As  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  considered  some  of
the  provisions  of  this  act  injurious  to  that  colony,  it  passed
an  act  imposing  severe  and  uncommon  duties  on  provisions
and  all  kinds  of  wares  and  merchandise  coming  from  or
destined  for  New  Hampshire.  As  the  execution  of  the
latter  act  would  prove  very  detrimental  to  the  interests  of
the  smaller  province,  the  New  Hampshire  assembly  in  Sep-
tember voted  to  repeal  their  act  in  so  far  as  the  import  duties
on  liquor  and  the  export  duties  on  lumber  were  concerned,
provided  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  at  its  next
session  repealed  its  act  and  several  other  acts  which  were
particularly  injurious  to  the  trade  and  shipping  of  New
Hampshire.^  In  December,  the  assembly  further  postponed
the  execution  of  the  act  in  so  far  as  it  concerned  Massachu-
setts until  the  following  March  in  the  hope  that  the  latter
government  would  repeal  the  oppressive  duties  complained
of.  The  following  May,^  the  operation  of  the  act  was
further  suspended  until  Massachusetts  put  in  force  the  act
which  was  aimed  against  New  Hampshire.  As  the  import
and  export  duties  were  now  dropped,  the  only  indirect  re-
venue was  obtained  from  the  excise  duties.  The  latter  con-
tinued to  be  collected  with  some  alterations  and  additions,
throughout  the  provincial  period.  Instead,  however,  of  be-
ing revived  for  only  one  year  as  was  usually  the  custom  in
the  past,  they  were  generally  enforced,  from  this  time  on,  by
terms  of  years.  ^  In  like  manner,  the  excise  was  usually
farmed  out  to  the  highest  bidder  by  a  committee  of  the  two
houses,  sometimes  for  one  year  and  sometimes  for  a  num-

^ Provincial  Papers,  vol.  iii,  pp.  819,  827,  837;  New  Hampshire  State
Papers,  vol.  xix,  p.  159.
