keeping the accounts. This regulation is become an object of high and urgent importance for the attention of the legiflature. The number of accounts are increated in almost every feffion of parliament: feven new accounts were created by the acts of the laft. The merchant, ignorant to what duties he is liable, muft rely upon the officer. The labour of the officer is become great: the number of entries inwards, in the four months ending with October laft, was fifteen thousand three hundred and forty-two: they have fometimes amounted to four hundred in one day. The collectors at the out ports, by their frequent application to the board, profefs themfelves ignorant. Errors in the computations are daily: the feience difficult, poffeffed by few, and in danger of being loft; and this in a branch of the revenue productive, improving, and effential to the fupport and credit of the nation. "In a revenue that embraces fuch a variety, it is hardly poffible to introduce at once, regulation coextenfive with the objecs. It must be a work of time. A practicable fyftem must be formed upon principle, and carried by fteps and degrees into execution." "In almost every instance of goods liable to duties, in order to obtain the amount, it is neceffary to have recourse to two rules of computation at least; in many to five. As a proof of the multiplicity and intricacy of them, we have procured from Mr. Richard Frewin, the examiner of the duties inwards, examples of the rules by which the computation must be made, both upon the fame and different articles. "The three rules adopted by the act of Charles the Second, the tonnage, the poundage, and the Specific duty, are fimple. Th measure, number, or weight, being rate per ton, or the value by the given, or a certain fum impofed upon duty upon any given quantity is a defined article, the amount of the eafily found. Thefe rules, fhould, therefore, be retained or adopted, wherever the subject matter is of fuch a nature as to be capable of. the application. The rules by which the computation is made, of the duties to be paid upon each article, may be reduced to one, by applying the rule to be retained or adopted, in fuch a manner, as to produce the fame, or nearly the fame fum, jected. as is produced by the rule to be re "Where the operation produces the duty fhould be increased to an a fraction, as it frequently muft, integral. The public ftand in need of every advantage, and the merchant will profit by the regulation. Wine requiring two rules, and unrated French ordinary painted paper requiring five, to afcertain the duties, are two examples, by which the practicability of this regulation may be tried. kinds: French, Portugal, Spanish, Wine is diftinguished into four and Rheni. French is liable to fifteen different duties; the rest to thirteen. They are all duties of tonnage, except the two impofts require only two rules of computa 1779 and 1782; and, therefore, quantity, the other upon, the ag tation, the one grounded upon the gregate of the fubfifting duties. By fubftituting two additional dutics of 41. 75. 6d. each, per ton, the impofts, each impoft will be upon French wine, in the place of amount of the duties will continue converted in a tonnage, and the nearly the fame. The like alteration may, with equal facility, be made in the other three. "The "The French paper pays four teen duties. The first eight are each a poundage upon one value : the next two, a poundage upon another value: the eleventh is a duty upon the meafure; the twelfth, upon the quantity; and the two laft are the impofts. "Suppofe the poundage upon the first value to be the rule to be retained: 22 and one halfper cent. upon that value will give the 9th and 10th duties; 12 and one half will give the 11th; one half per cent. the 12th; and 6 and 5 eights fomething under the impofts: or, fuppofe them to be all changed into a fpecific duty upon the meafure One filling and five pence three farthings per yard, will give 71. 75. 11. which is fomething more than the prefent duty upon a ream, as flated in the example before us. "This fubftitution may fometimes be attended with difficulty. The rules may be grounded upon qualities or circumstances fo widely different, that one rule, though it may in any given cafe produce the fame fum, yet in other cafes it may fail to produce the quantum of duty intended by the other rule: for inftance, in the article of fkates, the five first duties are a poundage upon the value, taken at 15. 3d. per dozen. In the impoft 1690, the value is departed from, and the duty is laid upon the weight of wrought iron, 5. per hundred: this produces upon the 56 dozen, weighing 202 quarters, 12s. 6d. 17. 175. 2d. per cent. upon the rate will produce nearly the fame fum; but fhould the fame number weigh twice as much, the fubftituted rule will produce but half the duty intended. This difference may be corrected by taking the mean weight per dozen; and producing, by the favoured rule, the duty arifing from that weight. "It is probable there are few inftances, where the amount of the duties is fo micely calculated, that a final variation will disturb the state of the commerce carried on in any article. "The management of this revenue will derive relief from the fimplicity introduced by this regulation; but far more important and exten five will be the effect, if all distinc tion of branches in the customs can be abolished, and one entire fum only, be the duty to be collected upon each defined fubject of duty, and one head of cutloms compre hend the whole of this revenue. There will then be no longer a neceffity for that