The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-25 00:00:00

MR. HUME, THE MALT TAX, AND THE

FARMERS.

The following letter from Mr. Hume will be gladly
read by all who take interest in the malt-tax q.l-stion.
London, March 20, 1852.

To Mr. Frederick Wase, farmer, Charsfield, Suffolk.
Sir,—l have received and presented to the House of
Commons the petitions transmitted by you from twenty-
five parishes in the county of Suffolk, praying" that
immediate measures may be adopted for the epeedy and
entire remission of the excise duty upon malt."
I heve, on every occasion that the repeal of the excise
duty upon malt has been proposed in the Howe during
the last thirty years, voted for its repeal; and I shall, on
every opportunity, support the prayer of the petitioners
—being opposed to the tax as a bad bax, whether it be
considered as violating the rules of political economy
and of commercial policy, or as being injurious to the
morality and social happiness of the industrious classes
of the community.
This tax injures a great branch of native industry,
and limits the corsump'ion of its agricultural produce,.

ty raising the price of the wholesome beverage of br.r,
au important of e,Asary of lire, to an ext,nt that deprivts
millions of th peopld of the et.joyment nt it.
The LQgi.lat urn has of late years, tf er groat

irt,en bread and mew, ti:in nrt,cl.'a

from taxation, and by their tree importation from other
countries hat greatly improved the conditi,,n ot the in-
dustrious classes. I desire, in like mariner, to fits: mai,
fr,,m taxation, acid ih 40.-4, to add the cheap beversge of
b.er to the com ortA it the people,
The malt-.ax %fts iwpustel, ur d has _been contirued
by Parharnenre, consisting chip fly of krailords, who
have hsd the power, if they had thought fit to t xerci,e
it, of reoding the tax. Mere is now u G Jvernment in
power whose members have tor the last six years be, n
loud in their alvoescy of protection t..,•nqtive industry,
and .specially of ihe welfare of the spier& ural classes;
Arid it behoves the farmers to test the .incerity of Earl
Derby and his followers in their long-continued pro-
fessions, by demanding the repeal of the duty upon malt,
"which is more oppressiie to the farmers and to all the
other industrious classes, than any other tax levied for
the public service.
It is submitted that the farmers must now be con-
vinced, by the late debates in the House of Commons,
that there remains little chance of any duty being re-

imposed on the importation of agricultural produce,
which could raise the price of their corn and cattle, the
two objects for which they have been contending, in any
appreciable degree; and it is to be hoped tiny will not
be any longer deluded by empty promises, or persuade
themselves that by any mere shifting of taxation from
the shoulders of one parry to those of another, any per-
manent relief can be afforded to the'farmer. The Pro-

votionist Cabinet does not promise the farmers any re-

lief by a redu9tion of taxation; bus, on the contrary,
one of the present Secretaries gLatate halt the last
three year,. .uocessfally oppose d the reforms in the levy-
ing and expenditure of the county rates, which would
give to the farmers the proper constitutional control over
those rates, which in some counties are not in-
considerable.

.I wish the farmers would consider themselves—as they
in reality are—as manufacturers of agricultural produce,
and believe that cheap food and low taxes are as neces-
sary to enable them to compete with foreigners, and as
requisite to the comfort of their labourerp, as these pro-
ducts of free trade have proved to the general manu-
facturing interest of the country.
The working•classes were for many years under the
delusion that the amount of their wages depended upon
the price of food; but that delusion had passed away;
and the rate of wages is now found to thpend upon the
supply and demand of labour, and not on the price of
food. Farmers have been under a delusion of the same
kind with respect to the rent of their farms, which must
depend upon supply and demand, upon the number of
farms to be let, and the number of farmers desirous to
hire.

The price of produce, therefore, affects the permanent
interests of landlords more than those of tenants; and
farmers, as well as manufacturers, should advocate cheep
food, cheap drink, and eeonomy and retrenchment in
every department of the state.
To obtain these benefits, the House of Commons must
be made a full and fair representation of the people at.
large, and then the interests of the farmers and all other
industrious classes will be duly considered and attended
to; for the House of Commons, as at present constituted,
does not fairly represent either the people or the pro-
perty of the country, and, therefore, ref )rm of Par-
liament is one of the first objects which should occupy
the attention of all the industrious classes of the cum-

muni,y.
With extention of the suffrage. protrction ensured to
the voter by ballot, and a more (quit distribution of re-
presentatives to electors, the consttimineal balance of
power will be established in the C,,mrnon4' House of Pat -
liamPn, ; and then, at ,d not till then, msy the agricultu-
ral as well as all other induairiou• cl■ssees, hope to have
full and equal juAtice done them.
I remain, your obedient Forasmt,
J, SEM fIUME.