The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1822-08-08 00:00:00

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lincies in . o mad primate, Mid Ike coniMilleat
ta1999((( for etif i masts both the Crnwn and lb.
• Ir fy established ft, yet/fence of the
inAbilued in detail systems of the,
Ida indite, and by the testim• of antrioos our.
chants, and Revenue officers, who Olive bees et.
amined by
With respect to tho Customs, the existence of thaw gene-
ral irregularities among the officers employed in the receipt
and delivery of the imports and expels, retitle's It but too
probable that the interests of the Crowu must be injured by
the imperfect collection of the duties. But the proof of
actual defalcation arisiog from that cause is from the nature
of those duties not so be obtained in the same manner as
wish respect to the Excise Deportniest. It s, however.
but be presumed, that the laxity on the port of the Custom.
house Officers, which produces so mach iacouvesience to the
subject, must occasion loss to the Crown also.
Severs! of the witnesses who have given evidence relating
to this department have spokes in the strongest aid meat
unequivocal terms of she great d fference between a British
and an Irish port, in respect to the facility and dispatch
with which its duties are cuudieted ; sad they have is some
inst declared, that a few hours are foiled auScieist by
the officers of she Customs at Liverpool fur the completion
of the lame quantity of business that required a mcrilice of
several days in the corresposding department. of Dublin.
Ills superfluous to observe, 'bat unnecessary delays and im.
pediments to the transactions of commerce are heavy addi-
tions to the unavoidable burden of taxation; and the public
look for the removal of them with a very isatnral and very
just anxiety.
In the collection of the draft managed by the Excise, the
comparison with Great &Onto is even much more unfavoura-
ble to the Revenue system is Ireland, the establishments be.
longing to this department being at present is a most noes.
tisfactory condition. In corroboratio• of tiih statement, sod
with a view to offer the means of pursuing this subject more
into &tail than could well be dune its the body of our
Report* we have in our Appendix subjoised the following
&consents, which will be found to contain very ample infor-
mation os the several points connected with this branch of
our inquiry :-
Ist. Copies of the regulations ender which the several
duties of Excise are charged le England and Ireland reipee-
lively.

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2d. A letter addressed to this Commission by the Chair-
man of ibt Nerd of Eseisa is Dublin, on the subject of dm
differences between them.

3d. The examiustioas takes before us Mike several prac-
tical s9icers who were sent from Englied for the purpose of
surveying and reporting opus the actual state of the collec-
tion of them duties i■ Ireland, under the tsiating resists.
Lions.
4th. The examination of a Commissioner of Excise in
Ireland, lately employed os a survey of his department.
The proof, which are Worded by these documents, toge-
ther with the Report of Colonel boyl. sad Mr. Cage, which
we have already referred to, newer:list the defective state of
this department is geseral, are irresistible; the general re.
suit may best he illustrated by a brief notice of the collection
of the deity on Irish•osde spirits, which, as your Lordships
are aware, is the most eousiderable of those which are col.
leeted by the Excise.
The manufacturers of this article, as well se of several
others subject to Excise duty hs Ireland, are by law charge•
able with duty is • doable form ; first, by am assessmoest M
a certain rate upon the quaatity of the article supposed to
be produced, according to t►e capacity of the stemils em-
ployed in the masufacture; and secondly, by a charge of
duty upon the quantity really produced, which certain offer.
are appointed to asceitais by actual misery., The former
mode of assessment is in the nature of a license, and the
amount of duty thereby fixed is charged as the minimum
which each distiller is liable to pay. The operating of
tie y would produce the diWerence of duty 'scilicet'
that tistsiontas aid a charge upon the actual produce,
if the officers of the Excise performed their day. Is
order, however, to enable your Lordships to appreciate the
value of the service pee formed by the officers to whom the
collection of this duty is commiueil, sod at the same time
to a/ids' is formiag an estimate of the general efficiency of
the deportment, it any be sufficient to call your mimetic§
to the ascertained fact, that it is a ease of rare secure. ors
that any spirit defy is brought to account beyond that which
is charged npos the capacity of the still, whilst it is noto-
rious that such licensed gauntly is so much below what
really can he produced, that some of the distillers leave, fur
reasons which it is ono y in this place to refer to, peti-
tioned the Board of Excise to have the charge increased by
one fifth. It is indeed a subject of g e I uoturiety, that
se excess of more than that mmuent is usually mastifeetur-
ml, sod finds its way into cousumption without payment of
any duty. The existence of this practice has been long
kaowa to the whole department of Etcise; and although it
could only prevail through the neglect or corrupt conuivance
of its ofß•ers, we find no trace of any sacesuses for the cor-
rection of so extensive an evil.

