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Excise Laws. For more easily levy- 
ing the revenue of the excise, the- kingdom 
ot England and Wales is divided into about 
fifty collections, some of which are called by 
the names of particular counties, others by 
the names of great towns ; where one county 
is divided into several collections, or where a 
collection comprehends the contiguous parts 
of several counties, every such collection is 
subdivided into several districts, within which 
there is a supervisor ; and each district is 
again subdivided into outrides and foot- 
walks, within each of which there is a gauger 
or surveying officer. 
The commissioners or sub-commissioners, 
in their respective circuits and divisions, 
shall constitute-, under their hands and seals, 
so many gaugers as they shall find needful. 
Arrears of duties . — By several acts of 
parliament, all articles in the possession of 
persons subject to the excise laws, together 
with all the materials and utensils of what- 
soever description, are made liable for the 
arrears of duties, whether these be -single or 
double duties; and if a trader, being in 
arrears for the single duties, becomes a bank- 
rupt:, and is convicted after the assignment of 
his effects, the double duties are a lien upon 
the exciseable commodities, utensils, and 
materials in the hands ot his assignees, and 
the commissioners or magistrates may au- 
thorize the penalty to lie levied upon all such 
commodities, and all the materials, prepara- 
tions, utensils, and vessels for making thereof, 
in the custody ot the bankrupt, or any person 
or persons in'tmst for him. 2 Doug. 411. 
Bonds, for the exportation of exciseable 
commodities, are to be taken by officers of 
excise, and they are to be given generally 
upon all exciseable articles, at the place 
where exported. 
Forgery of any stamps, licences, certi- 
ficates, permits, or any other excise docu- 
ments, is by various statutes made a capi- 
tal felony. 
Licences . — In all cases where licences are 
required, the licence will only sanction the 
business carried on in that particular place 
for which such licence was granted; but 
when the business is carried on by partners, 
one licence will be sufficient to cover the 
firm. 
Officers of excise . — The officers of excise 
are to be appointed, and may be dismissed, 
replaced, or altered, by the commissioners, 
under their hands and seals ; their salaries 
are allowed and established by the treasury ; 
and by 1 W. & M. c. 24. s. 15. if it ' is 
proved by two witnesses, that any officer 
has demanded or taken any money, or other 
reward whatever, except of the king, such 
offender shall forfeit his office. 
By several statutes, no process can be sued 
out against any officer of excise, for any act 
done in the execution of his office, until one 
month after notice given, specifying the cause 
of action, and the" name and abode of the 
person who is to begin, and the attorney who 
h to conduct the action ; and within one 
month after such notice, the officer may 
tender amends, and plead such tender in bar ; 
and having tendered insufficient or no amends, 
he may, with leave of (he court, before issue 
joined, pay money into court. 
Officers of excise are empowered to search, 
at ail times of the day, entered warehouses, 
or places for tea, coffee, & c. But private 
houses can only be searched upon oath of the 
suspicion before a commissioner or justice of 
peace, who can by their warrant authorize a 
search. 
Permits. Persons dealing in exciseable com- 
modities are entitled to permits for removing 
the same to different places in certain quan- 
tities, and under certain regulations. These 
permits are written upon a peculiar species 
of paper, manufactured expressly for the 
purpose; and by 23 Geo. ILL c. 70. s. 11. 
no permit paper is to be delivered out before 
it shall be tilled up agreeably to the request 
note of a trader ; and officers knowingly 
granting any false permit, making false entries 
in the counterpart thereof, or receiving any 
commodities into stock with a false or forged 
permit, are to be transported for seven 
years. 
Samples . — Officers of excise are, by vari- 
ous acts, empowered to take samples of 
exciseable commodities, paying the prices 
therein regulated for the same. 
Seizures . — When an officer makes a seizure 
of any spirits, or other articles, he must lay 
his hand on the casks, vessels, &c. so seized, 
and declare that he seizes such spirits, &c. 
and the casks or vessels containing the same, 
for the use of his majesty and of himself; but 
if the officer happens to be alone when he 
makes such seizure, he must afterwards, in 
the presence of witnesses, again lay his hand 
on such cask, vessel, &c. and repeat the 
former declaration of seizure. 
All informations on seizures must be laid 
in the- names of the officers making the 
same. 
By 41 Geo. III. c. 96. commissioners of 
excise are empowered to make restitution of 
exciseable goods. 
