Excife. I. Concerning the excife in general. 1. On ale, beer, and mum. 3. On bricks and tiles. 5. On coach-makers, and coaches. 6. On coffee, tea, and cocoa nuts. 7. On cyder and perry. 8. On glass. 9. On hides and fkins. 10. On bops. II. On malt. 12. On paper. 19. On tobacco and fnuff. 21. On wine. 22. On wire made of gold or filver. III. Concerning the importation of foreign articles, liable to duties of excife, or the regulations of 1. In general. and 6. As to malt. 7. As to paper ftained. 8. As to printed goods. 9. As to fpirituous liquors. 10. As to tobacco and Jnuff. 11. As to wine. IV. Regulations relating to the manu fucturers of, and dealers in, commodities fubject to the excife laws, viz. I Concerning the brewers of ale and beer. 2. Concerning auctioneers and things fold by hand. Chief office eftablished. 3. Concerning the makers of bricks and tiles. 4. Concerning the manufacturers of cambrics or lawns. 5. Concerning the makers of candles. 6. Concerning coaches and coach-makers. 7. Concerning the dealers in coffee, tea, chocolate, and cocoa nuts. 8. Concerning the dealers in cyder and perry. 9. Concerning the manufacturers of glass. 10. Concerning the manufacturers of hides and skins. 12. Concerning the makers of malt. 13. Concerning the manufacturers of paper. 14. Concerning the manufacturers of printed goods. 16. Concerning the dealers in and manufacturers of Spiritu 17. Concerning diftillers, rectifiers, and compounders of fpirituous liquors. 18. Concerning the manufacturers of ftarch. 19. Concerning the makers of fweets. 20. Concerning the manufacturers of, and dealers in tobacc● and (nuff. 21. Concerning the makers of vinegar. 22. Concerning the dealers in wine. 23. Concerning the manufacturers of wire. V. General regulations concerning permits for the removal of excifeable commodities. VI. Concerning the exportation of excifeable commodities. VII. In obat manner penalties under the excife laws are recoverable. VIII. Precedents of proceedings under the excife laws. I. Concerning the excife in general. One head office fhall be in London, or within ten miles thercof, unto which all other offices fhall be fubordinate; which office fhall be managed by officers appointed by the king. 12 Car. 2. c. 23. /. 32. 5 ill. & Mar. c. 20. f. 16. 12 Car. 2. c. 24. /. 46. And the cities of London and Westminster, with the Its limits. borough of Southwark, and the parishes within the weekly bills of mortality, fhall be under the immediate care of the head office; and fo many fubordinate commiffioners and fubcommiffioners, and other officers, fhall be appointed by his majefty in other places, as his majefty fhall think fit. 12 Car. 2. c. 23. f. 34. 12 Car. 2. c. 24. /. 48. And the commiffioners fhall depute under their hands and Country offices. feals, fuch perfons as they fhall think needful in each market-town, to be there every market-day, in fome public place, for the receiving the entries and duties of excife; which perfons (and the place where they intend to keep fuch office, being on the next market-day after fuch deputation publifhed in open market) fhall attend fuch office on every market-day. And in cafe fuch office fhall not be fo kept, the commiffioners or other perfons neglecting, fhall for every market-day forfeit 10/; the one half to the king, and the other half to him that will fue for the fame in any of his majefty's courts of record; and fuch perfon as fhall come to fuch market-town to make entry or payment of the duties, and fhall tender the fame, and be able to prove fuch tender by the oath of one witnefs, fhall not be liable' to any penalty for fuch weekly or monthly entries or payments. 15 Car. 2. c. 11. f. 10. And the excife office, in all places where it fhall be ap- Office hours. pointed, fhall be kept open from eight in the morning till two in the afternoon. 23 Geo. 2. c. 26. s. 12. And the commiffioners and their fubcommi!lioners fhall Gagers. have power to conftitute under their hands and feals, such gagers as they fhall find needful'. 12 Car. 2. c. 23. . 19. 12 Car. 2. c. 24. f. 33. No 1 It may not be improper to fubjoin in this place fome account of the officers employed in the excife; and of the method of charging and coleting the duties, taken from the Appendia to Gilbert's Hiftory of the Ex He who would be an excife officer must produce a certificate that he is above &at rules of arithmetick ;-that he is of the communion of the church of testone, and under thirty years of age-that he understands the firft -how he has been employed, and what bufine fs he followed;-that not incumbered with debts; whether fingle or married; how many en he has, for if he has above two, he cannot by the rules of the office talnitted. He and alfo nominate tw perfons to be his fureties, and it must be certo the they are of fulficient ability; and that the faid certificate is of his had writing: fuch certificate written by him, must be figned by the hevder of c .cife where the party applying lives. At Officers to be fworn. No perfon fhall be capable of any employment relating to the excife, until he fhall, before two juftices of peace, or Collections. Districts. Footwalks. Outrides. Officers. Charging duties. At the bottom of this certificate must be his affidavit, that neither he, nor any elfe, to his knowledge, have, directly or indirectly, given or promised to give, any treat, fee, gratuity, or reward, for his obtaining or endeavouring to obtain an order for his being instructed. When an order for inftructing is granted, it is directed to an experienced officer, who receives fuch perfon as his pupil; and the like books as officers have, being delivered to fuch pupil, he goes with and attends the officer, who inftructs him, and takes furveys, and in his own books makes the like entries as if he was an officer, until the inftructor certifies that he is fully inftructed. After he is thus certified for, and until he is employed, he is called an expectant, being to wait till a vacancy happens. At first he employed only as an affiftant, at fuch place where business happens to be more than ordinary; but fuch affiftant has the like com miflion as an officer, and by his conftitution is an officer; his not having so much falary as an officer occafions the calling him an assistant. The firft of the duties of excife being upon liquors only, and the charges afcertained by gaging; the officers employed to take fuch accounts, and to make fuch charges, were called gagers or furveyors: and