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THE WOOD ENGRAVINGS BY R. HART, OF RED LION SQUARE, LONDON

JO

LONDONOS

W. R. LOFTUS, 6, BEAUFOY TERRACE, EDGWARE ROAD.

1865.

LONDON:

GEORGE BURNS, STEAM PRINTER, 86) AND 94, EDGWARE BOAD.

PREFACE.

THE present work is designed to serve chiefly as a useful supplement or companion to the books of Official Instructions issued for the guidance of the Excise Surveying Department. It will be obvious that these Instructions cannot, from their nature or objects, deal properly with matters of elementary information, or be expected to place before officers all the minute details of the processes necessary for carrying the revenue laws into effect. No code of practical duties, such as is here considered, could within reasonable limits, treat adequately of, for instance, the rudiments of Arithmetic, Mensuration, or Chemistry. A certain amount of previous knowledge and competency must be supposed to exist on the part of every person appointed to execute the orders of the Board; and it has been thought accordingly, that if the principal subjects which officers are now required to study, in connection with the general teaching of their Instructions, were brought together and explained in a single volume of moderate cost, the undertaking might prove of some value and interest to those who desire increase of their efficiency, an aid to qualification for promotion, or who simply feel the want of a convenient manual of reference on points of ordinary or occasional business. With this view and in this hope the following pages have been written. There are, no doubt, many shortcomings and errors, but throughout the task unwearying pains have been bestowed to ensure accuracy of statement, and to anticipate and remove, as far as possible, the

difficulties commonly experienced by the younger members of the service. A full and clear exposition of principles, together with abundance and variety of illustration, has been aimed at, rather than the giving of a series of merely abstract rules and formal directions, fitted to particular cases, and calculated to satisfy nothing beyond the immediate need of the learner, and to exercise no faculty except that of mechanical aptness.

From the numerous interruptions to which the progress of the work has been unavoidably subject, and the time that has elapsed since the earlier portions were committed to the press, some degree of incompleteness, as well as a few slight discordances with the existing state of the laws and regulations, may be observed. For these defects indulgence is requested.

I have to acknowledge the co-operation of several kind and able friends. To Mr. EAST, S.G.Exr., I am indebted for the drawings and description of Coffey's patent still, and for assistance in the compilation of the summary of laws, &c. Mr. KAY, of the Board's laboratory, has revised the whole of the Chapter on Chemistry. Mr. BROWN, Mr. HARKNESS and Mr. Moxon, of that department, have contributed largely to the same section of the work. From Mr. WAUGH, S.G.Exr., I have derived some valuable hints on Practical Mensuration. To these gentlemen and to many others who have favored me with advice and suggestions, I offer my best thanks.

It should be noticed in the present place, that, owing to the necessity of immediate publication, the article on Cask-Gauging, intended to be inserted in the Appendix, is omitted until the next edition.

March, 1865.

W. H. JOHNSTON.

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