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London, England, 1846-12-07 00:00:00

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LONDON,
• MONDAY
4.
• •

No. 16,916.

DEPUTATIONS to GOVERNMENT

the smuggling, and that the enterprise of the contraband
trader had been transferred to tobacco. The effect of
the reduction of the duty on spirits had been a positive
increase of revenue. This would certainly occur in the
ease of tobacco.
The deputation then retired, no intimation, E 0 far as
have understood, having been given of the intentions
,;f Government in reference to the tobacco duties.

CALEDONIAN ASYL-UM.'
Incorporated in 1815.
A QUARTERLY GENERAL COURT of GUARDIANS was held
at the Scottish Hospital, Crane-court, Fleet-street, on the 3d instant,
for the ELECTION of SIX BOYS and SIX GIRLS into the
Asylum, when the following were declared to be the successful
Candidates:—

MONSON'S ARMS, COMMERCIAL and
AGRICULTURAL INN, LIMB-STREET, LINCOLN.
JOHN INMAN begs most respectfully- to retarn his best thanks to
Ids agricultural and commercial friends in particular, and to the
public in general, for the increased and increasing support conferred
upon him ; and to merit which it will be his constant endeavour and
uremittlag study.
Commercial gentlemen will at the Monson's Arras find accommo-
dation equal to any house, however celebrated for commercial resort
—an excellent commercial room, well aired beds, and good s.
Travellers by railway visiting the ancient city will receive every
attention.
An omnibus to and from the railway station on the arrival and
eperture of each train.
November 23, 1846.

TEA DUTIES.
A deputation on the subject of the tea duties waited
on Lord John Russell and Mr. Charles Wood, on Satur-
day, having been introduced by William Entwisle, Esq.,
Member for South Lancashire.
Mr. William Earle, in presenting the memorial from
the town of Liverpool, agreed to at the late public meet-
ing, and signed by the Mayor, praying for a material
reduction of the duty.on tea, assured his Lordship that
he had never witnessed a more influential or unanimous
meeting in Liverpool than the one at which that memo-
rial had been adopted, and he believed it expressed the
feeling of nearly every inhabitant of that town.
Mr. Halliday presented a similar memorial from the
Dublin Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Feilden presented a memorial from all the in-
fluential inhabitants of Blackburn, and another, signed
by upwards of 2,000 of the working classes, in favour or
a great reduction in the duty on tea.
Mr. Law presented a memorial from the city of Edin-
burgh, signed by the Lord Provost, and another from
the Chamber of Commerce there, to a similar effect.
Mr. Scarlett presented a memorial from the town of
Leeds, and stated how seriously the trade of that town
was affected by the injurious tendency of the present high
duty on tea.
Mr. John Scott supported the prayer of the memorials
which bad been sent direct to the Government from the
cityn andf China Glasgow,
theMerchants' House, the East India
aAssociation, and the Chamber of Commerce
of Glasgow.
Mr. William Potter, of Liverpool, then addressed his
Lordship on the benefits which would accrue to the mer-
cantile and shipping interests by a material reduction of
the present high duty on tea. He showed, in a very
forcible manner, the immense increase of manufactures
which he stated would be consumed in China, and that
the increased consumption of tea, and consequently of
sugar, would give employment to at least 40,000 tons of
additional shipping.
Mr. Wench, of Liverpool, argued, from statistics
which he brought forward, that by reducing the duty to
Is. per lb. the public would be enabled to consume
twenty-seven millions of pounds more of tea, and 27,650
tons more sugar, without any additional outlay; that
tea which is now retailed at 4s. per lb. might then be
sold at 2s. al., and that the loss to the revenue would
only be 101,5731., even if the rate of consumption were
no greater than in the Isle of Man, where the duty is
Is. per lb.
Mr. Robert Gardner, of Manchester, stated the im-
mense decline in the shipment of cotton manufactures
from Manchester, in consequence of the serious losses
incurred in the China trade by the restrictions caused by
the high duty on tea. Many of the mills had already
commenced working short time, and others must follow,
unless an impetus were given by such a reduction of the
duty as would enable shipments to be made to China
with better prospects than were now offered.
Mr. Scarlett, of Leeds, called the attention of the Go-
vernment to the depressed state of the woollen manufac-
turers in the West Riding of Yorkshire, greater than
had been felt for several years. The trade with China
had been so ruinous that shipments had greatly fallen
off. He felt assured that an early intimation of the Go-
vernment's decision in favour of a reduction of the tea
duties would at once cause renewed activity in the de-
mand for woollens. He was desired to mention, on the
part of the deputation from Norwich, how fully they
concurred in the statement he had just made.
Mr. John Scott stated how much Glasgow was inte-
rested in the subject, and hoped the Government would
take the tea duties into their serious consideration.
Mr. Horsfall, of Liverpool, assured hls Lordship that
it was the general opinion that a small reduction would
be certain to disappoint both the Government and the
consumer ; to be of service, it must be reduced to a rate
equivalent to Is. per lb. We had secured for other
nations the same advantages in China that we ourselves
possessed, but whilst in no other coaatry was tea
charged a higher duty than 6d. per lb., and in some it
was entirely tree, our consumers had to pay 2s. 2kd. per
lb. It was, he argued, frost unjust to force upon the
Chinese a tariff the lowest of any nation with whom we
traded, whilst we imposed on the principal article or
their manufacture so exorbitant a duty. It was con-
trary to the feelings of Englishmen to oppress the weak
and the powerless, and he hoped that so great a blot on
the national character would soon be wiped away.
Lord John Russell assured the deputation that Go-
vernment were fully impressed with the importance of
the subject. He had listened with great attention to all
that had been urged by the several speakers as affecting
the commercial, manufacturing, and shipping interests,
and also as regarded the claims of China to a more
liberal treatment. It was, as all knew, a revenue ques-
tion, and an important one,. but he would promise the
early consideration of the Government to the arguments
that had been advanced upon this point. More he could
not say, nor could it be expected of him.
Mr. Eutwisle then thanked his Lordship for the
patient hearing be had given to the subject, and the
deputation withdrew, highly pleased with the courteous
reception they bad met with.

