The Express.
London, England, 1852-12-14 00:00:00

gratiitn. (Ilear, hear.) He could not iteeeir.,:".s
opinion of the right hon. gentleman that the ~,,
proportion of men, and the larger the pr °jar t. 4
and children, the better would It be for no. r.., :I°ll
the prosperity of the country. If be pushed the 1,,2
gentleman's argument, if would follow thi: the ne,,a,4,,--"e
last man left the shores eflitxtmhe.r,iipst.slee.
(yr
hreneraere,chheeadrt,,hestinidglai.e,s,tg
edieulCigrerea.tioAnuwlaosngnoudte'ult great befell to a i wan poor sod da:
hi
when they went beyond that, and removed tee ah;ti
bodied, they only sucked away its life blood. (Ileac
Because it was nut in their )tower to stop the tweet '
resume because the am :tint of r migration did Witch. ad
on them, but on the reseerces devetopea. ca
Australia, it was imprudent, if by 1,1
of the hoiden of taxation, if by any juggle Ur vicar:hull
terition, they in de the people at home niseentuned
lut, and thereby accelerated that tide whir":
already flowing with such tr. useattuus force. Meer, hest
ii.ving m tele these preliminary hiatervations, he woo:A turn to that portion of the budget which w:is truly ear,'
seated as the key-stone of the whole, namely, the roast
duty. Ile begged the attention of these hue. genuen,
who thinight that they would derive great lialsaulnee 4,4
thus petition of the budget, whilst lie ehoweet—he spelt-me;
oil deference tot their greater knowledge of tot but,p,t_
liner little they would really gain by the prup.a...l aIL i.5.„4
in the malt duty. if the tanners were to derive any tat cs
from the reduction, it must be in eonseeptenee .4, nee ,o
the prim el barley. Now, he ensued *hew tl. st it es. 0.,t
probable there would be any such rive iu the pm, el
barley. What way the present state of Wier,
malt duty was no doubt objectionable, on the ached
that it was a duty on the raw tunneed of the
manufacture, and that it re.tel on an alemlut•i
of foretell malt; and no doubt the right hon. saw:fib:a
we
that
se
ust butt
ah
frew
d
l
Hut be bed
ctl ell
ttrri calculatedy'td. thatb'e
Now,i
t‘t
tun n'fthi
the
hex:
us t
do c°l;ht.. thete'yc not
'bet 111: crud of al
y raised a w„;:tut
you should tamper unnecesearily with the revenue et to
pets
ion
inue
it raixd it iu
that crest• d less discontent than any other tat whantii
•
Although meetings had been held, and pettion. pre, tree
on shaved every other subject, no one ever yet Lea. or s
meeting of consumeas —at least for the Interpol, of ta
and petitioning against the injustice of tne tax on oh..
(Hear, hear.) Such a meeting was so yet Unkimaa ,5
the history of this country, and this was a fact of con,pb.
'arf,blinite;ri y
in :er
favour
I,\nithtdibtieiorissur
infin:fro:TerLiisgon,.lcusuretnllit7esi
Whitson the measure ul the government would do away win.
It was the practice of thii excise to give six neatbs'
for the duty on malt, and this singular regulation !nape(
people into the trade. He at.,pri hooded that the tennetel
of this regulation, although it might Cause a I ten t, the
revenue, was in some degree to raise the price of hare, by
providing capital, and by stimulating a lacer nuitie.r
persons to compete with each other as purcLagi... lrf
these two advantages to illo producer, Otis tiny weep „lied
upon entirely to abolish, and the eche r would of eourse
IMI
diminished in proportion as 'straps barley e intnaltited.
