Auctions. Hops England. Scotland. United Kingdom who were surveyed peri- | vexatious hinderance to business. These odically by Excise officers was 588,000. and some other improvements in the They were divided into five classes: 1. Excise department are in a great measure Persons visited for the purpose of charg- the result of the Seventeen sound, able, ing the " growing" duties, as maltsters, and elaborate Reports of the Commissionsoap-makers, &c. 2. Persons who paid ers of Excise Inquiry, appointed 27th of a licence according to the extent of their March, 1833, and which embraced each business, as brewers and some others. 3. of the articles subject to Excise duties. Innkeepers and retailers of beer and The gross receipt collected by the Exothers, who dealt in articles upon which cise on each article of duty in 1844 was an Excise duty was levied. 4. Persons as follows:who were dealers in articles upon which Customs duties had been paid. 5. Persons who did not pay duties, but were subject to cautionary surveys; tallow-melters, for example, as a check upon soapmakers. The cost of these surveys in England only amounted to 533,9021. In a single year the number of surveys of dealers in tea, wine, and tobacco has been about fifteen millions; 1,657,957 permits were required before goods in certain quantities could leave their premises; and 778,988 books were supplied to these dealers in which to keep an account of their stock and sales. Since 1835 several of the surveys have been abolished, and it has generally been found that they were of little or no value so far as the revenue was concerned, while they were a Gross Receipt. Repayments, Allowances, Drawbacks, &c. Rate per cent. of Charges of Collection Prior to 1823 there were separate and independent Boards of Excise for England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the total number of Excise commissioners was twenty-one. The business is now better conducted by seven commissioners and by one board in London. The chairman has a salary of 2000l., the deputy-chairman 1500l., and each of the other commissioners 1500l. a year. The commissioners hold courts and decide summarily in case of the infraction of the Excise laws. The number of persons employed at the chief Excise-office in London is about five hundred. In 1797 Mr. Pitt pointed at the Excise establishment as a model for other public departments on account of its effi Malt.. £20,025 Ireland. £13,427 435,336 11,379 Glass...... 785,869 54,714 6,575 .... 245,668 Licences.... 835,430 4,285,887 542,907 Paper.... Post - Horse 55 Soap....... 1,092,690 127 93 269 ciency and good management. In 1797 the number of officers belonging to the department in England was 4777, and their salaries amounted to 323,671.; in 1815 the number of officers was 7986, and their salaries 904,922ł.; and in 1835 there were 4190 officers, and their salaries amounted to 518,6201. For the management of the business of the Excise department the whole of the United Kingdom is divided into Collections, and these are subdivided into Districts, Rides, and Divisions. There are fifty-five collections in England and This sum includes 11,5751. on account of game certificates. Wales, exclusive of the London collec- | examination into his qualifications, which is termed "taking out a character." To take the case of a supervisor, for example, who petitions for promotion: the whole of his books for one year and the books of the officers under him for a quarter of a year, are examined in the office of the country examiners; all the accounts are re-cast, and errors in the books of the subordinate officers are reckoned to the supervisor's disadvantage. When this has been done, a surveying-general examiner carries the investigation further, and ascertains whether the supervisor has discharged his duties judiciously or not; amongst other things, whether he has been longer employed on a duty than he ought to have been if fully competent for his office. The whole examination occupies about two months; and when the final report is laid before the commissioners the name of the officer is not given. tion, and at the head of each is a collector, who visits the principal towns in his circuit eight times a year to receive the duties and transact other business connected with the department; besides which he is required to have an eye generally upon the discipline and efficiency of the service. The number of officers in a collection varies from forty to ninety. The next subdivision of a collection is the district, at the head of which is a supervisor. Next come the subdivisions of the districts into rides and divisions, or foot-walks. Where the traders are scattered, the officer is obliged to keep a horse, and his circuit is called a ride; but if a larger number of traders reside in a smaller circuit, they are visited by the officer on foot, and then the subdivision is termed a division or foot-walk. Before going out each day, the officer leaves a memorandum at his home which states the places he intends to survey, and EXCOMMUNICATION is