The loss of r occasioned by a system of mane.
meat so defective, is far from being the ouly evil to which it
gives rise. Consequences of a very iajmions oaturemust
also be produced, from the oletaeles thereby created to •
free intercourse in the spirit trade between the two roue.
tries, which cannot, while the Revenue is so imperfectly col-
lected in Ireland, be carried on without "alums& injustice to
I be English sad Scorch distillers.
It will be oar duty to address a distinct commosiestion to
your Lordships, In consrqueoce of the reference which you
have been pleased to make to es of the whole of this cairn.
sive and complicated subject. We shall here, therefore, only
slate what appears to be necessary to illuvrate our last ult.
sereatiou, leaving entirely out of oar cuatiderittiou the par.
tieular subjects of difference between the distilkes of the two
*sentries, which are now In • course of litigation, with a
view to a legal derision upon them.
The Irish distiller has the privilege of warehousing the
spirits which he maaufactures, sad of tiattaferring such part
of ahem as he thinks proper at any time to England, where
he pays the British duty on importing them fur eunaumptiow
Thus far, therefore, he meets the British maaufacturer on
equal terms; for we may suppose that the expenses of freight,
&c. to which be is liable, are compensated by the privilege
enjoyed by him, and not by the English niautifseinrer. of
warehousing the spirits without the payment of the duty,
until they pees into the hands of the coosemier. But front
the facihties which ate allowed to him, as we have described,
in the disposal of • fermis proportion at the opine which he
cam produce without the payment of nny duty is Ireland, it
is evident be possesses an advantage which must soon give
Wm • decided and prepoaderatieg superiwilly over his En.
link rival, and such as must infailibly, if it be allowed to
continue fur any length of time, prove as injurious to the
distiller in England as it is to the revenue in Ireland.
If upon every 1,000 gallons of spirit/ produced by the
Irish distiller he is chervil with a duty on 740 gallons may
(which, wording to the majority of the opinions which we
have received upon the subject, appears to be the fact),
leaving him at liberty in dispose clandestinely of the remain-
ing ?SO gallons free of duty, there will be a benefit to him
upon the sale of that quantity beyond the We and ordinary
profits of his manufacture, corresponding la some degree
with the amount of the duty which be has been permitted to
evade. We say in some degree corresponding, becalms we
are aware that in such transactions the dealer does not 'mu.
any pia the whole of the duty which is lost to the Revenge,
being obliged to divide it accurdiug to ciscomstaaces with
the consumer. But whatever the actual profit epos each
transaction arty be, it &folds on the whole a positive wives-
sage to the Irish distiller, and enables him, pre fatale, to
undersell the English manufacturer in his owe market, in
the disposal of the MS gallons which are charged with duty.
It therefore becomes the interest of the Irish distiller to
transfer to Elegised all the spirits upon which he is cum.
pelted to pay duty, sad to •(4.lr Ireland that portion
which be ens make duty free; a proceeding which, as we
have observed before, must operate at the same time to effect
the ruin of the English distiller, and the decease of the hub
revenue.

With respect to the Saheb distil/cry it will be *official
to observe, that le his case the duty eve spirits is charged
and levied is a manner differing cuesiderably from abe
methods perused tiller in LllOlOll a in Ireland, sod
that the manufacturer is so situ•ted, that if the free
intercourse iu spirits were allowed between bathed ail
Leland, he would probably out be able, apposing the
the fief/time should be collected as at plesent, to endure the
competition i while us tht other baud, if hit claim to be rat

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..deqap.6.