80111.

GIRL 9.

Thomas Mitchell .• • • .. 1789
Robert Ilutchenson • • .. 1573
Andrew Fell .• .• 1406
James Chambers .• .. 1157
Richard Alexander .. .. 1062
John Gunn • . • • .. .. 1032

Mary Ann .. 1237
Mary Charlotte Clark .. 829
Eliza Prentice • • • . .. 692
Lucy Isabella M'Leod 335
Margaret McKenzie • . .. 312
Mary Ann Robertson.. .. 234
Rosina Sutherland • • .. 234
JOHN BURNIE, Secretary.

THE TEA DUTIES.
(From the Examiner.)
The question of reforming the duties on tea is at pre-
sent under agitation by the commercial community
throughout the country, and began on the 28th of last
month by a great and enthusiastic public meeting at
Liverpool.
The history of the tea duties, or as much of it as is
useful, is easily told. Under the monopoly the: public
tax was an ad-valorem one of 100 per cent., with a
tevour of four per cent. for the consumption of the poor.
On the abolition of the monopoly, thirteen years ago,
this was replaced by a duty rated to the value of the
different teas by classes. Against this rating the tea
trade mutined, and forced on the Government the exist-
ing system of an uniform rate, against which the tea
trade is again in a state of mutiny with a good deal more

ar • -
ETHIOPIAN SERENADERS.
ST. JAMES'S THEATRE.
The celebrated Ethiopian Serenaders, Pell, Harrington, White,
Stanwood, and Germon, whose entertainments last season at the
St. James's Theatre were so eminently successful, and whose recent
performances in the Provinces have been atte,ded with unexampled
success, will have the honour of resuming their entertainments at the
above theatre on TUESDAY EVENING, Des. 15. and of continuing
the same every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday evenings, during
the Christmas holidays.
The public is respectfully cautioned that the Songs and Melodies,
as sung by the above party at the St. James's Theatre, are published
only at Mr. Mitchell's Library, 33, Old Bond-street. None others
are authentic.
St. James's Theatre, Dec. 1, 1846.

