examination into his qualifications, which is termed "taking out a character." To take the case of a supervisor, for example, who petitions for promotion: the whole of his books for one year and the books of the officers under him for a quarter of a year, are examined in the office of the country examiners; all the accounts are re-cast, and errors in the books of the subordinate officers are reckoned to the supervisor's disadvantage. When this has been done, a surveying-general examiner carries the investigation further, and ascertains whether the supervisor has discharged his duties judiciously or not; amongst other things, whether he has been longer employed on a duty than he ought to have been if fully competent for his office. The whole examination occupies about two months; and when the final report is laid before the commissioners the name of the officer is not given.

Wales, exclusive of the London collection, and at the head of each is a collector, who visits the principal towns in his circuit eight times a year to receive the duties and transact other business connected with the department; besides which he is required to have an eye generally upon the discipline and efficiency of the service. The number of officers in a collection varies from forty to ninety. The next subdivision of a collection is the district, at the head of which is a supervisor. Next come the subdivisions of the districts into rides and divisions, or foot-walks. Where the traders are scattered, the officer is obliged to keep a horse, and his circuit is called a ride; but if a larger number of traders reside in a smaller circuit, they are visited by the officer on foot, and then the subdivision is termed a division or foot-walk. Before going out each day, the officer leaves a memorandum at his home which states the places he intends to survey, and the order in which he will visit them; and the exact time at which he commences each must be entered in his journal. The supervisor re-surveys some of the officer's surveys, but which they will be the officer is of course ignorant; and if errors are discovered, they must be entered in the supervisor's diary. These diaries are transmitted to the chief office every two months, and no officer is promoted unless the diaries show him to be efficient. The periodical removal of offi-ingly recommended them to leave all cers from one part of the country to another was Mr. Pitt's suggestion, and is still acted upon: about 1100 officers change their residence yearly. The Commissioners of Excise Inquiry doubt the advantage of this system to the public service; and it is injurious to the officers by interfering with the comfort of their families and interrupting the education of their children. At the chief office in London there is a department of Survey-mission, namely, by excluding them from ing-General Examiners, who are despatched to any district without previous intimation, as a check upon the accuracy and integrity of the supervisors. Promotions take place in the Excise department after a certain fixed period in each grade, and only then when the officer petitions for advancement. This involves a rigid

EXCOMMUNICATION is the highest ecclesiastical censure which can be pronounced by a spiritual judge. The person against whom it is pronounced is for the time excluded from the communion of the church. This punishment, according to some opinions, had its origin in the advice given by St. Paul when reproving the early Christians for scandalizing their profession by prosecuting law-suits against each other before heathen judges; and the apostle accord

matters in dispute between them to the decision of the Ecclesia, or the congregation of the faithful.

The bishop and his clergy, and afterwards the bishop alone, became sole judge in these disputes; but possessing no coercive powers to enforce their decrees, they were obliged to adopt the only means of which they could avail themselves, to bring the refractory to sub

the rites of the Church, and warning other Christians from their company and presence. A Christian thus shut out from the fellowship of his own brethren could not do otherwise than submit.

This censure, although instituted by the primitive church as the means of preserving its purity, and of enforcing obe

dience to its laws, was afterwards used for the extensive promotion of ecclesiastical power, and was converted into a means of oppression in those countries which were most subject to ecclesiastical power. (Robertson's History of Charles V., vol. ii. p. 109.)

|

A sen

| ecclesiastical order or sentence.
tence of excommunication was preceded
by three monitions at due intervals, or
one peremptory, containing the legal
space of time, with a proper regard to the
quality of the person and the nature of
the offence. But, as Blackstone in his
usual manner remarks, "heavy as the
penalty of excommunication is, considered
in a serious light, there are, notwithstand-
ing, many obstinate or profligate men,
who would despise the brutum julmen of
mere ecclesiastical censures, especially
when pronounced by a petty surro-
gate in the country, for railing or con-
tumelious words, for non-payment of fees
or costs, or other trivial causes. The
common law therefore compassionately
steps in to the aid of the ecclesiastical ju-
risdiction, and kindly lends a supporting
hand to an otherwise tottering authority."
This was effected by the writ "de excom-
municato capiendo," or for seizing the

In England excommunication became at an early period the means of punishment under the authority of the bishops, and others who had ecclesiastical jurisdiction. It was divided into the greater and the less excommunication. The latter only removed the person from a participation in the sacraments, and is what was most commonly meant by the term excommunication; the other was called anathema, and not only removed the party from the sacraments, but from the Church and all communication with the faithful, and even deprived him of Christian burial. Subjects were absolved from their allegiance to an excommunicated prince. Gregory V. was the first pre-excommunicate. But before the writ for late who ventured to excommunicate a reigning prince in the case of Robert, King of France, in 998. John and Henry VIII. are well-known instances in English history.