the highthe order in which he will visit them; est ecclesiastical censure which can be and the exact time at which he com- pronounced by a spiritual judge. The mences each must be entered in his person against whom it is pronounced is journal. The supervisor re-surveys some for the time excluded from the comof the officer's surveys, but which they munion of the church. This punishwill be the officer is of course ignorant; ment, according to some opinions, had its and if errors are discovered, they must be origin in the advice given by St. Paul entered in the supervisor's diary. These when reproving the early Christians for diaries are transmitted to the chief office scandalizing their profession by prosecutevery two months, and no officer is pro- ing law-suits against each other before moted unless the diaries show him to be heathen judges; and the apostle accordefficient. The periodical removal of offi-ingly recommended them to leave all cers from one part of the country to an-matters in dispute between them to the other was Mr. Pitt's suggestion, and is decision of the Ecclesia, or the congregastill acted upon: about 1100 officers tion of the faithful. change their residence yearly. The Commissioners of Excise Inquiry doubt the advantage of this system to the public service; and it is injurious to the officers by interfering with the comfort of their families and interrupting the education of their children. At the chief office in London there is a department of Surveying-General Examiners, who are despatched to any district without previous intimation, as a check upon the accuracy and integrity of the supervisors. Promotions take place in the Excise department after a certain fixed period in each grade, and only then when the officer petitions for advancement. This involves a rigid The bishop and his clergy, and afterwards the bishop alone, became sole judge in these disputes; but possessing no coercive powers to enforce their decrees, they were obliged to adopt the only means of which they could avail themselves, to bring the refractory to submission, namely, by excluding them from the rites of the Church, and warning other Christians from their company and presence. A Christian thus shut out from the fellowship of his own brethren could not do otherwise than submit. This censure, although instituted by the primitive church as the means of preserving its purity, and of enforcing obe In England excommunication became at an early period the means of punishment under the authority of the bishops, and others who had ecclesiastical jurisdiction. It was divided into the greater and the less excommunication. The latter only removed the person from a participation in the sacraments, and is what was most commonly meant by the term excommunication; the other was called anathema, and not only removed the party from the sacraments, but from the Church and all communication with the faithful, and even deprived him of Christian burial. Subjects were absolved from their allegiance to an excommunicated prince. Gregory V. was the first preÎate who ventured to excommunicate a reigning_prince in the case of Robert, King of France, in 998. John and Henry VIII. are well-known instances in English history. A sen dience to its laws, was afterwards used | ecclesiastical order or sentence. for the extensive promotion of ecclesias- tence of excommunication was preceded tical power, and was converted into a by three monitions at due intervals, or means of oppression in those countries one peremptory, containing the legal which were most subject to ecclesiastical space of time, with a proper regard to the power. (Robertson's History of Charles quality of the person and the nature of V., vol. ii. p. 109.) the offence. But, as Blackstone in his usual manner remarks, "heavy as the penalty of excommunication is, considered in a serious light, there are, notwithstanding, many obstinate or profligate men, who would despise the brutum fulmen of mere ecclesiastical censures, especially when pronounced by a petty surrogate in the country, for railing or contumelious words, for non-payment of fees or costs, or other trivial causes. The common law therefore compassionately steps in to the aid of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and kindly lends a supporting hand to an otherwise tottering authority." This was effected by the writ "de excommunicato capiendo," or for seizing the excommunicate. But before the writ for taking the excommunicated person could be granted, the contumacy and contempt of the party were to be certified by the bishop to the court of Chancery by letters under his seal; and by 5 Eliz. c. 23, the writ was made returnable into the King's Bench. By the statute just cited the cause of excommunication was to be stated in the writ, in order that the court might judge as to the justice of the case. The sentence of excommunication might be revoked by the judge who passed the sentence, or upon appeal the party might be absolved. Absolution generally belonged to the same person who passed the