The people should pay a rateable tax for their sheep, and an _Excise_ for every thing which they should eat.--HAYWARD. "Ambitious now to take _excise_ Of a more fragrant paradise."--CLEVELAND. _EXCISE._ "With hundred rows of teeth the shark exceeds, And on all trades, like Cassawar, she feeds." MARVEL. "Can hire large houses and oppress the poor By farm'd Excise."--DRYDEN'S Juvenal, Sat. 3. The Author's definition being observed by the Commissioners of Excise, they desire the favour of your opinion: _Qu._--Whether it will not be considered as a libel; and if so, whether it is not proper to proceed against the author, printers and publishers thereof, or any and which of them, by information or how otherwise? _OPINION._ "I am of opinion that it is a libel; but under all the circumstances, I should think it better to give him an opportunity of altering his definition; and in case he don't, threaten him with an information. "(Signed) W. MURRAY. "29th Nov, 1755." * * * * * Samuel Sewall, whose remarkable "Diary" has within a few years been printed by the Massachusetts Historical Society, appears to have been the successor of John Foster, who printed the first book ever issued from the press in Boston,--namely, "Hubbard's Election Sermon,"--in 1676. All previous printing in the colony had been executed at Cambridge. Mr. Hubbard was the minister of Ipswich. SAMUEL SEWALL. When John Foster (the first who carried on printing in Boston) died in 1681, the town was without the benefit of the press; but a continuance of it being thought necessary, _Samuel Sewall_, not a printer but a magistrate, and a man much respected, was selected as a proper person to manage the concerns of it, and as such was recommended to the general court. In consequence of this recommendation, the court, in Oct. 1681, gave him liberty to carry on the business of printing in Boston. The _license_ is thus recorded: "Samuel Sewall, at the instance of some Friends, with respect to the accommodation of the public, being prevailed with to undertake the Management of the Printing Press in Boston, late under the command of Mr. John Foster, deceased, liberty is accordingly granted to him for the same by this court, and none may presume to set up any other Press without the like Liberty first granted."