The Sun.
London, England, 1837-05-17 00:00:00

EXCISE LICENCES.

There is about to be 'presented the nineteenth Report of
the Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry (Sir Henry Par-
nell, chairman). The subject is the very important one,
especially to many of our readers, of Excise Licences. As
the Report consists of nearly 60 pages, and very fully
examines the origin, the alterations, and the present obli-
gations of Excise Licences, it is not very practicable to give
even a limited idea of its valuable contents. We content
ourselves, for the present, with the following extracts. In
the prefatory remarks, the Commissioners say :
The statutes which render it necessary that a licence
from public authority should be obtained, in order to ex-
ercise certain branches of trade or manufacture, which but
for such restrictions, might lawfully be carried on by all
who are disposed to embark in them, manifestly operate
as an infringement upon private rights, and an interfe-
rence with national industry, in justification of which
some sufficient grounds of public utility ought to be
adduced. The grounds of such justification are of-
fered when it is alleged that the impositiou of such
licence is made subservient to some important object
of police or municipal regulation, or that it is re-
quired as a means of raising, or of better securing, some
branch of the public revenue. It is to that class of licenses
which are avowedly imposed upon several branches of trade
for purposes of the latter description, that observations will
chiefly be directed.
In speaking of Excise! Licences as being imposed for
pnrposes of revenue, it should be borne in mind that they
are so imposed rather with the view of being made subsi-
diary to the collection of other branches of duty, &c. The
strongest objection is probably that to which we have al-
ready alluded, namely, the neceseity imposed upon any law-
ful trade of obtaining a license from public authority for its
exercise ; the force of this objection will however be mate-
rially diminished when it is considered that the term licence
is not to be taken so much in the nature of a permission
from the Excise to carry on the business in question as a
formal entry or recognition of the trader, and a designation
of the premises in which the trade or manufacture, subject
to Excise duty, is to be established.
The origin of the general imposition of a duty on Excise
licences may be traced to the Budget for 1784 on the close
of the American war. The nature of the intended tax
was described by Mr. Pitt as follows ;—" The next tax he
should propose was a duty to be paid on licences to be
granted to traders dealing in Exciseable Commodities. This
was a plan that had been recommended by the Commis-
sioners of the Board of Excise, and even desired by many
respectable and capital dealers in that sort of goods, the
venders of which were to be the object of it. The pro-
duce of it he estimated at 80,000/. It was a matter of
some difficulty to fix the precise price of the several li- '
tenses. The distiller's, he thought, might be about 501.,
on account of some advantages which he specified as pe-
culiar to that line of business. Brewers, distillers of vinegar,
and printers of calico, might be rated at 10/. ; and a great
many other intermediate dealers in the same description of
goods acccording to the extent and profit of their respective ,
mode of business."—Hansard's Parliamentary Debates,
vol. 2.1, p. 1,029.
ON RATES FOR SPIRIT LICENCES,

We are strongly of opinion that, so far as the licence
duty is concerned, the distinction at present established
between wholesale and retail dealers should be discontinued,
and that the licence should be granted to dealers generally,
the distinction heinl in the amount rf duty to be paid, such
amount to he fixed in proportion to the quantities dealt in,
on the same principle as the amount of duty is fixed with
respect to the other classes of traders who have hitherto
been charged with licences at rateable amounts, namely.
the brewers, maltsters, and tobacco-manufacturers, the
wholesale dealers being charged with licences at the rates
fixed for the largest sales, or unlimited quantities.
That a licence duty, when rateable, should be charged
according to the quantities sold, certaii,ly appears to be the
fairest principle for a variable licence, not only i❑ reference
to the estalilishment of that rule i❑ respect to which it
already prevails, as before mentioned, but also in reference
to wlizt. was stated at the first introduction of this tax.
The other principle which has bee❑ resorted to in the
case under consideration, that of retailers of spirits, and
also in that of retailers of beer appears to lie objectionable
on several accounts. The amount, as originally fixed, was
made to depend on the value at which the premises in
which the trade was carried on were rated for the house-tax,
or, on the cessation of this tax, at the actual or estimated

rent of such premises. The mode of assessment cannot be
considered as an appropriate one, not only on account of
the subsequent total repeal of the house-tax, which formed
the leading rule by which it was fixed, but also because
the rent of the premises has, in a large proportion of eases,
no reference whatever to the amount of spirits sold in them.
This is peculiarly the case with respect to the better class
of inns and hotels, as to which the rents are t;ener•ally the
highest on the scale, whilst the scale of spirits is altogether
a secondary and inconsiderable object.

