The Sun.
London, England, 1830-04-08 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 8, 1830.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

ROUSE OF LORDS-(LAST NIGHT).

Petitions for opening the East India and China trade
were presented from North Shields by the Duke of So-
MERSET, and from Carlisle by the Earl of WzszmoaLANn.

. -
The Earl of VERULAM presented a petition from
Herefordshire, for a repeal of the Malt and Beer Taxes.
On the motion of the same Noble Lord, at the request,
he said, of his Noble Friend the Marquis of Salisbury, a
message was sent to the House of Commons requesting the
attendance of Messrs. Dundas and Crompton, members of
that House, to give evidence before their Lordships relative
to the East Retford Disfranchisement Bill; and all papers,
documents, &c., elucidatory of that Bill, were ordered to
be printed.

assured his lion. Friend (Mr. Hume) that he would cer-
tainly bring on his motion soon after the recess, for the
better accommodation of the reporters.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL presented a petition
from a gentleman in Bedford, praying the House to do
away the laws relating to deodand.

'-`7 DISTILLERS OF CORN SPIRITS.
Mr_ HOME DRUMMOND rose to present a petition
from a very important interest in the community—he
meant the distillers from corn spirits, who now complained
of the imposition of the additional duty of Is. a gallon
upon corn spirits, while there was no corresponding addi-
tional duty imposed upon rum. He would entreat the
House to bear in mind, that in the year 1825, after due
and dejiberate investigation on the part of the Government,
an arrangement, having all the appearance of permanency,
was made between the parties. By that arrangement it
was fixed that a duty of Bs. 6d. the imperial gallon should
be laid 19,p rum, and 7s. on corn spirits. The latter, by-
the Witional duty now proposed, was to be es., while, he
repelted, there was to be no corresponding increase of the
dutrtpon rum. The petitioners were desirous of know-
ing what change of circumstances had taken place in the
relative situation of the parties, to justify this infringement
upon the arrangement 0'1'1825 Tot, i.o.far from seeing any
to justify it, they were rather of opinion that what had
occhrred since ought rather to have produced a different re-
sult,, and called for a more generous policy towards the dis-
tillers of corn spirits, instead of the unequal and unjust de-
preciation of their property which must follow the adoption
of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's resolutions. He pro-
ceeded to point out the various advantages which rum had
at present in the market. It could be manufactured into
gin cheaper than home-made corn spirits. He was un-
willing to detain the House with long detailed calculations,
but as the whole question was one of detail, he hoped they
would allow hint to state the whole case, by a mere speci-
fication of the accounts as they stood.
It appeared front official documents, that in the year
ending the sth of January, 1830,

Gallons proof.
The quantity of corn spirit distilled in Eng-
land for home consumption is
Ditto, in Scotland, and exported to England-3,008,6861 3,690065
Ditto, in Ireland, and exported to England— 671,497

Total of corn spirit 7,540,707
The quantity of rum for home consumption
in England in said period is 3 '302,1131 3,,,,p,i„'',
Ditto, for the navy - '

General Total 11,242,850
Thus, if the consumption of these articles in England, for said
year, he divided into lOU equal parts,

. ,
Parts.
The quantity supplied by England is 31.33
Ditto, by the Scotch and Irish distillers 32.1'3
Ditto, by the West India planters 32.94

100.00

This is without reckoning brandy, geneva, and all other
foreign spirits, which amounted, for home consump-
tion in the same period, to
s. d.
The duty on rum, at present, is 8 6
Duty, on raw corn spirit in England 7 0

Protecting duty in favour of corn spirit ...1 6
If this protection shall be reduced, as now proposed, to 6d.,
ruin will, in all probability, supply the whole consumption of the
market.

The recent duty on English raw corn spirit is
The proposed additional duty on ditto is ls Od.

Ss. Od.
This spirit cannot be afforded for less than

I Is. Od.

The expellee of rectifying, compounding, and sweeten-
ing the gallon at proof, without profit to the rectifier is Os. Ssl.

Ils. Sd
The present market price of rum is
The present duty on rum is Ss. tid.

Total cost of nun in its finished state
The disadvantage to English spirit is, consequently, obvious.
Malt whisky distilled jn England, or brought thither

from Scotland or Ireland, pays duty of - 7s. Od.
Besides the whole of the duty on malt ls "2d.
If to this be added the proposed new duty of
The duty per gallon on malt whisky in England is Os. 2/1.
While the duty on rum is only Ss. (id.