multiplicity of computations and entries; one fum will frequently ftand in the place of fifteen, always in the place of many, upon the warrants, bills and inftruments, and in all the cash books and accounts above referred to. There will be an end of appropria tions of receipts and payments, of branches overpaid and underpaid, and of that perpetual violation of the truth of the receipt, by placing duties received in one branch among duties received under another, as delivered to the receiver general, and by him into the exchequer; a violation rendered unavoidable under the prefent fyftem, without incurring the danger of a much greater evil, confufion in the accounts, perpetually increafing: but, above all, this regulation, as tending to a diminution of the charges of collection, co-operates to that great object always to be kept in view, the reduction of the public ex pences. "That the amount of the duty to be paid upon every article, under every given circumfiance of importation or exportation, may be afcertained, the laws continuing as they now ftand, is apparent from the books of rates, that have from time to time been composed by officers employed in the management of this revenue; which books, alte rations in the duties have rendered of no use. Such a compofition must precede, and be the ground of this regulation; but this is a work of time and labour: the fubjects of commerce, with their various modifications and circumftances, are numerous; the fum of the duty upon each species must be afcertained before it can be imposed; and a temporary fufpenfion of legiflative interpofition, fo far as to effect a variation in the duties, is neceffary for the completion of the work. "The measure of duty to be affumed fhould be that beft adapted to the nature of the subject matter, and that is, in general, the meafure by which the merchant purchafes and fells. If he buys and feils by the ton, the number, or the weight, the rate fhould be upon the ton, the number, or the weight; and the fum of duty fhould be an integral, capable of integral divifions. "Since the reduction of all the branches of thefe duties to one head feems to us practicable, as well as highly expedient, as far it concerns the office of the customs, it remains for us to inquire, whether the fame reduction can be effected in the office of the receipt of the exchequer. "The legislature direct the diftinction of the accounts, but without expreffing the reafons: we muft learn them from the construction of the feveral acts. In general, an act that impofes a duty, appropriates that duty to fome fpecific fervice: whilft that appropriation continues, a diftinct account must be kept of 1787. the produce of the duty, in the offices both of the customs and exchequer, in order that the fum received on that head of duty may be iffued for the fervice to which that duty is defined by the legiflature-and becaufe, where the fervice is limited, as it generally is, if the duty exceeds it, it is neceffary to know the quantum of the excels as being public money, whether that excefs is appropriated or not: if the duty is deficient, it is equally neceffary to know the quantum of the deficiency, as it must be fupplied from fome other fund. Unlefs then all diftinction of appropriation of the custom duties can be put an end to in the exchequer, the diftinction of accounts must continue in the office of the customs. "The appropriation of a duty to a fervice, is an act of the legiflature, fimilar to other acts, fubject continually to the legislative will and authority, directed to the public good. The legislature are bound to provide for every public fervice as it arifes, and as long as it exifts; but in what manner, and out of what fund, that provifion fhall be at first made, and how long it shall continue the fame, is in the wisdom of parliament. The legislature can by no act fo connect the provision with the fervice, be that fervice what it may, but that, whenever the public good requires it, the provifion may be varied, blended, diminifhed, transferred, or abolithed, by the power that created it, provided fufficient remains for the fervice, or another equally ample and fecure, in the judgment of parlia ment, be fubftituted in its ftead. "The fupreme power is bound to watch over, and to modify and adapt its provifions to the exigencies of the times, and the viciffitudes that muft arife in the course of (K) human human events: limited only by the immutable principles of reafon and juftice, it cannot be restrained or fettered by the acts of antecedent legiflatures; nor can it, by its own acts, divest itself of the right of exercifing, or communicate to others any check upon the excrcife of this or any other power, inherent in its nature, and effential to the execution of that truft, which is the fole end and purpose of its inftitution, the promotion of the public good. "But, not to reft upon general reafoning only, we examined into the appropriations themfelves, and the power that has been exercifed by the legislature over them; and for that purpofe, we procured from the auditor of the receipt of his majefty's exchequer, an account of the number of branches under which the accounts of the customs are kept in that office, and to what charges or fervices thofe branches are feverally applicable. The branches are ranged, in this account, in the order in which we received them from the custom house the titles of them, in ufe both at the custom house and the exchequer are inferted; and, that we might the more eafily refer to them, we have added the numbers. "It appears in this account, that the