It is well known, on the other hand, that those pre-
mises in which by Eir the largest retail trade of spi-
rits known in modern times is carried on are intrin-
sically of little comparative value, and offer no accom-
modation for any other purpose ; and a rent fixed ac-
cording to the usual mode of calculation, and a license
duty rated accordingly would bear no proportion
to the quantities of spirits sold, or to the profits made under
such license. It may be added that in the most recent sta-
tute which has been passed on the subject of spirit-li-
cences, namely, the Act of the last session, whereby the ad
dition which had been made by the Act of 1834, of fifty
per cent. to the rates of such licences, was repealed as to
all dealers not selling above fifty gallons in the year, the
principle of quantity sold has been adopted as the criterion
for the rate ; and thus, in the cases which come within the
repealing Act, the rate of licence is made to depend at the
same time upon the two distinct and opposite principles of
the value of the premises and the quantities sold.
In carrying into effect the principle of a license rated
according to the quantities of spirit sold, it has been sug-
gested that such rate might be fixed according to the popu-
lation of the places in which the licensed premises should
be situate ; it appears to us, however, that such a crite-

rion would be wholly inapplicable to the present circum
stances of the trade, especially in the metropolis and its
neighbourhood, and in the great manufacturing and com-
mercial towns, where spirit-shops are opened without any
restriction as to number, and frequently contiguous to each
other, their enormous sales depending chiefly upon their si-
tuation in great thorouglifdres, and upon the multitude of
casual customers who are constantly passing.
It may be observed that, in the only existing instances of
licences made rateable according to the quantities sold, the
department of Excise, at the time when the rates were fixed,
were furnished with the means of judging of such quantities,
in consequence of the manufacturers of the article in ques-
tion being in all of these instances also the licensed venders
of it ; on which account, in the cases of malt and tobacco,
an accurate account was, and still is, taken of the whole
quantity manufactured, on which the principal duty is
charged ; and in the case of beer, although the article
produced is now exempted from duty, an ,Excise survey
was, at the time referred to, maintained for the specific
purpose of ascertaining the quantities made, on grounds
to which we have adverted in a former page. In pro- ,1
posing that spirit licenses should be made rateable ac-

cording to the quantities sold, it must be admitted that
the same means of ascertaining such quantities do not
exist as in the cases of beer, malt, and tobacco : but

still, so long as spirits continue to be received by
dealers under an Excise permit, there will be, at least,
that check on the quantities ; but, even independently of
that criterion, we are of opinion that, for the purpose of
fixing the rate of license according to the amount of sales,
it would be sufficient to rely on the declaration of the

traders requiring the licenses, in the same way as we have

proposed for the regulation of the license on brewers after

the abolition of the survey.

A statement, prepared by our secretary, the result of a
very minute and laborious investigation of the subject, in
the prosecution of which he (Mr. Harrison) availed him-
self of the assistance and information of experienced prac-
tical officers of the Excise, points out clearly the injus-
tice and unequal operation of the principle upon which
these licenses are at present granted, and is strongly con-
firmatory of the views we have above expressed in favour
of a rate of license according to extent of sale.

