The Sun.
London, England, 1822-08-21 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1822.

THE REVENUE.

SECOND REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS ON
THE PUBLIC REVENUE.

TO THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF HIS MAJESTY'S

TILEASURY.
Continuedfrorn THE SUN of 'the 13th inst.)
The Second Report of the Commissioners appointed by the
Acts of the lit and 2d Gee. IV. c. 90, and 3d Geo. IV. c. 37,
fbr inquiring into the Collection and Management of the
Public Revenue arising in Ireland, and into certain Depart-
ments of the Public Revenue arising in Great Britain.
These arguments apply in a greater or less degree to every
commodity liable to the duty of Excise in both countries, ac-
cording to the circumstances of the case. And in any instance
in which the duty collected differs in either country from that
which is nominally imposed, it must prove injurious to the
trader in one country, and to the revenue in the other.
That the laxity which we havealluded to as prevailing in the
collection of the duty on spirits, prevails also with regard to the
collection of a large proportion pof the other duties of Excise in
Ireland, sufficient proof may be collected from the examinations
and reports of the Comnziationers and practical officers sent
from England. In the evidence of the latter there is a general
concurrence in declaring that not one of the duties which came
under their examination, in the course of the extensive inspec-
tion with which they were charged, appeared to be duly col-
lected in Ireland. This opinion is confirmed and corroborated
in a considerable degree by the testimony already referred to,
of one of the Commissioners of the Irish Board of Excise,
who has lately returned from an inspection of the south-eastern
districts of that country. This gentleman expresses in the
strongest terms, his belief of a very general state of corruption
in the several classes of the Ercise department below the In.
pectors, and he speaks very doubtfully even of those officers.
Our own observation and inquiries decidedly lead us to the
same conclusion; and we are fully convinced that all those
duties, the collection of which depends upon the vigilance and
integrity of the officers employed, are most imperfectly
brought to account.
The causes of this defective administration are in a great
measure pointed out in the report submitted by Colonel Doyle
and Mr. Carr to the Lord Lieutenant, and in their evidence
before us. In both of these a want of systematic arrangement
and discipline in the Irish Excise department is described as
prevailing to such a degree, as must preclude all possibility of
a faithful and efficient collection of that revenue.
A further evil consequence, and one of a very pernicious cha-
racter, attributable to this state of management, arises from the
inequality of the pressure thereby produced on the hones: and
dishonest trader, which is so much felt, that many who might
not be tempted by the spirit of gain, are too frequently driven
by the apprehension of ruin, to adopt those fraudulent prac-
tices which can alone place them on a level with their competi-
tors. Thus the collection of the public income becomes a
fertile source of corruption, creating and maintaining a frau-
dulent connexion between trader and officer, prejudicial alike
to the exertions of a fair spirit of industry, ra.:d to the due col-
lection of the just revenue of the state.
In the department of the assessed taxes in Ireland, the eats.
blishments for the management of which we were led to ex-
amine
more minutely, on account of a subject of special inquiry
referred to us by the Lord Lieutenant, we have not found the
proofs of a more successful system of administration. A consi-
derable change in the constitution and regulations of this de-
partment took place under the direction of your Lordships and
the Irish Government, in 1017. Some material improvements
were then introduced into a system, which, as it before existed,
was vicious in principle and corrupt in practice, to a very high
degree. We shall abstain from offering such observations and
suggestions as have occurred to us upon these alterations, and
also upon what remains to be done in order to place this depart.-
ment upon a proper footing, until the measures now in progress
through Parliament, for relieving Ireland from a large propor-
tion of the assessed taxes, shall have been completed. We shall
then be enabled to submit an opinion as to the most econorni.
cal mode of collecting such part of those taxes as may still re-
' main unrepealed, or perhaps to suggest the expediency of
commuting, for some increase of indirect taxation, a branch of
revenue in Ireland, which will then yield so inconsiderable a
produce in proportion to the extent of the establishment
which must be maintained for managing it ; in the mean
time we avail ourselves of this opportunity to state, that in
offering any advice upon that subject, we shall be chiefly
guided by a principle which we deem of great importance, and
never to be lost sight of in the present relative situation of Ire-
land and Great Britain—that any inequality between the two
countries in the general weight of the public burdens, arising
out of the different rates of taxation, so lung as any such must
remain, (and we are far from thinking that the pressure upon
Ireland should be increased at this time by an attempt to equa-
lize them), ought to be confined as much as possible to those
branches of the revenue which do not apply to subjects of com-
mercial exchange. If the exemption to be given to Ireland, in
apportioning her share of the common burdens, could be con-
fined to such revenues, it would not only obviate the inconve-
nience and embarrassment which now perplex the intercourse
between Great Britain and Ireland under a system of counter-
vailing duties, but would also have a beneficial tendency, by
operating as an inducement to residence on the part of the opu-
lent proprietors, more direct and forcible than that which is af-
forded by a difference in the taxation upon articles of consump-
tion only.
. _ _

