The Express.
London, England, 1849-12-28 00:00:00

THE EXORBITANT DUTIES ON TEA.

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REYCISAL Of A CLERGYMAN TO MARRY A Diff-
szscrua.—We (Wonsan CAronick) are reluctantly com-
pelled at this mason, when we would fain have evoided con-
trotter-id or disputed topics, tc recur to a charge preferred
strains% the rector of a parish near Neuhaus of r• fusing to
marry a Baptist lady to an orthodoi ins of the church. Th •
lord bishop of the diocese, having discovered that th• clergy-
man therein alluded to was the ger. Merlin Ansphlett,
rector of Couroh Leach, has addressed to him an admonitory
letter -. '. lisrtlebury Csstle, near 8/01111TOTt. D- o. 8, 1849.—
Reverend Sir,—lly attention was naturall
Worceystar Chronicle
°slit I to the
encloeed letter, which "Teemed is the
of %Lis week, and I have been this day informed that you're
the clergyman to whom that letter refers. In that ease, and
if the facts are cortectly stated in the enclosed letter, 1
must beg leave to inform you that your cmduct hu been
very irregular. I will not refer to your on ideas' to
marry the parties at all, as upon being advised you wisely
abandoned this, but simply to your cot admitting the parties
se usual to the rails round the Cmeamunion-table. The early
pert of the service may correctly be read in the body of the
church, though the custom has become so universal of having ,
the whole perform, d at the table; and a/ I such di-like
changes and isnovatiou upon es•abilehed customs in things
indifferent, I would always recommend the elegy to adopt
this course ; but with regard to the letter pert of the service,
the rubric specially divests, 'the psalm ended, the man and
1/0•110 kcieling before the Lord's table, :Iv psi et standing
at the table, and directing hi,:face towards them, shall say,"
If, therefore, it is correctly stated that you celebrated mar-
riage between the parties referred to, 'standing round a table
pieced is the aisle,' you were guilty of a gross violation of
the rubric, whit* I request may not be reputed.-1 am,
rev. sir, year faithfsl friend and brother, H. Woacanza.
Tbs Mar. Martin Antphlett."

