The Express.
London, England, 1864-06-25 00:00:00

SUPPLY.-THE DUTY ON MALT.

Upon the motion for doing nab commitiea of supply,
Mr. MOERITI rose to move that, in rev of any modifi-
, cation of the indirect taxation of this country, the excise
upon malt required consideration. He thought he should
be able to prove to every impartial person that hie motion
was reasonable, jest, mid equitable. He was not
gaiog to weary the house with statistics. He
depended entirely upon the justice of his cense.
..!.• one would deny that the excise on malt
stood alone in one respect, inasmuch as it wee
almost the only tax which had neither leten modified nor is
some way altered. He thought that very singularity of po-
litica was somewhat a raasou why the house should consider
it. Every man who drack beer, and that embraced the
whole of England, paid the duty on malt, and it fell rely
heavily in that respect upon the poor man. It was likewise
berry upon the producer, and checked him in his rodeo-
voun towards prosperity in his *rode.' It bad been said
that the malt tax ought sot to be interfered with because
it fell upon the class of pence who were least heavily
taxed, and who paid less towards the public benefit than
any other class. That be totally dried. He moteeded,
en the contrary, that it fell most heavily upon the very ohms
of people who paid most towards the genera I beoefit of society.
Who paid the poor rate, the highway rate, and
I the county rates? The agriculturist. (Hear, hear.) All
, those rates were paid by the land. On a former occasion
the right hon. gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer
said be would give him (dr. Merritt) • pies of admit%
which was, to *wider that in any modification of thee:-
, Mee upon malt, the benefit would be so much greater to
Engird, because she almost entirely paid the malt tax,
than it would be to Ireland and Scotland ; that be ought to
reflect upon that matter. with • view to foregoing hi
motion. He did not consider that observation worthy of
the source from whence it came, because there could be
no doubt that English beer WY drunk in Ireland and
&Mimed, while we took their whisky, and that in fact there
war a great reciprocity in drinks between the
three kingdoms. If the exigencies of the state
required that this tax should be kept up at its full extent,
be for one would not ask for any modification. But what
was the ace! England far the last two or three years had
been reducing tsxatioo, and even while doing that bad been
working her way to an increasing e. The agricultu-
rists bad received oo relief from the repeal of the paper
duties, although other dames had. Fair play was •
jewel, and if they were to have • surplus, surely the
earicultutate ought to have the same chance as the real.
We might now look forward to improved prospects ashes
we should be enlaced in war. Had we been • warlike and
proud people we might now have been increasing our steed-
ing army and our fleet, and if that had been the case he
should not have spoken a word is favour of the reduction of
taxation ; but under present circumstances, when we bad •
right to look forward to • constant, steady, and unmade,/
surplus, he did not think he had chosen an inopportune
time for bringing forward his motion. He contended that
in any future modification of indirect taxation,
the malt tax, instead of being treated with contempt
should receive due and proper consideration. (Hear, hearj
He bad thus endeavoured to convince the impartial mind
the house that his resolution was a fair, equitable, hone*
and reasonable one ; but there was one person in the house
whom be would rather persuade than sll the net pot
ther. (Unease.) He did not main as mach as that, but -he
would be proud if be could persuade him. He bad heard
it said that the constant contemplation of pounds chillies
and pence, the adding up of account% the behuseing
of books, and the general endeavour to make both
*ads meet, eltbough it produced a great deal of
cleverness and subtlety, did not ennoble the man,
or enlarge his beart. (Laughter, and " Hear, bear.")
Judging from the general attributes arid chancier of the
right hon. gentleman, he would foie believe and hope
that in the observations he might make be would demon•
strobe that his occupation had in no way sullied or clouded
that clear insight with which he was sure be must have been
bon—(laughter)—into the difference between justice and
injustice, and between right and wrong. If he would allow
his mid impartially to dwell upon Wm subject he was sure
he would come to the conclusion that in any future modifi-
=tic of indirect taxation in this country—he having given
a chance to newly every other clammed taxpayers—excisable
malt required coosideratioe. (Cheers.)
Mr. DODSON secooded the motion.

The CH ANCELLOR at the EXCHEQU ER—who before
rising looked round the house to see if any other rrember
wished to speak—mid it would appear from negative iodi-
cations given by the house, that this lobate was to be re.
striated to the narrow limits of a duel between the boa.
member for the North Riding and himself. He could only
wish for his own pert that, whether he enoeseded or not is
dealing with the argument of the hon. member ha favour of
the motion, he might be able to imitate the temper with
which be had brought forwerd the subject. Of causes the
hon. member meant that the house should dal with the
malt duty in such a manner as would produce emit sensible
effect on the price of the commodity, arid he would pro-
bably not be satisfied with • lisereditetios than ow half of
the duty.
Mr. MORRTIT—I would be satisfied with one-third.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER would warn
the boa. member that calms he took greet are while at-
tempting to strengthen his position he might really be
weakeuieg it, by thus diminishing the limits of his propcod.
It seemed to him to be the general opinion that a reduction
of one-ball the malt duty was the minimum reduction
which could be merle. (Hear, hear.) For the smaller
I change proposed by the hoe. member of one-third, and care-
Wetly fora reduction of mie-balf, they most have a couple of
millions of money entirely at their disposal, but what
was to hempen d the House of Commons had only a million
lor ball a million at its command! The boo. member said
that the malt tax was like a mill stool) round the necks of
the farmers, but don't let them tie a mill.stoee round
the neck of the House of Commons. The House of Com-
mons had now a euMelent number of mill-atoms round its
neck, mod don't let them invest new ones. Don't let the
house be told that they were acting in bad faith, and that
they were boiled to give effect to the bore:nimble mem-
ber's proposition, when it might happen that they
had at disposal a sum which would do great good in
other direction., but be perfectly inappreciable
if applied to the malt tax. The house ought to endeavour
to keep its honour clear and its words unambiguous in the
thee of the couutry. The hoe. member had remarked that
while of late roan other articles had been enceeesively re-
lieved in whole or in part from taxation, no relief had been
gives is regard to the malt tat. Rut the force of that ob-
servation was very much diminished when they recollected
whet took place 35 yeere ago. We came out of the great
war with France with a system of customs duties
wound up to every article to the highest point, hot in 1818 parliament had a surplus of 3.000,000/. at its disposal, and
this was applied to the redaction of the duty on beer, to the
advantage of the bunted Interest and the consumers of the
article. He did not deny this wee en advantage, but it was
I small compared with that which would have been derived
if the 3,000,0001. had been disposed of in a mauler
to remove the fetters from trade and industry,
as had been the case in later years, (Heer, hear.)
I The honourable gentleman bad stated that this particular
duty was • mill-atone round the neck of the agriculturist..
If so, what was the duty on spirits? The duty on spirits
was the same in principle, but is amount was very math
more severe. Hs thought the honourable gentleman had
exceedingly over-estimated the *feet of the ash duty ere
the interests of the barley grower ; for, notwithersad-
ing the repeal of the corn laws, the price of barley under
free trade had been a price moving upwards and not down-
wards. Bat if the malt duty were a mill sloes round the
neck of the agriculturist., what kind of a mill-wane ow the
'pint duty! If the malt duty were 40 or 50 per met.
—era ale it wee only 95 per met. the slaty
on spirit. was 400 or 500 per cent. They must
be careful to admit this as ea argument is the we
of molt, ter be did est Walk WI beam woad be