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DRASTIC, in physic, an epithet be- 
stowed on such medicines as are of pre- 
sent efficacy, and potent in operation ; and 
is commonly applied to emetics and ca- 
thartics. 
DRAUGHT, in trade, called also clofF or 
dough, is a small allowance on weighable 
goods, made by the king to the importer, or 
by the seller to the buyer, that the weight 
may hold out when the goods are weighed 
again. 
The king allows lib. draught for goods 
weighing no less than Icwt . ; 2/6. for goods 
weighing between 1 and 'iavt. ; Sib. for goods 
weighing between 2 and Scwt . ; 4/6. from 
3 to lOcwt. ; 7 lb. from 10 to IScwt . ; 9/6. from 
18 to 30, or upwards. 
DRAWBACK, in commerce, an allow- 
ance made to merchants on the re-exporta- 
tion of certain goods, which in some cases 
consists of the whole, in others of a part of 
the duties which, liad been paid upon the 
importation. 
Drawbacks were probably originally 
granted for the encouragement of the car- 
rying trade, which, as the freight of ships is 
frequently paid by foreigners in money, 
was supposed to be a more certain source 
of wealth than other branches of foreign 
trade. They are granted not only on fo- 
reign commodities which have paid a duty 
on importation, but also on the exporta- 
tion of such home manufactures as are 
subject to excise duties. 
Upon the exportation of some articles of 
foreign produce, of which the quantity im- 
ported greatly exceeds what is necessary 
for the home consumption ; the whole of 
the duties which had been paid on impor- 
tation are drawn back. Thus, while the 
American states were under the dominion 
of Great Britain, we had the monopoly of 
the tobacco of Maryland and Virginia, of 
which about 96,000 hogsheads were an- 
nually imported, while the home consump- 
tion did not exceed 14,000 : to facilitate 
the great exportation which was necessary 
in order to get rid of the surplus, the 
whole duties were drawn back, provided 
the exportation took place within three 
years. 
Drawbacks are paid by the collector of 
the customs at the port where the goods 
are exported, on producing a debenture 
authenticated by the proper officers, as 
the authority or voucher for the payment. 
Drawbacks can never, it is probable, be 
injurious •, for they can never turn to any 
particular employment a greater .jihare of 
VOL, ir. 
DRA 
the capital of the country than would natu - 
rally go to that employment. They only 
prevent the natural tendency of capitals 
from being deranged by taxation. When 
the duties paid on the exportation of sugar 
or tobacco, are returned on their exporta- 
tion, the trade in those articles is only re- 
placed on the situation it would have been 
in, if the articles had not been taxed. 
A still more equitable arrangement than 
that of drawbacks, is, to allow the mer- 
chant who imports any commodity which 
he may probably w'ish to export again, to 
deposit it in the King’s warehouses, giving 
a bond for payment of the duties, should he 
dispose of it for home consumption. This 
is called bonding, and is allowed to a consi- 
derable extent. 
DRAWBRIDGE, a bridge made after 
the manner of a floor, to draw-up, or let 
down, as occasion serves, before the gate 
of a town or castle. See Bridge. 
DRAWING is the art of expressing 
with accuracy, the imaginary outline, or 
true boundary, of objects of every descrip- 
tion on any plain superfices. This pleasing 
method of preserving the forms of persons 
and places, long after the originals have pe- 
rished, or entirely changed, has been culti- 
vated from the most remote antiquity, and 
received many improvements, which w'ere 
frequently lost and recovered through tiie 
temporary patronage and neglect of the 
rich, under whose auspices only the art 
of drawing can ever flourish. To foi’m a 
just conception of the earliest state of 
drawing, it will be necessary to recur to the 
distorted forms produced by man in an un- 
cultivated state of nature, in which we 
may discover genius struggling with igno- 
rance, and always without success ; such 
were the productions of the first population 
of the world, and such are still the produc- 
tions of European youth before the kind 
hand of experience has pointed out the 
paths of correctness and taste. The scrip- 
tures furnish numerous proofs that the art 
of drawing had before their date arrived to 
considerable perfection, and the remains of 
Egyptian sculpture still extant, shew that 
people to have been tolerable proficients 
in delineating tlie outlines of men and 
animals, but the ancient Greeks appear 
to have studied nature with infinitely 
greater success, and we are indebted to 
them for the best of statues, formed with 
exquisite skill, from the most noble and 
graceful models of male and female beauty, 
which cannot be too frequently examined, 
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