Protection and cers, &c. day or night, the offender and every person aiding him may be conveyed before one or more justices of the peace residing near to the place where the crime was perpetrated, who may commit the offender or offenders to the next county gaol, to remain there until the court of oyer and terminer, great sessions, or gaol delivery, or until a delivery by due course of law; and on an indictment being found, the defendant must plead without having the time to traverse usually allowed in a case of misdemeanor; and on a conviction taking place, he may be sentenced to hard labour on the river Thames, or other navigable river in England, for a term not exceeding three years (1), as is directed by the statute 19 Geo. 3. for the punishment of persons guilty of grand larceny, or else the court may order the offender to be committed to the common gaol or house of correction for a term not exceeding three years (2). The twelve judges were unanimously of opinion, on a prosecution by indictment upon the statute 24 Geo. 3. sess. 2. c. 47. s. 15., which the 34 Geo. 3. (3) was passed to explain and amend, that the expression on shore, as here used, is equivalent to on land, and that an officer of excise, seizing soap in the execution of his office, at an inland place at any distance from the sea, is within the scope and protection of the act (4). A person charged with assaulting or obstructing an officer of customs or excise in the due execution of his office, or a person acting in his aid, or with rescuing or attempting to rescue by force any uncustomed or prohibited goods, after a seizure of them by the officer, or with an offence against the laws of quarantine, is liable to be apprehended upon a judge's warrant, on the fact being disclosed to a judge of the court of King's Bench, and supported by affidavit, or by certificate of an indictment or information being filed in that court, when he is to be brought before a judge of the King's Bench, or one of his Majesty's justices of the peace, in order that he may be bound to the crown, with two sufficient sureties, in such sum as shall be expressed in the warrant for his appearing in court at the time mentioned in the warrant, and answering all (1) And see further 45 Geo. 3. c. 121. s. 11. (2) 34 Geo. 3. c. 50. s. 5., passed to explain 24 Geo. 3. sess. 2. c. 47. s. 15.; and see 45 Geo. 3. c. 121. s. 11. As to felonious assaulting, &c. 52 Geo. 3. c. 143. s. 1.; and see the £200 penalty on assaulting officers, by 57 Geo. 3. c. 87. s. 9.; and £40, 8 Geo. 1. c. 18. s. 25. Where several obstruct, each is liable to a separate penalty. Rex v. Clark, Cowp. 610. The King v. Hube and others, 5 T. R. 542. (3) 34 Geo. 3. c. 50. s. 5. (4) The King v. Brady and others, 1 Bos. & Pul. 187. Liability of the Hundred. indictments or informations for offences of this nature; and if Protection and the person accused should neglect or refuse to become bound, Revenue Offihe may be committed to the common gaol of the place where cers, &c. the offence has been committed, or where the offender was apprehended, until he shall have become bound, or until he shall be discharged by an order of the court of King's Bench in term time, or by one of the judges in vacation, and the recognizances taken thereupon are to be returned and filed in court, and continue in force until an acquittal takes place, or until judgment has been given after conviction, unless the court order that they should be sooner discharged (1). A method is also prescribed Officers suing by the statute 19 Geo. 2. c. 34. the provisions of which with regard to this subject are made perpetual by the statute 43 Geo. 3. c. 157. for remunerating persons employed in the execution of the laws of the revenue, if they should happen to be beaten, wounded, maimed, (or their executors, if they should be killed in the discharge of their duty,) by allowing them to recover to a certain amount for the damages they may sustain by the loss of goods, or by violence that is offered to their persons, besides the sum of £100 to be recovered by the executors of any person killed against the inhabitants of a hundred, rape, or lathe, in which the fact took place (2). An action of debt is maintainable upon the statute for the £100 penalty against the inhabitants of a lathe in Kent, by the executor of a revenue officer, who when in a boat between