ADDRESS OF THE LIVERPOOL TEA.
ASSOCIATION.
" The Liverpool Association for the Reduction of
the Duty on Tea onee more call upon the public to support
than in their endeasours to get this most impolitic end un-
just tax reduced. In urging a reduction of this tax, the
assiciation are governed by no exclusively selfish or close
motives. For years they have been endeavouring to accom
plish this, and the only object, but have always been met
with the objection—and the only objection—that the stets
of tbe revenue could not afford it. It ii, however, gener have.lly
understood and admitted, that the government yid
a surplus of two millions at the end of the present
fi,ancial year. The association, therefore, now put in
their claim and urge it by almost a right of promise, that
when such 's
surplus did exist a large reduction in the pre
rent rate of tea duty should take place. Abundant evidence
was Riven before the select committee in 1847, that a redue-
tiim of the duty to Is. per lb. would not jeopardise a greater
loss to the revenue in the first year than 1,200,0001., arid
that in the sewed year the revenue would fully recover
itself.
Of all duties on articles of consumption that on tea is the
most objectionable. Its injurious effects are felt in some
way or other by all classes of society. Its evils are universal.
It may well, therefore, be selected as the first to be reduced;
and the association feel convinced that amidst all rival claims
it can maintain, upon its merits, and per se' its priority.
111'Culloch says, " We incline to thick that this is the
most objectionable duty. in the Eaelish tariff;' and epic,
" Tea in this country is not a luxury, but a necessary of
life, which is d•cidedly more indispensable to the poor
than the rich." The rate of duty is, on the average, 250
per cent. The entire. imports of 1818 cost somewhat under
two millions while the amount of duty paid n that year
ranbeil nearly five millias and a half. On low qualities
it is 300 and 400 per cent., and on the lowest 800 to 1,000
per cent.
As a matter of fiscal policy, the rate of duty is much too
large. Nothing is more certainty proved, now by expe-
rience, than that inordinately heavy dwies defeat their
own object, and that moderate duties US most productive
to the Exchequer. To this general experience tea is no
exception, as has been demonstrated by actual results en
I former occasions, when the duty was reduced, mere cope-
egally in 1784, when toe population was not so large, nor
the use of tea,
so general as now, bat when the consumption.
was trebled by the reduction. The present consumption is
under 50,000,000 lbs., employing about 100 ships. A similar
nerrant, therefore, to what tuok place in 178 i, would give
3.. for every 25. 2d. now paid to the revenue, and would em-
ploy 200 additional ships, thus calling into exercise all the
various industries requir.d in building, rigging, victualling,
and navigating them.
It is besides a direct tax on industry. A piece of shirting
worth in Blauchester Ss. 61. towill exchaoge in China
tor 12 lbs. of tee, our import duty on which is 265. 3d. In
consequence of this duty the exchange of shittings fur tea is
limited, the manufacture interbred with, and industry to
tnat extent destroyed. In effect it is a duty of Ns. 3d. on
every piece of shining exported to Chine, and exchanged
far tea. Its operatiun in impeding the distribution of tea,
and by inference is
crempirg the expansion of commerce,
and thereby lessening profitable employment of many
Kinds, rebuking, as it were, industry in its every effort to be
air-supporting, has been well des.ribsti in the following
11 words :
t " The capital which purchases cotton and manufactures it,
1 Welding machinery, paying wages, rent, rates, and charges
lif conveyance to and from the seaport; which provides ships.
eistualling,manning, and insuring them, to carry the calico to
Ana; which incurs all the risks of delay, fluctuating mar-
la% an: local charges then; which brings tea in r.turn,
again manning, vie:spline, acid insuring the ships ; paying
lees for bah
harbourage, warehousing, and all the attea-
dant chains, besides interest on its own amouwhant;
rf thatwhen capce
i-
tal, though it land the tea on the very
the eilico was shipped which went to purchase it, is not
swoosh:: three times more capital is required to pay the duty
ea the tea."
As an impost on the chief article of export from a country
area which' we forced a commercial treaty by war, it is ex-
tremely unjust, and colony at •,riance with the spt of our
recent commercial le.islation, toeing an imp•st on cur part of
en less than 26e. 3d. on the tea we receive for a piece of
shirting admitted by.the Chinese into their country at the
leeepetatie.4 nominal duty of 71d. Surely, we cannot
wonder, while such an inequaiity exists in our commercial
relations, that the Chinese nit only consider but plainly
soli us " Barbarians."
But the most injurious effects, and those which render it
I peculiarly desirable that this should be the first tax dealt
I with, are tl/4oes which press upon the phys:eal, social, and
moral condition of the great mass of the people. Ia the
limits of this address they can be only iudicated; but the
gross oppression of taking more than 2d. from every 3d.
laid out in tea by the overworked, Ill.paid, and all but
starving needlewoinan, to say nothing of the toiling artisan,
or still worse off peAeent, needs no illustration—it speaks
trumpet-tongued in condemnation of the tax,
The statesman, the philanthropiat, an the mora d-
list, will
here alike find ample scope for reflection d ; and each, &car
ing to the peculiar phase in which he looks upon soc
national
grievance.
The association, therefore, cell upon the public to support
them in their endeavours to remove this Head folly—this
'immortal suicide—this social wrong.

IMPORTATION OF SPONGE.—AII importation having
taken p ace of a quantity of sponge by a vessel from Rott• r-
dam, and entered as being free of d
uty,uty the Officers of the
revenue considering that it was euce of Turkey and
having been imported from Europe was inadmissible to
entry, detained the sponge as having been imported contrary
to law. On consideration of the matter it appeared that
there was not sufficient proof that the sponge was inadmissi-
ble to entry for home use, and that according to the beet
authority, soonges occur attached to stones at the bottom of
the sea, and abound particularly upon the shores of the
produces the Grecian Archipelago. If the sponge were the
rodu of Aeiatio Turkey it, would be inadmisuble, but it
appearing to have been ruled on a former occ►sion that the
i laws of navigation
then app
solely to the produce of
the land, and that therefore this article was not affected by
those laws, permission was granted for the delivery of the
sponge, and free of duty, foe hose use.