arises from the prerogative of coinage. By the common law, if gold or silver be found in mines of base metal, the whole, according to some, belonged to the crown: though others held that it only did so if the quantity of gold or silver was of greater value than the quantity of base metal; but this is now immaterial, as the crown can only have the ore on paying for the same a price fixed by statute.

XI. A branch of the ordinary revenue, said to be grounded on the consideration of the crown protecting the seas from pirates and robbers, is the right to royal fish, viz., whale and sturgeon; which, when either thrown ashore, or caught near the coast, are the property of the sovereign.

XII. Another maritime revenue, founded on the same reason, is that of Wreck, which was where any ship was lost at sea, and the goods or cargo were thrown upon the land. These belonged to the crown, for by the loss of the ship all property was gone out of the original owner. But this was adding sorrow to sorrow, and was consonant neither to reason nor humanity. Wherefore by various statutes numerous exceptions were made to prevent goods being treated as wreck; and now if any live thing escape, or if proof can be made of the property, the goods are not forfeited. And the sheriff is bound to keep them a year and a day; though, if of a perishable nature, he may sell them, and the money shall be as in their stead.

XIII. To the crown belongs also treasure-trove, which is, where any money, gold, silver, plate, or bullion, is found hidden in the earth, or other private place, the owner being unknown. If it be found in the sea, or upon the earth, it does not belong to the sovereign, but to the finder, if no owner appears.

XIV. Waifs, bona waivata, goods stolen and waived or thrown 'away by the thief in his flight, are given to the crown as a punishment upon the owner for not pursuing the felon and taking them from him. If, therefore, any party robbed do immediately follow and apprehend the thief, which is called making fresh suit, or convict him afterwards, he shall have his goods again; for if the party robbed can seize them first, the crown shall never have them.

XV. Estrays are such valuable animals as are found wandering in any manor or lordship, and no man knows the owner, in which case the law gives them to the sovereign as the general owner, in recompense for the damage which they may have done therein. They now generally belong to the lord of the

manor.

XVI. Another branch of the ordinary revenue arises from escheats of lands, which happen upon the defect of heirs to succeed to the inheritance; whereupon they in general revert to the sovereign, who is, in law, the original proprietor of all the lands of the kingdom.

This may suffice for a short view of the sovereign's ordinary revenue, which was very large formerly, and capable of being increased to a magnitude truly formidable. But this hereditary revenue is now sunk almost to nothing; and in order to supply the deficiency, we have recourse to new methods of raising money, unknown to our ancestors; which constitute the extraordinary revenue. These are called aids, subsidies, or supplies, and are granted by the commons in parliament; who, when they have voted a supply, and settled the quantum, usually resolve themselves into what is called a committee of ways and means, to consider the mode of raising the same. The resolutions of this committee, when approved by the house, are esteemed conclusive; for, though the supply cannot be raised till directed by act of parliament, yet no monied man will scruple to advance any amount to the government, on the credit of a bare vote of the House of Commons.

The taxes, which are raised upon the subject, are—

I. The land-tax, which in its modern shape, superseded, at least until recently, all the former methods of rating either property or persons, whether by tenths or fifteenths, subsidies on lands, hidages, scutages, or talliages.

Tenths and fifteenths were formerly the real tenth or fifteenth part of all the movables belonging to the subject. Originally the amount was uncertain, but was reduced to a certainty under Edward III., when new taxations were made of every township, borough, and city in the kingdom. So that when, afterwards

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the commons granted the crown a fifteenth, every parish immediately knew its proportion of it.

Scutages were derived from the military tenures; when every tenant of a knight's fee was bound to attend the king for forty days in every year. This personal attendance growing troublesome, the tenants compounded for it, by first sending others in their stead, and in process of time by making, in lieu of it, a pecuniary satisfaction, which at last came to be levied by assessment, at so much for every knight's fee, under the name of scutages. Of the same nature were hidage upon lands not held by military tenure, and talliage upon cities and boroughs. But they all fell into disuse upon the introduction, under Richard II. and Henry IV., of subsidies, which were a tax, not immediately imposed upon property, but upon persons in respect of their reputed estates.

The grant of scutages, talliages, or subsidies did not extend to spiritual preferments; which were taxed by convocation, which, therefore, sat as regularly as parliament: but since 15 Car. II. another method of taxation has prevailed, which takes in the clergy as well as the laity.

