tax will be felt much more severely by one commodity than by
another. Again, there is always a difficulty in obtaining a
true valuation on the exported goods, for values from their
very nature are variable; while specific duties remain steady,
and the buyer can always ascertain exactly what he will have to
pay. The opening to fraud is also very great, for where, as
in the United States, the object of the duty is to keep out
foreign goods, every valuation at the port of shipment will be
looked upon with the utmost suspicion, while it will always be
a temptation to the foreign seller to undervalue, a temptation
in many cases encouraged by the importer, for it lessens his
tax, while the seller's market is increased. The staff of
appraisers which must necessarily be kept at each port of entry
considerably raises the expense, to say nothing of the annoyance
and delay caused both to importers and foreign shippers.
The term ``ad valorem'' is used also of stamp duties. By the
Stamp Act 1891 certain classes of instruments, e.g. awards,
bills of exchange, conveyances or transfers, leases, &c., must
be stamped in England with the proper ad valorem duty, that is,
the duty chargeable according to the value of the subject matter
of the particular instruments or writings. (See STAMP DUTIES.)
ADVANCEMENT, a term technically used in English law for a
sum of money or other benefit, given by a father during his
lifetime to his child, which must be brought into account by
the child on a distribution of the father's estate upon an
intestacy on pain of his being excluded from participating
in such distribution. The principle is of ancient origin;
as regards goods and chattels it was part of the ancient
customs of London and the province of York, and as regards
land descending in coparcenary it has always been part
of the common law of England under the name of hotch-pot
(q.v.). The general rule was established by the Statutes of
Distribution. The conditions under which cases of advancement
arise are as follows: There must be a complete intestacy;
the intestate estate must be that of the father; and the
advancement must have been made in the lifetime of the
father. Land which belongs or would belong to a child as
heir at law or customary heir need not be brought in to
the common fund, even though such land was given during the
father's life. The widow can gain no advantage from any
advancement. No child can be forced to account for his or
her advancement, but in default thereof he will be excluded
from a share in the intestate's estate. As to what is an
advancement there has been much conflict of judicial opinion.
According to one view, nothing is an advancement unless it be
given ``on marriage or to establish the child in life.'' The
other and probably the correct view is that any considerable
sum of money paid to a child at that child's request is an
advancement; thus payment of a son's debts of honour has been
held to be an advancement. On the other hand, trivial gifts
and presents to a child are undoubtedly not advancements.
ADVANTAGE, that which gives gain or helps forward in any
way. The Fr. avant (before) shows the origin and meaning of
this word, the d having subsequently crept in and corrupted
the spelling. It is often contracted to ``vantage.'' In
some games (e.g. lawn tennis) the term ``vantage'' is used
technically in scoring (``deuce'' and ``vantage''; ``vantage
sets''). A position which gives a better chance of success
than its surroundings is called a ``vantage ground.''
In an unfavourable sense the word ``advantage'' is used
to express a mean use made of some favourable condition
(e.g. to take advantage of another man's misfortunes).
ADVENT (Lat. Adventus, sc. Redemptoris, ``the coming
of the Saviour''), a holy season of the Christian church, the
period of preparation for the celebration of the nativity or
Christmas. In the Eastern church it lasts from St Martin's
Day (11th of November), and in other churches from the
Sunday nearest to St Andrew's Day (30th of November) till
Christmas. It is uncertain at what date the season began to be
observed. A canon of a council at Saragossa in 380, forbidding
the faithful to be absent from church during the three weeks
from the 17th of December to the Epiphany, is thought to be an
early reference to Advent. The first authoritative mention of
it is in the Synod of Lerida (524), and since the 6th century
it has been recognized as the beginning of the ecclesiastical
year. With the view of directing the thoughts of Christians
to the first coming of Christ as Saviour, and to his second
coming as Judge, special lessons are prescribed for the four
Sundays in Advent. From the 6th century the season was kept
as a period of fasting as strict as that of Lent; but in the
Anglican and Lutheran churches the rule is now relaxed. In
the Roman Catholic church Advent is still kept as a season of
penitence. Dancing and festivities are forbidden, fasting
enjoined and purple vestments are worn in the church services.
In many countries Advent was long marked by diverse popular
observances, some of which even still survive. Thus in England,
especially the northern counties, there was a custom (now
extinct) for poor women to carry round the ``Advent images,'' two
dolls dressed one to represent Christ and the other the Virgin
Mary. A halfpenny was expected from every one to whom these were
exhibited, and bad luck was thought to menace the household not
visited by the doll-bearers before Christmas Eve at the latest.
