The Express.
London, England, 1848-11-10 00:00:00

REFORM THE TAXES.

The Financial Reform Association, in the following
remarks Oust issued) on the articles tarnishing the subjects
of taxation under the Customs and Excise, hav,t confined
themselves chiefly, if not entirely, to their effect on the
social condition of the people. They pass by altogether, as
foreign to their purpose, the question of differential or pro-
tective duties, taking their stand on the broad principle that
all articles which cowards a large and necessary ortin) of
the food of the community, or miniver t 3 the profitable eat-
' ployment of the people, are unfit objects of taxation in any
way or degree.
With an increasing population at the rate of a thousand
per day, profitable employment must be found, so as .0
render the population self-supporting or at no very distant
period the poor law will become the means of c,d,fiwating

the property. of the wealthy, to the support of the poor, in
the shape of legal almsgiving—there are but two alterna-
tives, peulitabie employment and a self sur porting people,
with all the energy and independence which such a popula-
tion give to a nation; or idleness end want, trenching upon
and ultimately absorbing the property of others, till the end
be anarchy, if not violent bloody revolution, out of which
shall arise a new order of things.
Onr moist system of taxation violates both these great
principles, as will be more apparent in a separate but short
notice of each article.

SPlRlTS.—Atioast of duty : foreign, 1,207,3921. ; rum, i
1.219,5351. ; British, 5,949 1511. ; total amount of tax for the I
year, Jan. 6, 1847, 8,376,0781. This tax is often attempted
to be justified on the ground of protecting the morals of the
people. But putting aside the impossibility of making
people moral by act of parliament, and saying nothing of the
questionable morality of deriving so large a sum from a source
admitted by such au argument to be immoral, does not the en: r-
mous revenue yielded by the tax prove it to be ineffectual in
suppressing consumption ? The historfof these duties prows
beyond doubt that taxation is not the means to combat with I
habits of intemperance ; such habits are cot the (Mot of
cheap spirits, but of a low tone of morality, and it must be
education and not the excise that will put a stop to such
evils. A reference to " Porter's Progress of the Nation,"
under the section of Moral Program, chapter 3, will show
that, in 1736, the habits of intoxication had retched such a
point as to occasion continual debates in parliament and to
call for very striagent measures. It was no uncemmoa
practice in those days for publicans to paint over their deers
a notice like the following:—" You may here get drunk
for a penny, dead drunk for twopence, and have
clean straw for nothing." The result was, that the
legislature, thinking the cheapness of the liquor
canted the abuse, imposed a duty of 20s. per gallon
on spirits, and altogether prohibited their sale by retail. The
effect of this proceeding was "riot and violence," "the
clandestine sale of gin," filling " the prisons with offenders
unable to pay the penalty," sa that within less than two
years " 12,000 'staple had been convicted under the act
within the bills of mortality, of whom 5,000 had been sen-
tenced to pay each a penalsy of 1001, and 3,000 people had
paid 101 each to excuse their being tent to Bridewell. It
was given in evidence, before a committee of the House of
Commons in 1743, that the quantity of spirits made for con-
sumption in
England and Wales was :-1733..10,50'1,000 gallons.
It 99 1734..13,600,000 „
1740..15,250,000 „
St 1741..17,000.000
1742..19,000,000 ~
" These quantities were consumed by a population not
exceeding six millions, giving three pillow' for each indivi.
dual, in 1742. One century later, and we find a population
increased to sixteen millions, consurnieg 8,168,96.5 gallons
in the year, or half a gallon per head, showing a diminished
oonsunlytiou of more than five-sixtbs." In 1742 the tax on
British-made spirits was 201. ; in 1842, 7.. 10d. per gallon ;
clearly demonstrating that the tax is no bar to habits of

