The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-16 00:00:00

vacant post, and he had no doubt he would very effi-
ciently fulfil its duties.

THE ANGLO-AUSTRIAN COMMIS-4CN.

Mr. BAINES asked whether there was any tn th in the
rumour that the Anglo. Austrian Commission had entirely
failed ?

Mr. LAYARD said there was not the ,!iuhtest truth in
the rumour ;it was altogether without fnundation. On
the contrary, he believed the negotiations were very much
improved. (Hear, hear.) The matter had been adjourned
for the two months that the residents there might avail
themselves of recreation in the country during the hot
weather. The commission would meet again in Septem-
ber, and he hoped with every prospect of success. (Hear,
hear.) _ _

RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.
Mr. D. GRIFFITH, recurring to the question answered
by the President of the Board of Trade, asked how it was
that the door which was left unlocked was invariably un-
dermost when an accident occurred ?

Mr. M. GIBSON said he believed it was always the
practice to leave the offside door open.
Mr. D. GRIFFITH should like to know why that door
was selected. He thought some precaution might be taken

to remedy the calamity such accidents caused. He should

ike to know if the hon. member would take some steps in

e matter.

Mr. M. GIBSON told the hon. member that, as it was
impossible to ascertain on which side the carriage would
fall in case of accident (hear, hear, and laughter), he could

not give him a promise of interfering in the matter.
MALT DUTY BILL.
On the motion for the going into committee on this bill,
Mr. CAIRD said he quite approved of the bill, as it

would remove a grievance under which the growers of
barley had long laboured. He held that any impediment
to the cultivation of barley growing was most injurious to

British agriculture. The hon. member then went on to
prove that barley was the least exhausting of all the crops
at the disposal of the farmer, and that its more extended
cultivation must have a material effect in checking the

rise in the price of butcher's meat. The growers of malt
did not ask for any protection, or any system of ehcourage-
ment of any kind ; but they did ask that no exceptional
tax should be laid upon the article they produced. (Hear,
hear.) It was true that barley had risen in price more
than any other description of corn, but he contended that

it would rise still higher if it were not hampered by the

tax imposed upon it. In each succeeding year it was be-
coming more and more difficult to obtain a sufficient supply
of milk, but he might remark that beer had been found an

excellent substitute for milk. He was anxious to impress

upon the right hon. gentleman the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer the great advantage that would result from the
removal of any impediments which the malt tax might
cause to the cultivation of barley in this country, and he
hoped that whenever in future the right hon. gentleman

might have a surplus at his disposal, he would give this

tax his most attentive consideration. (Hear, hear.)

Sir F. KELLY expressed his satisfaction that a gen-
tleman so eminently qualified to deal with this question,
as the last speaker undoubtedly was, had turned his
attention to the effect which the malt tax had upon the

price of meat through the feeding of cattle. All who
had any practical experience of the subject were perfectly
satisfied that it was one bearing directly upon the in-
terests of the entire community, and more especially of
the poor, many of whom at the present time only tasted
butcher's meat once or twice a week. Ho hoped the at-
tention of Parliament would be so drawn to the fact that
this was in reality a labourer's question rather than one
affecting the upper classes. Whenever the Chancellor of
the Exchequer would grant him a committee on this sub-
ject, he would pledge himself to show to demonstration,
that while the revenue derived from the malt duties was

five ar six millions, the sum paid by the consumers of beer
was one third of the entire price. Thus, assuming the price
of the beer drunk in the three kingdoms to amount to
£60,000,000, he would demonstrate that £20,000,000 per
annum was paid by the consumer for the £5,000,000 or
£6,000,000 of duty which passed into the exchequer. He
hoped that at the ensuing election hon. gentlemen who
stood- forward as the protectors and advocates of the in-
terests of the labouring classes would candidly place this
subject before them, and explain to them that one-third of
the price paid for the only article of luxury they indulged
in was levied in the form of a tax which was inconsistent

