The Press.
London, England, 1855-04-28 00:00:00

THE TEA DUTIES.

CIRCUMSTANCES have transpired whioh show that
there is great laxity, or great corruption on the
part of officials intrusted with the highest and most
important duties of Government. It will not be dis-
puted that it is of the first moment that all changes
affecting commercial interests should, until the
moment arrives for making them public, be
kept profoundly secret, that all traders may stand
on the same footing ; and this should especially be the
case with respect to the imposition of new duties, as
otherwise those favored dealers who happen to be in
the secret would gain a great advantage over their
fellows, at the same time that thelrevenue would be
defrauded.
Now, with regard to the tea duties, it is morally
certain that two dealers became, by some circum•
stance or other, aware that an additional threepence
per pound would be charged, before the CHANCELLOR
of the EXCHEQUER made his statement to the House,
and that they took advantage of their knowledge to
clear an enormous quantity of tea, and to make a
large profit by the transaction.
From a statement in the Commercial Daily List,
to which we aro indebted for our facts, it appears
that there are about two hundred firms in the tea
trade accustomed to pay duty daily, and the aggre-
gate amount of their clearings each day would seem
to be on the average about 150,000 or 1000001bs. On
the Friday when the CHANCELLOR EXCHEQUER
made
of the
made his financial statement, nearly one hundred of
these firms made no clearance of tea; eighty-five
firms paid on an aggregate of 144,4781b5., not one of
them exceeding their accustomed heaviest payment;
while one firm, that of Messrs. MOFFATT and Co.,
paid on the enormous quantity of 325,t1351b5., being
more than the quantity of its usual clearances for a
whole month ; and a second firm, that of Messrs.
TRAVERS, paid on the quantity of 100,7811b5, being
the amount of its usual clearances for a fortnight.
The totals cleared stand thus
Moffatt and Co
(A month's usual clearance.)
!revers and Sons 100,781113c
(A fortnight's usual clearance.)
The whole trade besides 141,4781b5.
(A day's usual clearance.)

673,8941bg.
front this plain statement can it he doubted that the
two firms in question had, no matter how obtained,
some knowledge of the additional duty to be levied
not possessed by their fellow dealers? It is certain,
besides, from the enormous extent of their transac-
tion, that that knowledge must have been of a spe-
cial, not of a general nature, that it must have been
positive, not speculative ; and the fact that it was
confined to two firms shows how closely the secret
was kept, not only from the general public, but from
the dealers, who would naturally have been on the
alert for information. The circumstances favour the
supposition that these fortunate firms must have re-
eeived from authority to be implicitly relied on a
confidential communication of what the CHANCELLOR

of the ExoBEQUER intended to propose.
The duty of threepence per Po. on the quantity
cleared by the two firms would amount to between
five and siz thousand pounds, but their profits on
the transaction, according to the Commercial Daily
List, would probably be something less, as these
teas were on the following Saturday morning, when
the additional duty of one guinea per chest was
rigorously enforced, offered at an advance of two-
pence per pound, instead of threepence, being a de-
cline of one penny on the bonded price of the dealers
00 T-ring, it of the day before.
The facts of the case are the more remarkable, as
the pr,t,tice in this case is a departure from that
previously adopted. The Daily List observes :
Of late years the mode of effecting alterations in duties
ilea been for the Government to give notice some two or
three menthe before the change—Sir Robert Peel adopted