reason.
The fixed duty, which has now been in operation ten
years, is 2s. 2id. per pound on teas of all, or any quality,
and is equally imposed on poor bohea, as on superfine
gunpowder, or superfine flowery pekoe—equally on the
consumption of a washerwoman and the luxury of a fine
lady. The value of the lowest bohea is 2d. a pounds
and that of the finest gunpowder or pekoe 4s. 6d.
a pound, or seven-and-twenty times [as much ! The
fine lady ought to pay righteously, twenty-seven times
the tax which the washerwoman pays, but the law makes
her pay just the same sum. She pays 2s. 2-I.d for her
4s. 6d. worth, and the washerwoman 2s. 21d. on her two-
pence worth The washerwoman's tax, rated on the
value of her consumption, exceeds 1,300 per cent., and
the fine lady's is under 48 ! The public tax now paid
by the washerwoman is near fourteen times as much as
it was before the abolition of the monopoly—and that
paid by the fine lady is less than one-half what it
was then !
This, with a vengeance, is placing small-beer and im-
perial tokay on a fiscal level. The result of the levelling
has ben that the 10,000,000 lbs. of bohea consumed by
the poor, eleven years ago, have been well nigh kicked
out of the market altogether, and that there is not now,
nor has there been for some years back, a stock of bohea
in the kingdom that would suffice for a year's consump-
tion of the washerwomen of Marylebone. All this comes
of a Government listening to evil advisers !
Of the speakers at the great public meeting at
Liverpool, by far the most enlightened sentiments
were expressed by Mr. Brown, the new Member for
Lancashire, and they were such as show very clearly
that the electors of Lancashire have made a good
choice. Mr. Brown showed from one of the lectures
of Mr. Bamfield, that the poor who were consumers of
Tea amounted to 10,300,000—the middle-class consu-
mers to no more than 4,500,000, and the wealthy con-
sumers only to I,2oo,ooo—and he asked if it was to be
endured, however convenient to the merchant and the
Custom-house, that the poor and rich should pay the
same specific duty.
We are sorry to be obliged to say that Mr. Brown
stood alone :n the expression of this generous, righteous,
and politic .sentiment. He was loudly cheered, but no
man backed him, and after a great exhibition of statistic
knowledge and much talent, the meeting came to the
most lame and miserable conclusion of demanding a
swingeing reduction in the duty—a reduction of one
from 2s. 21(i. to one of " one shilling"—thus leaving the
ruinous principle untouched, and throwing the whole
onus of an enormous defalcation of revenue on the Go-
vernment.
We shall show how the proposed tax would operate,
in case the Government, which is not credible,ahould be
so simple as to adopt it. The lowest priced Bohea is
worth 2d. a pound, and the proposed tax is an ad-valorem
duty of six hundred per cent. on it. The highest
Bohea is worth 4d., and the tax is here three hundred
per cent. If' the poor should be driven to 6d. tea, the
tax is still two hundred per cent.
The tea of the middle classes may be taken at ls. a
pound, and they pay only 100 per cent. ; but this class
also drinks tea at Bd., so that the poorest of them will be
charged 150 per cent. The tea of the wealthy may be
taken at 2s. 6d., so that the wealthy are to pay but 40
per cent. ; but the upper classes also consume teas worth
4s. a pound, so that the most luxurious of them shall
only pay 25 per cent.
By this pretty invention, originating with the en-
lightened town of Liverpool, from which we had hopell
for better things, every man and woman is to pay taxes
in the inverse proportion of their means. The 12,300,000
of poor, from two to sixfold as much as the 4,500,000
who are in easy circumstances, and from five to fifteen-
fold as much as the 1,200,000 that are luxuriating in
wealth. With such a placard in their hands, Liverpool
is going to stir up the country, and enlist the sympathy
of the millions!
And of this clumsy piece of empiricism, the Govern-
ment is to be made the scape-goat. The present con-
sumption of tea is about 44,000,000 of pounds, aid the
revenue which it yields is 4,800,0001. By the adoption
of the "one shilling" duty, the immediate sacrifice
of revenue will be the appalling sum of 2,600,0001.—
more than a moiety of the income tax : and to re-esta-
blish it, the consumption must rise to ninety-six millions
of pounds,—that is, must be doubled, with a surplus
above the doubling, equal to the consumption of the
United States of America !
That a very considerable increase of consumption will
be the result of the mere rude process of reducing the
duty without adjusting its incidence, is certain ; but,
striking at the very sources of consumption, the con-
sumption of the masses, that the increase will be such,
within the lives of the present generation, as to cover
the existing revenue, is what no reasonable man can
hope for.
It is in vain that the speakers It the Liverpool meet-
ing appealed to the increase which had taken place in
coffee and cocoa from reduction of duties. The fact
is that the increase in these articles has taken place at
the expense of tea, just as the consumption of hyson
and rekoe has been quadrupled at the cost of Bohea and
Twankay. The duty on cocoa is 2d. a pound, or one-
thirteenth-part that on Bohea. The duty on coffee is
4d., or less than one-sixth part of the Bohea duty. Can
any one be surprised, then, that the two first commo-
dities should have greatly increased, and that the last
should have nearly disappeared altogether.
In an article like tea, where a commodity of the value
of small-beer stands at the bottom of the scale, and one
of the value of first growth Burgundy at the top of it,l
and in which the range comprehends at least sixty varie-
ties, it is obvious to common sense that any other prin-
ciple of assessing the duty than an ad valorem one must
be fraught with inequality and injustice, and equally in-
jurious, in the long rum, to the consumer, the dealer, to
commerce, and the Treasury. The experience of the
last ten years ought to be a warning to all future times.
The injurious specific duty has taken the place of the in-
jurious monopoly, and consumption and revenue have
moved at a snail's pace under both, barely keeping pace
with increase of population. We must bear no more of
specific duties on tea. " The trade" must alter its tactics.
At present, it is pursuing that course which, Adam
Smith says, merchants sometimes followed in the olden
time, when they became the most suspicious councillors
of a government.

