122 



EXCELLENCY EXCISE. 



Rhine, those near Alzey, and those at Brisgau (see 

 Brisgav), and iii several other places, are important. 

 Spain appears to have taken no steps to decide 

 wluahiT n> -.oil contains treasures. The Mosaic at 

 Italica was ili-covrn-il by accident. Pietro della Valle 

 was one of the earliest travellers who made excava- 

 tions for curiosities in Egypt. In these latter times, 

 no stranger goes there without an axe and spade. 

 Syria lias been less explored. At Persepolis and 

 Tadnior the ruins have been oftener described than 

 explored. The tombs at Ilium were opened by count 

 Chwiseul-Gouffier, at the same time that Hamilton was 

 examining those of Magna Gra;cia. The later travel- 

 lers in Greece Nointel, Spon, and Wheeler appear 

 to have been unable to obtain any tiling beyond 

 drawings. Of late years, the Turks have allowed 

 regular excavations to be made in the neighbourhood 

 of ruined edifices. The most important discovery 

 made there was that of the ^Eginetan statues of Pan- 

 hellenic Jupiter, and some specimens of architecture 

 from Phigalia. Comparatively few specimens of 

 ancient art have been found in Sicily. Baron Giu- 

 dica, indeed, caused a whole town (Acre) to be 

 excavated ; but only a few utensils rewarded lu's 

 search. 



While, Greece, Italy, Asia Minor, and Egypt, and 

 even distant India, have been explored, by travellers 

 devoted to the arts, the people of the north of Europe 

 have not been satisfied with waiting till accident 

 should discover to them the remains of ancient times. 

 In the Netherlands, a wooden bridge, evidently the 

 work of the Romans, was discovered in a marsh ; at 

 Salzburg, the old Juvavium ; at Bonn, and at Neu- 

 wied, some monuments of Roman power. Even the 

 old town of Winfried was not neglected, and the 

 pagan monuments in Silesia were examined. Very 

 recently, the late emperor Alexander caused the 

 remains of past ages, all along the Black sea, and 

 in Taurida, to be examined by the antiquarian Von 

 Kohler, and those which could not be removed to be 

 exactly measured and described. Thus both north 

 and south are making similar exertions. Among late 

 excavations of great interest are those on the estate 

 of the prince of Canino, where Etruscan vases were 

 found, in 1830, apparently of very remote antiquity. 

 (See Etruria.) Very recently excavations have been 

 made on the site of the ancient Paesturn, which have 

 led to the discovery of a vast temple, with sculptures 

 of the greatest interest. They are particularly de- 

 scribed in the Paris Journal des Debuts, of July 5, 

 1830. 



EXCELLENCY ; a title first given to the Lom- 

 bard kings, and afterwards assumed by several em- 

 perors of the West; for instance, Charlemagne, 

 Conrad I., Frederic I., &c. It was afterwards trans- 

 ferred to the inferior princes, especially in Italy, until 

 they also gave it up, after pope Urban VIII., in 1630, 

 had bestowed the title of eminence on the cardinals. 

 The princes now assumed that of highness; the 

 more readily because some ambassadors of the first 

 rank, at Rome, had already adopted the title. Since 

 that time, the title of excellency has, by general use, 

 become a title of office or service, in no case heredi- 

 tary, or transferable from one member of a family to 

 another, but always belonging to the office, and only 

 borne, on the European continent, by ministers in 

 actual service, by the highest court and military dig- 

 nitaries, and by ambassadors and plenipotentiaries. 

 Foreign ministers are addressed by the title of your 

 excellency, by way of courtesy, even if they have no 

 rank which entitles them to this distinction ; but 

 charges d'affaires never receive this title. Governors 

 of English colonies are also called excellency. In the 

 United States, the governor of Massachusetts is the 

 only one who has the title of excellency by a const! 



tutional provision. The president of the United 

 States is sometimes spoken of in foreign papers as 

 his -excellency the president. We have seen that the 

 title was at first given to emperors ; at present, the 

 lower classes in Italy call every foreigner, with a 

 whole coat, eccellenza. 



EXCEPTION, LAWS OF. See Laws of Excep. 

 tion. 



EXCHANGE. See Bill of Exchange. 



EXCHEQUER ; an ancient court of record, estab- 

 lished by William the Conqueror, and intended prin- 

 cipally to order the revenues of the crown, and to 

 recover the king's debts and duties. The court con- 

 sists of two divisions, viz., the receipt of the ex- 

 chequer, which manages the royal revenue, and the 

 .judicial, winch is subdivided into a court of equity, 

 and a court of common law. See Courts of Law 

 (England.) 



EXCISE may be said to be an inland duty, or im- 

 post, laid on commodities consumed, or on the retail, 

 which is the last stage before consumption, as an 

 excise on coffee, soap, and candles, which a man 

 consumes in his family. Many articles, however, 

 are excised at the manufactories. As, however, in 

 few countries the definitions of excise, impost, cus- 

 tom, &c., are scientifically settled, it is almost impos- 

 sible to give a satisfactory explanation of excise ap- 

 plicable to all countries. Excise is either general, 

 extending to all commodities, or particular, levied 

 only on certain articles of consumption. The latter 

 sort was introduced into Saxony, at the diet of 

 Leipsic, as early as 14:i8, and extended in 1440, at 

 the diet of Grimma ; but a perfect system of gen- 

 eral excise was first devised in France, and thence 

 introduced into Holland, soon after it had assumed a 

 republican form of government ; into the state of 

 Brandenburg, under the reign of the elector Fre- 

 deric William the Great ; and into Saxony in the 

 beginning of the eighteenth century. 



Excise duties were introduced into England by 

 the Long Parliament in 1G43; being then laid 011 

 the makers and venders of ale, beer, cyder, and 

 perry. The royalists soon after followed the exam, 

 pie of the republicans ; both sides declaring that the 

 excise should be continued no longer than the ter- 

 mination of the war. But it was found too produc- 

 tive a source of revenue to be again relinquished ; 

 and when the nation had been accustomed to it for a 

 few years, the parliament declared, in 1649, that 

 the " impost of the excise was the most easy and 

 indifferent levy that could be laid upon the people." 

 It was placed on a new footing at the Restoration ; 

 and notwithstanding Mr Justice Blackstone says, 

 that " from its first original to the present time its 

 very name has been odious to the people of Eng- 

 land " (Com. book, i. c. 3.), it has continued pro- 

 gressively to gain ground ; and is at this moment 

 imposed on a variety of most important articles, and 

 furnishes nearly half the entire public revenue of the 

 kingdom. 



The laws with respect to the general management 

 of the excise were consolidated by the 7 and 8 Geo. 

 IV. c. 53., from which the following particulars are 

 selected : Four commissioners constitute a Board. 

 They are to be subject, in all things relating to their 

 peculiar duty, to the orders of the treasury. They 

 may appoint collectors and other subordinate officers, 

 and give them such salaries and allowances as the 

 Treasury shall direct : but they are not allowed to 

 increase the number of inferior oilicers without the 

 permission and approval of the treasury. No mem- 

 ber of the house of commons can be a commissioner 

 of excise. No officer of excise is to vote or inter- 

 fere at any election of a member of parliament, 

 tinder pain of forfeiting 500, and being rendered 



