The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1822-08-08 00:00:00

L [. it •f rest weirld and importance, couuter llhr obstacle.. never to . _ ranee./ peejedieeeandsetienel feel itpoopil t; poldt diffireities of esecol ehonld not he attempted, exempt mid afore the meet matared.libe►ai II ea•, the/croft, not bef.re ire examined I hese obstacles and ten rated with the ollSrittl persons wl rorap , tent to appreciate both the oi•e• et►endiot; tire Immure" eiliti a., float we rroolved ie saboil them lbepregives of our legally earl' • to dianiialith bur apparel...l4st of Mete einiprehesgive arrantmew has hem airmagthesed, that they nendoeittg • eomplete and perusal halloo of the werinnie, and of removing At reverent occuttated to the tommerciat Britain and Ireland. We now, therefore, lay theta one Lordships, with a thorough peissmion that every at tempt to moody she iarainventences and defects calf, (Vat log *plena, spas • hen eiteoeive pdariple, or to bolld • new omit up o n • tem outionaothil foondatioo, moat terntiotte in disappointment, and produce the tonal effect of mere pal ial tem—that of ultimately iwereaslng both the Decimally aid the 4.ficsalty a • more complete reformation. Our preseat Report will be con6oed in (he Reit of 'TM ahove-soipationed u yen Wel we ref...emend the ineorpuratios of the Brill& sad I'4 krrettee Eatabliahmenta, and the mode in which we ran cola. that Is may be beat effected with respect I. tie .Custan sad Revise. tf 111eb - Thilite of Greet Britain end !Maori eoold 'have Lees wilepleted at °wee in all its parte, the same Art by wliteh IM Legislatures of the two liloodotha were ' s hod world probably bare provided, *a le the ease of Scotland, for ehailat salsa of their veopeetirei revellers. Bat it wile eel Artieedlesetaiateet wit► • dee regard to the liteeeiel sod eontseereial retaliate of the tarewoestriee to carer that great ;oeuvre to so full as roliast. The Natoli Ireland readerod en Willereal of wawa peers estedrwory before that pert of 'the iJattell kingdom ceild be justly required to edotrihote to the tweetwas esperitlitere at the same rates, or by the use maim of lazatioe es. Great Britaie, at.i aloe before stle tee autevehasee of all wieeatfaerwres take Id be permitted, without aletrineei to ekterlitginteresie of great ierplieteeett tie both aides. %leder I heae circumstances, the Treeetariee d the two countries, •Inough ender the annul of the ISM Gowen own, connoted dished airibmitin; sod fbe Menai de pettineats subordinate to them, for the colleens titbit Re veune,tontioited to be distinct likewise. But when, by the Act of life, the Timmons had bee united, and the Re venues erne so Comalodated al to constitute only one food lot the owniamoo expeadini• of the Gaited Xiamkini, all we easily for a separate administration of thee Revemses in Inked wee removed ; and if it should mew appear that so object, either of economy or security, no be promoted by the continua/tee of distinct establishoteiris in that purpose, It would seem, lu every other view of the subject, to be most desirable dial each breech of the Reweave of the United Kingdom should henceforth be waited ceder one manage. mesa. Of dm superb* advantage of unity of direction and toe *repent •niformily of practice, whets eootraried with the dialing diversities both of authority sod mutinies is the aninearrimeat of elven Revlon; whether the comparing be made with reference to as efficacious colletitio, or to the convenience of the Tenon classes of the eomerinity by whom they are.aeubibeted, there mut exist, we apprehend, so reasonable doubt. In the cosine of our isvestigatioa, we live had ample opportunities of being made acquatuted with the ninnies and embarramemens °eastward by the differ ent methods of maseging the Re is the several puts of the United Kiagdoot. At the limits of each separate authority, the freedom of commercial iatereourse is ember reseed and checked, mot only by the repeated sad taisaeoid stile laterfereoces of revenge officers, bet by di i t ies is the methods of eluting sad denominating the various arti cles sishject to duty; by differences io the principles on which that duty Is charged and levied; by variations in the constranno of the tame laws; and, above all, by the differ ent degrees of strictness and impartiality with which ills public income is collected in Gnat Benin and Ireland re speetiely. These inmsalities and discordance, which are the necessary consequences of divided authorities, operate to the discouragement of that commercial 'eternise sod indus try which are atone' the main springs of sational nelfan, and constitute the most fertile sources of the public income. Of these various consequences of • twofold system of Re venue in the same kingdom, the marquel application of rim lara is perhaps the most prejodicial to commercial enterprise. In its effects it has all the evils of partial sod ill-adjusted lasstion, bearing with am unequal pressure upon members of the same community, and that, too, in • decree much enure injurious than if directly arising from the law itself; beestne, by its uncensloty, - it defies calculation, and cont. tennis among those engelted In trade all the priuciples uf fate eompet itioic. ' With respect to the intercoaree between Great Britain and lrelaud, it has the effect of de featiug the purpose fur which Ne corinteivailing duties were imposed- Those duties being fixed with mkt eace to the inmost and legal rates of taxa tion, upon all articles not taxed alike for consomptios in the two countries, were intended to afford the