In the beginning of the civil war, parliament imposed weekly and monthly assessments upon the counties, to be levied by a pound-rate on lands and personal estates; and from this time forwards we hear no more of subsidies, but occasional assessments were granted as the national emergencies required, which were called a land-tax. This was made perpetual by 38 Geo. III. c. 60, at 4s. in the pound; but subject to redemption by the owner of the property buying so much government stock as yields a dividend exceeding by a tenth the amount thereof.

II. The customs; or the duties paid by the merchant, at the quay, upon all imported as well as exported commodities, into the history of which I cannot at present enter. The tendency of modern legislation is to make trade as free as it possibly can be made, consistently with the raising of the necessary revenue; and the result of numerous recent statutes has therefore been to reduce to a very small number indeed the articles on which duties are now levied.

III. The excise duties; within which category fall what are called the assessed taxes,* were first established by parliament in 1643; the royalists at Oxford soon following the example of their brethren at Westminster; both sides protesting that it should be continued no longer than to the end of the war, and then be utterly abolished. Afterwards, when the nation had become accustomed to them, they were continued, and remain with us to the present day; although, from the first, the very name has been odious to the people of England. An excise duty has been imposed at one time or another on almost every conceivable article of consumption, to support the enormous expenses occasioned by our wars on the continent; and though the variety of articles subjected to duty has been of late years greatly reduced, a sufficient number still remain to preserve the original unpopularity of the tax.t

IV. A branch of revenue levied with greater cheerfulness is the post-office duty for the carriage of letters. As we have assigned the excise to the parliament of 1643, it is but justice to observe that this useful invention owes its first legislative establishment to the same assembly. The conveyance of letters for fixed rates was at first farmed; but in 1657, a regular postoffice was erected. The rates were altered from time to time, and regulations made and penalties enacted to confine the carriage of letters to the public office; but the high charges led to numerous petty frauds and evasions. Finally, in 1840, a uniform rate was established; and facilities have since been given for the transmission of printed periodical publications and other works. The money-order office has been constituted; savings banks established in connection with the post-office; and the telegraph service put under its authority.

V. The stamp duties are a tax imposed upon all parchment and paper whereon private instruments of almost any nature whatsoever are written; on probates of wills and letters of administration; and on various licences, as marriage licences,

Under this head are comprised the duties payable on private carriages, horses and dogs, hair-powder, armorial bearings, and game certificates.

The malt-tax, raised since 1697, by a duty on malt, and made perpetual by 3 Geo. IV. c. 18, is now practically an excise duty.

and licences to practise and exercise various callings, such as that of a solicitor; and on admissions to offices and degrees. This tax is of service to the public in general, by authenticating instruments, and rendering it more difficult than formerly to forge deeds of any standing.

VI. The legacy and succession duties form an important branch of revenue.

The legacy duty is payable by every person who succeeds, whether he takes under a will or as next of kin, to personal property; and varies in amount according to the consanguinity of the next of kin, or the absence of any relationship between the legatee and the testator. The succession duty is imposed on every succession to property, according to the value and the relationship of the parties to the person from whom the property

comes.

VII. The inhabited house duty is also a large branch of revenue. Mention is made in Domesday of fumage or fuage, vulgarly called smoke farthings; paid by custom to the king for every chimney in the house. But the first parliamentary establishment of this tax was by 13 & 14 Car. II., c. 10, whereby a hereditary revenue of 2s. for every hearth was granted to the king for ever. Upon the Revolution, hearth-money was declared to be "not only a great oppression to the poorer sort, but a badge "of slavery upon the whole people;" "and therefore to erect a "lasting monument of their majesties' goodness, hearth-money 66 was abolished." This monument of goodness remains among us to this day but the prospect of it was somewhat darkened, when, in six years afterwards, a tax was laid upon all houses, and a tax also upon all windows, if they exceeded nine, in each house. These rates were varied, and extended, until, in the reign of Will. IV., the house tax was abolished, the duties on windows remaining. Finally, the duties on windows were abolished; but in lieu thereof, a tax was imposed not on hearths, but on what amounts to the same thing, on inhabited houses.

VIII. There is a duty payable for every male servant, except such as are employed in husbandry, trade or manufactures.

IX. The ninth branch of revenue is a tax of comparatively recent introduction, and which, although at present imposed