The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-27 00:00:00

cantile Life Assurance Society; _ Staffordshire Potteries
Waterworks; Stockport Manorial Tolls and Bridges;
Swansea Docks; Terrington Marsh Division, Allotment,
and Inclosure; Wakefield Market; Wisbech Port and
Harbour.

One part of the Irish case differed from the other Ptil
of the Irish case, and one part of the Scotch case
fered from the remainder. lihe were justified in 85,
',.„;
ing for a Select Committee—if he were justified 0"
he gave notice of the motion—he was so far fr°l
being dissuaded from it by the annoucere
made by his Right Hon. Friend, that he was 51
further encouraged to persevere from the very reas°e/
that the mind of the Right Hon. Gentleman was lido
made up upon this subject. Whilst up tol,
present time he had thought that the wit
fereutial duty should be sixpence, he had nos
consented to give way; and, though he„so
not acknowledge that his mind was changed, st"'e
had changed the measure of the Government. He coe
assure the Right Hon. Gentleman that if he were re
upon that Committee, so little was he prejudiced tie,
the subject, so little was his desire to give any advent
to the British distiller over the colonial producer ()far
that if it could be proved to him that there was a sec
sity for 9d. instead of 6d., or that there should be
differential duty at all, he would be the first man to rot
pose such a measure to the Committee. It was nig
very long ago since an Act was passed relst
to the differential duties between the Channel Is„be
and Great Britain. That Act was the 65th CC, 01,i0
8 and 9 Vict. In that Act it was stated 'be.
ls. 2d. was the amount of the countervailing (NV re
tween the spirits from the Channel Islands
150,
the agricultural produce of Great Br'
He had, therefore, a right to assume that the sumo',
00
os
or at least 11V., was a just assessment as between r
and British spirits, because the Act of which he
ise
speaking recited in its preamble that the object ofp,
Bill was to determine what was the extent of the jell
cise restrictions, and the House by passing tbat
had decided that the extent of the Excise restrien!ip
amounted to ls. 2d. The Excise laws were alteroee
1823, nut for the advantage of the distiller, but forl7o
better collection of the Excise duties. The result
that every distiller was forbidden to distil and brew
the same time, and to brew and distil on the 'awl to
mises. Every distiller was consequently oblige
double his plant, to increase the size of his Prelnive
and to increase the number and size of his coppers._ ees
effect of which was that a distiller, whose hull s
could be carried on for 40,000 L, required e
capital of 0,000/.---(Hear.) He was, putting.,
Irish part oft he case first. Now it was gieeu in eciuieeet
before a Committee which sat in 1823, that aa
bi
distiller, who produced 60,000 gallons of whisky in, 0
business, and who previously required but s,ooobre,
his capital, was in consequence of these new
strictiens obliged to increase his plant, and to 0.
out 5,0001. more in order to conduct his busing
la per cent. would be the result, or 500/. a 9,e -e6
which would have to be charged against 60,000 gall
500/. divided over 60,000 gallons would give exactly je
result. The next item was the loss of matey'
arising out of these restrictions. These .t
strictions obliged the distiller to brew ate,
certain gravity—t 0 give so many days' notice of his Is,
teution to brew, and se many hours' notice of as
removernent he makes. Thus he was sometime
d to stop his works fur twelve hours-
allow his furnaces to become extinguished, causingke
waste which was estimated at one-twelfth of t,
whole produce. The Irish distillers estimated the
in this way at 2d. a gallon. Then there was the loss J.
wages, because it was necessary to pay the wet-Isla;
during these temporary stoppages ; in fact it w,
necessary for the distiller to increase the nand
ber of persons in his employment, to exPfe
double time, and to pay double wages.—(Bear.) Ter.
distillers put this at is. 2d. per gallon (as eve nelia-sr,
stood). Then again with respect to yeast.--(" "it
hear.) In making spirits, owing to the restrictiolo
was necessary to use fresh yeast at every brewing, Wed.
would not be necessary if the restrictions were real 0
It was a tact that under the operation of the Excised:we
the distillers were obliged to let their yeast run ii
the gutter, and to purchase the same from other Pels,
The distillers of Galway, of Belfast, and of Dreg'
or
were thus obliged to come to the London
ep.
ket in order to purchase' yeast, while they t:eot
selves were obliged to waste it. The expense °I Joe of
to the gallon was a penny. There were 26,000,0ece
gallons of spirits distilled in England and Ireland, w.,,al ea
at ld , would give an amount of 110,000/. of waste tart,
down the gutter, under the operation of the Excise lags
That made sid. They then came to the malt duty' ‘,OO
was now speaking of • Ireland. In what
called the raw corn spirit, about twofre,
teenths of the corn was malted ; theretla
if they charged an amount equalling two-thirtehe-ed
on the whole quantity employed, the malt duty 00
ls. 4d. a eallon, it would give a duty of 24d. per b
matte for malt duty alone. A high authority in these - „e
in firmer times—he meant the late Mr. Husliiss:ee
maintained that the whole malt duty was in ltssa:dei
heavy charge, but that the restrictions on malt Perot
one-half to the amount of duty, to the Tel
cost of malt ; for the same restriction that Oro.