means of atonally l.terchangiog them on Ivens of equal advantage. But it occur. too firquenily iu the collection of the internal duties is Ireland, shut those which are imposed by Parlismeut are nut those which are actually levied, and the countervailing duties are thereby rendered inadequate to their ',Neck lo some branches of the cross amenl commerce, the spirit of enterpi Ise has been greatly represent by these irregulariiiea sod difficulties; the inaumfactuier sad trader base in miry innetiers been driveo into courses which, unshackled and at LLerty, they would never have pursued; the importation of some articles has been necessarily abandoned; and at this very time these anomalies in the contructio• and in the execution of the law appear likely, if not remedied, to lead to the entire rinversion of one considerable branch of man.. facture in Great Britain. To that ease we shall have nes stun to adre.t is another part of the present Report; and the more full development of the general obstruction and itenediments proceeding from this source, will belong to the (-port upon the Countervailing Ditties, wisieb we are about to ntnnit to your Lordships. These are great defies is matters of high animist im portance, and it is difficult to determine whether they op.. rate most injuriously upon the interests of the Revenue or Hp/ I time of the sebject. la eference to each, • speedy sad efficacious remedy is equally called for, as it is not more eseenrial that the bn.a should, by a vigilant, nomossical, sad impartial collection, be made alike productive I. every part of the Dusted Kingdom, accord's' to the provisious of the Is., than that they should be no kvied as to press with the smallest degree of vexation and severity upon individuals, which can be made consistent with the secure payment of so large • contribution to the exigence of the country. Although these cousiderationa, arising out of the eels of a divided authority, would alone furnish sufficient motives fur the cossolidation which we recommend, as the only watts of airmen the assimilation of practice contemplated in the Act by which we are appointed, other Teases fee adopting nut course, scarcely less powerful, have suggested them selves, and other defects will be found, for which It will af. ford the best, it not the only remedy. These exist is the sena' state cane Irish Reveaue Departments, which is such as threader a fundamental reformation of them a measure, in on judgment, of indispesisable necessity. Is offering this opinion we advert at present more peril ensrly to (be departments uf the Customs and Excise, to uhith our inquiries, chute in Ireland, were chiefly direcird, sad to which our recommendations in this Report will there fore be eteniuecl. The volontitous mass of docemests which form the Ap• prolit to this Report will be fouled chiefly composed of the avideate obtained through as inquiry shich preceded ours, •ad sly. by ourselves, relining to them two departments; they till sheer is minute detail the snore and extent of the establishments of each of them io 1819, the retrenchments adopted between that period and the year li2l, and the pre arht see of them according to the latest returns which have b. en made to us. They will also be fouled to contais all the uteseisations iit the Commissioners of the Customs in be lied opus abr various alleratiouo suggested is cosmopolite i.f the procredingi to which use have adverted, that Board V+stag mitt the inquiry with tLc immifestation ea ready din. Imperfect , J. Delays iwtel ogee . losto"en Ifutive ell them heads, both is the Carlota, sod is the Excise, might ►e adduced is great ssm►ers front the informatics .which we had ourselves as epportosity of eel. Ircting.. Rot arc► examples, however striking, would he far Mao conclusive thus the general teatientioy of Public Olken holding high situations in the R tlepartneole of Rag• lasi, who assisted t►e Goverassest of Ireland in 1819 in the masted°. of the inquiry to which we bars alluded, sad which wee vadertalten wit► a view to extensive aussores of reduction sad improvement. , Pervom,better gratified in all restores for such a terries Mudd set have bees selected; sad it is so isporisat edema• Cage to es in the performance of the duty which we have sew to discharge, that in forming our waft gmtersi views us she subject of the Irish Peerage, we. are oesbled to avail 'Ourselves of the minute ioquirite tato its details which those Gentlemen, from their practical hoonledgeo were so Seely coaspetest to parsec. . , Their proceedings ware coadocted seder the immediate directiou of the late Chief Seems, to the Lori Lientessot, pad their Report, epos the two Departawoleaso soder sow weesidevation, together wit► the duronerata by which they see supported, exhibit the zeal sad indoor, cal which their rtoearciedt were caroled eo, red sintaio shisidaat mailer to warrant the epicures which they have strongly expressed re► *petting she site of Irish establishments. TWA; corald heedly, Weed. ha a more strikias cad coo. wincing proof of the imperfect readiness sir dim establish ments, thin the very risen and 'enshrines of that inquiry. After all the imfannitioa which it prodoeed, and all the sue. Inflows it pee rise to fur the improvement of the Revenue Departaseiste I. Indeed, the Government fogad so mach rit melons' to be door, that greeter chasers appeared to be ae cessarye and a farther immensities. was deemed tallier presable. The prosecution' of that lavntigation his been committed to us, and areahoold.ilirleabarge the duty thereby imposed epos us, if we hesitated to state our own clear mid cria• 'mafiosi conirictiou of tbe seeessity of those more extru sive changes, particularly is the two areal breeches of lb. 