, whether imported or raised at home,
and paid in the hands of the consumer or retailer; consequently, it is
collected through the whole country. These are the true definitions of
these words as used in England, and in the greater part of the United
States. But in Massachusetts, they have perverted the word excise to
mean a tax on all liquors, whether paid in the moment of importation or
at a later moment, and on nothing else. So that in reading the debates
of the Massachusetts convention, you must give this last meaning to the
word excise.

Rotation is the change of officers required by the laws at certain
epochs, and in a certain order: thus, in Virginia, our justices of the
peace are made sheriffs one after the other, each remaining in office
two years, and then yielding it to his next brother in order of
seniority. This is the just and classical meaning of the word. But in
America we have extended it (for want of a proper word) to all cases of
officers who must be necessarily changed at a fixed epoch, though the
successor be not pointed out in any particular order, but comes in
by free election. By the term rotation in office, then, we mean an
obligation on the holder of that office to go out at a certain period.
In our first Confederation, the principle of rotation was established
in the office of President of Congress, who could serve but one year in
three, and in that of a member of Congress, who could serve but three
years in six.

I believe all the countries in Europe determine their standard of money,
in gold as well as silver. Thus, the laws of England direct that a pound
Troy of gold, of twenty-two carats fine, shall be cut into forty-four
and a half guineas, each of which shall be worth twenty-one and a
half shillings, that is, into 956 3/4 shillings. This establishes the
shilling at 5.518 grains of pure gold. They direct that a pound of
silver, consisting of 11 1/10 ounces of pure silver, and 9/10 of an
ounce alloy, shall be cut into sixty-two shillings. This establishes
the shilling at 85.93 grains of pure silver, and, consequently, the
proportion of gold to silver as 85.93 to 5.518, or as 15.57 to 1. If
this be the true proportion between the value of gold and silver at the
general market of Europe, then the value of the shilling, depending
on two standards, is the same, whether a payment be made in gold or
in silver. But if the proportion at the general market of Europe be as
fifteen to one, then the