It was argued that by diminishing the e et of met Pd•
per bushel they would to cx-searily ilinnuieh the eot of hoe
That would be quite true if the trade were ruder the in-
fluence of free competition. It was quite utile, a. tte
political economists *abetted, that cost retelated
profit; but, in order that the rule might apply,
there must he unrestrie'et reapetitien, ben
that was met:Wel! tile clement which toted. (lher )
There was not in this country each au iron monopoly, or
one no difficalt to deal with red au growing, its that id the
brewers. (Hear, hear.) It was gaining strength reify
day ; the trade was constantly getting tutu fester ideals •
the system was becoming better and better organised; and
the motion, that by taking 16.1. off the cast et a busted og
malt, they would materially lower the price of malt liquor,
while that liquor had to pass through the bate!. of itnaltby
monopolists, was entirely fellacious. (Iltar, hear.) .let
thim look a tittle at the put. Malt had been lore meek
cheapened by the repeal of the cern lees ; sari yet every
owe knew that the Conmour had not Wts benefited in the
Nut. (Hear, hear.) The whole of the reduction h.d
passed into the hands of the brewers; although it was
manifest, without going iuto details, that tee
brewers could have air wiled a considerable re.
duction to the commenter. Hnw was it that
prices were kept up, notwithstanding the eiminutiou is
the coat of pro/ductile ? The thing was very sir ple. Per-
sons with large capital pawned themselves of 03 the public
houses and let them to tenants, with whom they made a
stipulation with regard to probte. He believed the prong
on London porter was 4.. per barrel; and consideriet the
expenses incurred by the tenant for rent, gas, ite., that was
an allowance which.would deter be sulinuttio to if the re-
tail dealers were not entirely in the brewers' hands, lhe
result of the system was a largo amount of adulteration.
There was another clam of brewers who mauufactured beer
which was sold by the retail dealers tin 1.,r the named
bitter beer. He did not know what wire the terms ea *Lek
these gentlemen made beer; but ha did knew that both
the quart and the pint were getting less, and he suppeed
that by-and-by they would come down to the site of medi-
cine bettlee. (Laughter.) That was the state of the lenmag
trade ; and lie mac,' tine house what better pried they could
have of the existence of an iron and ineaurab'e monopoly,
which left the retail dealer no choice between one of tee
courses—either to adulterate himself or to leave the liquor
genuine, and take elf about a fourth of the quantity?
(Laughter.) Now. it that were the state of the case, what
chance was there that any put of the 164. which they
were going to take off malt would find its way into the
pocket of the consumer ? lie thought it would de.read,
like other reductions, into the pocket of the brewer. Them
was one course open, without which any reduction of taxa-
tion would be absurd and useless, and that was, to bosh
up the brewers' monopoly. But how was that to bedsit?
If the house were really anxious to give the p••eple cheap
beer, let them do away with the system of licensing—(fim,
hear) ; let them allow any Shopkeeper to sell beer
across the counter like any other article. (Hear, hear.)
They might then affirm that they had really done mato
thing to mak • beer :heap ; hut until they hail dune that it
we. vain, it was futile, to talk of reducing the met of the
old English beverage. That beverage would, he believed,
remain at the same price even if a much greeter reduction
were made in the price of malt. If there were no decrease
in the erica of beer there could be nn increase in consunp.
tion ; if there were no increase in consumption there could
be no increase in the growth of barley. He asked hen.
gentlemen opposite, then, what they would have gained by
the alteration ? They would find that till, had just put so
much into the pockets of the brewers. (Hear, hear.)
As regare.ed the growers of barley there was to be
just enough protective duty on foreign produce to
spoil the boast of hen. gentlemen, that the boded
was founded on the principle of u•trestrietrd communes.
It resolved itself into this : those gentlemen -who wets led
to suppose that barley would be need in price by this
measure, because there would be an increased demand,
would find the dement' for barley little if at an increased;
and our own producers would have compete with foreign
manufacturers, who were not entbarrcused by the wee
regulations as themselves, on very unfavourable terms. H.
maintained that, so far from increasing the price of barley,
the tendency of this measure was absolutely to dituinieb
Now he had given the reasons why he, for one, could not
consent to the reduction of the malt tan. He had stated
that in his opinion it would not htiliele either the producer
or the consumer; and the[, wh.ilc it would materially lessee
the revenue, the only class of persons to whom it would
be of lay advantage was a class for which he had greet re-
spect, hut which certainly did net appear to consist of ob-
jects of compassion, namely, the brewers. (Laughter.)
