the British jurisprudence, an ancient court of record, in which all causes concerning the revenues and rights of the crown are heard and determined, and where the crown revenues are received.

It took this name from the cloth that covered the table of the court, which was party-coloured, or chequered.

This court is said to have been erected by William the conqueror, its model being taken from a like court established in Normandy long before that time. Anciently its authority was so great, that it was held in the king's palace, and the acts thereof were not to be examined or controled in any other of the king's courts; but, at present, it is the last of the four courts at Westminster.

In the exchequer, some reckon seven courts, viz. those of pleas, accounts, receipts, exchequer-chamber (which is an assembly of all the judges on difficult matters in law), errors in the exchequer, errors in the king's bench, and, lastly, the court of equity in the exchequer.

But the exchequer, for the dispatch of business, is generally divided into two parts; one of which is chiefly conversant in the judicial hearing and deciding of all causes relating to the king's coffers, formerly termed the exchequer of accounts; the other is called the receipt of the exchequer, as being principally employed in receiving and paying of money.

Officers of the receipt may take one penny in the pound, as their fee for sums issued out; and they are obliged, without delay, to receive the money brought thither; and the money received is to be put into chests under three different locks and keys, kept by three several officers. All sheriffs, bailiffs, &c. are to account in the exchequer; and in the lower part, termed the receipt, the debtors of the king, and persons in debt to them, the king's tenants, and the officers and ministers of the court, are privileged to sue one another, or any stranger, and to be sued in the like actions as are brought in the courts of king's bench and common-pleas.

The judicial part of the exchequer, is a court both of law and equity. The court of law is held in the office of pleas, according to the course of common law, before the barons: in this court, the plaintiff ought to be a debtor or accountant to the king; and the leading process is either a writ of subpoena, or quo minus, which last goes into Wales, where no process out The court of equity is held in the exchequer chamber before the treasurer, chancellor, and barons; but generally, before the barons only; the lord chief baron being the chief judge to hear and determine all causes. The proceedings in this part of the exchequer are by English bill and answer, according to the practice of the court of chancery; with this difference, that the plaintiff here must set forth, that he is a debtor to the king, whether he be so or not. It is in this court of equity that the clergy exhibit bills for the recovery of their tithes, &c. Here too the attorney-general exhibits bills for any matters concerning the crown; and a bill may be exhibited against the king's attorney by any person aggrieved in any cause prosecuted against him on behalf of the king, to be relieved therein: in which case, the plaintiff is to attend on the attorney-general, with a copy of the bill, and procure him to give in an answer thereto; in the making of which he may call in any person interested in the cause, or any officer, or others, to instruct him, that the king be not prejudiced thereby, and his answer is to be put in without oath.

But, besides the business relating to debtors, farmers, receivers, accountants, &c., all penal punishments, intrusion, and forfeitures upon popular actions, are matters likewise cognizable by this court; where there also sits a puisne-baron, who administers the oaths to high sheriffs, bailiffs, auditors, receivers, collectors, comptrollers, surveyors, and searchers of all the customs, &c.

The exchequer in Scotland has the same privileges and jurisdiction as that of England; and all matters competent to the one, are likewise competent to the other.

Black Book of the Exchequer, a book containing a description of the court of England in 1755, and its officers, with their ranks, wages, privileges, perquisites, &c., also the revenues of the crown, both in money and cattle.

Exchequer Bills. By statute 5 Ann c. 13, the lord-treasurers may cause exchequer bills to be made of any sums not exceeding £1,500,000 for the use of the war; and the duties upon houses were made chargeable with 4l. 10s. per cent. per annnum to the bank for circulating them. The bank not paying the bills, actions to be brought against the company, and the money and damages recovered; and if any exchequer-bills be lost, upon affidavit of it before a baron of the exchequer, and certificate from such baron, and security to pay the same if found, duplicates are to be made out: also when bills are defaced, new ones shall be delivered. The king, or his officers in the exchequer, by former statutes, might borrow money upon the credit of bills, payable on demand, with interest after the rate of 3d. per diem for every 100l. bill. And by 8 & 9 W. 3. c. 20, an interest of 5d. a-day was allowed for every 100l. But 12 W. 3. c. 1, lowered the interest on these bills to 4d. a-day per cent. And by 12 Ann. c. 11, it is sunk to 2d. a-day.—Forging exchequer bills, or the indorsements thereof, is felony.

Excise, (from the Belgic accisse, tributum, "tribute," an inland duty or imposition, paid sometimes upon the consumption of the commodity, or frequently upon the wholesale, which is the last stage before the consumption. This is doubtless, impartially speaking, the most economical way of taxing the subject; the charges of levying, collecting, and managing the excise-duties, being considerably less in proportion, than in other branches of the revenue. It also renders the commodity cheaper to the consumer, than charging it with customs to the same amount would do; for the reason just now given, because generally paid in a much later stage of it. But, at the same time, the rigour and arbitrary proceedings of excise-laws seem hardly compatible with the temper of a free nation. For the frauds that might be committed in this branch of the revenue, unless a strict watch is kept, make it necessary, wherever it is established, to give the officers a power of entering and searching the houses of such as deal in excisable commodities, at any hour of the day, and, in many cases, of the night likewise. And the proceedings, in case of transgressions, are so summary and sudden, that a man may be convicted in two days time in the penalty of many thousand pounds, by two commissioners or justices of the peace; to the total exclusion of the trial by jury, and disregard of the common law. For which reason, the lord Clarendon tells us, that to his knowledge the earl of Bedford (who was made lord treasurer by king Charles I. to oblige his parliament) intended to have set up the excise in England, yet it never made a part of that unfortunate prince's revenue; being first introduced, on the model of the Dutch prototype, by the parliament itself after its rupture with the crown. Yet such was the opinion of its general unpopularity, that when in 1642 "aspirations were cast by malignant persons upon the house of commons, that they intended to introduce excises, the house for its vindication therein did declare, that these rumours were false and scandalous, and that their authors should be apprehended and brought to condign punishment." Its original establishment was in 1643, and its progress was gradual; being at first laid upon those persons and commodities where it was supposed the hardship would be least perceivable, viz. the makers and vendors of beer, ale, cider, and perry; and the royalists at Oxford soon followed the example of their brethren at Westminster, by imposing a similar duty: both sides protesting, that it should be continued no longer than to the end of the war, and then be utterly abolished. But the parliament at Westminster soon after imposed it on flesh, wine, tobacco, sugar, and such a multitude of other commodities, that it might be fairly denominated general: in pursuance of the plain laid down by Mr Pymme (who seems to have been the father of the excise) in his letter to Sir John Hotham, signifying, "that they had proceeded in the excise to many particulars, and intended to go on farther; but that it would be necessary to use the people to it by little and little." And afterwards, when the nation had been accustomed to it for a series of years, the succeeding champions of liberty boldly and openly declared "the impost of excise to be the most easy and indifferent levy that could be laid upon the people;" and accordingly continued it during the whole usurpation. Upon king Charles's return, it having then been long established and its produce well known, some part of it was given to the crown.