which has paid 7 per cent., into a spoon which has paid 15 per cent., flings himself back upon his chintz bed, which has paid 22 per cent., and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a licence of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immediately taxed from two to ten per cent. His virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble, and he will then be gathered to his fathers to be taxed no more."

In 1842 Peel effected the first great revision of the tariff, which then comprised some 1200 dutiable articles. His reforms affected some 750 articles. In 1845 he made a second revision, when some 450 articles were entirely removed, and again in 1846. As a result of Mr. Gladstone's revision in 1853, some 48 dutiable articles only were left. (s)

Present State of the Customs. The principle of further reductions continued, the duties on corn of all descriptions being repealed in 1869. (t) The present tariff, which depends on the Customs Duties Consolidation Act, 1876, (u) with the modifications made by various Customs and Inland Revenue Acts and Finance Acts passed since that date, comprises only some twenty dutiable articles, the chief revenue-bearing items, of which are beer, wines, spirits, tobacco, sugar, tea, coffee, cocoa, currants, and plums.

The principle of the present tariff is revenue and not protection, and there are no export duties. Generally speaking, duties are not imposed on raw materials, but only on goods not produced at home, e.g. wine, tea, coffee, tobacco. In cases where dutiable goods are produced or manufactured at home, e.g. spirits, beer, cards, an equivalent or countervailing excise duty is levied.

The customs revenue for the year ending 31st March, 1913, was £33,485,000.

Collection of the Customs.-The collection of the customs was in early days farmed out to individuals, a system productive of many evils. At the end of the seventeenth

(8) See the Tariff Act, 1860 (23 & 24 Vict. c. 110).
(t) 32 & 33 Vict. c. 14.

(u) 39 & 40 Vict. c. 35.

century a board of commissioners was appointed to manage and control the customs, and the present Board of Commissioners is appointed by the Crown under the Act of 1876. (x) The Commissioners of Customs appoint officers for the management and collection of the customs, and are subject to the supervision of the Treasury Commissioners. (y)

The punishment for customs offences is the infliction of a penalty, according to the nature of the offence, followed by imprisonment in default of payment. Formerly penalties could only be enforced by an action in the Court of Exchequer and subject to special procedure.

In 1853 and 1876 statutory provisions were made for the punishment of smaller offences by justices in petty sessions, according to prescribed formalities and procedure, and by the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879 (Scotland, 1881), the ordinary law of summary procedure was extended to customs offences. The limit of imprisonment is three months, and in certain cases, where the penalty exceeds £50, six months. In all cases where more than one month's imprisonment is inflicted, the case is referred for consideration to the Treasury, who may remit a portion of the sentence.

In important cases, the old Exchequer procedure still exists, the action being brought in the King's Bench Division of the High Court. The procedure is by arrest under a writ of capias granted by a judge in chambers, evidence being given on affidavit. The prisoner must give sufficient bail, or is committed to prison until trial. If the offence is proved, judgment is given for the penalty, or imprisonment until payment or during the Crown's pleasure.

The Excise.

History and Present State.-Excise duties were first imposed by an ordinance of the Long Parliament in 1643 (2) on beer, ale, cider, perry, wine, and tobacco. From time to time various other articles were charged with excise duties, and after the Restoration they were granted to Charles II. for

(x) 39 & 40 Vict. c. 36, s. 1.

(y) Ib. s. 2.

(z) Scobell's Collection of Acts and Ordinances, p. 49.

life. (a) Nearly all the old excise duties have been remitted at various times, and the principal existing duties are those on beer, spirits, and chicory.

The excise also includes the revenue derived from licences. These excise licences were originated in 1784, when they were charged upon the makers of and dealers in various exciseable articles, (b) and they have since been extended to various trades, such as beer or spirit dealers, distillers, house agents, pawnbrokers, tobacconists, and many others, and on such various subjects as dogs, armorial bearings, guns, game, patent medicines, men-servants, and carriages.

A third branch of the excise revenue is that derived from the railway passenger duties imposed by 10 & 11 Vict. c. 42.

Collection. The collection and management of the excise is under the control of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, at present four in number, subject to supervision by the Treasury. They are appointed by letters patent under the Great Seal, and hold office during pleasure.

The commissioners administer the various Acts regulating the collection and management of the excise (c) and the Inland Revenue generally; they appoint an accountant and comptroller-general of Inland Revenue, (d) and all other collectors and officers concerned in the collection and management of the excise. Mandamus lies to compel the commissioners to perform a statutory duty.

Property and Income Tax.

Taxes on Personalty.-Taxation of personalty was originated by Henry II. in 1188, when he exacted the Saladin Tithe. In 1193 a tax of one-fourth of the value of their personalty was exacted from every person in order to raise the sum required to ransom Richard I.

During the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries.

(a) 12 Car. II. c. 23.

(b) 24 Geo. III. c. 41.

