10 UA-58907690-1
10
shop
Advertiser
and
Placarder,
is
by
making
use
of
the
decreases,
which
daily
occur
in
his
stock,
between
the
periods
on
which
his
Excise
Officer
surveys
it
;
and,
as
he
is
not
obliged
to
render
any
account
of
such
decreases,
or,
if
in
any
particular
article
the
officer
should
find
no
decrease
from
the
last
stock
(although
it
should
be
well
known
to
him
that
a
portion
of
it
had
been
sold),
why
a
decrease
in
that
article
should
not
appear,
the
facilities
for
avoiding
any
detection
of
adulterating
practices
are
great
indeed.
With
the
cheap
advertiser,
however,
possessed
only
of
a
Wholesale
License,
which
does
not
allow
him
to
send
out
a
less
quantity
than
two
gallons,
the
case
is
widely
different
;
for,
not only
is
every
article
of
Spirits,
with
its
strength,
which
is
sent
from
his
stock,
taken
an
account
of,
but
for
any
decrease
that
may
appear
in
that
stock,
(no
matter
from
what
cause,*)
beyond
five
gallons
per
cent,
he
is
subject
*
One
of the
first
convictions
that
took
place
under
this
regu-
lation,
was,
I
believe,
with
a
Wine
Merchant
who
had
a
large
con-
nexion
in
the
navy,
and
who
pleaded
(on a
decrease
of
more
than
five
gallons
per
cent,
being
found
in
his
stock of
spirits)
that
he
had
been
treating
a
number
of
his
naval
customers
with
punch,
&c.
but
as
the
commissioners
did
not think
he
possessed
a
sufficient
number
to
cause
the
decrease,
his
plea
was
rejected
:
what
makes
the
circumstance
exceedingly
singular,
was
his
having
been
one
of
the
persons
who
proposed
and
assisted
in
the
framing
of
the
Act.
The
object
of
entailing
a
penalty
for
this
offence,
was
for
the
pur-
pose
of
protecting
the
Gin-shop-keeper
against
the
wholesale
dealer
acting
as
a
retailer
;
but
as
the
former
has
no
difficulty
with
his
decreases,
(although
having
a
wholesale
license
in
addition
to
his
other),
as
he
has
only
to
account
for
them
as
having
been
oc-