He would now take the liM rty of making one or two re-
marks on the budget itself, if the hose would grant him
its indulgence. (Merl.) He could illation no more
vicious principle for s Chancellor of the Ezeloquer to ..et
urn than that of purchasing immediate and moms:nary
placese
haa popularityts once,yitebm ab revision
to
ot
eo
put usesm
ooftf rh
cia,ebhcoi
m:b...tie ton
i period.t
g
was
lust
immediate popularity, and drawing hills on futurity to pay
the coat. (Cheers) It struck him fit it if the rieluetion
of the duty on malt was to take place the sootier it bete
place the better. Olean hear.) He cunt-need that
he was much astonished when he heard that the
reduction was not to take effect till the 10th of
next °doter. That was not the use retiree with repaid
to reductions of excise duties; the n miesieu had penally
followed speedily. At first it Mean.' to Mos that the rep
is'ihneenot7lniseir
reason,
nbts:h cf.etrrsiguthiptt: •nh ant
foundo c. gketiinhotali msu
tl
he tishhtuehtd.litl tdirceeneferitir ref'
proposal, after giving nine months' notice, still to pay the
drawback. He must say, in passing, Mat it spienre Ito
him to be a great prey to spend a melion in papa,' the
drnwhaeli, and that, if the right hon. gentleman pursued
that course, there wo..1•1 be plenty of malt to pay slam
the 10th of Oesteber ; and he would even venture foray
that all kinds of imaginable fraud, would be practised It
should be remembered, too, that MO was not an
that required keeping—tit, fresher it wet the helter and
yet they were asked to take a course e would iodate
'resister. to aneumulato I urge stock. What, however, oil
the r.sson of the putpnnement ? When he came mese
eider the matter, he thought he saw it plaints. rtouith•
The right hon. gentleman said the 111th ut thtetwe
was the mast convenient day. He had no daunt it estt
for lie coneeived the object to he that no part of
of the reduction shnidil come into the budget of neat year.
(Hear, hear.) Therefore it wan that the reduction era' to
take e ffect five days from the commencement of the tiny,es
eta' year . f 1103 1. Now t:, n was just what he complai ol
of. Ile thought it very hard that the Chancellor of the
Rich, quer, in want, no daub[, of ell the influence sod
popularity, and all the party advent ages that on ininlaabas
revision of taxation could give him, should thus draw &edicts
futurity, and saddle with the realisstin of a tat the eintlot
man who might happen to fill the office of Chancellor of the
Exchquer in 1854. (Hear, hear.) That was a had sys-
tem., They ought to tort rednetioas out of the Warne of
the year. (Ilear.) If they were prepared to reduce theta.
let them do it ; but let them not put off the repeal mousin3l
only till October, but virtually till six months after. 80
was confirmed in that view by finding that the right
hru-
gentleman wasnecemitated to give them two hu•litele
stead of one. The right hon. gentleman centhally elaoh
sated the malt-tax for the year 1843-4, and in order !
show the house the justice and 'propriety of reducing the
malt tat, he gave an estimate of the resources of the Ostia
in the rat- c immencieg the sth of April, 1854. 04'n
hear.) •Now it ea.. tun mach to ask shy mum to foresee the
sitirces if •he current year. If they wanted an diet*
tiara of that they could not have a better one then had bursa
furnished by the Chancellor of the Ene.;equer himself, whO
having in the early pot of the year estimated that hm
surplus would he 400,0001. or .500,0001., now told them that
it would be 1,400,0001. or 1,600,0001. To be sure at th
former period, when a general election was :Tyro:oo4i