with the principles of free trade, opposed to their own
interests, and totally destructive to the principles of taxa-
tion upon which the House of Commons had acted during
the last twenty years. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. PUGH said that last year they had had a Malt-for-
Cattle Bill, and he had hoped that this yeara Malt-for-Man
Bill would be intoduced, or, in other words, a Malt-for-
Home Consumption Bill. In country districts it was still
a common practice for labourers to brew their own ale, and
they objected to the intervention of penal legislation. In
every age and country it had been held to be the inalien-
able birthright of the tiller of the soil to gather its fruits
free from the visits of the tax collector, and without even
the intervention of the tradesman. " Dapibus mensas
onerabat inernptis." (Laughter.) The poet was never
weary of painting the amiable picture :
" Quod si pudica mulier in pattern juvet
Domum atque dulces liberos
Sacrum et vetustis extruat lignis focum
Lassi sub adventum viii :
Et horna dulci vina promens dolis
Dapes inemptas apparet."
(Loud Laughter.) He could not shut his eyes to the fact
that the malt tax pressed rather exceptionally upon the
agriculturist, and be had hoped it would have been re-
served to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to remove some
part of this anomaly, for he believed it was the ambition
of the right hon. gentleman to be the finance Minister,
not of a party, but of the whole country, and his ardent
admirers would willingly have seen him reviving old sym-
pathies and old amities, and effecting a reconciliation with
his former friends, who once adored him with so much
devotion. That opportunity, however, had for the moment
been either omitted or foregone. The financial harvest
was passed, the financial summer was ended, and they, the
farmers, were not saved.
Invidisse Deos, patris ut redditus axis
Conjugium optatum, et pulchram Calydona videret
(Loud laughter.) But he would not despair of him yet, for
he hoped the day would come when the right hon. gentle-
man would do something which would send a thrill of
satisfaction and exultation through the honest and manly
hearts of the agricultural constituencies of the empire.
(Hear, hear.)
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER thought the
speech of his hon. and learned friend bore the marks of the
most careful abstinence from the imputation of hostile
motives and the most liberal appreciation of any attempt
which had been made to mitigate the pressure of the malt
tax. In the case of the Malt Feeding Bill the hon. and
learned gentleman attributed the limited operation of that
measure to the cumbrous restrictions of the Excise and the
disparaging report of an officer of the Government ; but he
apprehended that neither the maltsters nor any other class
were made Of such materials as to be prevented from pur-
suing a profitable trade by a disparaging report. With
respect to the statement that the cumbrous restrictions of
the Excise had interfered with the operation of the bill, he
could assert that not one single person conversant with
the working of the bill had expressed any such opinion.
On the contrary, he had in his possession letters from cer-
tain gentlemen, testifying, from their practical experience,
that the restrictions of the Excise had not impeded the
operation of the bill. The hon. and learned member had
stated that the challenge he had thrown out had not been
accepted. He could not admit the truth cf that proposi-
tion ; but he might remind the hon. and learned gentle-
man of a challenge which he had made. The hon. and
learned gentleman had stated that the malt tax, which
only brought X 6,000,000 to the revenue, cost the con-
sumers X 20,000,000. With regard to the challenge, he
forgot that the Government offered him all the facilities
of proof he required by the renewal of the committee which
had sat upon the subject ; but the non-renewal of that com-
mittee was owing to the circumstance that the hon. and
learned gentleman did not do what the committee recom-
mended—move for its re-appointment. He would now re-
mind the hon. and learned member of a challenge he had
thrown out. The hon. and learned member had stated that
the sum laid out by the people of this country on beer
amounted to £60,000,000. What a deplorably depressed
trade that must be in which Englishmen were forbidden to
invest more than 60 millions !—whilst, according to the
best estimate that could be formed, the outlay for all other
purposes, physical, material, political, moral, social, intel-
lectual, and spiritual, was 600 millions; so that a full tithe
of the whole expenditure of the country found its way to
that oppressed article. The hon. and learned member said
the present Government was formed upon the principle of
supporting the malt tax ; and that he (the Chancellor of
the Exchequer) had asserted that the repeal of the malt tax
would be the death warrant of indirect taxation. What he
did say was that the repeal of the malt tax, without the
imposition of another tax on beer, would be the death war-
rant of indirect taxation. It was as far as possible from
the truth that the Government were responsible for the
maintenance of the malt tax. Taxes were imposed to meet
the expenses of the country, and those were the true oppo-
nents of taxation who endeavoured to promote the econo-
mical expenditure of the public money, and that wise legis-
lation which enlarged the public means. He need not dwell
upon the interesting speech of the hon. member (Mr. Pugh)
with all the refreshing recollections which it revived of
those happy periods when their rural and domestic images
were more familiar to their minds than at present. The
hon. gentleman laid down the principle that beer should
not only be untaxed, but unbought. He must have meant
that the beer should be taken from the stores of the brewer
without payment, or that, by means of some agrarian
law, the laud should be so distributed that every man
bsheoduilddtbe able to grow his own portion of barley. But
would
be
et trheainlikaotah.is
Tplbeeasoinbgallrosaioenm:obfiotbhebehona.vme member
btbeer
hon. and f
for
rletabrne
a reduction member
of wast
i the mthailst,tathatbeif
it in the present year. Why did he he notgh mightsee
tw ump havehso
s
set about
tailioxnkoTt h
plan against the proposal of the Government for the reduc-
e income tax and the tea duty ? But as the bon
and learned member had not done so, it was vain to expect
that the people of England could believe in the earnest-
ness of the advocates of the malt tax when they did not pit
it against the proposals of the Government.
Mr. PUGH wished to explain that he had not hinted at