TOBACCO DUTIES.
A deputation of the Associated Manufacturers of
Tobacco, accompanied by Dr. Bowring, M.P., Mr.
Henry Berkeley, M.P., Mr. G. H. W. Heneage, M.P.,
and Mr. Ludlow Bruges, M.P., waited upon Lord John
Russell, at his house in Chesham place, on Saturday,
for the purpose of calling his attention to the state of
the tobacco trade, and the injurious influence of high
duties on the interests of the trade and on the comfort
and morality of the public. The deputation consisted of
the following members of the trade:—Mr. John Lloyd,
of the firm of J. and F. Lloyd and Co.; Mr. Williamson
and Mr. Back, of the firm of Taddy and Co.; Mr. 11. 0.
Wills, of the firm of Ricketts, Wills, and Co., Bristol.
Mr. Von der Heyde; Mr. Thomas Huxley; Mr. Charles
Lloyd, of the firm of Wishart and Lloyd; Mr. Robert
Roberts; and Mr. Paul Anstie, of the firm of P. and E.
Anstie, of Devizes.
Lord John Russell was accompanied by the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, and received the deputation with much

courtesy.
Dr. Bowring referred to the Committee of the House
of Commons on the tobacco trade, which sat in 1844, and
to the important and conclusive mass of evidence which
was given before that Committee. It was shown that of
the number of seizures of contraband goods made by
the Customs, five-sevenths of the whole consisted of
tobacco, and that the convictions for the crime of smug-
gling had increased during the three years previous to
January last, 11191 e than two hundred per cent.; that the
duties on tobacco are so enormous (varying from 800 to
1,400 per cent. on the value of the article), that the
temptation both to smuggling and adulteration is so great
as to forbid the hope of collecting the duty; that thehevi-
dence proved such an amount of these practices as tos short
that the power of the revenue was entirely defeated.
which
duty shown that a quantity fully equal to that on d
duty had been paid was introduced fraudulently, and
consumed without payment of duty, to the injury of the
fair trader. The Board of Excise produeed chemical
evidence, with the intention of showing that they had
the means of discovering adulteration by analysis ; but
in that respect they had entirely failed. The evidence
went to show that the expenses attending the evasion of
the duty are so great, that smugglers could not intro-
duce tobacco under a cost which would render it unpro-
fitable to him to run his goods if the duty were reduced
to is. a pound.
Mr. John Lloyd said that the trade had been com-
plaining of the operation of duties for many years, com-
mencing soon after the close of the war, when inter-
course with the continent became open. That the strin-
gent regulations of the Excise survey —and the trade
had readily assented to the most stringent regulations
the Government could devise—having altogether failed
of their intended effect of preventing smuggling, they
were abandoned in 1840. That the rate of duty so
much exceeded any other article in the tariff, that even
en that ground tobacco had the first claim for reduction.
And now the duties on other articles having been re-
duced, the tobacco duties had become relatively still
higher. Thus all the operations of the smuggler had
become concentrated on tobacco. Formerly his venture
consisted of brandy, silks, and other highly taxed foreign
articles. Now tobacco forms the whole venture. That
the low prime cost of the article, and the consequent
enormous profit realised, had led to such an amount of
smuggling, that the condition of the fair trader was now
worse than at any former period. That this duty falls
heavily upon the working classes, inasmuch as eleven-
twelfths of the revenue derived from tobacco was derived
exclusively from the consumption of the working classes.
Mr. Lloyd also referred to the general views of the sub-
