EXCHEQUER 



3042 



EXCOMMUNICATION 



duties. A new exchequer was set 

 up, but this was an audit office, and 

 in 1866 the present exchequer and 

 audit office was established. The 

 name exchequer remains in several 

 connexions, exchequer bonds, etc., 

 but the main financial work of the 

 country is done by the treasury, 

 whose actual head, however, is the 

 chancellor of the exchequer, and not 

 the first lord of the treasury. The 

 court of exchequer lasted until the 

 legal reforms of 1876. 



Scotland and Ireland had each 

 their exchequer and their court of 

 exchequer on the English model. 

 The union of both kingdoms with 

 England made these separate 

 institutions unnecessary, although 

 the Irish exchequer lasted until 

 1817, and the Scottish court of ex- 

 chequer until 1856. See National 

 Finance ; Treasury. 



Exchequer and Audit De- 

 partment. Government depart- 

 ment under the comptroller and 

 auditor-general. His business is 

 to see that all public money is ex- 

 pended in accord with the wishes of 

 Parliament. Without his author- 

 ity no money is paid out of the 

 exchequer. He is also the national 

 auditor, bound to notify any irregu- 

 larities in his annual report to the 

 House of Commons. The office, 

 established in 1866, took over the 

 duties formerly discharged by the 

 comptroller-general and the com- 

 missioners for auditing public 

 accounts. He can only be dismissed 

 at the request of both Houses of 

 Parliament. His offices are on Vic- 

 toria Embankment, London, E.G. 



Exchequer Bill. Form of 

 British Government security in 

 vogue from 1696 to 1896. First 

 issued under William III, when 

 metal money was scarce owing to 

 the reform of the coinage, they 

 were really promissory notes for 

 money borrowed by the Govern- 

 ment from capitalists. They 

 usually ran for five years, but were 

 sometimes repaid earlier, and 

 taxes could be paid with them ; the 

 rate of interest varied, but they 

 were free from any risk of depre- 

 ciation. Their place was largely 

 taken after 1877 by Exchequer 

 Bonds ; the last bills were paid 

 off in 1896. See National Debt; 

 National Finance. 



Exchequer Bond. Form of 

 British Government security first 

 issued in 1853. They are promis- 

 sory notes issued generally for three 

 or five years, and redeemable at 

 par. During the Great War much 

 money was raised by the sale of 

 these bonds ; most of them bore 



5 p.c. interest, but at one time 



6 p.c. bonds were sold. An attempt 

 was made to sell them through the 

 Post Office to the small investor, 



as advised in 1916 by a committee 

 on war savings for this class. To 

 do this they were issued in bonds 

 of 5 and multiples of 5 ; after the 

 issue of the National War Bonds 

 in Oct., 1917, the special need for 

 them ceased. In 1920, however, an 

 issue of five-year bonds, carrying 

 5f p.c. interest, was made. See 

 National Debt ; National Finance. 



Excise (Lat. ad, to; census, a 

 tax). Name given to taxes levied 

 on goods produced within a country, 

 as opposed to customs, which are 

 taxes on goods coming into it 

 from without. The early taxes 

 of both kinds were known as 

 customs, and for long there was a 

 similar loose use of the word ex- 

 cise, but the distinction is now 

 generally recognized. In the time 

 of the Civil War the parliamentary 

 party introduced the first excise 

 duties, placing them on ale, beer, 

 and other beverages and then on 

 salt, starch, and certain victuals. 

 Some were removed in 1649. 



During the 18th century the 

 number of excise duties was in- 

 creased. In 1711 they were placed 

 on soap and paper ; in 1746 on 

 glass ; then came bricks, candles, 

 etc. In the 19th century the pro- 

 cess of reducing and simplifying 

 these began, and to-day the num- 

 ber of articles so taxed is very few. 

 In 1917, to meet the cost of the 

 Great War, excise duties were laid 

 on table waters, entertainments, 

 and matches. The following figures 

 show the classes and net receipts 

 from the excise duties in the U.K. 

 for year ended Mar. 31, 1921. 