number of heads in the exche quer is lefs by three than the number at the custom houfe. The heads, number 40 and 43, are omitted in the exchequer; for the duties collected under thofe heads in the customs, are directed by the receiver general, upon his payment of them into the exchequer, to be placed to fuch branches as he particularly mentions. The heads, number 44 and 45, though feparate in the customs, are blended together in the exchequer, as arifing from the fame fubject, and neither of them appropriated. The duties under the first head, intitled "customs," are collected under. three feparate branches; but they are paid into the exchequer in moieties, under the heads of the half fubfidies 1712 and 1714. This "As many of the duties are carrier over to various funds, that it might appear at one view what duties are carried to each fund, we required from the fame office, an account to what funds the duties of the customs are carried, when paid into the exchequer, and what branches of thofe duties are kept under diftinct and feparate heads. account fhews us, that fix of them are carried to the general fund; thirteen, and a moiety of the duties under the head of cuftoms, to the aggregate fund; fix, the fouth fea fund; and eleven to the finking fund: that eight are unappropriated, and the remaining twenty-four, with the other moiety of the customs, are kept under diftinct and feparate heads, and appropriated to fpecific fervices. "The appropriation of these funds does not appear in these accounts; and, therefore, we applied to the fame office for accounts of the fervices to which the general, aggregate, fouth fea, and finking funds, are refpectively applicable. "Being thus furnished with the knowledge of the appropriation of every custom duty, in the office of the receipt of the exchequer, whether by itself, or in common with other duties; and, being affisted by the information of Mr. Hughfon, clerk of the debentures in that office; we are enabled to form fome judgment, whether any objection arifes to this plan of confolidation from the circumftance of the appropriation. 66 "In the account of the funds to which the duties are carried, there are three diftinctions; the unappropriated duties, the duties carried over to the compound funds and, thofe if the fund produces enough for every fervice, it is immaterial what fhare each branch contributes to it. thofe kept under separate and dif- vice: the fund receives the whole ; tinct heads. and whether it be more or lefs pro"The first class, not being ap-ductive, equally affects every fervices propriated at all, an account of the produce of them is laid before parliament fome time in every feffion, and that produce is applied to the current fervices of the year. There does not appear to us any reafon why this produce, being applicable every year to whatever fervice parliament think fit to direct it, fhould not be received into the exchequer as one fum, and thefe eight branches be united and blended together under one head. "The duties of the second class, being carried over to their refpective funds, are mixed with certain other duties, collected together from almost every fource of revenue. The number and variety that compofe each fund, appear in an account from the exchequer, of the feveral duties of which the general, aggregate, fouth fea, and finking funds are refpectively compofed. The duties thus brought together form in each fund one compound cafh; out of which the fervices to which the fund is made applicable are fupplied as they arife. In this iffue all diftinction of feparate appropriation is done away; there is no connection between any one of the fervices and any one of the component branches; the entire compound fund is made fubject to each fervice feparately, and to all them taken to gether. "It is true, that the diftinction in the receipt fhews how much each branch contributes to the common stock for any given period: but that knowledge feems to be mere matter of curiofity; no ufe is made of it; it is the ground of no operation of finance; the quantum of the produce has no relation to the quantum of any particular fer "It is frequently neceffary, for the regulation of the commerce upon any particular article, to know the annual amount of the duty produce by it; but that knowledge cannot be collected from the fum produced by any of these branches, because the fum paid into the exchequer upon any branch, does not diftinguifh from what articles the duties arife which compofe that fum; it comprehends the aggregate of the duties collected upon every article that has been imported or exported, within the time of the collection, liable to the duty. This knowledge is obtained from the infpector general of imports and ex ports, who keeps an account of every fpecies of goods, whether im ported or exported; and, the quantity of the goods, and the rate of the duty, being given, the sum of the duty produced by it in any given time is eafily computed. "Since the diftinction of the branches thus carried over in the receipt of the exchequer feems to us to be of no use, we are of opinion, that all the branches of the custom duties, carried over to these four funds, and amounting together to thirty feven, may be added to the eight unappropriated branches, aud the produce of them paid as one fum, under one head, into the rea ceipt of the exchequer. Of the twenty-five remaining branches, twenty-two are appro priated to the payment of annui ties; one, to the coinage; and the other two, to the encouragement of the growth, one of cotton in the Leeward Islands, the other of (K 2) hemp |