As the remarks which we have thus felt it our duty to sub-
mit upon the present state of the several Revenue departments
in Ireland may possibly be considered as intended to imply
censure upon the individuals composing the Boards which pre-
side oser them, we are anxious to guard against such an inter-
enco, and distinctly to disclaim any such intention. Our obser-
vations on this subject are directed, not to the conduct of indivi-
duals tilling the superior offices of these departments, but to the
system and to practices of long standing, the evils of which are
in a great measure to be attributed to causes which cannot fairly
be considered as within their control. We are also bound to
state, in justice towards them, that in many of therecent proceed-
ings of the boards in Ireland, there is an evident tendency to
improvement. But without greater changes than they have
power to accomplish, such improvements can only be partial
and temporary. The leading cause of the evil is stated to con-
sist in the existing mode of appointment of officers in the differ-
ent departments of the revenue.
Under a system which has long prevailed in Ireland, these
appointments appear to have been made with too little of that
consideration for the immediate interests of the revenue, which
would require that individuals should be selected to fill the
higher situations on the ground of meritorious service alone.
Those situations have for the most part been occupied by per-
sons unfitted by experience, by their previous habits, or by the
nature of their education, to discharge the duties for which they
have received their emoluments; and the general inefficiency
of the departments, productive of so much evil, has been the
unavoidable consequence.
The power of appointing the executive officers, acting under
the authority of the several Boards of Revenue in Ireland, is
ostensibly vested in the Commissioners, either by law or by
the patents whereby they are constituted. The instruments of
appointment accordingly proceed from them ; but the selection
of the persons to be appointed has been exclusively made by
the Government, whose directions, in that respect, the Corn.
missioners are accustomed to obey. This proceeding applies
equally to offices of the highest and the lowest classes, arid is
not in practice limited with respect to the former by any strict
rules of promotion. There exists, indeed, a regulation, which
shows by the manner and date of its origin, now much and how
long ago, the want of such a restriction was felt, and e:hicli also
proves, by its total inefficacy with respect to the higher
offices, how deeply rooted was the evil which it was intended to
correct. The Irish House of Commons, in a resolution passed
the 7th of April, 1784, declared—
" That it would :end to encourage a faithful discharge of duty
in the officers of the revenue, if certain offices should be filled
up by persons only who have gone through certain inferior de-
partments—Surveyors of the Ports out of Land Waiters ; Sur-
veyors-General out of the Surveyors of the Customs or Excise ;
Collectors out of deserving officers, who have before manifested
their knowledge and zeal ,n some department of the revenue."
What effect might have been produced by this Resolution
immediately after it was passed with respect to the office of
collector, we do not know ; but we find that the mode of evad-
ing it now in use is of long standing, probably very nearlyfas old
as the resolution itself. This consists in the appointment of the
individual intended for the superior situation to an interior office
pro forma, and by way of qualification only. A person, for
instance, who is destined to- a Collectorship of Excise, and who
is generally selected from any class of life rather than the Ex-
cise department, is usually made a clerk in the Strong Water
Permit Office, and is then designated as such in the instrument