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NOTICE.

Some parts of this Book having been pirated, it is deemed right to give notice, that it has been duly entered in the Register Book of the Company of Stationers in London, as the sole property of the Compiler, and, that if any portion of it shall in future be printed without his consent, a prosecution will be the immediate consequence. August 16, 1819.

INTRODUCTION. (a)

UPWARDS of five centuries have now elapsed since the reve nue of customs (b) was instituted. During this period, the laws which have been passed relating to this revenue have accumulated to so great a degree as to occupy numerous volumes. The alterations which they have, from time to time, undergone, by the various lines of policy pursued by different legislators-by the breaking out of war, and the restoration of peace—by the expiration or the continuance of acts originally meant to be temporary, with other causes, have been most fruitful sources of perplexity, till at last the laws of customs have become so entangled as to be in a great measure useless to persons who may have recourse to them for casual information. In short, they

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(a) This introduction was prefixed to the first edition, which contained an abridgement of the laws of customs only; but as it is also applicable to the excise jexcept that the statutes concerning the former are more ancient and numerous than the latter), it has been thought right to retain it in the present state.

(b) Some have imagined they are called with us customs, because they were the inheritance of the King, by immemorial usage, and the common law, and not granted him by any statute: but Sir Edward Coke hath clearly shown, that the King's first claim to them was by grant of parliament, 3 Edw. 1. though the record is not now extant.-BLACKSTONE.

They seem to have been called customs, from having been paid from time immemorial and a memorable statute in 21 Edw. 1. c. 5. makes that distinction. It states, that several people are apprehensive that the aids, tasks, and prizes, which they had granted for the King's wars and other occasions, might be turned upon them (en servage) into an act of slavery; the King therefore declares and grants, that he will not draw such temporary aids and taxes into a custom.-CHRISTIAN'S NOTE IN BLACKSTONE'S COMMENTARIES.

The excise laws take their origin from two statutes of 12 Cha. 2.; the one c. 23. which granted an excise on certain commodities for the King's life; the other c. 24. which, in lieu of the military tenures, granted to the crown an hereditary excise on certain other commodities.-BLACKSTONE'S REPORTS, vol. 2. page 1255.

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