temperance.
A more effectual mode of counteracting such a tendency
would he to masa altogether such articles as tea, coffee, and
sager. Porter says, at p. 562:: "11f, by reason of the cheapness
of provisions, the wages of the labourer afford means for in-
dulgence, surer, tea, and coffee are the articles to which he
earliest has recourse. and his family partake in the sober gra-
tification. On the thee hand, it will often happen that, whoa
the power of buying these is not enjoyed, the smell SUM
that can still be paid after the purchase of his loaf, is
bestowed in procuring that stimulating draught which is
then more then ever desired, and the man is driven
from his cottage to the public house. We may thus recon-
cile the apparent anomaly which has been so °ltem remarked,
that the excise revenue maintains its level during even
lengthened periods of distress." The tax, however, in-
terferes with a very important home manufacture, and, es
such, is a diem tax on native industry, limiting the employ-
ment of the people, and, to the extent in which it does this,
iv responsible for all the evils which follow therefrom. To
the duty on foreign spirits, originally imposed sea war duty,
and continued ever since, till 1816, when it wee reduced to
155., must, however, be attributed the greatest evils, in de-
moralising the lower classes of the people. It is this which
created and his sustained the trade of the smuggler, ruining
the honest trader, filling the gaols with criminals (too often
guilty of the deepest crimes, not even excepting murder),
increasing borough and county rates, adding to the expense*
of collection by rendering necessary' the preventive service,
and proving itself a prolific source of social evils of the
darkest dye.
Teas.—Amount of tax, 5,112,0031. This article is the
very opposite of the last, and on what principle, we may
ask, is it taxed. It is the very antidote of intoxication, the
promoter of domestic and orderly habits, the solace and com-
fort of the poorer classes of our female population, the stimu-
lant of literary labours, and the great medium of exchange
is the commerce of this country end China. This tax was
raised in 1811 to 96 per cent., as a war tax, and now, owing
to the great decrease which tes (oxen place in the bonded,
or short price of tea, it averages no less than 225 per cent.,
notwithstanding that the price to the public, duty paid, it,
less by 60 per cent then at that period. Thus, though
a war tax, it is not only continued after a period of
thirty-four years' peace, but increased by one hundred
and twenty-five per cent. And this is but an example
of what will be the fate of all taxes, so long as the people
sanction the present lavish expenditure of the government,
and do not demand in earnest reduced taxation. The ave-
rage cost of tea may be stated at present to he about Is. per
pound. Under the present tax, this article cannot go from
the importer to the consumer (that is, from the first kends to
the chandler's shop, where It may be retailed out, and an to
the poorer classes most likely is there retailed out) under
4s. per pound, thus :
s. d.
Coat of tea
Add profit, 25 per am.
Duty on ditto tlf
Add profit on ditto, 23 per cent

Or, in other words, out of every 3d. that a poor man, or
wuherwoman, or the still worse-off 'emptiest, spends in
tea, 2d. out of the 3d. gnes to the government in the shape
of tax. It is within the knowledge of p Aran in Liverpool,
that, in January last, a purchase of tea was made in that
market for a poor-law union in Ireland, the From invoice
amount of which was 2361. 12s. 9d., out of which no leas a
tam than 2081. 61. lid. was paid for duty; and in March lut
a further purchase for a similar purpose, amounting to
2661.4 t., out of which 2381. was paid to the government in
the shape of tax. Need any thing be said to illustrate this
gross injustice ?
- '

