The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-19 00:00:00

EXCISE RESTRICTIONS UPON

DISTILLERS,

We have lately amused ourselves by making a few
extracts from the laws regulating the distillery trade.
Our extracts have been made chiefly from the 4th of
Geo. IV. cap. 94, which refers more particularly to
the Scottish distilleries, and we have not meddled
with the 6th Geo. IV. cap. 80, which „pgulates the
English distilleries, except as regards those clauses
affecting the Scotch trade, and we have then expressly
named the statute. We by no means intend the fol-
lowing to be understood as the whole of the Excise )
regulations regarding distillers ; on the contrary, it is
only a selection of a few which we beg to present to
our readers as a specimen of the system.
The public will, no doubt, think the following a
most wearisome article to wade through, and few, if
any, will read it to the end, however much astonished
they may be at the facts contained in it; but, if we
presented them with extracts from the Acts of Par-
liament themselves, expressed in all the language used
in such documents, they would be even still more
astounded. In fact, to understand and pick out the
meaning from their confused mass of unintelligible
jargon is a work of the most onerous description.
We hope a glance at the following will convince the
public that the work we have set ourselves to
accomplish is one which is mush needed, and we
hope the legal information here conveyed, in a
tabular and condensed form, will be of use to our
contemporaries, in enabling them to expose the dis-
graceful nature of the Excise system. The 4th Geo.
IV., cap. 94, an Act now twenty-four years old, is
the latest enactment regarding the Scotch distillery
trade; and although it contains no less than 137
sections, it yet does not contain the whole of the dis-
tillery law, for by it many former laws were only
partially repealed, so that the unrepealed portions are
still the law of the land. The preamble of this Bill,
too, is singularly complicated and confused, and to
extract the meaning out of it is a task that few but a
very clear-headed lawyer is fitted to undertake ; for
ourselves, we do not profess to be perfect in our un-
derstanding of it.
Before he dare presume to work, a distiller is
obliged, by 4th Geo. IV., cap 94,
lst. To obtain a licence, and have it renewed an-
nually. (See 3 and 8.)
2d. To erect certain vessels prescribed by law.
(Sec. 18.)
3d. To provide, at his own expense, certain cocks,
pumps, locks, and fastenings, prescribed by law ; the
keys of all the locks to be kept by the Excise officer.
(Sec. 28.)
4th. To paint on each vessel or utensil, and the

outside doors of every store or apartment in his distil.
lery, its name and number. (Sec. 33.)
. . _. ... _

sth. To paint every pipe in his distille-ry a specified
colour, according to the purpose for which it is in-
tended to be used, viz., every pipe for the conveyance
of wort or wash must be painted red; of low wines or
feints, blue; of spirits, black; and of water, white.
(Sec. 36 )

6th. To make entry of all his premises, vessels, and
utensils, and to deliver a drawing of every fixed pipe
in his distillery. (Sec. 34 to 36.)
7th. To give six days' notice before commencing
to brew.—(Sec. 42.)
Bth. To give six days' notice of the gravity of
worts intended to be made.—(Sec. 44.)
9th. To give six hours' notice of each brewing of
wort.—(Sec. 43.)
The distiller having duly performed all the fore-
going may now commence working his distillery,
and is obliged then-
10th. To give six hours' notice to make a bub.—
(Sec. 50.)
11th. To give a declaration in writing of the quan-
tity and gravity of the wort collected in each fer-
menting hick.—(Sec. 48.)
12th. To declare, twelve hours before commencing
) distil, that all the wort and wash is collected into
the fermenting backs.—(Sec. 51.)
13th. To give eight hours' notice before removing
wash from each fermenting back to the wash charger.
—(Sec. 52.)
14th. To give four hours' notice before removing
any low wines, feints, or spirits from their respective
receivers to the low wines or feints chargers, or to
the spirit store respectively. (Sec. 54.)
15th. To give two days' notice before bonding
spirits. (Sec. 57.)
16th. To give a request in writing for a permit to
remove spirits which are required for home conqump-
tion, stating the number of the casks and their con-
tents in gallons. After a permit is granted, one hour
only is allowed to remove the spirits. (Sec. 72.)
17th. To give one day's notice before removing
spirits for exportation to Ireland, or any foreign port.
(Sec. 73 and 89.) And to give bond for d aible the
value of the spirits, and the duty thereon. (Sec. 74.)
18th. To give one day's notice before removing
spirits in England, and bmcl for double the value of
the spirits and duty thereon. (6th Geo. IV., cap.
80, sec 92.)
The foregoing, along with eertain other clauses
(noted below), impose certain hardships, restrictions,
and prohibitions, which are of a most annoying, vex-
atious, and oppressive character.
At the offset, the distiller meets with a strange
anomaly in a country calling itself free, and, above
all, boasting of free trade. He finds that, in the
process of distillation he is compelled to choose one
of two evils—he must either use a still of rude
construction, and not adaptedi to the manufacture of
a marketable spirit, or work with an apparatus not
formally recognised by the Excise law, and on that
account he will incur the risk of being stopped
at any moment, and deprived of his licence to use
this improved apparatus, without any reason being
assigned. All who are acquainted with the arbitrary
nature of the Excise-laws, are aware that the negli-
gence, ignorance, or unfaithfulness of a servant may,
at any time, be the means of accumulating on the
distiller penalties to a ruinous extent ; but in addition
to this, should he have embarked his capital in the
erection (a)f improved machinery, the Excise have the
power to prevent him from using such improvement,
although other distillers are allowed to work an
apparatus precisely similar. This is no imaginary
case of oppression and one-sided dealing; it is the
ordinary operation of the present law, and we could
point to more than one instance where this arbitrary
power has been exercised.