The following offenders were punished with the greater excommunication: diviners, heretics, their receivers and comforters; simoniacs; violators and plunderers of churches; those who spoiled clerks going to Rome; the plunderers of the property of a bishop which ought to go to his successor; those who gave aid, favour, or counsel to excommunicated persons; those who laid violent hands on clerks or religious persons, or commanded others to do so.

Those punished with the less excommunication were persons committing any mortal sin, as sacrilegious persons; those who received a church from lay hands; Lotorious offenders; those who talked with, saluted, or sat at the same table with, or gave anything in charity to persons excommunicated by the greater excommunication, unless they were familiars or domestics.

Excommunication was also pronounced for other matters which belong to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, such as adultery and fornication, or for contempt of any

taking the excommunicated person could
be granted, the contumacy and contempt
of the party were to be certified by the
bishop to the court of Chancery by letters
under his seal; and by 5 Eliz. c. 23, the
writ was made returnable into the King's
Bench. By the statute just cited the
cause of excommunication was
to be
stated in the writ, in order that the court
might judge as to the justice of the case.
The sentence of excommunication might
be revoked by the judge who passed the
sentence, or upon appeal the party might
be absolved. Absolution generally be
longed to the same person who passed
the sentence, unless in some particular
cases, which were referred to the pope or
a bishop. (Reeves's Hist. of English Lure;
Sullivan's Lectures.)

By a sentence of excommunication, both greater and less, the excommunicated were excluded from the right of Christian burial, from bringing or maintaining actions, from becoming attorneys or jurymen, and were rendered incapable of becoming witnesses in any cause. But since the 53 Geo. III. c. 127 (54 Geo. III. c 68, for Ireland), excommunication cannot now be pronounced in England or Ireland, except in certain cases (as spiritual censures for offences of ecclesias

When lands or other corporeal hereditaments are recovered, the process of execution varies according to the nature of the interest recovered. If a right to a freehold interest has been established, the writ commands the sheriff to give the recoverer seisin of the lands, &c., and is called Habere facias seisinam. If a chattel interest in land is recovered, the writ does not affect to authorize the sheriff to intermeddle with the freehold, and directs that officer merely to give possession of the land, &c. This is called Habere facias possessionem.

tical cognizance); and by the 3rd section | pecuniary compensation, the sheriff of of that statute "no person who shall be the county in which the party from whom pronounced or declared excommunicate such compensation is due is supposed to (pursuant to the second clause of this reside; which, until the contrary is statute) shall incur any civil penalty or shown, is taken to be the county in which incapacity, in consequence of such ex- the litigation was carried on. communication, save such imprisonment, not exceeding six months, as the court pronouncing or declaring such person excommunicate shall direct." The proceedings in those cases, in which excommunication may still be pronounced, are the same, as to the issuing and return of the writ, as they were before the act of 53 George III. By the same act (53 George III. c. 127), in all cases cognizable by the laws of England in ecclesiastical courts, when any person shall refuse to appear when cited by such court, or shall refuse to obey the lawful order or decree of such court, no sentence of excommunication, except in the cases above alluded to, shall be pronounced; but a writ "de contumace capiendo" shall issue, which in effect is the same as the old writ" de excommunicato capiendo"

was.

EXECUTION is the effect given to the judgments and other proceedings analogous to judgments of courts of law in civil suits. This term denotes the process by which a party is put into the possession of that to which the judgment of a competent court declares him to be entitled.

A judgment in the action of Detinue establishes the right of the recoverer to the possession of a specific personal chattel, and the writ of execution called a Distringas ad deliberandum issues, which requires the sheriff to coerce the defendant by his distringas (distress) to restore the specific chattel or its value.

