegar-makers .... 69 



Wine-dealers .... 34,551 

 Retailers of liquors or tobacco on 1 



board vessels . . . j 



Postmasters 29,247 



Stage-carriage proprietors . . 7,630 

 Hackney-carriage proprietors 



(London) 



4,358 



40,794 



127,352 



7,011 



397 



369 



189 



157 



42 



219 



93,936 



9,896 



365 



5,474 







43,580 



81,030 



304,688 



19,291 



1,642 



1,505 



1,963 



1,588 



22 



110 



560,557 

 10,412 

 84,663 

 70,888 

 345 

 88,765 



383 



137,497 

 10,695 



5,474 



766,079 1,425,098 



EXCITANTS. [STIMULANT*.] 



EXCITATION. KLKCTKlr. | I'.I.K, TiuciTV, COMMON.] 



EXCOMMUNICATION, from Ej-communicatio, is the highest eccle- 

 siastical censure which can be pronounced by a spiritual judge. This 

 punishment, according to some opinions, had its origin in the advice 

 given by St. Paul when reproving the early Christians for scandalising 

 their profession by prosecuting law-suits before heathen judges ; and 

 the apostle accordingly recommended them to leave all matters in 

 dispute between them to the decision of the Ecclesia, or congregation 

 of the faithful. This advice was soon followed, and heathen tribunals 

 were seldom afterwards occupied by the controversies of the 

 Christians. 



The bishop and his clergy soon became the judges : the bishop ulti- 

 mately became sole judge in these disputes. Possessing no coercive 

 powers to enforce his decree, the Courts Christian, as they came to be 

 called, were obliged to adopt the only means of which they could avail 



