The Express.
London, England, 1848-08-29 00:00:00

swim did give a protective duty in favour of colonial and
against Irish and Scotch spirit' or not? He contended that
they did to the amount of at least 3d. or 4d. a gallon, and
the Irish aid Scotch distille coloniallymuch rather be placed
in the same position to tee tiller in regard to the
duty on the decreases and waste than have • protection
whit& was merely nominal.
Mr. D. CALLAGHAN supported the amendment. The
only diftereato between the Chancellor of the Exchequer
was as to the duty on the decreases. It was a great tax on
the distiller, who depended on the home trade, to be com-
pelled to pay duty on that portion of the spirit which evatio-
oersted end was lost. He could see no danger to the reve-
nue in levying the deity on the said.. when it come out of
the w rehouse instead of at the worm's end. The altera-
tion in the duties on colonial spirits h ad placed the Irish sod
Scotch distillers in a worse position in regard to this waste
than they were in before.
Mr. J. O'CONNELL said the only argument the Chan
tenor of the Exchequer had advanced against the motion
was that in his opinion it was an advantage to the revenue
that the Irish and Scotch distillers should be robbed. (A
laugh.)
Lot d G. BENTINCK observed that the argument of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, that it was en advantage to all
parties that the duty should be levied at the earliest possible
period, might be true in regard to soap, malt, and other
articles on which there was no waste by evaporation or leak-
age, and upon which the duty, whenever paid,. was paid only
upon so much of the article as found its way into consump-
tion. But the complaint of the distillers was that by the
system of levying the duty they had to pay not only upon
that which was so'd, but upon that which never came into
consumption, but which was lost by evaporation and leak-
age. (Hear.) The right hon. gentleman said it was only
right that as the spirit improved in quality by age
a higher rate of duty should be paid by the consumer ; but
ought not that rule to apply equally to foreign and colonial
spirits—to brandy, hollands, and rum as well as to Brit i,h
spirits ? (Hear, hear.) All that the British distiller asked
was that the same favour should be extended to British
spirits that the foreign colonial received, and that he might
not he subjected to the grinding extortions of the excise but
be placed ender the control of the customs. That was the
recommendation of Sir H. Parnell's committee in 1833, and
the commissioners of excise, who showed that the loos to the
distiller by leakage and evaporation was equal to 5 rut
cent. in strength, and as much in bulk. The right
hon. gentleman had otimated the pos,ible less to the
revenue by the change now proposed at 118,0001.
The right hon. gentleman was certainly a most extraordi-
nary Chancellor of the Exchequer, for when it was neces-
sary to argue the case against the British, and in favour of
the colonial distiller, he showed that the leakage and waste
were next to nothing, but when it was propos-el to place the
British distiller on a footing of equality with the foreign or
colonial competitor, then the leakage and wastage were ex-
ceedingly !mg.?. I Hear, and a laugh.) The right hon.
gentleman was like the traveller in the fable, who alarmed
the satyr by warming his fingers and cooling his porridge
with the same breath. When it suited the right hon. gen-
tleman's purpose to favour colonial spirits on the 17th June
last the whole loss from leakage and evaporation was
27,0921., but now it was 118,0001. According to • return
male by Mr. Williams, member for W.rcester, the sum
total he brought into stock charged with duty was 41,988
gallons, and the amount he sent out of stock 33,958 gallons,
',owing that there was a loss of duty on the difference ba-
'he quantity brought into and seat out of stock amount-
_ iallons6G.oo per cent. In the same way Mr. Brow.. ing,
of L, don, imported 297,881 gallons, and sent out 2'23,886
gallons, showing • loss of duty on 74.000. All he wanted
was that the distillers of Irelepd and Scotland should be
treated as thou of foreign countries and the colonies as re-
garded the decreases and the mode of taking the gauges.
Mr. REYNOLDS believed that a roiliest of the request
cottlitied ie the amendment would do much to make con-
verts amongst the most respectable classes in Irelali to the
question of a domestic parliament. The bill he nevertheless
believed to be a good one so far as it went.
Mr. M-0 REGOR hoped the time was not far distant when
the duty on spirits would be assimilated in the three king-
doms, but pending that measure he thought the present bill
necessary, and hoped there would he no division on it.
After • few words from Mr. HUME in support of the bill,
Col. DUNNE said he thought the bill a good one, but felt
the nice Mty of the amendment, and would support it.
Mr. DI:NCOMBE opposed the bill as contrary to the
principles of tree trade.
The house divided—For the motion 37
Against it
•

twccn tl
I igto 2

The house then went into committee,
The clauses were agreed to with a few verbal amendments,
and the bill pwsed through committee, and was ordered to
be reported
COPPER AND LEAD DUTIES BILL.

