FIN 



PIN 



ly (he thermometer, at which the oil be- 

 comes fluid, and runs down the side of 

 the glass. 



FIN, in natural history, a well known 

 part of fishes, consisting 1 of a membrane 

 supported by rays, or little bony or car- 

 tilaginous ossicles. 



The number, situation, and figure of 

 fins, are different in different fishes. As 

 to number, they are found from one to 

 ten, or more ; with respect to situation, 

 they are d'trsal, placed on the back ; 

 pectoral, generally situated on the side 

 near the gills; ventral, on the belly be- 

 fore the vent ; anal, when behind the 

 vent ; and caudal, terminating the tail ; 

 and as to figure, they are either of a tri- 

 angular, roundish, or oblong square form. 

 Add to this, that in some they are very 

 small ; whereas in others they are almost 

 equal to the whole body in length. 



FINAL letters, among Hebrew gram- 

 marians, five letters so called, because 

 they have a different figure at the end of 

 words from what they have in any other 

 situation. These are caph, mem, nun, 

 phe, tzade, all comprehended in the word 

 c amnephatz ; which, at the end of words, 

 are written thus, yrnm; whereas, in any 

 other situation their form is thus, yQJDD* 

 on which account they are likewise called 

 biform. 



FINANCES, in political economy, de- 

 note the revenue of a king or state. 



In former times, when the whole re- 

 venue drawn from the people, by a few 

 taxes, was considered as the personal 

 property of the sovereign, the purposes 

 *o which it was applied depended on his 

 discretion, or that of his minister. As 

 few princes were inclined, in times of 

 peace, to provide for the extraordinary 

 charges of a state of warfare, these were 

 defrayed by extraordinary contributions 

 from the people, which ceased with the 

 occasion. Few sovereigns possessed suf- 

 ficient credit, either with their own sub- 

 jects or foreigners, to contract debts, so 

 that, at the conclusion of a war, there 

 was no occasion for a greater expendi- 

 ture than before its commencement, and 

 the revenue drawn from the people re- 

 verted to its former state. It is the sys- 

 tem of defraying extraordinary expenses 

 by borrowing the money, for which an 

 annual interest must be paid, and of suf- 

 fering the debts thus incurred to accu- 

 mulate, by which the sum to be annually 

 paid is continually increasing, and the 

 expenses of every war are rendered far 

 greater than those which preceded it, 

 tht has swelled the revenue and expen- 



diture of most of the nations of Europe 

 to an enormous magnitude, and caused 

 their systems of finance to become com- 

 plicated and oppressive. 



In Great Britain, where the system of 

 running in debt, or, as it is commonly 

 termed, the funding system, has been 

 carried to a greater height than in any 

 other country, its natural attendants, 

 enormous taxation and expenditure, have 

 made equal progress; and it is probably 

 owing chiefly to the publicity which is 

 given to all matters of finance, so that 

 every person, with little trouble, may 

 know how all the money raised for the 

 public service is expended, that the peo- 

 ple have been induced to submit to taxes, 

 which both from their nature and amount 

 would have appeared incredible to their 

 forefathers. 



The English system of finance rests on 

 the produce of the various taxes which 

 have been imposed at different periods, 

 the aggregate amount of which, after 

 deducting the expenses of collection, 

 together with a few small articles, which 

 cannot properly be called taxes, forms 

 the whole of the public income: this 

 income is annually appropriated to the 

 several branches of the national expen- 

 diture, and when, in consequence of any 

 extraordinary expenses, it is known that 

 the income of the current year wiil be 

 insufficient to meet all the demands 

 upon it, it is usual to borrow the sum 

 necessary to make up the deficiency, 

 either from individuals or public bodies, 

 and to allow a fixed rate of interest on 

 the money thus obtained, till the prin- 

 cipal shall be repaid, or till the period 

 originally agreed upon shall have expired. 



FINE, in law, is sometimes called a 

 feoffment of record ; or, rather, it is an 

 acknowledgment of a feoffment on re- 

 cord : it has at least the effect of a feoff- 

 ment in conveying lands, though it is one 

 of those conveyances at the common 

 law, by which lands and freeholds will 

 pass without livery or seisin. It is an 

 amicable composition of a suit, either 

 actual or fictitious, by leave of the King's 

 justices, whereby the lands in question 

 become, or are acknowledged to be, the 

 right of one of the parties. It is now 

 a very general mode of conveyance, by 

 reason of its extensive and binding ef- 

 fect. There are four sorts of fines, but 

 that most usually employed is called, fine 

 siir conusance du droit come ceo qrfiL a de 

 son done, or a fine upon acknowledg- 

 ment of the right of the cognizee, as 

 that which he hath of the gift of the cog- 



