The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-23 00:00:00

Repeal of the Malt Tax.

An influential county meeting was held in the Corn Ex-
change, Leicester, on Saturday, in furtherance of the objects
of the Leicestershire Anti-Malt Tax Society. Lord Berners
occupied the chair, there being also present Sir Fitzroy
Kelly, M.P., Lord John Manners, M.P., E. R. Hartopp,
Esq:, M.P., Lord Curzon, M.P., Davenport Bromley, Esq.,
M.P., Busfield Fernand, Esq., M.P., Sir Frederick Fowke,
Bart., &c.

In opening the meeting Lord BERNERS read a letter from
one of the county members, Mr. Packe, regretting that he
was not able to attend and advocate the repeal of the malt
tax, and stating his belief that the only way to ensure re-
dress under pressure of any grievance is to maintain un-
flinching perseverance until the object is gained; and he was
fully prepared to support any measure which shall ulti-
mately effect the total abolition of the malt tax. If, on
financial grounds, the whole of so large a portion of the re-
venue could not be immediately given up, he should, as he
did last year, be ready to assist in binding the Government
so to frame their finances as to ensure a total repeal of the
tax, and he hoped the country would continue to be ani-
mated with the same determination as at present until that
was accomplished.
The noble CHAIRMAN said that having for thirty years
been an advocate for the repeal of the malt tax, he felt gra-
tified to find that in this and other counties the subject was
now so freely and openly discussed. The recommendation
he would make to them was to act with moderation, union,
and indomitable perseverance ; moderation, because be be-
lieved that if they pressed on the Government an immediate
reduction of the whole of a very oppressive duty they
would not succeed in attaining that end ; union, because in
all their struggles to obtain a mitigation of whatever pressed
injuriously upon the agricultural interests they had failed
in those instances in which perfect unison had not pre-
vailed ; and perseverance, because he was quite sure that
the advocates of other interests would set them the ex-
ample in the furtherance of their own peculiar views, and
therefore if the farmers of England were thrown over in
their present enterprise, it would be mainly attributable to
their want of union and perseverance. (Cheers.) They
might remember that some years since the leading men of
the day of all political parties, Sir Robert Peel, Sir James
Graham, and others, admitted that if the corn laws were
repealed, there were heavy and peculiar burthens borne by
the land which could not be defended, but must be revised.
Little revision had, however, yet taken place, and therefore
it was the more important that they should pour in petit
tions, and instruct their members to unite in Parliament,
and press upon the Government the abolition of this tax.
It was not a political question, but a great so'cial question,
affecting alike the consumer and producer of malt, and there-
fore involved the interests of the community at large. In a
report of a committee of the House of Lords in 1846, it
was clearly proved—and afterwards admitted by several
leading politicans—that the impost lias oppressive and un-
justifiable, and therefore one that ought to be repealed, in
order to enable the farmer to make the best of his produce ;
because it was acknowledged that the inferior barley did
not meet with that ready sale which it would find were the
malt tax no longer in existence. It had been shown, too,
that under the five heads of tithe, land, tax, highway rate,
poor rate, and church rate—the land contributed a sum
which was equal to an income tax of 23 per cent. on the
rateable value of real property in England and Wales. Cer-
tain proposals had been made to confer upon the agricultural
interests what the present Chancellor of the Exchequer con-
sidered a great boon. (Laughter.) Instead 9f that it had
proved a delusion, a complete delusion. That measure of
Mr. Gladstone's was like throwing a tub to a whale, in order
to direct the attention of the farming community from the
total repeal of a most obnoxious tax, under the pretext of
enabling them to make malt for the feoding of animals. A
gentleman connected with Norfolk, Mr. Charles Turner,
had published a letter addressed to the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, in which were such passages as these :—" On
the passing of the act it was enacted that the details should
be settled by the Board of Excise ; and my experience as a
producer of malt duty free leads me to the conclusion that
either the Government is anxious the bill should be a dead
letter, or the system of red tape prevalent at the Board of
Excise will make it so. The regulations and hindrances
in the making of malt duty free are so vexatious and ab-
surb that those who have embarked in its production must
either charge for the same at almost the cost of that which
is subject to Excise, or give up its production altogethe r
For six long months I have been in correspondence with
the Excise. The board require a large outlay upon malting
premises for making feeding malt above what is required
in ordinary maltings. Then the linseed required to mix
with the malt must be of so fine a quality that it is almost
impossible to get it to come up to the standard they re-
quire. After the malt is made the Board of Excise require
it to be ground so fine that nothing but steam power can
produce it to their test ; and then the farmer will risk the
losing of half the feeding power should he take it into his
fields to his stock on a windy day. But the absurdity of
the matter did not end here. The board will not allow the
malt and linseed after it is ground to be mixed, as it might
be, by hand and shovel, but they have decreed that an
elaborate mixing hopper shall be invented, so ingenious
that export machinists have withdrawn from the attempt
in disgust. Again, lam obliged to give in writing notice
twelve hours previous to steeping the barley, drawing,
sprinkling, loading kiln, turning on kiln, measuring from
kiln, moving from store, moving to mill room for grinding,
mixing, and other operations, such as weighing, measuring,
&c. ; but all these in their absurdity are as nothing com-
pared to the burlesque of making malt duty free, as carried
out by the Board of Excise, and which, if enforced, was to
effectually put a stop to making malt for feeding purposes.
I have, after unheard of difficulties, succeeded in getting
two lots of malt off the kiln ; but guess my astonish-
ment when the exciseman charged me several shillings
duty for each lot for this duty free malt ; and his reason
is, that though I steeped only 21 coombs of barley and
took off the kiln 22 coombs of malt, he assumes that I, or
some one, extracted some bushels of malt in its making ;
and therefore he charges the duty each time I make, be-
cause by the theory of the Excise, I ought to have had
five bushels more malt on each making. I therefore have
to pay 275. for 42 coombs of malt under the absurd regu-
lation, and by an act of Parliament for the making of malt
duty free. Now, if malt can be made at 2s. per coomb, I
am satisfied all those extra expenses that I have above
adduced will be 2s. per coomb more, or 4s. per coomb—
nearly half what the duty is on malt." The
.Chairman
then referred to some letters, addressed to the editor of the
Mark Lane Express, by Mr. Wm. Gurdon, a barrister of the
Norfolk Circuit, who proposed that instead of a duty being
enforced on the quantity of malt made, it should be enforced
in respect of the area of the kiln.

Mr. I' moved, " That inthe opinion of this meeting,
the principles of free trade having been adopted by Govern-
ment
umraenoyf dnuatfieivsepprreovdiourel,ythime imposed and
btahreleuysien
in the repeal of the corn laws, and in the abandon-
mentfoafct
anthde
manufacture of malt ought not to be an exception."
Sir FITZROY KELLY, M.P., upon rising, was received with
loud cheering. He said they would hardly expect from him
a speech upon the general subject of the malt tax, or the
numerous evils which resulted to the community from that
most unjust imposition. (Hear, hear.) They were better
acquainted with the weight and oppression of those evils
than he was. Ferhapy he might be permitted, in a few
words, to call their attention to the true position of that im-
portant question at the present moment, and if he might
venture to do so, to throw out some suggestions which
occurred to his own mind as to the course which he consi-
dered it incumbent to pursue, if they required the present
or ultimate repeal of the malt tax. The hon. member here
described the operation of the tax, from its being first im-
posed as a war tax in 1797 to the present time, and observed
that it had been going on increasing in time of war, and re-
mained altogether undiminished in time of peace, without
any hope of reduction until 1863, when the pressure, the