The following is a further extract, namely, the summing
up, or " conclusion," of the forthcoming Report (being the
nineteenth) of the Commissioners of Excise Inquiry ; as
before intimated ; this Report, which is very voluminous,
details fully the important subjects of Excise Licenses. It
is addressed to the Lords of the Treasury :
" On a general review of the subject, we can have no
hesitation in recommending the enactment of a new com-
prehensive statute on the subject of Excise licences at the
earliest convenient period. A comparison of the schedule of
the present Act with the more recent returns from the Board
of Excise, will sufficiently show how much of the former is
become obsolete by the mere repeal of license duties which
has taken place. The recommendations also which we have
submitted for the revival of some of those licences, as well
as the several new scales of licences which we have sug-
gested, with a view to placing the whole of the Excise li-
cences upon the uniform principle of a rateable charge, ac-
cording to extent zfmanufacture or business, agreeably to
the principle already in existence in reference to several im-
portant heads of duty, will of themselves, if our views are
adopted, render a revision and re-enactment of the licence
laws of the Excise absolutely necessary.
" The schedule of the actual Licence Act has also be-
come inapplicable to the present state of the law, not only
by the successive alterations in the Sale of Beer Acts, but
likewise by the repeal of the House-tax, which was origi-
nally fixed as the scale for the amount of one class of the

rateable licences. On the above considerations, &c. we '
trust your Lordships will concur with us in opinion as to
the expediency of directing that the necessary measures
for the preparation of a new Excise Licence Act should be
immediately entered upon by the department of Excise
communication and consultation with the various classes of
traders whose interests are the nzost directly brought into
question. Among the leading objects fur consideration on
this occasion we apprehend will be—

" Ist. The possibility of assimilating in all respects the
law for Ireland with that for Great Britain.
" 2dly. A re-examination, with a view to their diminu-
tion, of the existing distinctions of traders into wholesale
and retail dealers, especially with reference to the altera-
tion made in regard to those distinctions by the recent abo-
lition of the system of survey and permit as applied to a
large proportion of them.

_ .
" 3dly. The expediency of extending as much as possible
the rateable principle in fixing the amount of licenses for
other trades besides those in which it at present prevails.
" 4thly. The revision of the law relating to the spirit
trade, with a view to the discontinuance of the yearly re-
quisition of certificates of character, and to the separation of
regulations relating to police front those relating to revenue.
".sthly. The fixing the period for the commencement
and expiration of licenses with due regard to the customs
of tenure in Scotland.

" Besides the above points there are various matters of
detail on the subject of licences, arising as well out of the
direct provisions of the law as out of the practical regula-
tions of the department, which, we are satisfied, may be
brought under examination with advantage both to the
trader and revenue ; of the latter class is the enforcement
of the regulation requiring separate licences for distinct sets
of premises used by the same manufactu er. We have had
reason to think (although we have had no direct communica-
tion on the subject) that complaints exist as to the severity
with which this regulation has, in some instances, been en-
forced, and we have thought it right to allude to such com-
plaints as being a matter of high importance, and directly
connected with the extension of our establishments for
native manufactures. This subject, however, and others of
equal importance, will, we have no doubt, be brought under
consideration in the course of that full and free discussion
on the subject of the new Licence Act, in which, as we have
already suggested, the manufacturers and traders in every
part of the United Kingdom, who are or may be interested
in its enactments, should be invited and encouraged to take
a part.

We beg, in conclusion, to state, that when in this
Report we have called attention to the expediency, and
at the same time have pointed, out the means, of extend-
ing the principle of a rateable charge for Excise licences
to cases of trade or manufacture in which it does not at
present exist, our object has been, in the first place, by
the establishment of one uniform principle, to get rid of
those anomalies and inconsistencies which are now so evi-
dent on even a brief inspection of the existing table (f Ex-
cise licences ; and, in the second place, by the creation
of a new and increased revenue arising from licences,
founded upon just and equitable principles, to obtain for
the Government, to a certain extent, the:, means of ma-
terially reducing, and in some cases, perhips,.4altogether
abolishing some of those high duties, Whiehi,ttombined
with the oppressive regulations of the Excise under which
they are collected, now press with such injurious conse-
quences upon some of our most important branches of do
211eStie manufactures.

" We allude especially to the articles glass, soap, malt,
paper, &c. in reference to which it is superfluous to point
out the benefits which would be likely to result in a na-
tional point of view, as well to the manufacturer :as to the
public, if relief in some cases from duty, ana in,-others from
vexatious regulations were afforded. •

" HENRY PARNELL,
" HENRY BERENS.
" Office of the Excise Inquiry, No. 5, Whitehall-place,

(Signed)