474 



EXCISE. 



on each day's survey, lie is required to leave n me- 

 morandum behind him, specifying the different 

 places he is about to 'visit in the course of the day, 

 and the order in which he will visit them. It is 

 the business of the supervisor to make his survey 

 without any previous notice, and the officer is 

 never certain that he will not re-survey the pre- 

 mises which he has just gone over. This vigilance 

 ensures fidelity to the public service, which is fur- 

 ther promoted by the officer being obliged to keep 

 a minute record of every survey and every parti- 

 cular connected with it, stating the hour and min- 

 ute when it was commenced. The supervisor who 

 checks his proceedings is obliged to enter into his 

 diary every error he discovers. The books of both 

 supervisors and officers are deposited at the chief 

 office in London, and neither class can advance in 

 the service without a reference to them and a strict 

 examination into their accuracy. 



The assistant is an officer, whose duty it is to 

 watch the operations of a single trader, as a soap- 

 maker, or any manufactory in which the constant 

 presence of an officer is necessary. This class also 

 is employed in relieving the officers of a ride or 

 foot-walk at those seasons of the year when the 

 operations of the excise traders are most active. 



The supernumerary attends the collector on the 

 rounds which he makes eight times a year. He 

 carries the official papers and documents, and is re- 

 quired to provide himself with a horse. He also 

 officiates for officers who are sick. The supernum- 

 eraries and assistants are appointed to a ride or 

 loot-walk as vacancies occur. 



The expectants are individuals admitted into 

 the service of the excise on the nomination either 

 of the Treasury or the Board of Commissioners of 

 Excise, the patronage being divided between them. 

 Nearly three hundred expectants are appointed 

 every year to supply the changes by deaths, pro- 

 motions, and retirements. During the war it was 

 frequently difficult to fill up vacancies, and officers 

 were encouraged to introduce their sons into the 

 service ; but this difficulty is of course no longer 

 felt. The age of the expectant must not be above 

 thirty, nor below nineteen ; and if married, he is 

 ineligible if he has more than two children. A 

 competent knowledge of vulgar and decimal arith- 

 metic is necessary. On his first introduction into 

 the service he is placed under the care of an ex- 

 perienced officer to receive instruction in his du- 

 ties ; and, as a pupil, he must continue under his 

 care for a period, which must not be less than six 

 weeks under any circumstances, and as much longer 

 as necessary. He then receives a certificate of his 

 qualifications from the supervisor, who examines 

 him, and he is employed in doing duty for sick or 

 absent officers, receiving a salary, which is very 

 small when he is not on actual service. 



The salaries of collectors vary from 350 to 

 550, according to the extent of their duties and 

 responsibility. Only two collectors are in the en- 

 joyment of the last named sum, and the salary of 

 the majority is 400 a year. The salary of super- 

 visors is 200 ; of officers 100 ; of assistants 85 ; 

 of supernumeraries 52 ; of collector's clerks from 

 115 to 150, the salary of fifty-one out of sixty- 

 one clerks being 140 ; and the salary of expectants 

 is 50 a year. The officers are divided into two 

 classes, though they each receive the same salary; 

 but 'one class is obliged to find a horse. When 

 the expectants are employed as such they receive 

 an additional allowance at the rate of 30 a year ; 



and supernumeraries, in like manner, receive an 

 addition to their salaries of 38 a year. Most su- 

 pervisors are obliged to keep a horse. The amount 

 paid in salaries for the country establishment 

 (England) was 365,487 in 1835. The collectors 

 give security to the amount of 5000; supervisors 

 provide a bond of 1000; and all other classes in 

 the service give security to the amount of 200. 



The total number of officers of each class on the 

 country establishment (England) was ;!!8(J in 

 1835, viz.: 55 collectors, 2 supernumerary collec- 

 tors, 61 clerks, 316 supervisors, 1023 division or 

 foot-walk officers, 1499 ride officers, 75 assistants, 

 54 supernumeraries, and 101 permit writers, besides 

 expectants, who are unattached. 



The board of excise is a sub-department 

 charged with the collection and management of one 

 branch of the general taxation of the country. It 

 is not, though in practice it, as well as other 

 boards of revenue have almost assumed to be, an 

 independent department, instead of a sub-depart- 

 ment, of the department of the lord high trea- 

 surer, and subject to the check and control of the 

 lords of the treasury; the first lord of the trea- 

 sury and the chancellor of the exchequer being 

 the really responsible parties. The board consists 

 of seven commissioners, who have equal authority 

 and power. The chairman has a salary of 2000, 

 the deputy chairman of 1500, and the other 

 commissioners have 1200 per annum each. They 

 appoint to offices, and pay the parties appointed 

 such sums as are necessary ; but the number of 

 each description of officers is not allowed to exceed 

 the number fixed by general warrant or order from 

 the treasury. The duties transmitted by the col- 

 lectors and others are paid every day by the board 

 to the receiver-general of excise. The board is 

 responsible for the general discipline of the service, 

 amounting to about 7000 individuals. The corres- 

 pondence with officers, traders, and the public, in- 

 volves daily an average of 230 letters, or 69,000 

 letters per annum. It is not the practice of the 

 board to give answers in writing to the letters of 

 traders and manufacturers. The number of indi- 

 viduals employed at the chief office is 518, whose 

 salaries amount to 102,872 per annum; or, in- 

 cluding all other advantages or emoluments, to 

 106,052. The number of officers in each de- 

 scription of office is as follows: The board, 7: 

 secretaries, 20 ; correspondents, 14 ; correspondents 

 for Scotland and Ireland, 16; solicitors, 13; soli- 

 citors for Scotland, 5 ; solicitors for Ireland, 6 ; 

 registrars, 2 ; commmissioners of appeals, 5 ; re- 

 ceivers-general, 12; comptrollers of cash, 3; ac- 

 countants, 48 ; accountants for Scotland, 1 1 ; ac- 

 countants for Ireland, 13; comptrollers-general, 34; 

 auditors, 8 ; security-office, 8 ; store-office, 10 ; in- 

 spectors of permit-paper 2 ; permit-examiners, 19 ; 

 diary-office, 5 ; surveying general examiners, 112; 

 ! London port establishment, other offices, includ- 

 ing doorkeepers, messengers, housekeepers, 102. 

 The principle of promoting to offices of importance 

 men who are intimately acquainted with the prac- 

 tice of the excise in all its branches does not appear 

 to have been adopted with sufficient strictness. 



Since 1823, the Irish and Scotch boards have 

 been consolidated with the English establishment. 

 The powers of the Irish and Scotch commissioners, 

 twelve in number, were distinct and independent 

 of those of the English board. The busine?< of 

 the three countries was therefore managed by 

 twenty-one commissioners, whose salaries amounted 