'fiat' Rev. inseams , side( asr cosaideration, the cosstristios sed.cosamaaitios of which mast medals a compiew steers. pion, before the nessasemest of shows departs/ate esa be plated spun oaths females a. the interests of the Revive' end the secumeniedmins of ilia politic imperatively require. . Voider Abe head of expeate, the tridistoStreeee bosoms the rates of ensemorstrat to similar glepartiseme of Great Britain Rod Ilvetaad., aim& • strum/ presumption at least of improvidence is the insasiTsneot of the latter. Um'. somas perises of the ',Tepees received, sad the espeoars et manag ing them la 11loglaod. intilsad. sod Ireland nspeelvelp,• is the last foe, years, the resell is as follows .7, It must, however, be admitted, that the inference which naturally might be drawn from this eoinparisoe is by so erase coaclusive• A portion of the higher rate of manage mewl is Ireland is fairly to be justified by the expellee which a separate establishment for ensuagieg a •wall part oily of the genital Revenue of lite kingdom unavoidably creates, and • portion also by local peculiarities, which under may ma ✓egensent would render the comparative cwt of collection greater in Ireland than is England. But after making am ple allowance for these circumstances, there still remains • considerable difference which ca•aot satisfacto►ily be ac counted (or. The comparison with Scotland is also nab voorable to Ireland; although the revenue of the Customs is Scotland is sorb smaller, the ports of that country more numerous, and the facility of coop-band traffic greater, the rate of inanagenseat is •early the some ; while is the Excise, the gram receipts of which in the two countries are nearly equal, the rate ohasnagement iu Ireland is striki•gly higher. The manlier in which these differences, indleative of on. necessary expeaditure, have seises, ea in • great measure ex plained by the Reports upon those branches of the revenue which were produced by the inquiry we have alluded to. is that of Mr. Richmond upon the Customs, reductions were suggested, upon grounds more mitisfarturilyr explained, to the extent of 77,C001 iu the yearly charge of t►at ; while Colonel Doyle aud Mr. Csrr proposed diminutions sinonnting to 43,5401. in the saanal expenditure of that of the Excise. That retrenchments to sorb an extent, embracing is the first department more than oar-fifth of the I expense of management, and io the latter more than oeerseventh (sc corddig to the charge of the latest year the■ node, roosi. deratruo), should have operand almost umbra the very first view to be practicable, cu•sistrotly bit► the due discharge of the public service. Iv of Itself dr desire evideare of 'One `rest defect either is the system under wbirlithe eseeaive capenditure WI artery, or io the administration ail. We are inclosed principally to ascribe it to t►e system, and to that tendency to embroilment's and osteutation which is always to be &and is latlepcnileut local establisbemeusa, on • degree very disproportionate to their real impurteuce. lit the Customs in Irclaed, the Board itself and the office of tee eeerefaiit olineeteel wish it, TO" ifeeto be oppe a "tide too neal 4 7ltpproitchinE in the somber the persons borne allseositoblidasseet so the " 11141411 4 ° ' There vr ems eosnosiestooers (t . w •w r. men), tee "gOldbrie•l sod •1 tier • ; is Londooaor a revenue of six-fuld th e enS, roe a Slight of busiasos which bears no romparlso• with thas-of hilksed, there are Igoe eumisissuonera, one secretary, and sweaty-tie clerks. -. ontiagent expenses else, such charges were die covered as indicated habits of great extrarntance and of • eery loose control.- Several ionisers /see afforded in Mr. Riclisnonies observations under that head; anon others, be states "that for the house of the fferveyor - at'lllalshide, as ontatation within the port of Dablin where there is so boil establishment, end where the offiCer's clot, la manned anikes dist-barge of a few vessels laden with Coals, salt, and Pitenesi, the charges 'scarred for repairs in the last year amounted to 3331. 195., including 111 17s. ed. for a china awymiece;" upost which tie very justly remarks, " Ceder sack • system so limit can be assigned to the amount of cos flrgenl la the same paper be repeatedly points out the circum stance, that in *be nut.ports " the salaries of the oMeers is Ireland are generally higher than die salaries of the Ace's *I the nem class in Engta•dt" sod is sooting place he in timates, " that they are one-third higher to Meer, who re ceive above 1001. per engem, and between one-tuurth and sine-sixth higher to officers whose salaries are less than 100/." In bistividetsce before us, be adverts to other examples of excessive expense. I. tie 'Exam the same pretnsion was manifest, •na famed • subject of otmervstion in the Report of Colonel Doyle and Mr. Carr. They lore also adverted strongly to it In *fie evideree before as, remitting upon the sulk tog dis proportion lietwens the offices of ostlectio• in Dublin and London. Is the former piece, there are two collectors at 1,2001. a year nth, where the lathed collection amounts to about 700,0410 i. amsaally ; while is the latter there is but one collet-tem whose salary Is 6001. s year, and who receives ditties whieb ammoited In the year 1810 to 7,1401,91/11. It is true that the Receiver-General ia Lapdog performs eer iMeer faits doh.a which are