On the motion that the bell be read • second time,
Lord G. BENTINCH moved that the bill be read a se-
cond time that day six menthe. The bill had been po.tponed
two-Ind-thirty times, and he must supmee, from the manner
in which the government had delayed the second reading
lentil that late period of the session, that they had no great
nfidenee in its merits, but relied upon the majority
which • government always had at its command to pass it.
Re objected to the bill on many grounds. He objected to
the bill because it was most indecorous, when • government
was in a state almost of insolvency, when it was obliged to
borrow two millions of money in order to make up &de-
ficiency— that it should be squandering away an part of its
revenues by removing restrictions of the kind. He objected
to the bill because it was unnecessarily diminishing • revenue
that was altogether insufficient for the expenditure of the
nation. He objected to it because it was another step taken
by the government towards raising the taxes of the country
in a direct rather than an indirect manner. He objected to
it because, in his opinion, the customs duties were those
which pressed the liehtest on the people of the country;
that they were the taxes which were levied principally on
the industry of foreigners, and the burden of which they
shared with the people of this country. Therefore, if taxes
mi.et be paid, every million that could be raised by customs
was to some extent at the expense of the foreign producer.
He objected to the bill on another ground, viz., that it was
• removal of that just protection which the minces of Corn-
wall were entitled to from the government. The present
tax was one which ad valorem amounted to no more than 6
per cent. on the produce which wits made the subject of it.
New, if there was • tax which pressed more lightly than
another on the trade and industrial resources of the country
it was a tax of that description ; and he was glad to see the
hon. member for Portsmouth (Sir F. Baring) in his place,
as he hoped that be would vindicate the principle of the
whig government when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer,
which was the principle of levying all the taxes from the
customs duties. And he hoped that he (Sir F. Baring)
would warn them, as he had before lone, of the
disastrous consequences of deputing from that prin-
ciple. The tax in question, smite as it was, was
oue that concerned the subsistence of more than 22,000
persons, who represented with their famili. a nearly 100,000
souls. He thought that, on that account, they should not
lightly deal with or throw away a tax that, while it in-
creased the revenue, protected the means of subsistence of so
large a portion of the people. He could state with great
truth that the miners of Cornwall never were in a lower
condition than now—(hear, hear), and that there never was
• moment when there was less claim on the part of the
smelters of Swansea and elsewhere to make demands. He
was prepared to show them that, while on the one hand the
prices of cooper ore had fallen to an extent lower than ever
was before known, the price of fine copper produced from it
bad not fallen in anything like the same proportion : on the
contrary, it had risen while the other bed alien. He would
also be able to s'.ow that there was at the pres tit time a
difference between the price of ere and ii. fine copper
of 22 percent. The smelters, who asked for the boon, were a
powerful body, strongly represented en the house ; but there
never was a more complete monopoly than that which they
exercised. It was to add still narther to the unjust gains of
that great monopoly that her Majesty's ministers proposed
to reduce the small duty et 6 per cent. ad valorens on the
produce of Cuba, where the cow er was produced by slaves,
and also on that of Chili. This cuntry had colonies also
that were interested in the subject. Now he did not object
to admit the produce of the colonies free ; and if he Mt not
Buse-d in throwing out the bill he would be prepared to
support amendments in committee which should have the
effect of having the produce of tho colonies untouched, aud the
tax: imposed only: on the produce of foreign countries. The
bon. memb. r proceeded to refer to the arguments used on •
recent occasion by the Under Secretary of State for the Co-
lonies in defending the government mid himself from an
atrack made by the hon. member for Southwark.
The hon. gentleman slid that their colonies were generally
contented, but they should take care that they did not make
them discontented by cutting off from them the markets
which they now punned. They had tne means of giving
employment in the miners of Australia to those Irish la-
bourer' who came into such injurious competition with the
labourers of Lancashire and York,hie e„ if they did ant allow
foreigners to occupy the home markt t. The British subjects
in Australia could not meet the misers of Cuba and Chili on
equal terms on account of the greater distance of the former
from this country. They had besides this additional disad-
vantage to contend against, that the mines were situated
at a greater, distance from the port of shipment. It
was not hie intention to protect the miners of Corn-
would say • few words on the present condition
and prospects of the miners of Cornwall. The price of cop-
per ore at the hat midsummer quarter, was 11 per cent.
lower than at the commencement tit the year. It was lower
by 18 per cent. than it was in 1847. It was lower by 2.5 per
cent. than the average of the last 15 years The effect of
that reduction of ore on the miners of Cornwall was equal to
17s. Id. on every ton of ore raised. The quantity of ore
annually raised was about 50,000 tons, and she number of
persons employed in raising it 22 000, so that it was easy to
calculate the lees from this reduction to every miner en-
gaged. He was sorry to say that a large portion of the food
of the Cornish miners consisted of potatoes. The noble lord
here read an article from the Cornwall Gazette, which
stated that the potatoes in Cornwall were very much affected
by the disease, whiM, coupled with the measures of the go-
vernment, would reduce them to great distress and wretched-
ness. He wa' assured by personsconnected with Cornwall tbat
if the government persisted in this measure—if in the hour
of their struggle with she diseeneations of providence and
the scourge of famine they forced this measure on the miners
of Cornwell they would find Cornwall another Ireland.
Hear, hear.) He would ask the noble lord if he was pre-
pared, for the sake of carrying out a miserable abstract
principle, to run the risk of putting one of the counties of
England, the inhabitants of which were at remarkable for
their loyalty and attachment to the crown as they were for
peaceful industry, in the same condition in which they found
the people of Ireland ) (Hear, hear.) And folewhat ? To
support • monopoly (hear, hear) one of the
greenest that existed in this country—ta support
those who had invested money in foreign mines. (Hear.)
He supposed it would be said that the smelting trade was
leaving them, and that the government were now making a
1.4 effort to prawn It by this measure. Its, however,