He concluded by stating, that the imposition of this ad-
(lit-jot/A duty of Is. per gallon upon corn spirits would
change the whole nature of the trade. If the distiller were
not harrassed by vexatious regulations and unequal imposts,
he would be quite ready to compete with the trader in
rum ; but as it was, that was impossible, and he hoped the
Right Hon. Gentleman would state why he made this al-
teration, which would not succeed as a matter of revenue,
while it would' inflict great evil upon distillers of corn
spirits.

Mr. BROWNLOW would take this opportunity of
stating, that he had a similar petition to this from the dis-
tillers of corn spirits in Ireland ; it was signed by six or
seven of the principal diitillers, and conveyed the senti-
ments of the whole bodY. He thought it right on this
occasion to state, that the Irish distillers had peculiar
grievances to complain of, independent of those which they
had in common with the English and Scotch. There was
great injustice and hardship in the way in which these ad-
ditional duties were proposed to be levied. The Irish dis-
tiller had to pay an additional duty of 2d. per gallon on
his home consumption, and Is. per gallon on his export.
In 1825, when the last arrangement was made, which they
had hoped was not so soon to fluctuate, the new duties
were levied after the passing of the Act; in the present
case they were to be retrospective, and to apply to every
gallon of spirits in the market after the 15th of
March, and the stocks of the Irish distillers were liable
to the addition for (lays before they knew of the impost.
In this respect he did conceive the Irish distiller had much
to complain of, for he had many contracts at fixed
prices, which were now only in progress of delivery :
he would have to deliver to the merchant at the
stipulated prices, and to bear this loss of the retro-
spective duty, which was certainly unfair and unjust. The
Irish distillers state, that in the year 1825, this subject
was most fully investigated, and a protecting duty of 6d.
was then allotted for their spirits. Upon the faith of this
arrangement large capitals had been embarked, and exten-
sive engagements concluded. All these were now injured
and perplexed by the proposed additional duty. Instead
of being permitted fairly to enter the market, they were
exposed to vast disadvantages from the special protection
' which it seemed rum was t;) receive. The Hon. Member
then went into several calculations, to show the great dis-
advantage at which the corn-spirit distiller must work,
when the rum trader had such unfair protection. It was
injurious to the agricultural interests at large, that those
spirits which were the produce of sugar should be let into
the market at such advantage, compared with the disad-
vantages under which spirits the produce of the growth of
this country laboured. The consumption of rum, for the
last year, amounted to 3,302,000 gallons, while in the
preceding year it amounted to only 3,065,000 gallons.
Thus an increase of 237,000 gallons had taken place, in
the consumption of rum, during one year, while the con-
sumption of British spirits bad decreased 58,928 gallons.
The British distiller laboured under another disadvantage,
—the advance in the price of barley, for the last five years,
of ss. 9d. per quarter. If corn were admitted freely into
tl.is country, and if the British distiller was free from all
those impediments which the distilling laws opposed to
him, then he would be quite ready to compete with the
West Indian, or ally other distillers. He wished the
Chancellor of the Exchequer would make such a statement
as was calculated to dispel the serious alarms which agi-
tated the minds of the British distillers.
Mr. WESTERN would be sorry to do any thing to
prejudice the West Indian distillers, but he thought that
they would gain by the proposed increase of duty on Bri-
tish spirits an undue advantage over the distillers of this
coun try.

RIARRYAT conceived that the West Indian dis-
tillers had a right to participate in the consumption of this
country, inasmuch as they paid a high price for that right
by the restrictions imposed on the colonies.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER did not
rise to enter upon the discussion of the question brought
before the House. He had had frequent opportunities of
meeting both the parties interested on the subject, bad
heard the question discussed on both sides, and had made
such inquiries as he thought proper as to the statements
he had received, but ha thought it better to defer going
into any discussion on the question until he brought his
Bill on this matter regularly before the House, when an
opportunity would occur of going into the whole of the
calculations. He only begged Hon. Gentlemen on both
sides of the House to believe that he should propose that
Bill with no view of favouring either one or other inte-
rested party. He had endeavoured by his proposed mea-
sure to give them both that fair competition in the market
which both had a right to expect.
Mr. S. RICE did not intend to prolong the present
conversation, but rose to bear testimony to the respectabi-

lity of the signatures attached to the petition. Whenever
the question was discussed, he should consider the inte-
rests of Ireland and the colonies closely connected.
Mr. BRIGHT considered the Scotch and Irish distillers
had an unfair advantage over the English distillers, because
the duty was much higher in England than in Scotland or
Ireland.
Mr. BERNAL contended that the interests of the West
Indian distillers were as much deserving of attention as
those of the British distillers, who' were men of monopo-
lizing capital. He did not wish to support the cause of
the West Indian distillers at the expense of the British ;
but he contended that the West Indians were as much
British manufacturers as the inhabitants of the three king-
doms themselves ; and he thought it rather hard that the
duty on rum in Scotland and Ireland should be as high as
Ss. 611., while the duty on Scottish and Irish spirits was
only 2s. 10d. In 1524 the then Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer (Mr. Robinson) declared that the principle of
placing rum on the same footing as British distillers was
a sound one. The West Indian distillers said that the
duty imposed would amount to a prohibition of their ma-
nufacture ; to which the Government replied, in that
case the duty should be taken off. He contended that the
duty had acted as a prohibition ; and that circumstance
alone made out a case to justify the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer coming dawn to the House and proposing an ad-
ditional duty on British spirits ; and lie wished the Right
Hon. Gentleman would say something more to set this
matter at rest.