mot discharged by thal - Is Dub lin, and which fall epos the collet-ton there; 'bet that cir. comstaate is by so means so/Iciest to jollity the difference. It is to be observed also, that there is too collector of Excise is Enclose who is paid at a ►igher rate Mao 6001. a year, and only roe (wit of London whose salary is of 'bat amous', viz the collects? of Liverpool, who receives god accounts for duties exceeding is net produce t►e whale of the Excise revenues of Ireland. We hive adverted in this manner and epos them authori ties to the evaporative expense of maneg. meat is Ireland sad Englund, as it mar fowl.' epos the inquiry is 1819, be cause it exhibit, that which we coucrive ems only be Mirreet. ed by • ehaage is the eanstilutios of the depaitineets. Par. tics/tar instances of eztravagasee may indeed Ire remedied, and general direetlous may be issued to forbid their recur_ /once (se epee them Reports has alread in fact been done), bet such remedies buye'beee applied be fore, and such orders fur future regulation have too 'request', bees Issued le vain. These deparenseats have, In the several parts of their eseablisimpeets, been frequently revised by successive Aden'. wistratimes le •freland sobsequeutly to the Upton. They have oleo since that period undergone s minute legally by a Par. lismestary Commission, sod have been subject to many re. lanes is easseqtreace of its proceedings. Sot all these have not availed to vubdee the disposition to expeesitenese, or to secure • steady adherence Ida Peale of expenditure justly proportinaed to the services - which they 'sate to perform. The Needless and profuse charges which, after all these in guides tend reformatioes, were found exl.ting is both of then, appears to es a conviseiag proof that as they are at premed constituted, a full severity for economical seaunge. went is eserattaieable. _ _ _ keircamatance, drone, corroborative of this view of the subject, occurs in she accouots of she Excise Department ►elating to the year immediately following • p , viol adieu the endeavours of your Lordships and the local GUTH rll4llCni to effect retreoehaarvita were yet very receut. A Cummisaiuner of that Board was in attendance upon your Lordships i■ England, in the year 1820, upon she business of his urice, donut 80 days, and the allowance which he claimed fur that 'service, wool which was awarded to hien by his Board, was at the rate of eight places per diem, in addition to his regular Salary. The chanty, ow similar occasions in former instances, bad been Bet guineas per diem, and it does not appear that any awilsority or pricvdent exiatrd for the increase. Nu pay. aunts made either to English or Acoteh Commissioners, de tached on public duty from thei► nasal place of residence, could have been foetid to justify sorb an allowance, or a rate of chatge even *early approaehisig to it, as will be men by aat dement In our Appendix. Aid alien this case of ex. trawagatit expenditure is considered with reference to all the eircaminalices detailed in the evidence of one of the mem bers of the Board, and iu his letter connected with it, the expectation is wholly dispelled that t►e then rarest inquiries sod proceedings of the Irish Government bad produced soy substantial reformation or dispusitiva to economy in the Board of Excise itriretaod. Orr view of the unnecessary expense of these departments in Ireland is confirmed eves by the plans of reduction +Mat the Boards themselves, both of Commas and Easier, laid be fo►e the Lord Lteoteoant, when their attention was drawn to the subject by the inquiries which were instituted in 1819. Is each department the beads of it, saes called upon, found great retrenchments to be practicable. Those which were proposed by the Comrnissidiers of Cowan' will be found in our Appendix, with the observatious of Mr. Richmond upon them. The Board of Excise, on the'r part, suggested the imme diate retrenchment of no less thau 19 Surveyors, 139 Gaug ers, and 27 Superosimerariet, and 'subsequently proposed further reductions, making in the whole 27 Surveyors, 180 Gaugers, 27 Supernumeraries, whereby a diminution was to be effected of 17,9301. in the yearly expense of 'management. That amount of saving, considerable as it is, falls much abort of what was snbmitted by Colonel Doyle and Mr. Corr; and the proposition (unlike the plan framed by them) was accompanied by little argument or explanation, to sbew in what manner practically these specific reductions could be effected cousistently with the due execu tion of the service, and why they could not be carried farther. It also contains so satisfactory reason shy the txpeaditove thus admitted to be unnecessary, had not been metalled before. The proposal bore, indeed, more the appesranee of a hasty attempt t.s anticipate the re sult of the inquiry then instituted, than of a spontaneous and well-digestedmiam of reformulate. The Lord Lieutenant &dieted, •persach a representation, to adopt these general redactions ia that departrneat, at a time when a more "na ture scheme of retrenchment and Improvement was uuder eomaideration. It will not escape the tittestion of your Lordships, that the large dimiestions of establishment contemplated in all these plans, were deemed practicable consistently with a con tinuance of the separate management by which the collection of the Irish re eeeee has hitherto been controlled. By the subm Retie', of a system under which the whole management of this revenue shall be incorporated with that of Great Bri tain, we are satisfied that a much more extensive geld