high and low water mark, in pursuit of a smuggling boat in which there were offenders against the act, received a mortal wound by a shot fired by a person on the shore within the lathe, though the officer afterwards died on the high sea beyond the low water mark, and consequently out of the lathe (3). The 19 Geo. 2. refers to and adopts the statute of hue and cry, 8 Geo. 2. c. 16., with respect to the mode of proceeding, but it is questionable how far that statute can apply to the mode of levying the money recovered, which is directed to be raised by two justices of the peace of the county, riding, or division, when the fact happened within the jurisdiction of (1) 26 Geo. 3. c. 77. s. 18. General issue, local venue, three months limitation, and treble costs, by s.20. (2) 19 Geo. 2. c. 34. s. 6. not more than £40 for the beating, and £200 for the loss of the goods; mode of proceeding is if offender convicted in six months, Protection and Liability of Revenue Offcers, &c. the cinque ports, in which there is an exclusive commission of the peace (1). However, in following up the writ of execution to its consummation it is sufficient for the sheriff, to whom the writ has been delivered, to return, even after the expiration of the sixty days given him by the act to return the writ, that he has delivered it to the justices of the peace of the hundred, &c., (who are charged with the duty of directing the levy on the inhabitants), and that they had done nothing upon it; and the court will not thereupon attach the sheriff for not returning the writ, but the next proceeding was against the magistrates, to oblige them to perform their duty. (2) II. Excise Du them, &c. The duties of Excise, it has been already observed, are inland ties, History of imposts in contradistinction to the customs, which are for the most part levied on articles employed in foreign trade (3). The origin of the excise duties is traced to the reign of Charles the first; they were afterwards adopted in the time of the protectorate, and soon after the restoration, two statutes were passed by which they were confirmed to the crown; the statute 12 Car. 2. c. 23. which granted an excise on certain commodities for the king's life, and the other statute (c. 24.) of the same reign, which, in lieu of the military tenures, granted to the crown Existing Duties, an hereditary excise on certain other commodities (4). A consolidation of the excise duties has been recently effected by the 43 Geo. 3. c. 69., which provided that after the 5th of July 1803, all the duties, allowances, bounties, and drawbacks of excise, and other duties under the management of the commissioners of excise in England and Scotland respectively, granted by any act of parliament then in force, should cease; and the duties to be afterwards paid in respect of the goods mentioned in the act were set forth in tables, together with the allowances, bounties, and drawbacks. The special allow (1) Grosvenor v. the Inhabitants of lathe of St. Augustine. 12 East, 244. (2) Wright and another v. lathe of St. Augustine. 13 East, 544. And see the rewards and compensations to officers by commissioners of customs and excise, 24 Geo. 3. sess. 2. c. 47. s. 21, 22. Rewards by commissioners to informers, 56 Geo. 3. c. 104. s. 7. (3) See ante, 690. (4) Wood v. Chessal, 2. Bla. Rep. 1255; as to the excise duties in general, see Sinclair on Rev. Index, tit. Excise; Postlethwaite, tit. Excise; Montefiore, same title; and Highmore's excellent treatise on Excise, per tot. Duties. ances directed by acts of parliament in force on 5th July 1803, II. The Excise being also continued, except so far as they were expressly altered or repealed by the act (1): but this statute did not repeal the duties upon malt, mum, cider, and perry, granted by the 43 Geo. 3. c. 3. ; nor the duties on malt, tobacco, and snuff, continued by 43 Geo. 3. c. 4.; except with respect to the duties imposed by that act on tobacco of the growth, production, and manufacture of the plantations or dominions of Spain and Portugal, delivered for exportation; nor did the 43 Geo. 3. c. 69. repeal or alter the countervailing duties of excise upon the importation of goods into Great Britain from Ireland (2), or the drawbacks payable on goods exported from Great Britain to Ireland, except the countervailing duties and drawbacks for beer, ale, and