The Sun.
London, England, 1836-02-26 00:00:00

PAPER DUTY.

Lord FRANCIS EGE RTON begged to call the
attention of the House and of his Right Honourable
Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer to a petition
which he held in his hand, signed by seventy gentle-
men engaged in the manufacture of Paper. As this
was the period at which the Chancellor of the Exchequer was
making his financial arrangements for the yeav, the peti-
tioners came forward to claim some reduction at his hands, in
the amount of the duty upon the article of paper.
The petitioners complained that the duty at present
chargeable on the manufacture was both exorbitant
and oppressive, that it encouraged fraud, and was of serious
injury to the fair trader; and while it caused a great defalca-
tion in the revenue, that it contributed to retard the
extention of literature and the general diffusion of know-
ledge—( Hear, hear, hear)—and that the mode in which
the duties were collected were at variance with the spirit in
which the Act of Parliament was framed. By the
Act of Anne an ad valorem duty was levied upon
the first class of papers. Now this term " first class"
was calculated to mislead those who did not understand the
subject. For his part he always considered that " first class"
paper meant the best quality ; but his Right Honourable
Friend well knows that in the system adopted for the clas-
sification of paper, that such was not the case.—(Hear.)
His Right Hon. Friend was aware that in the first class was
included every description of paper not made from a particular
description of material, namely, tarred ropes, from which the
tar has not been extracted; and that second olass paper is
made exclusively from that material. Undoubtedly the object of
this enactment was to simplify the vast complication
of the original statutes, and endeavour to effect a classification.
That course was consistent, perhaps, with the notions of politi-
cal economy of the day, but it was not now applicable.
The circumstances and: materials used in the fabric of paper
have materially altered within the last few years, so
that the materials used in the manufacture of second class
paper, from being the cheapest, had become the most expensive
of any. That was attributable to two distinct causes—the-de-
crease of wear and tear in the material incident to the peace,
and the substitution of chain-cables instead of ropes in the
navy. That had occasioned some confusion in the operation
of that legal enactment. Hon. Members who were connected
with the manufacturing districts well knew that up to a recent
period, a certain portion of all the cotton worked up in these
manufactories was applied to no other purpose except wiping
the oil from the machinery used in that department. It
so happened that 5 or 6 years ago, an individual endeavoured
to turn that refuse cotton, which amounted to one-twelfth of all
the enormous mass manufactured in that county, to another pur-
pose, namely, the manufacture of paper, and thereby another
cheap material has been thrown at once into that manufactory.
The use of that material has led to numerous attempts to de-
fraud the revenue, which he believed had been acted upon very
universally throughout the country, more in the northern parts
and in Scotland, than in Ireland and these parts of the empire.
With respect to Ireland,. there was one circumstance which, he
thought, was well calculated to excite the interest of the represen-
tatives of that country ; for there was a material arising from flax
manufacture which had not yet arisen in that country to any
extent, but which, if the operation of the present duties
did not interfere, the refuse would be converted into a very
useful article.—( Hear, hear.) Upon two classes of paper
the difference of duty amounted to half, the first class
paper being charged at 3d, the second class paper at
lid. It appeared upon almost every page of the Report
of the Commissioners of Excise Inquiry, which, in speaking
upon this subject he might call his brief, which bore the sig-
nature of an Honourable Member of that House, whose
name must be always mentioned with respect whenever
subjects of this description came under the attention
of the House—he meant Sir Henry Parnell—every page of the
Report bore testimony of the great temptations that were
held out to defraud the revenue by the manufacturer and
labourer. It would be idle to attempt to impress the
House with the injustice that the fair dealer suffered from the
principles upon which he conducted his trade. Therefore those
who had entrusted him with their petitions had been most
anxious that the House should take into its consideration,
or rather that the Government should take into its imme-
diate consideration, a subject which, as it appeared under
the Report before him, was so strongly recommended to
their attention : for he should say, that if no reduction
of duty was contemplated, it would be the duty of Govern.
ment not only to consolidate but to math° the law under
which these gentlemen had to conduct their manufactories.
There was one case contained in the Report, which was the
only one he should quote in illustration of the operation of the
law, which was different in one district of the Excise to
what it was in anether—that was a case in which the