A judgment for the defendant in Replevin establishes his right to the possession of the personal chattel which formed the subject of the litigation. In the ordinary case of an action of replevin after a distress, the right of the defendant in respect of the chattel distrained is merely to hold it as a security for the payment of the debt or duty, the pay

As a judgment of a court of common law ascertains that the party is entitled to the possession of some object of a realment or performance of which is sought or personal nature; or to recover damages in respect of property withheld or injuries done, so the execution founded upon such judgment will be framed with a view to putting the party in whose favour the judgment is given either in the possession of the thing in dispute, or to enable him to obtain pecuniary compensation.

For this purpose a written command issues in the name of the king or other lord of the court, to an officer of the court. When the judgment is in one of the king's superior courts at Westminster, the officer of the court for this purpose is the sheriff of the county in which the property is situated, or, in the case of

to be enforced by the coercion of a distress. The writ of execution requires the sheriff to cause the chattel to be re stored to the possession of the defendant. This is called a writ De retorno habendo, and in case the sheriff is unable to find the chattel, further process issues commanding him to take other chattels of the plaintiff as a substitute for that which is withheld, by a writ called a Capias in withernam.

The most ordinary cases of execution are those in which pecuniary compensation is to be obtained, but in these cases the sheriff is not authorized directly to take money from the party by whom it is to be paid. Formerly the only mode of

obtaining this compensation was by pro- | prove the will, as it is termed, which is cess of distringas or distress. And this done before the proper ecclesiastical is still the case in inferior courts; but in court, which furnishes him with a Prothe superior courts execution of judg- bate, or approved copy of the will, which ments or other records which establish is his authority for acting. The original pecuniary claims, may be had by a writ will is deposited in the registry of the of Fieri facias, which affects the personal court. An executor may do many acts property; by writ of Elegit, which affects in execution of the will before probate, both real and personal property; and by as paying and receiving debts, &c., bat Capias ad satisfaciendum, by which com- he cannot, before probate, sustain actions pliance with the pecuniary demand is en- or suits. An administrator can do noforced by detention of the person of the thing till the letters of administration are defaulter in prison until the claim be issued; for he owes his appointment to satisfied, or the adverse party consents to the ordinary. If an executor die before his discharge. probate, administration must be taken out to his testator, with the will annexed; but if an executor, having proved the will, die, his executor will be the execu tor and representative of the first testator, unless, before proving the will of the second testator, he expressly renounces the execution of the will of the first. If the executor dies intestate, his administrator is not the representative of the testator, but an administrator de bonis non, as it is termed, of the testator must be appointed by the ordinary. If there are several executors, the office survives, and is transmitted ultimately to the executor of the surviving executor, unless he dies intestate. Executors have a joint and entire interest in the effects of their testator; any one of them is capable of acting by himself; and the receipt of a debt, or the transfer of property by one, is as valid as if it had been done by all.

A subject is not entitled to pursue all these remedies at once; but in the case of the crown, the right to obtain satisfaction from the goods, lands, and person of its debtor may be enforced simultaneously, by writ of Capias, and Extendi facias, or Extent.

Execution is also the term applied to denote the giving effect to the sentence of a court of criminal jurisdiction. In this sense it is most commonly used with reference to the execution of sentence of death. [SHERIFF.]

EXECUTOR. An executor is he to whom another man commits by will the execution of his last will and testament. The origin of executors seems to be traceable to a constitution of Manuel Comnenus (wepì dioientŵv tŵv dia@ŋкŵv). | All persons who are capable of making a will, and some others besides, as married women and infants, are capable of being made executors; but infants are by statute rendered incapable of acting in the execution of the will until they attain the age of twenty-one.

If a stranger takes upon himself to act as executor without any authority, he is called an executor de son tort (of his own wrong), and is liable to all the trouble of an executor without any of the advanAn executor can derive his office from tages attached to the office. He is chargea testament alone, though it is not neces-able with the debts of the deceased, so far sary that he should be appointed by any particular words. If no executor is appointed by the will, administration is granted by the ordinary, with the will annexed, in which case the administrator is bound to obey the directions of the will. An executor may decline to act; but having once acted, he cannot divest himself of the office or its liabilities; nor can an administrator who has accepted the office get rid of his responsibility.

The first business of an executor is to

as assets come to his hands; and is liable not only to an action by the rightful executor or administrator, but also to be sued as executor of the deceased by the creditors and legatees. The only advantage which an executor derives from his office is the right to retain any debt due to him from the testator, as against creditors of equal degree, and this privilege is allowed him, because he cannot take any legal steps to recover payment.

The duties of executors and adminis