Scales and weights . — By various acts of 
parliament, traders subject to the excise laws 
are to keep just and sufficient scales and 
weights, under penalty of £ ] 09 for every 
such offence, and the scales and weights may 
be seized by the officer. 
Traders, manufacturers, and dealers liable 
to t lie excise duties, are to assist the officers 
in weighing stock ; and forcibly obstructing, 
or using any art or contrivance to prevent or 
impede the officers from taking a true ac- 
count incurs a penalty of £ 100. 
EXCLAMATION, in rhetoric, a figure 
that expresses the violent and sudden break- 
ing out, and vehemence of any passion. 
Such is that in the second book of Milton’s 
Paradise Lost: 
O unexpected stroke, worse than of death ! 
Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? Thus 
leave 
Thee, native soil ; these happy walks and 
shades. 
Fit haunt of gods? 
EXCLUSION, or bill of exclusion, a bill 
proposed about die close ot the reign of king 
Charles II. for excluding the duke of York", 
the king’s brother, from the throne, on ac- 
count of his being a papist. 
Exclusion, in mathematics, is a method 
ot coming at the solution of numerical pro- 
blems, by previously throwing out of our 
consideration such numbers as are of no use 
in solving the question. 
EXCOECARIA, a genus of the triandria 
order, in the dioecia class of plants; and in 
the natural method ranking under the 38th 
order, tricoccae. The male amentum is 
naked; there is no calyx nor corolla ; there 
are three styles, and a tricoccous capsule. 
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There are two species. The agallocha, or 
aloes-wood, is a native of China and some 
ol the Indian islands, and is about the same 
height and form as the olive tree. Its trunk 
is ot three colours, and contains three sorts 
ot wood , the heart is that of tanibac, or 
calombac, which is dearer in the Indies than 
even gold itself. It serves to perfume clothes 
and apartments; and is esteemed a sovereign 
cordial in fainting fits, a restorative in the 
palsy, and a cure for ascarides in children. 
It is burnt as incense in the Chinese and 
Indian temples ; and it is also used to set the 
most precious jewels that are wrought in the 
Indies. 
The aloes-wood is very highly valued; 
and strange tables were invented as to the 
origin ot the tree that yields it; some pre- 
tending that it grew in Paradise, and was 
only conveyed to us by means of the rivers 
overflowing their banks and sweeping off the 
trees in their way ; others affirming that it 
grew on inaccessible mountains, where it was 
guarded by certain wild beasts, &c. The 
Siamese ambassadors to the court of France 
in 1 686, who brought a present of this wood 
horn theii emperor, first gave the Europeans 
any consistent account of it. 
EXCOMMUNICATION, an ecclesiasti- 
cal penalty or censure whereby such persons 
a ’ are 8 ui| ty any notorious crime or 
oifence, are separated from the communion 
or the church, and deprived of all spiritual 
advantages. 
Excommunication among the Jews, ac- 
coiding to Elias, a German rabbin, was dis- 
tinguished into three kinds: 1 . Niddui, which 
was a separation of but a few days. 2. C he- 
rein, a separation attended with execration 
and malediction. And, 3. Shammatha, which 
was the last and greater excommunication, 
but Selclen says, that niddui and shammatha 
are the same thing, and therefore that there 
were but two kinds ot excommunication 
among the Jews, viz. the greater and the 
less. 1 hey made also another distinction 
in excommunication, into total or universal, 
by which a man was excommunicated with 
regard to all men ; and partial, by which a 
man was excommunicated -in one city, and 
with regard to certain persons, and not 
others. 
It is observable, that not only the judges- 
bad the power of excommunicating, biit t hat 
each particular person in conversation might 
excommunicate another, and himself like- 
wise; and this excommunication, if well- 
grounded, was of force ; nay, if a man dream- 
ed that he was excommunicated by himself 
or by another, he was considered as an ex- 
communicated person, because this dream, 
was supposed to be sent from God. 
As to tlie effects ol the Jewish excom- 
munication, the lesser excluded the excom- 
municated person from the society of men ; 
that is, he was not to come nearer them than 
tour cubits, neither lie, his wife, children, or 
domestics, according to Buxtorf. The great- 
ei absolutely sequestered the person from 
the conversation of others ; and sometimes 
tie was shut up in a small chamber o. prison, 
where he lived alone. Baronius and Beza 
pietend, that the greater excommunication 
excluded men from (he use of sacred things 
Selden, on the contrary, affirms, that they 
were allowed to be present in the temple, 
and partake of the public worship. Buxtorf, 
who is of the same opinion, adds, that whereas. 