Ist Clause.—No person can be licensed to keep a
still of less content than 40 gallons (Sec. 9), and no
licence will be granted for any still of less content
than 500 gallons without a certificate, signed by three
Justices of the Peace, of the fitness of the person to
be licensed (Sec. 10). The Commissioners of Ex-
cise may refuse to licence stills of any content what-
ever, in situations near rectifying distilleries or brew-
eries, and vice versa (Sec. 13.)
When a distillery is more than one mile from a
market town, the distiller is obliged, on pain of a re-
vocal of his licence, to provide suitable iodgings for
the residence of the officers, and that at a cost not ex•
ceeding 101. a year, and those lodgings may net he a
portion of his own dwelling. house, or of the distillery.
(Sec. 14.)
Distillers are prohibited from manufacturing
spirits from any material except grain (Sec. 18) ;
however, by special favour they are permitted the
use of potatoes and manglewurzel, and by an Act
passed in the present session of Parliament, they are
allowed to d'stil from sugar, whilst the cheaper mate-
rial, molasses, is still prohibited. But they must use
each of these articles separately, and make special
entry of their premises for whatever articles they
intend to distil from.

2d Clause—The vessels required by the Excise to
be erected are solely calculated to suit their
own convenience, without regard to the distil-
ler's interest at all. Some of them he could do

without altogether, whilst in the case Vof others,
where he is limited to only one, several would
be more convenient. As an instance of the first, take
the wash charger; the distiller has to pump his wash
from the fermenting back to the wash charger, then
to pump it a second time from the wash charger to
theill, whilst, were it not for the interference of the
Excise, he might pump it straight from the ferment-
ing back to the still, thereby saving the expense of a
second pumping, and the original cost of the wash
charger. As an instance of the second, take the spirit
receiver—the distiller is limited to only one, into
which he is, of course, obliged to run all his spirits,
whereas, had he several, he might run the different
qualities of spirits in each charge into separate vessels,
whereby he could have some of his spirits much finer
than the average. These are only examples, of which
there exist a multitude of cases.

3d Clause. The hardship of a man being obliged to
provide locks and fastenings for the p'irpose of lock-
ing himself up against his will, is self evident, and
requires no comment. The penalty for a man
damaging his own locks or fastenings is 2001.
4th Clause. Painting the name and number on every
vessel and utensil, and the outside door of every store

or apartment is expensive.
sth Clause. Painting every fixed pipe in a distillery
is extremely expensive.
6th Clause. The entry of a distiller's premises,
vessels, and utensils, is lengthy and troublesome to
draw u.), and has to be renewed after any alteration
on the I remi,es. To draw a plan showing every fixed
pipe in a large distillery is a thing which is almost
imrracticable.
The remaining clauses, from the 7th to the 18th
inclusive, entail a vast amount: of vexatious delay ;
and should any unforeseen accident prevent a dis-
tiller from commencing any process exactly at the
time specified in the notic?, he is obliged to give in a
fresh notice, and keep his disiPery and men standing
idle until the Ex,iry of the term that the notice has
to run.
A distiller mey not alter the size, nay even the
position, of any vessel, utensil. or pipe, without
giving previous notice to the Excise.---(Sec. 39
A distiller .may not brew and distil at the same
time, which renders his distillery capable of doing
only one-half of the work which it could do, were it
not for this restriction.

A distiller may not send spirits out of his dio'illery
to be warehousA, or to be shipped for exportation,
before nine o'clock, A.M., nor after two, P.M., thus
being allowed only five hours out of the four and
' twenty for the conducting of this very important
branch of his business. (Sec. 67 and 75.)
A distiller is obliged to pay duty on all deficiencies
which may occur vibilst his spirits are in warehouse,
from evaporation, leakage, or any other unav( ;dable
cause--a charge from which foreign or colonial spirits
are wholly free.
This obligation is extremely burdensome, as it
wholly prevents a distiller from keeping his spirits in
bond, to improve by age; he is thus obliged to hurry
his manufacture upon the market in an unripe state,
to the injury of himself and the consumer, who is thus
forced, by the arbitrary regulations of the Excise, to
be satisfied with an unwholesome article, instead of
one mellowed by age. (Sec. 81.)
A distiller or proprietor of any spirits bonded in a
Government warehouse (for which warehousing he is
charged rent at a most exorbitant rate), is prohibited
from claiming, or demantling, or maintaining any
action for any compensation or damages should his
spirits be destroyed by fire, or by the falling in of the
warehouse, instances of which have frequently hap-
pened from the gross carelessness and reckless neglect
of the servants of the Crown themselves. (Sec. 82.)
If a distiller does not immediately admit any Excise
officer on demand into his distillery, either by night
or by day, the officer may break open and enter the
distillery by force; it is not even necessary that he
should have a constable or any other officer of the
peace present. (Sec. 104 and 107.)
A distiller is obliged to furnish any Excise officer
with ladders and lights whenever he may demand
them. (Sec. 105.)
A distiller may sell his spirits only at three
strengths, viz., 25 and 11 per cent. over, and 10 per
cent. under proof, while he is prohibited warehousing
them at any strength except 25 and 11 o.p. (Sec. 66
and 120.)

A distiller is prohibited being a retailer of spirits.
A distiller is prohibited being a dealer in spirits.
A distiller is prohibited being a rectifier.
A distiller must assist any Excise officer in distil-
ling the contents of any wash-back in his distillery.
(Sec. 123.)
Minors, being distillers, are liable to all duties of
Excise, and to all penalties and forfeitures, as fully
to all intents and purposes as if they were adult and
of full age. (Sec. 127.)—Edinburgh News.