The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1880-06-15 00:00:00

loroet Countti expless.

TUISDItY, JUNE lb. 1980.

Farmers certainly have no more reason to call the
Conserv:fives the " farmers' friends, for \fr. Glad-
stone seems determined to appmpri:te that honourable
title to his party. After many years of struggle, du-
ring which many of the most consistent opponents of
the malt tax have gone over to the majority, the
principles of the deceased have been adopted by the
majonty, und this aneent tax is to fall. Nor
have the brewers a great deal to find fault with
although 2 duty of 6s. 31. per barrel is imposed
on their manufactured article, for, so long as
malt is, as all admirers of leer tell us it ought to
be, the principal ingredient lesides hops and water,
so long ought they to benefit by getting the raw
material more cheaply. The general tax-payer may
indeed criticise the proposal, for the loss to the revenue,
of LI, t 00,000, is to be paid by putting a penny on the
income tax. Mr. Gladstone certainly must be admitted
to have shown considerable courage in his determina-
tion to renew his Commercial Treaty with France,
for he sacrifices £240,000 a year in wine duties, the
principal relief being given to wines of about 20
degrees of alcoholic strength. As the Commercial
Treaty would, without a fresh bargain, expire before
long, those who sec the value of reciprocal trade will
appreciate the worth of the proposal to Entzland. As
to France, she may yet not reap such advantsge as at
first sight appeared likely, for the ravages of the
phylloxera on her vines might have reduced the amount
of the duty without any interference of the Chancellor's
schemes of finance. Total abstainer; will possibly be
startled to find how much the plans of Mr. Gladstone
depend upon the consumption of intoxicating drink,
and will regret that the various sections of reformers
did not unite to keep the Liberals in power when Mr.
Gladstone from Blackhetth foresbatltmel a possible
abolition of the hvteful I s. For that lit of
insvnity they now have to pay iii the perpetuatioa of the
tax, on behalf of a remission which they will scarcely
value more because it is thought it may encourage the
private maaufacture of unadulterated John Barleycorn.
One very valuable rook .4 the abolithin id the Malt
tax must not be forgotten, even by irreconcilable
teetotalers. Agriculturists will be encourkzed by the
removal of obstacles In the way of malting their own
barley, and thus producing a very valuable food for
stock, by converting the starch in the grain into more
palatable sugar. This will tend to put in the stock-
fatter'. power an advantage which will help him to
struggle with foreign competition and supply at
remunerative prices the fresh meat which intuit be the
hope of English farmers during the depreciation of
corn.

"Dishing the Whigs" was an operation that
sidled a good deal of reprobation from straightforward
people and not a little praise from senators of Mr.
Dhapiin's class, who were capable of admiring the
cunning that put an advantage in their power by
means of s trick. But Mr. Gladstone's dashing
conduct of the last campaign caused all sections of the
party of progress to feel they were again an army with
a oommander-in•chiet, and he has evidently studied to
good effect in his enforced holiday the maxim "fat est
et at hog, &mi." and bettered the instruction. Yet,
with Mr. Gladstone, there is no running away with
his rivals' clothes, for they have been unable to produce
any definite propositions for relieving the farmers of
this old burden. The Tories have been years in
power with a large and obedient majority, yet they
have not ventured to wail the malt tax. Perhaps the
great B. and B. interest held them too much in dread,
for of course, it was early recognised that whatever
lightening of taxes might be possible, the whole load
could not be taken off the traffic in intoxicating
drink.

It is instructive to note that 47 years and more of
oral teaching, with we can't tell how many more of
book•reading, have been required, to make even Mr.
Gladstone propose the remission. The zight bon.
gentleman admits having heard a speech on the
subject in 1833; that fine old pioneer of so many good
thin" William Cobbett on March 17, 1834, proposed
In the House of Commons a resolution for the total
repeal of the duties on malt. But it was a dozen
years before that, when Cobbett attacked the malt tax
In print, along with the salt tax, which has lodic been
done away with.