mum, bricks and tiles, cider and perry, hops, mead, or metheglin, spirits, vellum and parchment, gilt and silver wire, and gold and silver thread lace or fringe (3). Since the passing of the stat. 43 Geo. 3. c. 69., the excise duties have been increased by different acts of parliament (4); but the course which we shall adopt in considering this subject does not render it necessary to notice the amount of duty with which different articles are charged. (4) The collection of the duties on tobacco, snuff, coffee and cocoa-nuts, tea and pepper, is now wholly transferred to the excise. (5) The statute 59 Geo. 3. c. 53. was passed to impose additional duties of excise on tea, coffee, and cocoa-nuts, tobacco and snuff, pepper, malt, and British spirits, and to consolidate them with the former duties; and the laws of excise relating to these articles are in some respects amended by the same statute. The statute 59 Geo. 3. c. 53., contemplating that agreements may have been made antecedently to that statute for the sale or delivery of particular articles, without reference to the additional duties, provides, that the contractors shall be considered as having authority to add a sum equivalent to the amount of duty, to the price of any particular article. (6) The statute of the year of 43 Geo. 3., which received the royal assent on the 5th of July in that year (7), contained a similar provision; and in the construction (1) 43 Geo. 3. c. 69. s. 2. (5) Customs Cons. Act, 59 (2) Granted by 39 & 40 Geo. 3. Geo. 3. c. 52. Table A. c. 67. (3) 43 Geo. 3. c. 69. s. J. (4) Vide 55 Geo. 3. c. 30. until 5th April 1819, and see infra as to particular articles. (6) 59 Gen. 3. c. 53. s. 13. 2d July 1819. (7) 43 Geo. 3. c. 81. 5th July 1803, in force until 12 months after peace. Duties. II. The Excise of this clause it was determined, that a vender of spirits, which were contracted for on the 21st of May, but were not shipped till after the 5th of July 1803, was entitled to charge the purchaser with the duty imposed by the 43 Geo. 3., no delivery, either actual or virtual, having taken place before the 5th of July; for the purchaser, whose duty it was to provide a vessel, had not provided one before that time; and the quantity of spirits which the purchaser was to have, had not been set apart for him in the vendor's warehouse. (1) Division of the First, the Provisions and De-, cisions connected with particalar Articles. The Auction The consideration of the duties of excise, and of the regula tions connected with them, will be most conveniently arranged in the following order; namely, First, the provisions connected reith particular articles, as, 1. Auctions. 2. Beer. 3. Bricks. 4. Candles. 5. Glass. 6. Hops. 7. Leather. 8. Linen, cotton, &c. 9. Malt. 10. Plate. 11. Soap. Secondly, those provisions of a general nature that relate to licenses, permits, &c; entries at the excise office; the dealer's books, and documents of this description, being principally adopted for the purpose of securing the duties of excise. And thirdly, the mode of recovering the duties, and the penalties and forfeitures incurred by the non-payment of them. The laws connected with excise are so voluminous, that it would not be possible to embrace them all within the limits to which this branch of the subject is necessarily confined in the present treatise. In considering them, it is proposed to notice the most important provisions; selecting more especially those which have been made the subject of judicial exposition and illustration. The auction duty is regulated with respect to its amount by the stat. 43 Geo. 3. c. 69. and 45 Geo. 3. c. 30. which relate to interests in landed (2) and in personal property (3), and by stat. 55 Geo. 3. c. 142., which regulates sales by auction for the benefit of growers of sheep's wool (4). A bond given by the parish of Saint Mary le Bone, under the local acts of parliament 35 Geo. 3. c. 73. and 53 Geo. 3. c. 163. for securing to the holder the payment of £100 on the parish rates, is comprehended in (1) Haig v. Napier, 1 Dow. Rep. 255. App. from Co. of Sess. (2) Seven-pence for 20s. of purchase money. The King v. Bates, 3 Price, 341, infr. Property in the funds and some other inte rests included. (3) One shilling for 20s. of purchase money. The King v. Bates, 3 Price, 345. (4), Two-pence, 55 Geo.3. c.142which recites former acts. |