EXCISE. 



475 



to 26,700 ; but it is now better conducted by a 

 single board of seven commissioners; and the com- 

 missioners of inquiry are of opinion that the busi- 

 ness would be still better performed if there were 

 only one chief commissioner, as his responsibility 

 would be greater. The duties of the excise es- 

 tablishment, both in Ireland and Scotland, are 

 similar in principle to the English collections. 

 Each country is divided into similar districts, and 

 officers are removed from one country to the other. 

 The number of officers of every description em- 

 ployed in Ireland was 618 in 1835 ; salaries 

 73,272. The police revenue force is peculiar to 

 Ireland, and consisted of above 1000 men, whose 

 object was to put a stop to illicit distillation. The 

 commissioners of excise inquiry recommended 

 that such a force should not be connected with 

 the excise establishment. The number of col- 

 lectors, supervisors, and officers in Scotland was 

 875 in 1835; salaries 95,195. 



The board of excise recognizes as one of its 

 most important, responsibilities the duty of keep- 

 ing the service in a state of efficiency. To attain 

 this object, a systematic examination is made of 

 the performances and proceedings of each individual 

 officer before he can be advanced in rank; and the 

 duties of the various classes of officers are allotted 

 in such a manner as to render the officers a con- 

 stant check upon each other. The collector is a 

 check upon the supervisor; the supervisor upon 

 the officer ; and the vigilance of the surveying-gen- 

 eral examiners, which is not permanent, but di- 

 rected, without any previous intimation, on a given 

 point, is intended to render the system still more 

 perfect. An officer who has been three years em- 

 ployed, and two in a ride, may be promoted to a 

 foot-walk ; and after a service of nine years, three 

 of which must be passed in a foot-walk, he is eli- 

 gible for the office of supervisor. A supervisor 

 who has been employed five years in that station, 

 and who has been altogether fifteen years in the 

 service, may be appointed to a collectorship. An 

 officer is not promoted unless, having served for 

 the time required in one grade, he petitions for ad- 

 vancement to another. But having petitioned, he 

 subjects himself to a rigid examination of his con- 

 duct, and official character. This is technically 

 termed " taking out a character," and the diary-of- 

 fice is the department where this investigation 

 takes place. In this office are deposited the di- 

 aries made out by surveying-general examiners and 

 supervisors, showing the daily performances of 

 every officer, and the acts of neglect or omission 

 which have been discovered in the officers of every 

 district, with the collector's observations. The 

 clerks of the diary-office have all been appointed 

 from supervisorships, as a practical acquaintance 

 with the duties of officers is considered essential. 

 The diaries are received and registered eight times 

 every year. These diaries are read by the board, 

 who censure or commend as the case may require. 

 The diaries, on being returned to the proper office, 

 are again registered, and the remarks made by the 

 board on each are entered in a book provided for 

 the purpose. These records of censure or admoni- 

 tion are preserved in the office, and a copy is sent 

 to the proper collection. When an officer petitions 

 for promotion, the diaries are searched, and his of- 

 ficial character is taken out and furnished to the 

 secretary. In the diary-office are also entered the 

 age, number of family, time employed, time sick or 

 absent, of every officer in the service. When a 



supervisor's character is taken out for promotion, 

 his books for one year are examined, and the books 

 of all the officers under him, for a quarter of a 

 year, are examined also ; all the accounts are recast, 

 and if, in the books of the latter, errors are discov- 

 ered, the supervisor is quite as responsible as if 

 they had taken place in his own books ; and a cer- 

 tain degree of neglect on his part would retard his 

 promotion. This inquiry is conducted by the 

 country examiners ; and when this has been done, 

 the investigation is taken up by a surveying-gen- 

 eral examiner, for the purpose of ascertaining the 

 disposal of the supervisor's time : whether it has 

 been judiciously employed or not; whether he has 

 been too long employed on a duty which ought to 

 have occupied a shorter period, &c. Two months 

 are required for completing the investigation ; and 

 when the report is laid before the board, the name 

 of the officer is not given. When a ride or foot- 

 walk officer applies for promotion, his books, for a 

 period of three months only, are subjected to ex- 

 amination. Thus, when a vacancy in the service 

 occurs by death or otherwise, the book in which 

 applications are inserted for particular situations is 

 examined, and next the official character of these 

 individuals is taken into consideration, and promo- 

 tion takes place without the officer's name being 

 known. Personal application in favour of officers 

 is not permitted, but is sure to prejudice their in- 

 terests ; and the excuse that it was made without 

 the officer's knowledge is not admitted without a 

 strict scrutiny. The surveying-general examiners 

 are not employed at the chief office only, but pro- 

 ceed to the country, checking the performances of 

 collectors, supervisors, and officers, officiating for 

 absent collectors, and acting, with reference to 

 excise traders, in the same manner as the super- 

 visor, who checks the officers under him by coming 

 upon them at unexpected times. It is a part of 

 the system of discipline to remove officers when 

 they have been stationed four years in one place. 

 This plan was introduced by Mr Pitt ; and about 

 1 100 officers change their residence each year, at 

 an average cost of above 4000. There are good 

 reasons for believing that this part of the system 

 is not advantageous to the service, while it often 

 operates with great hardship upon the officers and 

 their families. If an officer has once been in col- 

 lusion with traders, he will be liable to corrupt 

 the traders of the district to which he is removed, 

 and with as little delay as possible ; and on the 

 other hand, the fraudulent trader of the district 

 which he has just left will endeavour to corrupt 

 the new officer. 



EXETER, (a.) The city of Exeter, called by the 

 Romans, Isca Danmoniorum, derives its name from 

 the river Exe, on the sides of which it is built; 

 Exe, Esk, or Wisk, being an old Celtic word sig- 

 nifying water. It is the same word which forms 

 the first syllable of the Irish Usquebaugh and the 

 Scotch Whiskey, both of which signify the " water 

 of life." The original British name of the place, 

 according to an old writer, was Caerwisc, which 

 means the city of the water. It is also said to have 

 been called at one period, from the number of 

 monasteries within its walls, Monkton, and to have 

 received from king Athelstan the name of Exan- 

 ceaster. Bishop Godwin says, that the same 

 monarch, in the year 922, founded a convent of 

 Benedictine monks on the spot where the eastern 

 part of the present cathedral stands ; and there is 

 an opinion, which, however, cannot be relied on, 



