commissioners.

By 12 C. 2. c. 24. § 46. and 5 W.3. c. 20. § 16. one principal 12 C. 2. c. 24. head office of excise shall be kept in London, or within ten miles Head office, and thereof, to which all other offices shall be subordinate and accountable; which said office shall be managed by such commissioners as the king shall appoint.

officers.

By 12 C. 2. c. 24. § 48. all the places within the bills of mor- Sub-commissiontality shall be under the immediate care and management of the ers and other said head office; and such and so many subordinate commissioners and sub-commissioners and other officers shall be appointed by the king in other places, as he shall think fit.

By 23 G. 2. c. 26. § 12. the excise office, in all places where it 23 G. 2. c. 26. shall be appointed, shall be kept open from eight in the morning till Office, when to two in the afternoon.

By 15 C. 2. c. 11. § 10. the commissioners or sub-commissioners shall appoint under their hands and seals such persons as they shall think needful in each market town, to be there upon every market day, in some known and public place, for receiving entries and duties, and performing all other things touching the revenue of excise; and if such office shall not be so kept in each market town, the commissioners or others neglecting or refusing shall for every market day forfeit 104: half to the king and half to him that will inform and sue; and such person as shall come to such market town to make his entry or payment, and shall tender the same accordingly, and be able to prove such tender by oath of one witness, shall not be liable to any penalty or forfeiture for such weekly or monthly entries or payments, as should have been made or paid on such market day.

be kept open.

15 C. 2. c. 11. Office in market

towns.

divifions.

The kingdom of England and Wales (exclusive of the bills of Collections, dismortality) is divided into about 50 collections (a); some called by tricts, and ether 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 collection is subdivided into districts, within each of which there is a supervisor; and each district is parcelled into out-rides and foot-walks, within each of which there is a gauger or surveying officer. Gilb. Exch. Append. 297. 298.

By 12 C. 2. c. 24. § 33. the commissioners or sub-commission. 12 C. 2. c. 24. ers in their respective circuits and divisions shall constitute under Gaugers. their hands and seals such and so many gaugers as they shall find

Certificate for

needful. In order to which, he who would be made a gauger must pro- obtaining an order cure a certificate that he is above twenty-one and under thirty to be instructed years of age; that he understands the four first rules of arith- in the excise. metic; that he is of the communion of the church of England; how he has been employed, or what business he hath followed; that he is not incumbered with debts; whether single or married; and if married, how many children he has, for if he has above two he cannot (by the rules of the office) be admitted. Gilb. Exch. Append. 293.

He must also nominate two persons to be his sureties, and it Security to be must be certified that they are of sufficient ability, and that the proposed.

Affidavit.

Order for instruction, and

on.

said certificate is of his own hand-writing: such certificate, written by him, must be signed by the supervisor of excise where the party applying lives. Gilb. Exch. Append. 293.

At the bottom of the certificate must be his affidavit that neither he nor any one else to his knowledge hath 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. Id. 294.

When an order for instruction is granted, it is directed to an experienced officer, who receives such person as his pupil; and the certificate there- like books as officers have being delivered to such pupil, he goes with and attends the officer, who instructs him and takes surveys, and in his own books makes the like entries as if he were an officer, until the instructor certifies that he is fully instructed. Id. After he is thus certified for, and until he is employed, he is called an expectant, being to wait till a vacancy happens. Id.

Expectant.

12 C. 2. c. 24. Officer's oath.

15 C. 2. c. 11.

Officer's general duty.

Supervisors to make diaries, and transmit them to the chief office.

The duty and authority of the commissioners in reprimanding and punishing officers guilty of neglect.

By 12 C. 2. c. 24. § 47. no person shall be capable of intermeddling with any office relating to the excise, until he shall before two justices in the county where his employment shall be, or before a baron of the exchequer, take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, together with this oath following:

You shall swear to execute the office of truly and faithfully without favour or affection, and shall from time to time true account make and deliver to such person or persons as his majesty shall appoint to receive the same, and shall take no fee or reward for the execution of the said office from any other person than from his majesty, or those whom his majesty shall appoint in that behalf.

§ 48. The justices shall certify the taking of such oath to the next quarter sessions, there to be recorded.

By 15 C. 2. c. 11. § 27. the officer shall also enter a certificate thereof with the auditor of the excise: and if any such person shall act before he shall have taken the said oaths, and entered his certificate with the auditor, he shall forfeit 50l. a month.

He shall also, within six months after his admission to the office, take the oaths and subscribe the declaration against transubstantiation at the quarter sessions, in like manner as other persons admitted to offices. [See Daths and Dffice, Vol. III.]