for re trenchment wiil present ltself.The saving which may ultimate ly he effected, depends an. much epos the degree In which our propositions relating both to the commercial intercourse end Mit Revenue system of the two countries may be adopted, that it wouhi be premature at present to ester into details with • view of attempting, even by an estimate, to exhibit so approximation to it. But when we state that according to the opinions of the persous most competent to form a judgment epos the subject, the proportion of the Customs Establishment employed on account of the Gatos and COlllll. tervailiaf Unties, which we shall ptopose to abolish or to is not less than one-half of the wire department sow maintained in Ireland, it may he allowed as to pate from these alterations, in conjunction with the union of the Boards, a reduction of expense bearing • ►ery great properties to t►e whole of the existing charges of manage- Neut. This dlaproportinoate scale of expense, although it could not be wbollyjestiled, would be is Some degree compel,. sated for t if $t appeared that the establudin)entr no Constructed had the practical effect of producing a Revenue collected to its fullest amount, by a rigid attention to the interests of this Crown on the one band, and on t►e tuber with a due consi deration for She convenience of the subject. Bet such cunt. ✓outing advantages are out to be tuned in the manage. meal vf lb. Irish Revenge. The caistecte of great dein- , whilst others have to en- • position to second the wishes of the ernmVe direly. he disregarded, of Rowel of Ettehte, on the contrary, ap lime . as renege; and all of ifitlys , to it ash di Icy alike a !ratios as require that . , A I 11 1 . 4 Isferstedios alb with the greateat - - 'Ay Mis •nd f gig •eiamlni- ratioe. , - 1". Diu Jeterailkyompel .110 -bilL haler- ,e had carefully weiglOark ma elegolllifitts. t 'Was Mat impedimenta, aid coatseteF • * hives we eicisehined to Declare, w respect to the chum we deemed the most Custom', that wetwitbstandlog the improvements recently a advantages and the °Wee- toads in that dgiartment, Wirt still matutagi.with much leas MI saegested thevaisileis to - iiiiireis, iiia 'reincy than the same re 00000 In England ; brim to your Lordship.. In and with respect to the Excise, tbat it is its so defective a step has, however, tended state of mansgemeat, organisation, and discipline, as to r the diftegltim apposed to Leader— homages. Amoy olloompl Ake permariewt imnperretwave, eats, whilst one conviction except throgeh the medium of a general cbashte• y afford the taaly means of The slefeep to which we allude may be clamed seder the I nest uaiformity In the col- general hea* of imoving the embarrammeats 1. Vsseeeasary Expense of Establishment; simercial Inierests of Greta 2. Imperfect .Collection of the Reveaget and therefore, lay them before 3. Delays and 1/Ifieulties imposed omen Trade. - - • '446' .“ 4 4 .2d-44 7, 2 2 roi .43., a T. a 42 a t. wr;t;! gva ri4 t:€4 pci 044 . IP4 e• " C 4 , 1 4 4 04 414 • 1 4 C 4 6•1 ••• on. 4 3 1 1 I . W gx: -411 j .7 'es e "si 27, gra OD 2 v eto 14 V. 2 4 oft .." 4n . .V ID OS ; ON ; c I 9 a *4' C C ..1 cry CMC* la 01 10 ..: 4° ie Z • aS; a : t e - it a 2i 3 ~,,ig.; ~.g4 Vo4 a. a .5 , -. 2) 'aye. 0. oy— n—.. c..,... tr....-. 1N.... ...; 4 ..; ..; * r r• m e. _. ... • lincies in . o mad primate, Mid Ike coniMilleat ta1999((( for etif i masts both the Crnwn and lb. • Ir fy established ft, yet/fence of the inAbilued in detail systems of the, Ida indite, and by the testim• of antrioos our. chants, and Revenue officers, who Olive bees et. amined by With respect to tho Customs, the existence of thaw gene ral irregularities among the officers employed in the receipt and delivery of the imports and expels, retitle's It but too probable that the interests of the Crowu must be injured by the imperfect collection of the duties. But the proof of actual defalcation arisiog from that cause is from the nature of those duties not so be obtained in the same manner as wish respect to the Excise Deportniest. It s, however. but be presumed, that the laxity on the port of the Custom. house Officers, which produces so mach iacouvesience to the subject, must occasion loss to the Crown also. Severs! of the witnesses who have given evidence relating to this department have spokes in the strongest aid meat unequivocal terms of she great d fference between a British and an Irish port, in respect to the facility and dispatch with which its duties are cuudieted ; sad they have is some inst declared, that a few hours are foiled auScieist by the officers of she Customs at Liverpool fur the completion of the lame quantity of business that required a mcrilice of several days in the corresposding department. of Dublin. Ills superfluous to observe, 'bat unnecessary delays and im. pediments to the transactions of commerce are heavy addi tions to the unavoidable burden of taxation; and the public look for the removal of them with a very isatnral and very just anxiety. In the collection of the draft managed by the Excise, the comparison with Great &Onto is even much more unfavoura ble to the Revenue system is Ireland, the establishments be. longing to this department being at present is a most noes. tisfactory condition. In corroboratio• of tiih statement, sod with a view to offer the means of pursuing this subject more into &tail than could well be dune its the body of our Report* we have in our Appendix subjoised the following &consents, which will be found to contain very ample infor mation os the several points connected with this branch of our inquiry :- Ist. Copies of the regulations ender which the several duties of Excise are charged le England and Ireland reipee lively. - 2d. A letter addressed to this Commission by the Chair man of ibt Nerd of Eseisa is Dublin, on the subject of dm differences between them. 3d. The examiustioas takes before us Mike several prac tical s9icers who were sent from Englied for the purpose of surveying and reporting opus the actual state of the collec tion of them duties i■ Ireland, under the tsiating resists. Lions. 