sentence, unless in some particular cases, which were referred to the pope or a bishop. (Reeves's Hist. of English Law; Sullivan's Lectures.) The following offenders were punished with the greater excommunication: diviners, heretics, their receivers and comforters; simoniacs; violators and plunderers of churches; those who spoiled clerks going to Rome; the plunderers of the property of a bishop which ought to go to his successor; those who gave aid, favour, or counsel to excommunicated persons; those who laid violent hands on clerks or religious persons, or commanded others to do so. Those punished with the less excommunication were persons committing any mortal sin, as sacrilegious persons; those who received a church from lay hands; notorious offenders; those who talked with, saluted, or sat at the same table with, or gave anything in charity to persons excommunicated by the greater excommunication, unless they were familiars or domestics. Excommunication was also pronounced for other matters which belong to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, such as adultery and fornication, or for contempt of any By a sentence of excommunication, both greater and less, the excommunicated were excluded from the right of Christian burial, from bringing or maintaining actions, from becoming attorneys or jurymen, and were rendered incapable of becoming witnesses in any cause. But since the 53 Geo. III. c. 127 (54 Geo. III. c. 68, for Ireland), excommunication cannot now be pronounced in England or Ireland, except in certain cases (as spiritual censures for offences of ecclesias tical cognizance); and by the 3rd section | pecuniary compensation, the sheriff of the county in which the party from whom such compensation is due is supposed to reside; which, until the contrary is shown, is taken to be the county in which the litigation was carried on. of that statute "no person who shall be pronounced or declared excommunicate pursuant to the second clause of this statute) shall incur any civil penalty or incapacity, in consequence of such excommunication, save such imprisonment, not exceeding six months, as the court pronouncing or declaring such person excommunicate shall direct." The proceedings in those cases, in which excommunication may still be pronounced, are the same, as to the issuing and return of the writ, as they were before the act of 53 George III. By the same act (53 George III. c. 127), in all cases cognizable by the laws of England in ecclesiastical courts, when any person shall refuse to appear when cited by such court, or shall refuse to obey the lawful order or decree of such court, no sentence of excommunication, except in the cases above alluded to, shall be pronounced; but a writ "de contumace capiendo" shall issue, which in effect is the same as the old writ "de excommunicato capiendo" was. EXECUTION is the effect given to the judgments and other proceedings analogous to judgments of courts of law in civil suits. This term denotes the process by which a party is put into the possession of that to which the judgment of a competent court declares him to be entitled. As a judgment of a court of common law ascertains that the party is entitled to the possession of some object of a real or personal nature; or to recover damages in respect of property withheld or injuries done, so the execution founded upon such judgment will be framed with a view to putting the party in whose favour the judgment is given either in the possession of the thing in dispute, or to enable him to obtain pecuniary compensation. For this purpose a written command issues in the name of the king or other lord of the court, to an officer of the court. When the judgment is in one of the king's superior courts at Westminster, the officer of the court for this purpose is the sheriff of the county in which the property is situated, or, in the case of When lands or other corporeal hereditaments are recovered, the process of execution varies according to the nature of the interest recovered. If a right to a freehold interest has been established, the writ commands the sheriff to give the recoverer seisin of the lands, &c., and is called Habere facias seisinam. If a chattel interest in land is recovered, the writ does not affect to authorize the sheriff to intermeddle with the freehold, and directs that officer merely to give possession of the land, &c. This is called Habere facias possessionem. A judgment in the action of Detinue establishes the right of the recoverer to the possession of a specific personal chattel, and the writ of execution called a Distringas ad deliberandum issues, which requires the sheriff to coerce the defendant by his distringas (distress) to restore the specific chattel or its value. A judgment for the defendant in Replevin establishes his right to the possession of the personal chattel which formed the subject of the litigation. In the ordinary case of an action of replevin after a distress, the right of the defendant in respect of the chattel distrained is merely to hold it as a security