Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/627

Rh as possible to the customs imposed on the same kind of imported commodities. The term is supposed to find its origin also in the circumstance that it was originally the practice to cut off, or "excise," portions of the goods assessed, and take them away in payment of the tax in kind. The first attempt to impose an excise tax in England was in 1525, and failed, as both Houses of Parliament concurred in opinion that it was unconstitutional. After the Restoration, or under Charles II, the attempt was successfully renewed, and the taxes under it were very curiously divided into two classes, and the receipts from the same made personal to the crown—namely, the hereditary excise, so called because granted to the crown forever in consideration or recompense for the abandonment by the crown of certain perquisites and privileges; and the temporary excise, the receipts of which were only granted to the sovereign for life. The tax was, however, always unpopular in England, being regarded as contrary to the spirit and principles of a just government, and on the accession of William and Mary it was greatly modified and reduced; and it is somewhat curious that a term having such an origin and history should have found a place in the Federal Constitution and be thus recognized as a legitimate form of taxation under a free government. In Great Britain at the present time the only commodities on which taxes designated as excise are assessed are spirits, malt, fermented liquors, and chicory, or other substitutes for coffee. But in addition the British system classifies under the head of excise its taxes on railways and a few other minor subjects.

The late United States Justice Miller defined an excise tax as "one which is assessed upon some article of property or money or something which is exhausted in the use. It is one which from its essence and nature must be paid in fact by the buyer, or the last man who buys or uses the property, because, whoever has it at the time when the tax is levied upon it adds that amount to the selling price when he comes to dispose of it until the property is consumed. It is a tax upon consumption." (Lectures on the Constitution of the United States, p. 238.)

In the United States all Federal taxes that are not levied under the tariff and navigation laws are classified under the general designation of "internal revenue taxes."

The term toll, formerly in extensive use, and signifying duties on imports and exports, is now nearly obsolete, and restricted