The Sun.
London, England, 1801-05-15 00:00:00

SALT

The CHANCELLOR o ir • the EXCHEQUER
said, that in pursuance of the Notice which he gave
yesterday, he rose to ITIQVC for a COipinittee to. in,
quire into the Law, as it regarded the Duty on
Salt, and the incon-veninces arising therefrom, and
that they .do 'report. the same, with their opinion
thereupon,' to the House. He said it was nbt neees.:
sary for him to say. any 'thing on the nature of the Ar-
ticle to which this Motion referred; the importancp
of it was felt in our Agriculture, in our Manu-
fatures, and in almost:all the Necessaries of' Life,
and) perhapi, at. the present moment, *.nothing
was pore desirable than that of effeaing- a re--
dndion in the ,'.rice of this
,Article. The Duty
on_ it was. high,.and there were not many -arti-
cles on which the Duty bore a higher Proportion to
the Original Value of the Article itself, and perhaps,
there were not many Articles in which there was so
large a disproportion between .the produce to the
Revenue and the burthen do the Public, as this Ar-
tick 'of Salt. ',lt must be the wish of the House
that as large and 'as free. an 'use as.possible.should he
made of thii Arricic, /arid as low ,in expence,;as could_
prattically I)f...devised ; in this the conveniericies- of
trade„wotildhe much consulted.. li‘leed he knew
there were some who thotght,that the Duty -on .this'
Article ought to he done away altogether. The
whole of that matter, however, would'be for future
consideration. Some, Gentlemen were of 'opinion
that a commutation of this Tax ought to be adopt-
ed, and that it 'ought to haVe been a:lopted :tong
ago. That matter also would be -for future con.

sideration ; and all that he should observe at ire.
sent was this : if in the wisdom .of Parliament
it should gem fit that a commutation of this Duty
should take place; no argument could- be made use of
on the renewal of the Duty, bythe Motiotthe was
now about to make, because it Was for a Committee
to. inquire into the subjeel., Nor was the case now
the same as it had been on that Article. The great
objet of the commutation formerly, was to prevent-
smuggling. The present objea was to reduce the
price of the Article.' The House would per-
ceive 'that his idea was, that true policy in this
case, was to keep the price of the Article as.
low as possible. The subjett ; was one which
had long occupied this attention, and he had the
pleasure of concurring in sentiment upon it with
,
a respedable- body, of Gewlemen- woo desired him
to bring forward the measure in that House
many Members of that House had intimated that
wish to him, and among them a Noble Lord of
whom it was impossible for him,to say too much. in
praise. [Here Mr. ADDINGTON mentioned the
name of Lord Sli AFT I E.I.D.] He then moved, " That
A Committee be appointed to inquire into the Law
relating to the Duty on Salt, and into the means. of
remedying the inconveniencies arising therefrom,
and to report the same with their opinion thereon
to the House." He add;:d, however, , that this was
only a preparatory step, in a stlbjea to which much
investigation belonged, and that he had no hopes
of concluding the matter, this. Session of Parliament.
He hoped, however, that the labours of the Com-
mittee upon it might be printed, and perused during
the Recess.
The Question being. put,

General G ASCOYNE expressed great satisfac-
tion at seeing this subjel thus taken up. It %vas
Much wanted. The part of the Country from which
he came, were suffering much, and some trades had
,heen almost annihilated by the Duty on ,this Article.
In, a word, Salt was a Necessary of Life, so exten-
sive in use, and so essential, that he would no more
make it a subjca of Taxation than Flour,

Mr. JONES was glad the Right Hon, Gentle--
man had given earnest of his intentidn to do away,
so odious a Tax as this, and which was laid on by
the Right Hon: Gentleman's Predecessor in Office.
He mil)°, hoped that this was an earnest fOr the
Right Hon. Gentlentan pursuing a different' line from
that of his Predecessor.

Mr. VANDELEUR asked, if this measure was
to be applied to Iretanci ?
Mr. ADDINGTON said, that the words of the
Motion were general, and might include all parts.of
His Majesty's Dominions, if that should be deemed
advisable;:

Mr. LEE said, that this would be very benefi.
cial measure to Ireland, one half of the Fisheries
of which were host, because the persons who caught
the Fish were obliged to throw one half of it away
on account of their" not being' able to buy Salt to
cure the Fish. He knew that a Drawback was al-
lowed on Salt used for the curing of Fish, and for
certain Manufataares, but the large Manufafturer
only could really avail himself of that Drawback,
the poor man- could never buy a sufficient quantity
at a time to come within the benefit of chat Draw-
back.

Mr. IVILBERFQRCE expressed great satisfac-
tion at the measure now proposed by his Right Hon.
Friend. It was almost inconceivable how much the
Agriculture, the Manufattures„ .and almost all the
As tides which were emphatically to be called the
Necessaries of Life' might he affeEed by this) and
afFefted in. a way most advantageous ;to the Mass
of the, Public,.. He liaa never thought it a good
; but with regard to the policy of a Right
Hon. Gentleman (Mr. 'Purr) in taxing it, his •ob-
jeft chiefly tegulatiu9 of Duties aaually in
being..
.701VES insisted, that the former Minister
(Mr. PITT)? .had .doubled the Duty on thiS Arti-
cle ; and. ht (Mr. JONES) said, at -that time that, he
should-after.v.ards move for the Repeal of; that Odi,
ous gabci:e.