The business of the supervisor is, to be continually surveying the houses and places of the person within his district liable to duties; and to observe and see whether the officers duly make their sur veys, and make due entries thereof in their books and in their specimen papers; and every supervisor is in his own book to enter what himself does each day and part thereof; and also to set down. the behaviour, good or bad, the diligence or negligence of the several officers of his district; and at the end of every six weeks to draw out a diary of every day's business, and of the remarks made each day of the several officers in his district, and to transmit such diary at the end of every six weeks to the chief office. Gilb. Exch. Append. 303. 304.

Each commissioner takes and peruses a proportion of these diaries, and when he meets with any remarkable complaint against any officer, he communicates it to the rest; who thereupon come to an agreement either to admonish, reprimand, reduce, or discharge. For small faults, officers are admonished; for great ones, repri

manded; for greater, reduced; but for the greatest, they are discharged. The commissioner who peruses the diary, writes in the margin, admonish, reprimand, or as the case is. Gilb. Exch. App. 304.

form and use of

These diaries, after having been thus written upon, are delivered Business of the to the clerk of the diaries, who, in a book, called the reprimand- clerk of the book, places the admonitions, reprimands, and the like, to each diaries, with the officer's account, and writes every offender word thereof which the reprimandreprimand-book is resorted to, upon discovering new faults; and book. if it be there found that the officer has before been admonished, and reprimanded so often that there are no hopes of his amending, he is then discharged. The said book is likewise resorted to when application is made for advancing or preferring an officer into a better post. Frequent admonitions or reprimands are a bar to preferment, unless they are of old standing; but if of three years last he stands pretty clear of admonitions and reprimands, those of elder date are not much regarded. Id. 305.

The collector's business is, every six weeks to go his rounds; The business of and in the intervals of rounds, he is to be assisting in prosecuting collectors. offenders before the justices; he is also to peruse the supervisor's diaries, and where he finds an officer complained of, is to examine him and the supervisor, and, having heard both, is in the margin to write his opinion of each fact; he is also to have an eye how the supervisors and officers of his collection perform their duties; and from the vouchers he transcribes into his book the charge on each particular person in his collection. Id. 305, 306.

The manner of reducing officers

for faults.

The manner of

For faults, gaugers are reduced either to be only assistants, or from foot-walks to out-rides; supervisors are reduced to be again only gaugers; and collectors are reduced to be supervisors. Id. In some instances, discharged officers, after having for a competent time been thereby kept out of pay, are again restored; but discharging and if twice discharged, are never again restored, unless one of the dis- restoring officers. charges appears to have been occasioned by a misrepresentation

of the case. Id. 307.

In stat. 24 G. 2. c. 40. § 29. There is a general clause, which Penalties by the has a controlling influence on all that hereafter follows in this excise laws. Large title; which is this: all fines, penalties, and forfeitures im- 24 G. 2. c. 40. posed by this or any other act relating to the duties of excise, or other duties under the management of the commissioners of excise, shall be sued for, levied, recovered, or mitigated by such ways and means as any fine, penalty, or forfeiture is or may be recovered or mitigated by any law or laws of excise, or in the courts at Westminster, and shall be half to the king, and half to him that shall inform or sue.

That is to say, If it is within the limits of the chief office in 12 C. 2. c. 24. London, the offences shall be determined by the commissioners $45.

(or any three of them, 1 G. 2. st. 2. c. 16. § 4, 5.) or, in case of By two justices. appeals, by the commissioners of appeals; in all other places they shall be heard and determined by any two or more justices of the peace, residing near to the place where such forfeitures shall be made, or offence committed; and in case of neglect or refusal of such justices by the space of fourteen days next after complaint made, and notice thereof given to the offender, then the sub-commissioners may hear and determine the same: and if the party find himself aggrieved by the judgment given by the said sub-commissioners, he may appeal to the next quarter sessions, whose

12 C. 2. c. 24. § 45.

Not necessary to be the two next justices.

Information.

Summons.

32 G. 2. c. 17. § I.

judgment therein shall be final. Which said commissioners for appeals, and chief commissioners for excise, and all justices of the peace and sub-commissioners aforesaid, are required upon any complaint or information (F) exhibited and brought of any such forfeiture made, or offence committed, to summon (G) the party accused, and upon his appearance or contempt to proceed to the examination of the fact, and on due proof made thereof, either by the voluntary confession of the party, or by the oath of one credible witness, to give judgment or sentence (H), and to issue warrants (I) under their hands for levying the same on the goods and chattels of the offender, and to cause sale to be made thereof, if not redeemed in not less than four, nor more than eight days, [27 G. 2. c. 20. § 1.]; and for want of sufficient distress, to imprison (K) the party offending till satisfaction be made.