In Normandy the farmers still employ children under twelve to
run through the fields and orchards armed with torches, setting
fire to bundles of straw, and thus it is believed driving out
such vermin as are likely to damage the crops. III Italy among
other Advent celebrations is the entry into Rome in the last
days of Advent of the Calabrian pifferari or bagpipe players,
who play before the shrines of the Holy Mother. The Italian
tradition is that the shepherds played on these pipes when they
came to the manger at Bethlehem to do homage to the Saviour.
ADVENTISTS, SECOND, members of religious bodies whose
distinctive feature is a belief in the imminent physical
return of Jesus Christ. The first to bear the name were the
followers of William Miller, and adherents have always been
more numerous in America than in Europe. There is a body of
Seventh Day Adventists who observe the old Sabbath (Saturday)
rather than the Christian Sunday. They counsel abstemious
habits, but set no time for the coming of Christ, and so are
spared the perpetual disappointments that overtake the ordinary
adventist. They have some 400 ministers and 60,000 members.
ADVENTITIOUS (from Lat. adventicius, coming from
abroad), a quality from outside, in no sense part of the
substance or circumstance: a man's clothes, or condition
of life, his wealth or his poverty, are called by Carlyle
``adventitious wrappages,'' as being extrinsic, superadded
and not a natural part of him. In botany the word means
that which is not normal to the plant, which appears
irregularly and accidentally, e.g. buds or roots out of
place, or strange spots and streaks not native to the flower.
ADVENTURE (from Lat. res adventura, a thing about to
happen), chance, and especially chance of danger; so a hazardous
enterprise or remarkable incident. Thus an ``adventurer,''
from meaning one who takes part in some speculative course
of action, came to mean one who lived by his wits and a
person of no character. The word is also used in certain
restricted legal connexions. Joint adventure, for instance,
may be distinguished from partnership (q.v.). A bill
of adventure in maritime law (now apparently obsolete)
is a writing signed by the shipmaster declaring that goods
shipped in his name really belong to another, to whom he is
responsible. The bill of gross adventure in French maritime
law is an instrument making a loan on maritime security.
ADVERTISEMENT, or ADVERTISING (Fr. avertissement,
warning, or notice), the process of obtaining and particularly
of purchasing publicity. The business of advertising is of
very recent origin if it be regarded as a serious adjunct
to other phases of commercial activity. In some rudimentary
form the seller's appeal to the buyer must, however, have
accompanied the earliest development of trade. Under
conditions of primitive barter, communities were so small that
every producer was in immediate personal contact with every
consumer. As the primeval man's wolfish antipathy to the
stranger of another pack gradually diminished, and as intercourse
spread the infection of larger desires, the trapper could
no longer satisfy his more complicated wants by the mere
exchange of his pelts for his lowland neighbour's corn and
oil. A began to accept from B the commodity which he could
in turn deliver to C, while C in exchange for B's product
gave to A what D had produced and bartered to C. The mere
statement of such a transaction sufficiently presents its
clumsiness, and the use of primitive forms of coin soon
simplified the original process of bare barter. It is
reasonable to suppose that as soon as the introduction of
currency marked the abandonment of direct relations between
purchaser and consumer an informal system of advertisement
in turn rose to meet the need of publicity. At first the
offer of the producer must have been brought to the trader's
attention, and the trader's offer to the notice of the
consumer, by casual personal contact, supplemented by local
rumour. The gradual growth of markets and their development
into periodical fairs, to which merchants from distant places
resorted, afforded, until printing was invented, the only
means of extended advertisement. In England, during the 3rd
century, Stourbridge Fair attracted traders from abroad as
well as from all parts of England, and it may be conjectured
that the crying of wares before the booths on the banks of
the Stour was the first form of advertisement which had any
marked effect upon English commerce. As the fairs of the
middle ages, with the tedious and hazardous journeys they
involved, gradually gave place to a more convenient system of
trade, the 15th century brought the invention of printing,
and led the Way to the modern development of advertising. The
Americans, to whom the elaboration of newspaper advertising is
primarily due, had but just founded the first English-speaking
community in the western hemisphere when the first newspaper
was published in England. But although the first periodical
publication containing news appeared in the month of May
1622, the first newspaper advertisement does not seem to
have been published until April 1647. It formed a part of
No. 13 of Perfect Occurrences of Every Daie journall in
Parliament, and other Moderate Intelligence, and it read as
follows:-A Book applauded by the Clergy of England, called
The Divine Right of church Government, Collected by
sundry eminent Ministers in the Citie of London; Corrected
and augmented in many places, with a briefe Reply to certain
Queries against the Ministery of England; Is printed and
published for Joseph Hunscot and George Calvert, and
are to be sold at the Stationers' Hall, and at the Golden
Fleece in the Old Change. Among the Mercuries, as the
weekly newspapers of the day were called, was the Mercurius
Elencticus, and in its 45th number, published on the 4th of
October 1648, there appeared the following advertisement:--
The Reader is desired to peruse a Sermon,