Beer 123,393,903 



Spirits . . . . 53,907,633 



Patent Medicines 1,309,730 



Licences . . . . 4,278,742 



Table Waters . . 1,180,784 



Entertainments 11,735,840 



Matches .. .. 2,155,654 



This money is collected by the 



board of customs and excise. 



See Customs; National Finance, 



Taxation. 



Excise Bill. Measure intro- 

 duced by Sir Robert Walpole in 

 1733 for the substitution of an ex- 

 cise instead of a customs duty on 

 wine and tobacco. His object was 

 to lessen smuggling and, by making 

 the ports free, to stimulate a re- 

 export trade. The bill aroused much 

 opposition and was withdrawn. 



Exciter. Generator for produc- 

 ing electric current for exciting the 

 field magnets of an alternator or a 

 dynamo. In the case of alternators, 

 the field magnetism of which it is 

 difficult to excite by current gen- 

 erated by the alternator itself, the 

 exciter may consist of a separate 

 dynamo. Direct current dynamos 

 are usually self-excited, i.e. their 

 magnetic fields are produced by 

 their own current. See Dynamo. 



Exclusion Bill. Measure intro- 

 duced into the English Parliament 

 in 1679 for the purpose of exclud- 

 ing James, duke of York, from the 

 throne. The country was greatly 

 excited by Titus Gates' story of a 

 Roman Catholic plot, and the bill 

 was introduced, Mary and William 

 of Orange being named to succeed 

 Charles II. To save his brother, 

 Charles dissolved Parliament, but 

 the bill was again brought forward 

 in 1680 and passed by a large 

 majority in the House of Commons. 

 The Lords rejected it ; and a pro- 

 posal to substitute the duke of 

 Monmouth for James led to its 

 abandonment in 1681. See James 

 II ; Monmouth. 



Excommunication (Lat. ex, 

 out of; communis, common). Term 

 used specifically for the temporary 

 or permanent exclusion of an 

 offending member from the fellow- 

 ship of the Christian Church. 

 Generally it means exclusion from 

 any organized community. Ex- 

 amples are to be found in the 

 history of the Jews (Lev. 13 ; 

 Num. 9 and 12; Ezra 10). It 

 existed among Greeks, Romans, 

 and Druids, and has affinity in the 

 tabu of the Polynesian islanders. 



The Christian Church claims 

 Scriptural authority for excommu- 

 nication (Matt. 16 and 18 ; John 12 

 and 16 ; 1 Cor. 5). Imposed first by 

 the community and then by the 

 bishops as a penalty for heresy, 

 immorality, or disobedience, its 

 primary objects were the bringing 

 of the offender to repentance, and 

 the protection of the Church from 

 corrupting influences. In pagan 

 and Christian usage it has been 

 imposed in degrees of varying 

 severity, ranging from admonition 

 to temporary and partial suspen- 

 sion, and, finally, anathema (q'.v.). 



Gregory VII first claimed the 

 right to depose kings by excom- 

 munication, and an ecclesiastical 

 authority could place a whole 

 country under an interdict. Papal 

 claims of this nature led to much 

 trouble in Elizabethan England. 



In the Roman Catholic Church 

 excommunication is now provided 

 for by the constitution Apostoli- 

 cae Sedis, 1869, ratified Jan. 6, 

 1884. The Anglican view is repre- 

 sented in Hooker's Ecclesiastical 

 Polity and Canons 65 and 68. At 

 one time in England, after a 

 person had been under excommu- 

 nication for 40 days he might, on 

 the issue of a certificate of the 

 diocesan authority to the court of 

 chancery, be imprisoned on a writ 

 of excommunicato capiendo until 

 he submitted and was absolved, 

 and the sentence carried with it a 

 number of civil disabilities. By an 

 Act of George III, 53, c. 127, it was 