Iord,H4I.IVICESRURY observed, that with re-
gard to what had been said on the policy of his
Right Honourable Friend- the late CHANC E LLOR of
the Eiccti 119,U ER,: be must Observe, that he had not
been treated fairly tonight on the subjea.of the
Duty on Salt ; it was true that the 'Puty was in-
cre'aed, 1;11(1 an Hon. Baronet .(Sir W..PpLs.ENEY),-
had o' bjqn.c.,l to the increase, and stated the advan-..
.tages that
.ini.ghtarise by taking off the Duty alto:
gether. -His Right Hon. Friend said,.at. that time,
that although he did not see the applicability of the
reasoning of the Right Hon. Baronet, to the then
condition of things, yet he,said, that at a future pe-
riod it might:become. so, and he himself should be
glad to see the Tax ortsome future day commuted;
but at that particular moment it might without ma-
'terial inconvenience, be made an Article by which a
considerable aid would be given to the Revenue.
He did not treat it as a permanent tax, bat on the
contrary considered it as a tax to which, at, some
future day, he should be glad to see a commutation
applied.

CORRY expressed great satisfaaion at the
effl2a this 'measure, (which had been to Ids know-
ledge long in the contemplation cif- its Right Hon.
'Mover,) would have on the Fisheries mid other
trade of Ireland. It would be hailed in that Coun-
try as a blessing.

/lb. N/CHOLLT said, he heard the Motion of
the Right. Hon. Gentleman with' great pleasure ;
the advgntages to be derived by all'. lasses of peol*,
by a' redudion of the Duty on Salt, were indescrib-
able, but he wished not to stop here, for a number
of die most essential articles of life were taxed so
high that the lnwer classes were almost crushed, and
tome of them should be taken off and others substi-
tuted ; Coal, for instancwas well as many-other
articles was in this situation. The Right Hon.
Gentleman by attending to these points- would de-
Serve well of his Country and of Mankind. •

Mr, ALEXANDER said that this was a mea.
sure which was auspicious to the beginning of the
labouh of the United Parliament, and one of the ef-
feAs of,the Union, for it would have been very dit:
ficult to make it gcneral'in theway it now may be,
if each' Country had a distina Parliainent. There
were some. ves.sels, as he understood, seized on an
allegatio that they were cmrloyed in smuggling

Salt into this Country. He hoped care would be
taken to promulgate the thetisure now about to be
adopted by the House, and especially in Ireland, for
there it would be4larticularly hailed as a blessing.
At the same time IleNias sorry that a measure like
this,should inodace any acrimony when there was
no difference of opinion upon. it--h should _
be re-
garded as a-boon,_ not made ,a subjea of contention.

Mr. BAGWELL said, he didno't know another
measure which could be so beneficial to Ireland as
this,

Mr. TV. SMITH could have almost whhedy he
raid, that his Hon. Friend had not alluded to any
body who' had proposed a Tax upon Salt, because
the business of to-day was a business of agreement
and mutual. satisfaaion, 'Tot of discontent or strife ;
but as he had done it,. and'as' it had been answered
that the objca of the. late CHAN:: ILLOR. of the
EXCHEQUER was to regulate the Duty on Salt, it
'must not be forgotten, that that Right Hon. Gen.
tleman did lay on Salt a dotible,,Duty,tif Ten Shil-
lings were double the amount of Five. Howevr,
he was very happy, that the measure now proposed,
was brought forward.—The Motion was then'.put
and citried, and the Committee nominated imme.
diately, and powers were given to them in the
usual manner.

Mr. JONES adverted to the number of persons
now under sentence of Death, which had a6nimu-
la ted for a considerable time, because the Recorder
had had no opportunity of making Reports. His
Majesty's happy convalescence now removed chat
barrier which occasioned the delay ; he, therefore,
wished the CHANC E L LOR of the,ExcHEQU ER to in.
form him when there would he a Council held for
the purpose of receiving the Report. He hoped he
should have credit for his motive in asking this
question. If improper, he should not persist in it.

Mr. 4DDINGTON said, it was impossible for
him to hold anjr conference in the House on that
subjtd.

The SPEAKER said,' he had not the least idea
of doubting the purity of the Hon. Gentleman's in-
tention, but this Was a question which could net
be put. '
Mr. ADDINGTON then moved, " That the
Report of the Committee on the Bill to' remove
Doubts. respeding the Eligibility of Persons in
Holy Orders sitting in the House of Commoni, be
now received." He said it was a wish expressed
by himself last night, and by. others, that this
should be printed. There were two or three slight
verbal Amendments to be made in the Report, which
'rendered it necessary to re-commit the Bill. Hg
proposed to commit it to-day, and to receive the
eport immediately, -and to order that the Report
should be taken into further consideration to-Mor:.
row, and he hoped the House would alloW the Bill
to be read a third time. on Monday next;
The Report was accordingly received, re-commit_
ted, Report received, oidered, to be. taken into fur..
ther consideration to-morrow, and that .the Bill
with the Amendments be printed.
Mr. CORRY brought up the Bill for granting to:
His MAJESTY a certain sum of money for suppOrt-
ing the., Foundling Hospital and the Workhouse in
the City of Dublin; it was read a first time, and
ordered to Vc read a second time to-morrow.

' The Report of the, Committee of Ways and
Means respeEting the Irish Stamp Duties was
brought up, the Resolutions were' agreed to, and a
Bill was ordered -tobe'bronght in thereon. •
The Bill for vvarehousitg
,and bonding Portugal
Wines was read a first time, and_ ordered to be
read. a second time to-morrow.

The Irish Members' exemption Dill was read a
second time, and- was. ordered-to be committed to-
morrow.

• The Bill for transferring the manageinent "of the
Hair powder and Armorial Bearing Taxes from• the
Stamp Office to the Tax-Office, wa§ read a second'
time, and was ordered to be committed to.morrow.

Mr. VANstrrART moved for a variety of public
Accounts, which were agreed to.
-Adjourned at half past six o'clock till to-morrow.