that duty which he pays at the cuſtom-houſe, as to a profit upon the original price which he pays to the manufacturer abroad; and conſiders it accordingly in the price he demands of the ſtationer. When the ſtationer ſells it again, he requires a profit of the printer or bookſeller upon the whole ſum advanced by him to the merchant: and the bookſeller does not forget to charge the full proportion to the ſtudent or ultimate conſumer; who therefore does not only pay the original duty, but the profits of theſe three intermediate traders, who have ſucceſſively advanced it for him. This might be carried much farther in any mechanical, or more complicated, branch of trade.
II. Directly oppoſite in it's nature to this is the exciſe duty; which is an inland impoſition, paid ſometimes upon the conſumption of the commodity, or frequently upon the retail ſale, which is the laſt ſtage before the conſumption. This is doubtleſs, impartially ſpeaking, the moſt oeconomical way of taxing the ſubject: the charges of levying, collecting, and managing the exciſe duties being conſiderably leſs in proportion, than in other branches of the revenue. It alſo renders the commodity cheaper to the conſumer, than charging it with cuſtoms to the ſame amount would do; for the reaſon juſt now given, becauſe generally paid in a much later ſtage of it. But, at the ſame time, the rigour and arbitrary proceedings of exciſe-laws ſeem hardly compatible with the temper of a free nation. For the frauds that might be committed in this branch of the revenue, unleſs a ſtrict watch is kept, make it neceſſary, wherever it is eſtabliſhed, to give the officers a power of entring and ſearching the houſes of ſuch as deal in exciſable commodities, at any hour of the day, and, in many caſes, of the night likewiſe. And the proceedings in caſe of tranſgreſſions are ſo ſummary and ſudden, that a man may be convicted in two days time in the penalty of many thouſand pounds by two commiſſioners or juſtices of the peace; to the total excluſion of the trial by jury, and diſregard of the common law. For which reaſon, though lord Clarendon