Sir G. CLERK was sorry that while the consumption
of rum had increased, and that of British spirits de-
creased, it should have been thought advisable to lay an
additional duty on the spirits manufactured in the three
countries. The increase of duty would have the effect of
encouraging the crime of smuggling and demoralizing the
people.
Mr. WODEIIOUSE would have been glad to have
scea encouragement given to the West India proprietors,
by taking off the duty on sugar, rather than by increasing
the duty on the British spirits.
Mr. G. MOORE trusted, that as far as Ireland was
concerned, no short-sighted policy would induce the Go-
vernment to abandon that which afforded the only means
of protection to the Irish agriculturist, for the consumptio❑
of his corn.

Mr. W. SMITH conceived that the arrangement which
was made by Lord Goderich four or five years ago was to
be a permanent one. That arrangement was come to after
an inquiry as full and as extensive as could be had now,
and the onus probandi lay with the Right Hon. Gentle-
man to show why one-third of the protecting duty then
imposed upon runs should be now taken off. The increase
is the consumption of rum in the last year amounted to
237,287 gallons. That was a great increase in its con-
sumption, and at a time, too, when the price of corn, the
material from which British spirit was made, was upon an
average ss. 9d. higher than when the difference was struck
in 1825. The average price of barley per quarter from
1820 to 1824, was 295., and its average price from 1825
to 1529 was 31s. 9d. per quarter. He denied that the
English distillers had been in any way favoured by the
Government. The fact was quite the other way. In con-
sequence of the alterations which were made in the law in
1825, they had been obliged to go to an expense amounting
to 250,0001. in making alterations in their premises. How
would the West India interests like to have such a sum le-
vied upon them?
_ _

Mr: C. PALLAIER condemned incidental discussions
of this nature upon the presentation of petitions, with re-
gard to so important a subject. He should be prepared
to show, when the proper time arrived for discussing and
investigating this matter, that if an increased consumption
had taken place in West Indian spirits, the producers of
spirits in the West Indies had been obliged to sell it at
a loss. If the spirit manufacturers in Scotland and Ireland
did the same, they could easily increase the consumption
of the spirits they made. He would say, remove all re-
strictions, and allow a free and fair competition in the sale
of all spirits produced in any part of his Majesty's:dominions.
The petition was then brought up, read, and ordered to
be printed.
Mr. ESTCOURT presented a petition from the Nobility,
Gentry, and Freeholders of Hereford, complaining of dis-
tress, and praying for relief.
Mr. IRVING presented a petition from a place in Scot-
land, praying for a revision of the duty on Coals.
On the motion of Mr. KEITH DOUGLAS, a return was
ordered for the quantity of rum consumed in England,
Ireland, and Scotland, during the last ten years.
On the motion of Mr. MTwOon, returns were ordered
of the expence attendant upon the conveyance of the mail
from Dover to Calais and Ostend.

Mr. AGAR ELLIS moved the appointment of a Select
Committee to inquire into the present state of the library
of the House of Commons, to consider what further regu-
lations might be necessary for the management, and to re—
port thereon to the House.
Mr. S. RICE, in seconding the motion, bore testimony
to the assidious attention and the valuable services of the
present librarian, Mr. Spiller.
Sir R. INGLIS expressed his full concurrence in what
had been said by the Hon. Member for Limerick as to
the services of Mr. Spiller.

Air. G. DAWSON spoke to the same effect, and sug-
gested that the librarian's present salary, which was only
3001. a year, was an inadequate remuneration for the ser-
vices which he rendered. Mr. Spiller had completed an
index of the sessional papers, and, in conjunctio❑ with
another gentleman, he had made an index to all the public
statutes, from 101 to IStS.
After a few words from Mr. WARBURTON, and from
Mr. HUME, who expressed his concurrence in what had
been said with regard to Mr. Spiller, but was opposed to
any increase in his salary, as he conceived it would be
better to make a regulation for paying him for any addi-
tional labour he undertook, the motion was agreed to, and
the Committee appointed.