[From ‘Combe’s Constitution of Man.’]
A gentleman who was subject to the excise laws fifty years ago described
to me the condition of his trade at that time. The excise officers, he
said, regarded it as an understood matter that at least one half of the
goods manufactured were to be smuggled without being charged with duty;
but then, said he, “they made us pay a moral and pecuniary penalty that
was at once galling and debasing. We were required to ask them to our
table at all meals, and place them at the head of it in our holiday
parties; when they fell into debt, we were obliged to help them out of
it; when they moved from one house to another, our servants and carts
were in requisition to perform this office, and by way of keeping up
discipline upon us, and also to make a show of duty, they chose every
now and then to step in and detect us in a fraud and get us fined; if we
submitted quietly, they told us that they would make us amends by
winking at another fraud, and generally did so; but if our indignation
rendered passive obedience impossible, and we spoke our mind of their
character and conduct, they enforced the law on us, while they relaxed
it on our neighbours, and these being rivals in trade undersold us in
the market, carried away our customers, and ruined our business. Nor did
the bondage end here. We could not smuggle without the aid of our
servants, and as they could, on occasion of any offence given to
themselves, carry information to the head-quarters of excise, we were
slaves to them also, and were obliged tamely to submit to a degree of
drunkenness and insolence that appears to me now perfectly intolerable.
Farther, this evasion and oppression did us no good, for all the trade
were alike, and we just sold our goods so much cheaper the more duty we
evaded, so that our individual success did not depend upon superior
skill and superior morality in making an excellent article at a moderate
price, but upon superior capacity for fraud, meanness, sycophancy, and
every possible baseness. Our lives were anything but enviable.
Conscience, although greatly blunted by practices that were universal
and viewed as inevitable, still whispered that they were wrong; our
sentiments of self-respect very frequently revolted at the insults to
which we were exposed, and there was a constant feeling of insecurity
from the great extent to which we were dependent upon wretches whom we
internally despised. When the government took a higher tone and more
principle, and greater strictness in the collection of the duties were
enforced, we thought ourselves ruined; but the reverse has been the
case. The duties, no doubt, are now excessively burdensome from their
amount, but that is their least evil. If it was possible to collect them
from every trader with perfect equality, our independence would be
complete, and our competition would be confined to superiority in
morality and skill. Matters are much nearer this point now than they
were fifty years ago, but still they would admit of considerable
improvement.”
---------------------
_Arab Account of Debtor and Creditor._--Corporal punishments are unknown
among the Arabs. Pecuniary fines are awarded, whatever may be the nature
of the crime of which a man is accused. Every offence has its fine
ascertained in the court of justice, and the nature and amount of those
graduated fines are well known to the Arabs. All insulting expressions,
all acts of violence, a blow however slight, (and a blow may differ in
its degree of insult according to the part struck,) and the infliction
of a wound, from which even a single drop of blood flows, all have their
respective fines fixed. The judge’s sentence is sometimes to this
effect:--(Bokhyt and Djolan are two Arabs who have quarrelled and
fought.)
Bokhyt called Djolan “a dog.” Djolan returned the insult by a blow upon
Bokhyt’s arm; then Bokhyt cut Djolan’s shoulder with a knife. Bokhyt
therefore owes to Djolan--
For the insulting expression 1 sheep
For wounding him in the shoulder 3 camels