Its effect on our commerce, however, is worse—it is de-
, 'tractive. Mr. Robert Gardner, a large manufacturer at
ilantherter, and shipper of his iroduce to China, says, in
his evidence before the select committee of the Mouse of
Commons in 1847: " In consequence, the entire trade has
been most disastrous." "It hu been a most ruinous trade."
A piece of shirting, the cost of which in Manchester is
9s. 6d. to 111., awarding to the quality, will purchase 12 lbs.
of the average quality of tea. The Chinese levy a
duty upon that
.mece of shirting of 71d., and we levy
upon the tea which we receive in exchange for it 26a. 3d. !"
" Upon yarn they levy a duty of near five-eights of a penny
per lb.; 12 lbs. of average quality of yarn will more than
pay for 12 lbs. of average quality of tea!" Considering that
tea is taken altogether and entirely in barter for oar own
manufactures, how does this cramp the employment, and
consequently affect the Bridal condition of work people ! In
a pamphlet issued some few years ago on this duty, it is said,
"The extant ef suet employment, immediately, to the ma-
nufacturing population of Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Bir-
mingham, and Staffordshire, and the scarcely less direct
employment of all engaged in ship-building, and all the
variety of handicraft put in requisition by demand
for any large amount of additional shipping, and the
still leas direct, though not less sure, or leas im-
portant employment afforded to railroads, canals, and
all the labourers employed thereon in the transit
of the goods to the port of shipment, and to the brokers
and commission agents whom it there employs, together with
the capital requisite for these purposes, cannot easily be esti-
mated." The select committee, in their report to the house
my, " It is only through the duty (a duty on the average
qualities of about 200 per cent., and on the worst qualities of
3.50 per cent.) that any such reduction to the consumer can
1 be effected as to stimulate consumption in any sensible de-
gree; and such reduction thus becomes essential to a healthy
and extended trade." Again : "It is also desirable in itself
u promoting the tunas, d consumption of a beverage whole-
some and agreeable to every clamor our population, and one
which is increasingly desired as a substitute for intoxicating
liquors, and that it would be no more than is due to the
Chi..ese, who tax our products so lightly while we burthtn
theirs so heavily." And again : "As most desirable in it-
self, with a view to the ;comforts and social habits of the
people."
. . .

kialv.—Amount of tax, 5,084,6501.—This tax presses
particularly on the poor, and more especially of the hardest
working labourers. Its repeal has often been sought, under
the impreision that it was paid by the produce-s, and not as,
in fact, by the consumers. The produoen being the renters
of land, it is probable that, hal it been proved to have fallen
on them, it might have been repealed, with the hope of the
rents of barley-growing land being thereby increased ; but,
when it wu satisfactorily proved to fall on the consumers,
the demand for its revel ceased, in the fear, no doubt, that
any substitute for it (and some must have been found) would
have been even more distasteful to landlords. The Commis-
sioner of Excise Inquiry, in their report say,—" The re-
peal of it would produce scarcely any other effect than
that of raising the price of barley, and affording to
farmers the means of paying higher rent for barley
lead." If the farmer, out of kis increased price for
barley, could afford to pay a higher price for land,
it is • legitimate benefit which the landlord has a right to
expect ; but as the barley would not be raised in price be-
yond what the public could afford and are willing to give,
and who, it cannot be supposed, would give up to the farmer
the whole benefit of .he repeal,ene more than they would
expect to keep all the b:nefit to themselves, its repeal would
have benefited all parties—the consumers of beer, the pro-
ducers of malt, and the owners of the land, which, in the opi-
nion of the associatim, would have been a very great re-
commendation in its favour. The greatest objection, how-
ever, is the manner in which it interhres with and restricts
an important branch of home manufacture, not only pre-
venting any improvement in the meviug of malt, but ac-
tually creating impediments at times and seasons of the
ar to making it at all. It lessens, likewise, to an incalcu-
lable
extent, the employment of the people, more especially
in agricultural districts.
TOBACCO.—Amount of duty, 4,319,0881. It was given in
evidence, before the select committee on the tobacco trade
in 1844, that nine-tenths of the tobacco is consumed by
the working classes." This tax, therefore, presses peculiarly
heavy upon them. The lionefiNial or injurious effects of the
use of this article is quite a matter of opinion, upon which,
no doubt, men will remain divided ; but so long as an entire
class of our population ad ipu in use to the extent of nine-
tenths of a consumption yielding a yearly revenue of upwards
of 4,300,0001., independently of toe quantity consumed that

is ebarged with duty, it is but reasonable to conclude
that to them it is en artice of indispi naahle or a
greatly coveted luxury ; in either of which eve the present
duty, being upwards of 900 per cent•, is beyond 01l defence.
But when the amount of this du•y is clearly proved to be
the MU* of enormous smuggling and all its frightful conse-
quences, as any one may be convinced of by consulting the
evidence given before the above•mentioneu parliamentary
committee, the tax is not only placed beyond all defence,
bat becomes in itself absolutely criminal, affording a memo-
rable but melancholy illustration of the evil etkcts of our
present system of tea Ilion on the social condition of the