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Ape et,1,r....0., *IA trelsod Is reopen lo the inter:
dawn no gland were conceded to him, he also might
Sit the, beet opkiibe which we haws yet received on the sub.
riche correct) hued advantages over the Emilie\ distiller
too greet to allow the rivalry to be of long contingence,
hkit coo ourselves conceive no permanent or effectual me-
tmit of preserving the Urited Kingdom from grievances of
this eaters, without the establishment of use uniform
and regular system of revenge collection, under one no.
eseeiment sad authority. It appeari Id IS, that it is sot by
an alteration of the law, or of the regulations for cullectme
the spirit dal in any of the three countries, that a remedy
for nab evils _could /with certainy be prettdeda her Ms
supposing the law to Ise made uniform (which local circum-
stances may perhaps not admit of), and the 'etiolation, re-
oeribed for collecting the duties to be literally the same, do
Injurious affects to which we have adverted might still runt
in their fall extent, if the different Boards were al bliaerty to
enforce that law, arid excrete those melodious, willies
much diversity in practice as they are at present in the habil
of noise. On the other hand, notwithstandiag the Notional
existeace of differences in the laws and regulation. for c.d.
letting thine duties, the intercourse between the three cues.
tries might be counseled with fairness mod facility to all
parties under • • well arranged system of eueotereadoug
duties, provided those laws and rneninioos were admleister-
ed by the same authority, and niforeed with equal guidons
throughout the Usited Kingdom.
These arguments apply in a gender or lets degree en every
etenimodity liable to the duty of Excise le both coantried,
according t. the circumstances of the case. And is say
instance in which the duty collected differs in either country
from that which is oominally imposed, it must pruve inju.
rious to the trader iu one country and to the re it the
other.
That the laxity which we have alluded toss prevailing la the
collection of the duty ea spirits, prevails also with regard to
the sollection of a large proportion of the other dudes of
Recife in lurked, sufficient soma may be sollemed from the
examiestioas and Reports of the Cominisonmers yid preen
tical Ulcers sent from Ragland. In the endears of the
latter there is • general concurrence In decimalise thot net ass
of tie duties which come under their araiwinotion, in tie
MUTH Of the extensive inspection with which they were
charged, appeared to be duly collected to /related. Thu
*pinkie is coiellimed and corroborated in a cousiderable
degree by the testimony already referred to, of °lie of lbs
Commissionn• of the Irish Board of Excise, who has lately
r. turned from an iespection of the sootis-easiern districts of
that country. This Gentleman espresa. 1, is the strangest
terms, his belief of a very general sensed corruption is the
several classes of the Excise department below the iimpeeters,
sad he speaks very &ghastly eves of those eaters. Our
own obscenities mid inquiries decidedly lend Ns to the same
enschisins ; and we are fully convinced that all those duties
the collection of which depends upon the rietlaoce sad in-
tegrity of the *Sena employed, are must imperfectly
brought to account.
The ceases of this defective administration are in great
Measure pointed out is the Report submitted by Colonel
Doyle and Mr. Carr to the Lord Linitenart, sad in their
evidence before as. le both of these, a want of systematic
aeratigement and discipline in the Irish Excise departunit is
described as prevailing to such a degree, as must preclude
all possibility of a faithful sad efficient Mitchell of that
tie.
A farther evil consequence, and sae of • very pernciou
character, attributable to this state of sessagernesi, arises
from the inequality of the presser* thereby produced on the
honest and disbosest trader, which is stomach felt, that Emu
who might not be tempted by the spirit of gain, ire leo ire-
quietly driven by the apprebensioa of ruin, to adopt ihoot
fasoduleat practices which can alone place them on a keel
with their nampettion. Thus the collection of the Public Is-
tome becomes a fertile source of corruption, creating and
maintaining a fraudulent connexion between trader and offi-
cer, prejudicial slake to the eor.tions of a fair spirit of is.
dustry, and to the due calcction of the just Rcveuue of the
State.
le the department of the Assessed Taxes In Ireland, the
establishments for the nianagesnint of which we wese led to
examine more minutely, oat account of a subject of special
inquiry referred to us by lb. Lord Lientenaai, we base not
