The _beer duty_ dates from 1880, in which year it was substituted for the duty on malt. The specific gravity of the worts depends chiefly on the amount of sugar which they contain, and is ascertained by the saccharometer.
Excise _licences_ may be divided into--(a) licences for the sale or manufacture of excisable liquors, (b) licences for other trades, such as tobacco dealers or manufacturers, auctioneers, pawnbrokers, &c., (c) licences for male servants, carriages, motors and armorial bearings, and (d) gun, game and dog licences. Nearly the whole of the licence duties is paid over to the local taxation account.
The _railway passenger duty_, which was made an excise duty by the Railway Passenger Duty Act 1847, applies only to Great Britain. It is levied on all passenger fares exceeding 1d. per mile, the rate being 2% on urban and 5% on other traffic.
The other items which go to make up the excise revenue are the charges on deliveries from bonded warehouses, and the duties on coffee mixture labels and on chicory.
For more detailed information reference should be made to Highmore's _Excise Laws_, and the annual reports of the commissioners of inland revenue, especially those issued in 1870 and 1885. See also TAXATION; ENGLISH FINANCE.
EXCOMMUNICATION (Lat. _ex_, out of, away from; _communis_, common), the judicial exclusion of offenders from the rights and privileges of the religious community to which they belong. The history of the practice of excommunication may be traced through (1) pagan analogues, (2) Hebrew custom, (3) primitive Christian practice, (4) medieval and monastic usage, (5) modern survivals in existing Christian churches.
1. Among pagan analogues are the Gr. [Greek: chernibôn eirgesthai] (Demosth. 505, 14), the exclusion of an offender from purification with holy water. This exclusion was enforced in the case of persons whose hands were defiled with bloodshed. Its consequences are described Aesch. _Choëph._ 283, _Eum._ 625 f., Soph. _Oed. Tyr._ 236 ff. The Roman _exsecratio_ and diris _devotio_ was a solemn pronouncement of a religious curse by priests, intended to call down the divine wrath upon enemies, and to devote them to destruction by powers human and divine. The Druids claimed the dread power of excluding offenders from sacrifice (Caes. _B.G._ vi. 13). Primitive Semitic customs recognize that when persons are laid under a ban or taboo (_herem_) restrictions are imposed on contact with them, and that the breach of these involves supernatural dangers. Impious sinners, or enemies of the community and its god, might be devoted to utter destruction.