4th. The examination of a Commissioner of Excise in Ireland, lately employed os a survey of his department. The proof, which are Worded by these documents, toge ther with the Report of Colonel boyl. sad Mr. Cage, which we have already referred to, newer:list the defective state of this department is geseral, are irresistible; the general re. suit may best he illustrated by a brief notice of the collection of the deity on Irish•osde spirits, which, as your Lordships are aware, is the most eousiderable of those which are col. leeted by the Excise. The manufacturers of this article, as well se of several others subject to Excise duty hs Ireland, are by law charge• able with duty is • doable form ; first, by am assessmoest M a certain rate upon the quaatity of the article supposed to be produced, according to t►e capacity of the stemils em ployed in the masufacture; and secondly, by a charge of duty upon the quantity really produced, which certain offer. are appointed to asceitais by actual misery., The former mode of assessment is in the nature of a license, and the amount of duty thereby fixed is charged as the minimum which each distiller is liable to pay. The operating of tie y would produce the diWerence of duty 'scilicet' that tistsiontas aid a charge upon the actual produce, if the officers of the Excise performed their day. Is order, however, to enable your Lordships to appreciate the value of the service pee formed by the officers to whom the collection of this duty is commiueil , sod at the same time to a/ids' is formiag an estimate of the general efficiency of the deportment, it any be sufficient to call your mimetic§ to the ascertained fact, that it is a ease of rare secure. ors that any spirit defy is brought to account beyond that which is charged npos the capacity of the still, whilst it is noto rious that such licensed gauntly is so much below what really can he produced, that some of the distillers leave, fur reasons which it is ono y in this place to refer to, peti tioned the Board of Excise to have the charge increased by one fifth. It is indeed a subject of g e I uoturiety, that se excess of more than that mmuent is usually mastifeetur ml, sod finds its way into cousumption without payment of any duty. The existence of this practice has been long kaowa to the whole department of Etcise; and although it could only prevail through the neglect or corrupt conuivance of its ofß•ers, we find no trace of any sacesuses for the cor rection of so extensive an evil. The loss of r occasioned by a system of mane. meat so defective, is far from being the ouly evil to which it gives rise. Consequences of a very iajmions oaturemust also be produced, from the oletaeles thereby created to • free intercourse in the spirit trade between the two roue. tries, which cannot, while the Revenue is so imperfectly col lected in Ireland, be carried on without "alums& injustice to I be English sad Scorch distillers. It will be oar duty to address a distinct commosiestion to your Lordships, In consrqueoce of the reference which you have been pleased to make to es of the whole of this cairn. sive and complicated subject. We shall here, therefore, only slate what appears to be necessary to illuvrate our last ult. sereatiou, leaving entirely out of oar cuatiderittiou the par. tieular subjects of difference between the distilkes of the two *sentries, which are now In • course of litigation, with a view to a legal derision upon them. The Irish distiller has the privilege of warehousing the spirits which he maaufactures, sad of tiattaferring such part of a h em as he thinks proper at any time to England, where he pays the British duty on importing them fur eunaumptiow Thus far, therefore, he meets the British maaufacturer on equal terms; for we may suppose that the expenses of freight, &c. to which be is liable, are compensated by the privilege enjoyed by him, and not by the English niautifseinrer. of warehousing the spirits without the payment of the duty, until they pees into the hands of the coosemier. But front the facihties which ate allowed to him, as we have described, in the disposal of • fermis proportion at the opine which he cam produce without the payment of nny duty is Ireland, it is evident be possesses an advantage which must soon give Wm • decided and prepoaderatieg superiwilly over his En. link rival, and such as must infailibly, if it be allowed to continue fur any length of time, prove as injurious to the distiller in England as it is to the revenue in Ireland. If upon every 1,000 gallons of spirit/ produced by the Irish distiller he is chervil with a duty on 740 gallons may (which, wording to the majority of the opinions which we have received upon the subject, appears to be the fact), leaving him at liberty in dispose clandestinely of the remain ing ?SO gallons free of duty, there will be a benefit to him upon the sale of that quantity beyond the We and ordinary profits of his manufacture, corresponding la some degree with the amount of the duty which