though fome are employed about one fort, and others about another fort of duty, yet by their commiffions from the commiffioners, every one is appointed a gager and officer, not only of the excife, but of all the other duties under the manage ment of the commiflioners; that, without granting any new commission, fuch officer may be removed from one fort of duty to another, as may hap pen to be requifite; or that, if by accident he meets with any fufpicion of a fraud in any other duty, not then immediately under his care, he may be fully impowered to enquire into, and make a full discovery thereof. The kingdom of England and Wales, exclufive of the limits of the chief office, is divided into forty-nine collections, fome called by the names of particular counties, others by the names of great towns, where one county is divided into feveral collections, or where a collection comprehends the contiguous parts of feveral counties, as it fometimes happens. Every collection is fubdivided into diftricts, more or fewer, according to the number of persons within those districts liable to duties, and according to their being more remote or near, and in proportion to the quantum of the duties arifing within each diftrict; which are called by the name of the chief market town in each district. The market towns in each diftrict, and the villages and little towns nearest thereto, are laid into foot-walks; diftinguished and called the first, fecond, or third division of such a market town; and the little towns and villages remote from market towns are laid into out-rides, distinguished and called the first, fecond, or third out-ride of fuch a market town; which are more or fewer, according, as before, to the number of perfons liable to duties, and their remotenefs or nearnefs, and the quantities of the duties, &c. Of every collection there is a collector, and of every district a fupervisor, and of every foot-walk and out-ride a gager or furveying officer. The kingdom being thus laid out, the first step is the charging the parties with thefe duties, which is performed by the gagers or furveying officers, who are continually going to the houfes of perfons under their furveys: and each officer having a particular book for each duty under his furvey, and the names of the feveral perfons under his furvey being therein entered; when he comes to a brew-house or malt-hoafe, or the like, he in his book, and a specimen on paper (always remaining at each houfe) first fets down the minute of his coming thither; and if he finds nothing in operation, then he writes filent; but if he finds any thing in operation, he, by gaging or other wife, takes an account thereof; and immediately minutes down in his book, or before one of the barons of the exchequer, take the oaths of allegiance and fupremacy, together with this oath. 12 Car. 2. c. 23. f. 33. 12 Car. 2. c. 24. /. 47. You shall fwear to execute the office of truly and faithfully, without favour or affection, and fhall from time to time book, and alfo in the fpecimen paper, the account fo taken; and in like manner proceeds to and at the next houfe under his survey, and so goes on for a month in London, and for fix weeks in the country. At the end of every month or fix weeks, every officer, from the accounts fo entered in his book or books, draws out an account of the refpective times of brewing, or of making malt or candles, by each refpective perfon under his farvey and of the respective quantities thereof; putting the refpective accounts of the feveral brewers under his furvey in one paper or account by themselves, and the refpective accounts of the feveral matters under his furvy in another paper or account, by themselves; and fo of the reft : and having fo done, thefe accounts, fo drawn from the books, being therewith compared and examined by the officer, and his furveyor or fupervisor, are igned by both of them, and are then called the brewery voucher, or the malt or candle voucher, &c. Thefe are the reports or returns of the officers mentioned in the excife ads; and which, by the faid acts, are declared to be charges on the refpective perfous liable to duties. The produce of these duties depending fo much on the officers entries in their books, and on the vouchers drawn from thence; the said books, after making the faid vouchers, are fent up to the examiners at the chief office, to be there compared with the vouchers, which also are fent thither, as hereafter is mentioned: and if upon such examination any omission or error is found, the fame are reported to the commiflioners, who order the fupervifor or officer, or both, to be either admonished, reprimanded or discharged, as the nature of the fault requires. Thefe vouchers for the London brewery, diftillery, and candle duties, &c. when thus made up, examined and fettled, are delivered in at the chief excife office, to the refpective accountants there of the brewery, diftillery, candles, &c who in books enter the charges made upon each particular perion, to be ready against he brings his money to the chief office, where it is to be paid to the cashier. Vouchers made up in the country in the fame manner, by the officers and their supervisor, are delivered to the collector, who every fix weeks comes to the excife-office in every market town in his collection, there to receive the duty of each perfon indebted for duty, who by the excife acts are not to go farther than the next market town to pay their duties: thefe vouchers, being entered in the collector's book, are fent up to the chief office, to cheque the collector's account. For further fecuring thefe duties, the excife acts require perfons liable thereto to charge then felves; by making, at the next excife office, monthly entries of their liquors and commodities, chargeable with thefe duties; and fuch entries are conftantly made at the chief office, by all perfons within the limits thereof liable to duties: but the duties of many in the country bang very inconfiderable, and they often living remote from the excife offices, and many of them being illiterate, and not capable of writing, thefe forts of entries in the country are not often infifted on. But the entries or notices of the names and places of abode of the refpective perfons liable to thefe duties, and of their respective workhouses, farchouits, &c. and other utenfils ufed in and for the liquors, or other commod.ties liable to duties, ought never to be omitted, without being feverely punished. VOL. H. |