for the payment of the debt or duty, the payment or performance of which is sought to be enforced by the coercion of a distress. The writ of execution requires the sheriff to cause the chattel to be restored to the possession of the defendant. This is called a writ De retorno habendo, and in case the sheriff is unable to find the chattel, further process issues commanding him to take other chattels of the plaintiff as a substitute for that which is withheld, by a writ called a Capias in withernam. The most ordinary cases of execution are those in which pecuniary compensation is to be obtained, but in these cases the sheriff is not authorized directly to take money from the party by whom it is to be paid. Formerly the only mode of obtaining this compensation was by process of distringas or distress. And this is still the case in inferior courts; but in the superior courts execution of judgments or other records which establish pecuniary claims, may be had by a writ of Fieri facias, which affects the personal property; by writ of Elegit, which affects both real and personal property; and by Capias ad satisfaciendum, by which compliance with the pecuniary demand is enforced by detention of the person of the defaulter in prison until the claim be satisfied, or the adverse party consents to his discharge. A subject is not entitled to pursue all these remedies at once; but in the case of the crown, the right to obtain satisfaction from the goods, lands, and person of its debtor may be enforced simultaneously, by writ of Capias, and Extendi facias, or Extent. Execution is also the term applied to denote the giving effect to the sentence of a court of criminal jurisdiction. In this sense it is most commonly used with reference to the execution of sentence of death. [SHERIFF.] EXECUTOR. An executor is he to whom another man commits by will the execution of his last will and testament. The origin of executors seems to be traceable to a constitution of Manuel Comnenus (repl dioikntŵv tŵv diabηкŵv). All persons who are capable of making a will, and some others besides, as married women and infants, are capable of being made executors; but infants are by statute rendered incapable of acting in the execution of the will until they attain the age of twenty-one. | prove the will, as it is termed, which is done before the proper ecclesiastical court, which furnishes him with a Probate, or approved copy of the will, which is his authority for acting. The original will is deposited in the registry of the court. An executor may do many acts in execution of the will before probate, as paying and receiving debts, &c., but he cannot, before probate, sustain actions or suits. An administrator can do nothing till the letters of administration are issued; for he owes his appointment to the ordinary. If an executor die before probate, administration must be taken out to his testator, with the will annexed; but if an executor, having proved the will, die, his executor will be the executor and representative of the first testator, unless, before proving the will of the second testator, he expressly renounces the execution of the will of the first. If the executor dies intestate, his administrator is not the representative of the testator, but an administrator de bonis non, as it is termed, of the testator must be appointed by the ordinary. If there are several executors, the office survives, and is transmitted ultimately to the executor of the surviving executor, unless he dies intestate. Executors have a joint and entire interest in the effects of their testator; any one of them is capable of acting by himself; and the receipt of a debt, or the transfer of property by one, is as valid as if it had been done by all. If a stranger takes upon himself to act as executor without any authority, he is called an executor de son tort (of his own wrong), and is liable to all the trouble of an executor without any of the advanAn executor can derive his office from tages attached to the office. He is chargea testament alone, though it is not neces-able with the debts of the deceased, so far sary that he should be appointed by any particular words. If no executor is appointed by the will, administration is granted by the ordinary, with the will annexed, in which case the administrator is bound to obey the directions of the will. An executor may decline to act; but having once acted, he cannot divest himself of the office or its liabilities; nor can an administrator who has accepted the office get rid of his responsibility. The first business of an executor is to as assets come to his hands; and is liable not only to an action by the rightful executor or administrator, but also to be sued as executor of the deceased by the creditors and legatees. The only advan tage which an executor derives from his office is the right to retain any debt dne to him from the testator, as against cre ditors of equal degree, and this privilege is allowed him, because he cannot take any legal steps to recover payment. The duties of executors and adminis |