be has been permitted to evade. We say in some degree corresponding, becalms we are aware that in such transactions the dealer does not 'mu. any pia the whole of the duty which is lost to the Revenge, being obliged to divide it accurdiug to ciscomstaaces with the consumer. But whatever the actual profit epos each transaction arty be, it &folds on the whole a positive wives sage to the Irish distiller, and enables him, pre fatale, to undersell the English manufacturer in his owe market, in the disposal of the MS gallons which are charged with duty. It therefore becomes the interest of the Irish distiller to transfer to Elegised all the spirits upon which he is cum. pelted to pay duty, sad to •(4.lr Ireland that portion which be ens make duty free; a proceeding which, as we have observed before, must operate at the same time to effect the ruin of the English distiller, and the decease of the hub revenue. With respect to the Saheb distil/cry it will be *official to observe, that le his case the duty eve spirits is charged and levied is a manner differing cuesiderably from abe methods perused tiller in LllOlOll a in Ireland, sod that the manufacturer is so situ•ted, that if the free intercourse iu spirits were allowed between bathed ail Leland, he would probably out be able, apposing the the fief/time should be collected as at plesent, to endure the competition i while us tht other baud, if hit claim to be rat .."_ .. de qap.6. • Ape et,1 , r . ...0., *IA trelsod Is reopen lo the int er : dawn no gland were conceded to him, he also might Sit the, beet opkiibe which we haws yet received on the sub. riche correct) hued advantages over the Emilie\ distiller too greet to allow the rivalry to be of long contingence, hkit coo ourselves conceive no permanent or effectual me tmit of preserving the Urited Kingdom from grievan ces o f this eaters, without the establishment of use uniform and regular system of revenge collection, under one no. eseeiment sad authority. It appeari Id IS, that it is sot by an alteration of the law, or of the regulations for cullectme the spirit dal in any of the three countries, that a remedy for nab evils _could /with certainy be prettdeda her Ms supposing the law to Ise made uniform (which local circum stances may perhaps not admit of), and the 'etiolation, re oeribed for collecting the duties to be literally the same, do Injurious a ffects to which we have adverted might still runt in their fall extent, if the different Boards were al bliaerty to enforce that law, arid excrete those melodious, willies much diversity in practice as they are at present in the habil of noise. On the other hand, notwithstandiag the Notional existeace of differences in the laws and regulation. f or c.d. letting thine duties, the intercourse between the three cues. tries might be counseled with fairness mod facility to all parties under • • well arranged system of eueotereado ug duties, provided those laws and rneninioos were admleister ed by the same authority, and niforeed with equal guidons throughout the Usited Kingdom. These arguments apply in a gender or lets degree en every etenimodity liable to the duty of Excise le both coantried, according t. the circumstances of the case. And is say instance in which the duty collected differs in either country from that which is oominally imposed, it must pruve inju. rious to the trader iu one country and to the re it the other. That the laxity which we have alluded toss prevailing la the collection of the duty ea spirits, prevails also with regard to the sollection of a large proportion of the other dudes of Recife in lurked, sufficient soma may be sollemed from the examiestioas and Reports of the Cominisonmers yid preen tical Ulcers sent from Ragland. In the endears of the latter there is • general concurrence In decimalise thot net ass of tie duties which come under their araiwinotion, in tie MUTH Of the extensive inspection with which they were charged, appeared to be duly collected to /related. Thu *pinkie is coiellimed and corroborated in a cousiderable degree by the testimony already referred to, of °lie of lbs Commissionn• of the Irish Board of Excise, who has lately r. turned from an iespection of the sootis-easiern districts of that country. This Gentleman espresa. 1, is the strangest terms, his belief of a very general sensed corruption is the several classes of the Excise department below the iimpeeters, sad he speaks very &ghastly eves of those eaters. Our own obscenities mid inquiries decidedly lend Ns to the same enschisins ; and we are fully convinced that all those duties the collection of which depends upon the rietlaoce sad in tegrity of the *Sena employed, are must imperfectly brought to account. The ceases of this defective administration are in great Measure pointed out is the Report submitted by Colonel Doyle and Mr. Carr to the Lord Linitenart, sad in their evidence before as. le both of these, a want of systematic aeratigement and discipline in the Irish Excise departunit is described as prevailing to such a degree, as must preclude all possibility of a faithful sad efficient Mitchell of that tie. A farther evil consequence, and sae of • very pernciou character, attributable to this state of sessagernesi, arises from the inequality of the presser* thereby produced on the honest and disbosest trader, which is stomach felt, that Emu who might not be tempted by the spirit of gain, ire leo ire quietly driven by the apprebensioa of ruin, to adopt ihoot fasoduleat practices which can alone place them on a keel with their