(c) The principal of these are the 6 Geo. IV. c. 81; The Excise Management Act, 1827 (7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 53); 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 51 ; 4 Vict. c. 20; and as to Inland Revenue generally, see The Taxes Management Act, 1880 (43 & 44 Vict. c. 19); The Inland Revenue Regulation Act, 1890 (53 & 54 Vict. c. 21).

(d) Subject to the sanction of the Treasury.

a tax on movables, consisting of a tenth and fifteenth part for the towns and shires respectively, was frequently granted by Parliament, and it took the place in part of the old scutage, hidage, or tallage. Eventually the grant of a tenth and fifteenth came to be understood as the grant of a fixed sum, amounting to some £30,000, (e) which was termed a subsidy; but during the sixteenth century both tenths and fifteenths and subsidies were granted side by side. In the seventeenth century the grant of tenths and fifteenths became rare, though an example occurs as late as 1623, when three entire subsidies, and three tenths and fifteenths were granted by Parliament to James I. (f) The tax on personalty, in the form of subsidies or aids, continued to be levied with the tax on realty until 1798, when the taxes on realty and personalty were directed to be levied separately. (g) In the following year (1799) the first Income Tax was imposed by Mr. Pitt, (h) and the old tax on personalty was finally abolished in 1833. (i)

The consideration of taxes on personalty would not be complete without some reference to the system which at one time existed of raising revenue by means of forced loans or benevolences. These were first levied by Richard II. (k) They were declared illegal by Parliament in 1351 (l) and 1483, (m) but reintroduced by Henry VII., when they became known as Morton's Fork, through the directions given by the Chancellor Morton to the commissioners appointed to raise the loans, to answer persons who objected on the ground of poverty, "that they ought by reason of their parsimony to have the more laid by;" whilst those who were lavish in their expenditure were to be told they must needs have money "by reason of their port and manner of living." (n) Persons who objected to pay the loan were summoned before the Privy Council, and often subjected to fine and imprisonment by the Star Chamber. In 1615 Mr. Oliver St. John, having objected that the exaction of the loan was contrary to Magna Carta,

(e) Dowell's Hist. of Taxation, i. 193.

(g) 38 Geo. III. c. 60.

(i) 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 12.

(f) 21 Jac. I. c. 34.

(h) 39 Geo. III. c. 13.
(k) Hume's England, iii. 60.

(1) 25 Ed. III. st. 1, c. 6; recited in the Petition of Right (3 Car. I.

c. 1).

(m) 1 Ric. III. c. 2.

(n) See Taswell Langmead's Const. Hist., 5th Ed., p. 312.

was sent to the Tower, and sentenced by the Star Chamber to pay a fine of £5000, which, however, was afterwards remitted. (0)

The exaction of a general loan by Charles I. in 1626 caused great discontent, and many persons were committed to prison for refusing to pay. Sir Thomas Darnel and five others, who had been so committed under a warrant from the Privy Council, sued out their habeas corpus in the King's Bench; but it was held by Chief Justice Hyde that the King's Bench could not inquire into the grounds of the commitment, the warrant having been made "by special command of the king." (p) Forced loans and benevolences were finally declared illegal by the Petition of Right (3 Car. I. c. 1).

The Income Tax.-In 1799 the first Income Tax was established by Mr. Pitt. (g) The tax was modified by Addington's Act in 1803, (r) and again in 1806, (s) but dropped altogether in 1816, after the battle of Waterloo. It was, however, reintroduced by Sir Robert Peel in 1842, (t) and this Act, which was modelled on the Act of 1806, is now the basis of the present tax.

The Act of 1842 was temporary in its nature, and was renewed from time to time. Since 1853, when Mr. Gladstone extended it to Ireland, (u) the tax embraces the whole of the United Kingdom. The general scheme and mode of assessments are fixed by the Acts of 1842 and 1853, whilst the rate at which it is levied and variations in detail depend upon various annual Acts. The rate for 1914-1915 was 1s. 37. in the £, (x) this rate being subsequently doubled for the last four months of the year. (xx)

(0) Gardiner's Hist. Eng., ii. 172.
(p) Darnel's case (1628), 3 St. Tri. 1.
(r) 43 Geo. III. c. 122.

(t) 5 & 6 Vict. c. 35.

(q) 39 Geo. III. c. 13.

(8) 46 Geo. III. c. 65.
(u) 16 & 17 Vict. c. 34.

(x) Finance Act, 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. 5, c. 10, s. 2 (1)).

(xx) Finance Act, 1914 (Session 2), 5 Geo. 5, c. 7, s. 12 (1). In order to effect this increase assessments of income tax (chargeable otherwise than by way of deduction) or of super-tax made before the 27th Nov., 1914, are to be treated as increased by one-third; and assessments of such income tax not made before that date are to be made for an amount one-third more than the rate imposed by the Finance Act 1914 (Ib. s. 1 (1) (a) (b)).