Residing near] Where the next justices are empowered to proceed in any matter, they and no other ought in such case to act; but where it is only directed that the justices residing near shall do such a thing, those words are not restrictive, but only directory, and any justices, although not the next justices, may proceed therein. Shaw. Excise, 330.

But where the act says, that any two justices residing near to the place where the forfeiture shall be made, or the offence committed, shall hear and determine the matter, it doth not intend that the justices of a county at large dwelling near to a town corporate, which hath justices of its own, and an exclusive charter, shall have power to intermeddle with regard to offences committed within such town corporate; but only to vest the jurisdiction in justices of counties, cities, and places, with respect to their local jurisdictions within such places. Talbot v. Hubble, 2 Str. 1154. See also Blankley v. Winstanley, 3 T. R. 279. and Rex v. Sainsbury,

4 T. R. 456.

Upon any complaint or information exhibited] By these words it is not necessary that the information be exhibited in writing. But if it be a verbal information, the justices ought to make a record thereof, and of the time and place when and where exhibited, which must be expressed in the present and not in the time past: but to save the justices that trouble, it is usual for the informer to prepare his information in writing; and by way of preface thereto, to make a memorandum of the time and place of the laying such information, leaving therein blanks for the names of the justices, and the day and month and year and place when and where laid ; and when those blanks are filled up by direction or consent of the justices, then it becomes a record made by them. The mentioning the place where the information is laid, is, that it may appear that the prosecution was in the proper county; and therefore though it may happen that for laying the information the prosecutor may be obliged to attend one justice in one town, and another justice in another town, it must not be mentioned that the information was laid at both towns, for that would be absurd; but in such cases it is usual to express that the information is laid at the town where the hearing is intended to be. Shaw. Excise, 342, 343.

Summon the party accused] By stat. 32 G. 2. c. 17. § 1. a summons left at the house or usual place of residence, or with the wife, child, or menial servant of the person accused, shall be as effectual as if delivered to the person himself.

§2. And in all cases relating to the excise, or to any of the 32 G. 2. c. 17. duties under the management of the commissioners of excise, (except where particular provisions are made for summoning offenders, or for condemning of seizures made from persons unknown,) leaving such summons at the house, workhouse, warehouse, shop, cellar, vault, or usual place of residence of such person, directed to him by his right or assumed name, shall be as effectual as if personally delivered to him, and as if directed to him by his proper

name.

merits.

Proceed to the examination of the fact] And by the 9 G. 2. c. 35. Justices to pro§ 34. it is enacted, that in trials of seizure the seizure shall be taken ceed on the to have been made as in the information set forth, and the judges and justices shall proceed to the merits of the cause, without inquiring into the form or manner of seizure.

Give judgment] Although it hath been said that whatever is re- Judgment. corded by the justices of their order, ought to be expressed in words of the present time and tense, yet that doth not make it necessary, nor is it indeed practicable, that all that is to be so entered should actually be entered at the instant of time when such judgment is given; for such entering the whole at that time would hinder the dispatch of business and delay the hearing of causes, and therefore may be done at any convenient time after which if it be agreeable with and according to such short minutes or notes as are then taken by such justices, it will be as authentic as if it had been entered at the instant of time, in which such order was made or judgment was given. Shaw. Excise, 351.

And to issue warrants under their hands] It is here only directed Warrant to that the warrant shall be under the hands of the justices: it need distrain. not be under seal also. Padfield v. Cabell, Will. Rep. 411. A warrant does not ex vi termini imply an instrument under seal; it signifies no more than an authority. Ib.

In many acts of parliament indeed it is expressly directed that the warrant shall be under hand and seal and it is safe and prudent at least that all warrants should be both signed and sealed.

:

For levying the same on the goods and chattels of the offender] And in case where the offender shall remove out of the jurisdiction, it is enacted by the 18 G. 2. c. 26. §13. and 5 G. 3. c. 43. § 26., that the commissioners and justices respectively, within whose jurisdiction any person charged by any act concerning the duties of excise, or any other duties under the management of the commissioners of excise, or who hath committed any offence against any of the said acts, shall be found, may summon, hear, adjudge, and determine, and issue any process or warrant, in the same manner as before they might have done in case of such offences committed within their jurisdiction; and if they shall, upon any judgment given by them, issue a warrant of distress, and the person authorized to execute the warrant shall make a return thereto, that no sufficient distress can be found, it shall be lawful for the said commissioners and justices respectively, within whose jurisdiction the party shall at any time be found, against whom such warrant shall have been issued, upon producing to them such warrant and return thereof, to commit such offender to the next county gaol till satisfaction be made.

And to cause sale to be made thereof if not redeemed in fourteen days] But by the 27 G. 2. c. 20. § 1. the justices may not order