nampettion. Thus the collection of the Public Is tome becomes a fertile source of corruption, creating and maintaining a fraudulent connexion between trader and offi cer, prejudicial slake to the eor.tions of a fair spirit of is. dustry, and to the due calcction of the just Rcveuue of the State. le the department of the Assessed Taxes In Ireland, the establishments for the nianagesnint of which we wese led to examine more minutely, oat account of a subject of special inquiry referred to us by lb. Lord Lientenaai, we base not found the proofa of a more successful system of &denims teatime. A considerable change in the cosslitatioo slid re gulations of this department took place under the directive of your Lordships and the Irish Government, in 1117. Some material improvements were then Introduced into a system, which, as it before existed, was vicious in principle asd Cur.. 'opt is practice, to • very high degree. We shall abstain luaus ufferiog Inch observations sod seggestious is bass occurred to us upon these al ions, and also epee what remains to be dour in order to place this department epos a proper footing, until the measures now in progress through Parliament, fur relieviag Ireland from a large prupottiou of the Assessed Taxes, shall have bees etanapleted. tie *ball thew be enabled to submit aa epiatee as to the guest economical mode 6f collectitie arch pert of those taxes as may still remain unrepeakd, or perhaps to suggest the expediency of conenanting fur some wrest* of indirect taxation a brooch of revenue in Ireland, which will doe yield so iocensidetable • produce in promotion to the extent of the establishment which mast be imaistained fur managing It; is the mean time we avail ourselves of Ibis opportunity to state, that in uterine any advice spots that subject, we shall be chitily guided by a principle abieti we deem of great importance, and never to he lest sight of in the prevent relative situation of Ire'aed and Great Britain, that say inequality between the two countries in ibe genial weight of the public burden, ulnae alit of the differeet rah. of taxation, so long as any such must remain (and we are far from thinking that the pressure upon Ireland should be in creased at this time by au entrap( to equalise them), ought to be confined as much as possible In those branches of the hieb do sot apply to sub3ects of commercial ex change. If the exemption to Ire given to Ireland, in sppur tioriug her share of the common burdens, could be coetioid to sueh es, it would not only obviate the Menne armee and embarrassment which now perplexes the inter cense between Great Britain and Ireland under s system of eglintervailing duties ; but would also have a heuellicisi dewy, by operating as is endowment to residence us the part of the 'petrol proprietors mure direct and foraiblr thus that which is afforded by a chliereuce in the taxation opus articles of consumption only. As the remarks which we have tiles felt it our defy to submit upon the present slate of the several Revenue &pail. ments in Ireland, may possibly be considered as intended to imply censure upon the individuals composing the thirds sliinich.hanouireiersfridreuebeencrteere,..r.7:ored7isotuwintenhilaiseteoblisegcithra.rliodai*gyeuessiidrdli:::aiesioUt the amduct of individuals filling the superior Whets el them deputation', but to the system, and t* practices of long standing, the evils of which are in a great nwaseie to be at tributed to canes which cannot fairly be coastriereit as within their contrail. We are slut. bound to slaw, is , lice towards item, that Is. many of the recent proreodivt• of the Boards iu !retard, there is an end. of tendency he improremeot. But without greater changes than this fuse power to accomplish, such improvements can only be pinto) and temporary. The leading cause of the evil is stand to consist in the nihilism mode srf appointment and peconetica of officers is the differest departments of the Rye...ie. Coder a system which has lung prevailed is lutes. , these appoiateneuts appear to have beep made with too hies of that cousiderat ion for the immediate iotrrests of the It , which would require that individual, shush' be le. betted to fill the higher situations on the grimed of selec tions service alone. Those somatic,' have for Ow win part been occupied by persons usilitird by *spryest', by their previous habits, Of by the u•ture of their sehostiosa to discharge the duties for which they have received thew emoluments; sad the general Imetheirecy of the drel: /- flouts, productive of sit mach evil, has been the seamed , able couseipteace. The power of appoisting the executive officer.. acting en " She •ellearity of the several Beards of Ke eeeee Ireland ; is ostensibly vested is the Conosimiciaers, either by law or by the patents whereby they are runniest. d. The IMlrumeatsof appointment rietterdiegly proceed from that; boo the enaction of the m noes to lie •ppoiated has bees exclusively made by the Governioeut, whose directions. ni that respect, the Commissioners ore •ccuetoured io cbeY . Thu. proceeding applied equally to When of the highest a m t the lowest classes, sad is not is. practice limit d nub to the former by say strict rule. of pronto:4lQ% lb( it dr.g-scg 1 ; am. .15 el. r t .2.• 2 1.• w:74 .2g4 :Z4 fca • 4 tr. ... -Ni -a4 r,g s 1 e;sNi - OD C ... 4, _ c i v o CO v. ... ft , n . at.. ...to . .0 , . Or ri li 4 v . .7, ..; z 52 a . w..el, eq. es 2 .4 ,.., g. et ~ .. ... r, ,-• vs .... •-.....•-• . . 00 z • ..; •-; ...: 04 ea; O. 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