country would wish to fee farther increased. Yet it has been greatly increafed fince the time of this excellent judge, and, I believe, with additional vexations and severities. The officers, concerned in this branch of revenue, are authorized to enter and to fearch the houses of perfons, who deal in excifeable articles, at all hours of the day, and in many cafes, of the night also. And the proceedings, under fufpicion of tranfgreffion, are so summary and fudden, that, in a very short space of time, a man may be convicted in the penalty of many thousand pounds, by two commiffioners, or justices of the peace, or even by the fame number of magiftrates, in the smallest corporate town, to the total exclusion of the trial by jury, and without regard to the common law of the land. *

This mode of affeffment might, perhaps, be rendered more confonant to the principles of British liberty, and to the ordinary proceedings of legal administration. There feems to be no fufficient reafon for the exclufion of a jury, nor for deciding in a way fo unusually fudden and fummary. Appeals, alfo, fhould be admiffible, in all cafes, to the quarter feffions, or to fome public and respectable tribunal. And the perfons profecuted fhould be allowed counfel for their defence, together with full cofts of fuit, and even damages, if judgment

See Blackstone, Burn's Juftice of the Peace, &c..

be

be awarded in their favor. Nor does it feem equitable, provided no perjury has been practifed, nor malignant intention manifefted, that, when the plaintiff is non-fuited, the officer of revenue should recover treble cofts. Thefe alterations in the statutes of excife would not occafion any delay, of confequence, to the revenue; and they might obviate abuses, which, by creating murmurs and difcontent, diminish the veneration due to the laws. (G)

In the Highlands of Scotland, it is faid by Lord Kaims, that the excife upon ale and fpirits defrays not the falaries' of the officers, who levy it. The people, therefore, are burthened with a contribution, which adds to the expence of government, and withdraws from useful labor many industrious hands. This last confideration seldom enters into the estimate of the financier: Yet the magnitude of it will be apparent from the late obfervations of M. Necker, who computes that the tax-gatherers in France amount to two hundred and fifty thousand perfons; thirty-five thousand of whom devote their whole time to the bufinefs. The enforcement of impofts by oaths may be fuppofed rather to increase, than to diminish their moral validity. Yet it is a practice that, on trivial occafions, feems to participate of impiety; and, on all occafions, is conducted with fo much carelefnefs and irreverence, as tends to the most pernicious confequences. A million

of

of perjuries are supposed, by a very able calculator, to be annually committed in this kingdom.* (H)

*

In the definition of a tax, which has the full force of a moral obligation, it has been laid down, as its ultimate and most important conftituent, that it is a levy made for the PUBLIC GOOD. And it is the fpecial duty of the fupreme power to keep this facred end in view, in the exaction of every fubfidy. The confidence and veneration of the people would thus be fecured; and a respectful fubmiffion would be paid even to the errors of government, as unavoidable confequences of human frailty; and as only temporary grievances, which better information would redrefs. In the application alfo of the national funds, the like rigid attention to wifdom and rectitude fhould be uniformly maintained. How often has it been urged to me, fays M. Necker, can you refuse to afk the king for a thousand crowns, to relieve fuch a person whofe misfortunes are known to you. Will the royal exchequer be the poorer for it? Forget, I have replied, this royal exchequer, which you confider only as an accumulated mass of money, without having examined its fource: A thousand crowns are the amount of the land-tax of two villages; and I leave you to judge whether the perfon for whom you folicit has a juft claim to the labor and contributions of their inhabitants.

• Price on the American revolution, p. 82.

It is a violation (obferves the fame honeft financier, in another part of his work, with which I fhall now conclude)-It is a violation of the most facred of all depofits, to employ the facrifices of a whole nation in inconfiderate prodigalities, useless expences, and undertakings foreign to the good of the state.

N. B. The enlargement of this essay, bas occafioned fupernumerary pages, which the printer has diftinguished by crotchets. An Appendix, containing notes and illuftrations, is inferted at the end of the volume.

Of POPULAR ILLUSIONS, and particularly of MEDICAL DEMONOLOGY. By JOHN FERRIAR, M. D.

TH

HERE are two claffes of readers, who will probably expect little entertainment from the fubject of this effay; those who are not acquainted with it as a branch of literature, will think it an idle

tafk

talk to attack the forgotten follies of the nursery; those who know the number, the ingenuity and importance of writers in this controverfy, may fuppofe that little can be added to their labours. To the first I acknowledge, that we fhould hardly expect that extravagant conceptions, frequently originating in the imbecility of obfcure and frantic individuals, should intereft political as well as literary bodies, should be defended and fupported with the moft turbulent clamours, and fhould fometimes endanger the fafety and order of fociety; yet fuch have been the effects of popular illufions; fome of them indeed fo extraordinary, that nothing but the occurrence of fimilar events in our own times could gain them belief. These facts conftitute a curious part of the history of human reason, and every where obtrude themselves in medical researches, yet I believe the fubject is in general mifapprehended, and errors are imputed to ignorance, which, however they arofe, were fupported in the most enlightened times, and by writers of the greatest knowledge and acuteness. A proper attention to fome facts feparated from the great mafs (for I dare not undertake a complete history) will convince us, that fuch infatuations are not always to be ascribed to the occafional workings of diftempered minds, but to the general perfuafion of the most intelligent; and that they derive their origin from the abuse of tendencies imparted for better purposes.

Ignorance