No method of taxation requires a nicer adjustment to 'the social condition of a country than an excise. Thus, in England, in the year 1746, a duty of 20s. a gallon was laid on spirits, with the view of suppressing the vice of drunkenness, which, on the other hand, it greatly increased, for the law became a dead letter, and the smuggler fully supplied the market, although within the two years in which the law was in force, no fewer than 12,000 persons were, according to Tindal's history, convicted of offenses against the act. In Scotland, the duty, which was 5s. 6d. a gallon, had to be reduced in 1823 to 28., on account of the prevalence of smuggling—half the consumption of the country, in fact, paying no duty. The duty has since then been gradually raised, until it now amounts to 10s. a gallon, forming a vast source of revenue. The whole E. revenue of the United I(ingdom for 1876-77 amounted to £28,408,000, of which more than three fourths were supplied from the consumption of liquor—viz., £15,346,370 from spirits, and £8,274,645 from malt, and there were besides the license-duties for selling liquors. The productiveness of this great source of revenue, and the expense and annoyance connected with the levying of a duty on other miscellaneous commodities, has led to the gradual removal of many E. duties, as, for instance, on salt, candles, leather, glass, soap, and paper. In 1849, the E. department was amalgamated with that of stamps and taxes to form the board of inland revenue; and while many changes have been made on the articles taxable, the board has been making great changes on the organization of the E. system. The only articles on which E. duties are now charged
are spirits, malt, sugar, chicory, race-horses, and the passenger receipts of railway com panies. But various taxes of the nature of license-duties for following particular pursuits are collected in the E. department; and to these were added, in 1869, a con siderable number of items formerly chargeable as assessed taxes. License-duties must be taken out yearly by auctioneers, appraisers. brewers, maltsters, victuallers, sellers of beer, spirits, and wine, sellers of playing-cards if alsomakers, hawkers, horse•dealers. house-agents, t oVacconists; and dealers ti medicines. Game-licenses, gun .1 'cense:4.
and licenses for male-servants, horses, dogs, carriages, and the use of armorial bearings come under the same department. According to the present organization of the E. department, the United Kingdom is divided into collections, each under a collector; the collections are subdivided into districts, each under a supervisor; and these into divisions, each under division-officers and ride-officers. The efficiency with which these officials discharge their duties secures a very complete payment of taxes, and their manner of dealing with the tax-payers leaves a minimum of just ground for complaint.