to spirits applied also to the making of ifnrte
In cold weather the barley required more than !co
hours for its proper steeping, but in warm weathereees,
The Excise laws would not, however, change the Lwrief
and in many instances in warm weather the 115-0
sprouted and was spoiled. The loss in this waY.ect,
2s. 6d. per quarter. He then came to another sabity
which was called, in the language of distillers, 00
decreases. In England the duty was charged ~-;eas
British Spirits as they left the worm head, but I'diea,
charged upon rum, not as it left the East and West 10„a,
or arrived in this country, but as it came out of on
Ile found ',,by a (return, ordered by that Hotise vn
29th May last, that the allowance made to the rap
ducers was—in England, three six-tenths of a PenlY
in Ireland, seven seven-hundredths of a penny ; !lilt
Scotland, eight five-tenths of a penny, upon eons
gallon. In England, out of 2,411,001 gall for
imported, 76,794 had been allowed, the money
which, as returned for deficiency and leakage'
was 36,248/. In Ireland 737 gallon were allowed
at a sum of 3471. upon 30,770 gallons introduced, a°,
in Scotland the sum of 1,534/. was allowed for 3,281
gallons, out of 43,135 gallons imported. He would 110,1.1,
calculate what would be the amount of drawback Lie
such it might be called) to the rum producers of Eng:
land, Ireland, and Scotland. He found that the
drawback to the rum producers of Englandwwolduld
be three 4 -10ths of a penny ; Ireland two 1-Bthsl
and Scotland, four 3.loths of a penny.—(Hear, hear')
The result of all these disadvantages,
as far as the die:
tillers were concerned, was that it would take aFc;
* of a penny to put them on a par with the colonial
distillers, whereas it was only proposed to take off 9d.
per gallon. In addition to this the distillerkhad
I seitilutiPes.
con-
tend with many other disadvantages. Another a'
of the same kind was the removal of the g-asked Hen.
For tbat measure the country was indebted to the (sir
to_ießaronet the Member for Tamworth. Although rus:e d,
R. Peel's) sanguine expectations had not been realie .d
yet the result was perfectly surprising. By a return Tito
on the table of the House last year it appeared, ue
owing to the increase for sheet and Plat
glass, the manufacturers had increased their
,e,
works. New works had been erected in Dahlwoi
Belfast, Hull, and other places. The want
his
skilful hands was much felt—in fact, so much vvas; tee
scarcity felt, that the workmen who could be °bites,
had forced their employers to allow them higher wnlent;
and they had been increased in consequence 30/. per ceee°t
—as they received from 4/ to Si. a week. He Lille:,
in the case of glass he had shown a very strong exen'S -eor
what the removal of Excise duties would aecompli"
it must be borne in mind that as regarded the glass &tiny
the removal of the Excise duties upon it had not led to
eitilis
increased exportation of the article. The increase t;es
created at home, as shortly after the repeal of the
in this country the duties on foreign glass were -co
pealed, so that English and foreign glass came 0 °fig%
into competition, and they competed on. equal te;a.
He was justified from the increase of the home u-ise
sumption in these articles to supposee,that if the Ple"te
duties were amended, and greater facilities givenos
to the distillers in their manufacture, enotin-,,,
increase would be the result. As regarded
.ye,
case of Ireland, there was another oOnsl•
ration which the House was bound to enter',
Whisky was the great drink of Ireland, villas
very small proportion of that whisky
made frosn malted corn. The advantage "11:1117t
arose from the malting of barley was %el
it was deprived of its poisonous qualities. As on
100,000 gallons were distilled from barley so prePiria:
it followed of course that the mass of the Irish paPe"or.
tion drank a poisonous instead of a wholesome lig° re
The exports of foreign spirits from this country we„
enormous, but no British spirits were enabled to be e•e,
ported at all. That was the case with Irish
spirits
ee
what was the case with regard to England. • The Bngei
lish distilleries did not consume half the quantitY,
grain that was consumed by the Irish distillers, for tPli,
rectified the spirits they manufactured instead of nume
ing them. The English distiller also claimed id• co
quarter on foreign barley employed in the manuaettLi
of spirit. If, then, the house would consider the save''.-
to
items they would find the duty on barley amounted
theo
id., on malt 2/d., the charge on increase plant ld.,interest on money required for increased plant id.,
th
loss by allowing the yeast to run down the gutters ill'
the loss on material 2d., the duty on the decreases 3d,
4-10ths, the interest on the amount of duty paid in °tee
vance, ed., and the loss by the prohibition to alloWeed
distillers to rectify their own spirits 3d., they would n°ol
that upon the whole of the items a charge was wade r.
134 d. and 3-20ths of a penny on the home prodtlened
He would now finish with the Scotch case. It differed
from the English and the Irish case in this, that t!ts.
thirds of the spirits made in Scotland was malt ePir!,e.
They had the same restriction with regard to the ex°l:,,,
As a set-off to the 3iel. to which he had referred in ha
Irish case, and the 2id. in the English case, they ixie
the entire malt duty to pay, with the exception of e''''h
Bd. of drawback. In the manufacture of Scott
spirits, a duty was paid on the malt of ls. 4d. per f
h ,afloat
The various items made altogether 19icl. and 3 .20t ea
ld. in addition to another id. which ought to be charge
interest ; or, taking Mr. Huskisson's estimate, at ,d.
less, 15}d. and 3 20ths of ld., to which Scotlancrereorodu.
c'e
be entitled, to put her on equal terms with the p
of foreign countries.—(Hear, hear.) He thanked
e
House for the patience with which they had listened to
his statement.—(Hear, hear.) He thought he hn
shown the House just reasons for referring the subje.c...
to a Committee up-stairs,—(Hear, hear,)—where wt..
!
nesses might be examined, and where they might del:
berately ascertain what was the exact justice of the case.He was no advocate for any wanton interference with
the English, Irish, or Scotch distillers, or for
giving thetaany undue advantage over the Colonial distillers.
He was no advocate for any monopoly whatsoever, but
sought only exact justice between both parties; and the
case he sought could only be properly investigated in a
Select Committee up stairs, consisting of impartial per-
sons. The Noble Lord concluded by submitting his
motion, and resumed his seat amidst loud cheers.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, who
was very imperfectly heard, said, that he thought that
his Noble Friend, in his anxiety to make a good case,
bad somewhat exceeded the amount of grieytmees which