found the proofa of a more successful system of &denims-
teatime. A considerable change in the cosslitatioo slid re-
gulations of this department took place under the directive
of your Lordships and the Irish Government, in 1117. Some
material improvements were then Introduced into a system,
which, as it before existed, was vicious in principle asd Cur..
'opt is practice, to • very high degree. We shall abstain
luaus ufferiog Inch observations sod seggestious is bass
occurred to us upon these al ions, and also epee what
remains to be dour in order to place this department epos a
proper footing, until the measures now in progress through
Parliament, fur relieviag Ireland from a large prupottiou of
the Assessed Taxes, shall have bees etanapleted. tie *ball
thew be enabled to submit aa epiatee as to the guest
economical mode 6f collectitie arch pert of those taxes
as may still remain unrepeakd, or perhaps to suggest the
expediency of conenanting fur some wrest* of indirect
taxation a brooch of revenue in Ireland, which will doe
yield so iocensidetable • produce in promotion to the
extent of the establishment which mast be imaistained fur
managing It; is the mean time we avail ourselves of Ibis
opportunity to state, that in uterine any advice spots
that subject, we shall be chitily guided by a principle abieti
we deem of great importance, and never to he lest sight of in
the prevent relative situation of Ire'aed and Great Britain,
that say inequality between the two countries in ibe genial
weight of the public burden, ulnae alit of the differeet rah.
of taxation, so long as any such must remain (and we are far
from thinking that the pressure upon Ireland should be in-
creased at this time by au entrap( to equalise them), ought
to be confined as much as possible In those branches of the
hieb do sot apply to sub3ects of commercial ex-
change. If the exemption to Ire given to Ireland, in sppur-
tioriug her share of the common burdens, could be coetioid
to sueh es, it would not only obviate the Menne-
armee and embarrassment which now perplexes the inter-
cense between Great Britain and Ireland under s system of
eglintervailing duties ; but would also have a heuellicisi
dewy, by operating as is endowment to residence us the
part of the 'petrol proprietors mure direct and foraiblr thus
that which is afforded by a chliereuce in the taxation opus
articles of consumption only.
As the remarks which we have tiles felt it our defy to
submit upon the present slate of the several Revenue &pail.
ments in Ireland, may possibly be considered as intended to
imply censure upon the individuals composing the thirds
sliinich.hanouireiersfridreuebeencrteere,..r.7:ored7isotuwintenhilaiseteoblisegcithra.rliodai*gyeuessiidrdli:::aiesioUt-
the amduct of individuals filling the superior Whets el them
deputation', but to the system, and t* practices of long
standing, the evils of which are in a great nwaseie to be at-
tributed to canes which cannot fairly be coastriereit as
within their contrail. We are slut. bound to slaw, is
, lice towards item, that Is. many of the recent proreodivt•
of the Boards iu !retard, there is an end. of tendency he
improremeot. But without greater changes than this fuse
power to accomplish, such improvements can only be pinto)
and temporary. The leading cause of the evil is stand to
consist in the nihilism mode srf appointment and peconetica
of officers is the differest departments of the Rye...ie.
Coder a system which has lung prevailed is lutes.,
these appoiateneuts appear to have beep made with too hies
of that cousiderat ion for the immediate iotrrests of the It
, which would require that individual, shush' be le.
betted to fill the higher situations on the grimed of selec-
tions service alone. Those somatic,' have for Ow win
part been occupied by persons usilitird by *spryest',
by their previous habits, Of by the u•ture of their sehostiosa
to discharge the duties for which they have received thew
emoluments; sad the general Imetheirecy of the drel:/-
flouts, productive of sit mach evil, has been the seamed,
able couseipteace.
The power of appoisting the executive officer.. acting
en" She •ellearity of the several Beards of Ke eeeee
Ireland; is ostensibly vested is the Conosimiciaers, either
by law or by the patents whereby they are runniest. d. The
IMlrumeatsof appointment rietterdiegly proceed from that;
boo the enaction of the m noes to lie •ppoiated has bees
exclusively made by the Governioeut, whose directions. ni
that respect, the Commissioners ore •ccuetoured io cbeY.
Thu. proceeding applied equally to When of the highest amt
the lowest classes, sad is not is. practice limit d nub
to the former by say strict rule. of pronto:4lQ% lb( it