The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-03 00:00:00

UNION RELIEF ACT CONTINUANCE.

The house went into committee on this bill, when several
amendments were agreed to, and the bill passed through
committee.

TOBACCO DUTIES.

The debate on Mr, Ayrton's amendment to the Tobacco
Duties Bill was resumed by
Colonel DUNNE, who said that scarcely a day passed
wherein he did not receive some request to remonst rate with
the Government on the impropriety of pressing on this bill
without further examination. He believed from the state-
ments which had been made to him that the bill would seri-
ously affect the trade of Ireland. Irish snuff was made from
the stalks of tobacco. The manufacturer had to pay for
these stalks ls. per lb., and as it required a pound and a half
of them to make one pound of snuff, the cost to the manu-
facturer was Is. 6d. Add to this 2d., the cost of the manu-
facture, an 4 3s. 2d. for duty, and the cost was 4s. 10d. Now
in the foreign manufacture the stalks were of no value what-
ever, and therefore there was a difference of the value of
the stalks to the English manufacturer in favour of the fo-
reigner. The consequence was that this measure, instead of
being a measure of free trade, was a measure of protection
to the foreign manufacturer against the Irish. The con-
sumer would not be benefited, for the foreign manufacturer
would raise the price, and they would find that their home
trade would be transferred to the foreigner, as they had
found in many other cases, And so with regard to roll
tobacco, which was the sort principally smoked in Ireland.
The proposal to admit cavendish by this bill would drive
that article out of the market, and transfer the trade to
the foreigner, without any corresponding advantage to the
consumer, for the price would be raised as the result of the
monopoly. The Chancellor of the Exchequer talked of
giving the home manufacturer a boon by providing that he
might manufacture this tobacco in bonds; but the many
arrangements made for fiscal purposes prevented the Irish
tradesman from manufacturing in bond at all. He made
these statements on this serious subject not upon his own
authority, but on that of the Irish manufacturers them-
selves.

Sir S. NORTHCOTE could not help thinking that the
Chancellor of the Exchequer had been rather unfortunate,
or somewhat ill advised, in the course which he had pur-
sued in regard to this bill, because while he had brought it,
or rather the resolutions upon which it was founded, before
the house at a period so very early in the session that it had
created some surprise at his dealing with a matter of some
importance to the financial statement, yet certainly the
course he took did give ample time for fully considering
the matter. At the same time, he had brought forward a
measure which did not seem to be one of first-class impor-
tance; but still he had contrived to provoke two discus-
sions upon it in consequence of the time of the evening at
which it was brought on, and twice to have a debate upon a
principle that by far the greater majority of the house
. had
agreed on, and to have adjournments upon
this wavaesrytoshime plequestion. He (Sir S. Northcote) thought
re-
gretted because the measure had been brought forward at so
early a period of the session that it might have been fully
discussed and considered ; and because he thought the diffi
culty was not now to consider what should be the principle.
Another circumstance was that, in consequence of the hour
at which the previous debates had taken place, they were
now coming to a vote having many members present who
had heard what had been said upon one side or the
other. As the matter now stood, however, they had
nothing to do but to consider how to deal with the motion
of the hon. member for the Tower Hamlets. He himself
had not heard the speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
on Friday last, but from the published reports he believed
that his objections to the motion of the hon. member were
two—first, that it was unprecedented ; and, secondly, that
it would only have the effect of wasting the time
of the
house, and of putting oft the discussion upon the bill. With
regard to its being unprecedented, he (Sir S. Northcote)
did not know whether there was any exact precedent for it ;
but they ought to bear in mind that they were dealing with
a most important and at the same time peculiar branch of
the revenue, the tax realising between £5,000,000 and