ject on which Dr. Bowring had touched.
Mr. Paul Anstie said that, after Mr. Lloyd's state-
ment, he was only anxious to prove that the calculations
gAdoctm., and the whole of
They had then
which the trade had embodied in the papers they now
left with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, were strictly
based on evidence given before the Tobacco Committee,
and upon Parliamentary papers since published. They
)
had taken the proportion which existed between seizures
in London in the year 1843 (the only clear year after
theth e passing
seizures in of the last
United
Tobaccon
taken the positive testimony. given before the Committee,
as to definite amounts introduced into London by
smuggling during that year. The witnesses who had
spoken to quantities of smuggled leaf tobacco within
their own knowledge, were only
been
8-X, and the total quan-
tity so ascertained had multiplied only by
three ; an estimate believed to fall far short of
the truth. This remark applied also to the calcula
tion of the quantities of smuggled foreign manufac-
tured tobacco, in which case the quantities deposed to
by three witnesses were multiplied only by four. The
same proportion which existed between the amount
seized in London and in t e whole kingdom in
1843 was applied to ascertain the whole of the
quantities smuggled ; and the result was, that if in 1844
the duty had been reduced to Is. per lb. on leaf, ss. on
foreign cigars and cheroots, and Is. 6d. on other foreign
manufactured tobacco and snuff, the revenue from tobacco
would have been as great, taking adulteration also into
account, as now derived from the present high rate of
duty. Several official papers had been published ; when
Sir R. Peel introduced his last tariff, the associated
manufacturers complained that he had taken spirits in-
stead of tobacco, the latter being most largely smuggled,
and was subject to the highest rate of duty. They have
evidence in these papers that the anticipations they then
expressed had been fully realised. Parliamentary re-
turns show that tobacco now constituted five-menthe of

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DECEMBER 7, 1846.

/4 ,

PRICE SD.

gwraso
asth haingdh
asin 92E nsgplaannids.h
dlonlialrBs2poe,rtmheuilper,icoer
ia,tooZoalbnste,
while in 1831 it was as low as 15 Spanish dollars rer
mille. In 1821, in London, the wholesale price of
currants reached 1151. per ton, which is believed
to be the highest rate they have ever realised, while
in 1843 they were sold as low as 404 per ton. Within
the last twelve years, the duty on currants has been
twice reduced by the British Government—in the first in-
stance from 441.65. 8(1. per ton to 22/. 3i. 4d., and next,
from 22/. 3s. 4d. to 15/. per ton, which, with the addi-
tional five rer cent. imposed on duties by Lord John
Russell, and which has not been removed, makes the
present duty 151. 15s. per ton. A very considerable
revenue is annually derived by our Government from
the duty on currants, and which has increased since the
reduction in duty, the consumption in the United King-
dom having materially increased. Although the con-
sumers in this country have certainly benefited by the
reduction in duty to a certain extent, the cultivators of
the fruit abroad have been much greater gainers thereby,
and during the last three years have realised such profits
as to lead to the cultivation of further tracts of land for
currant grounds. During the official year of 1845, the
actual consumption of currants in the United Kingdom
exceeded in quantity any preceding year, and it was
an unprecedented fact that when the first cargo of
new currants reached London in September last, there
were no old currants on sale in first hands, the stock of
old at that period usually averaging nearly 2,000 tons.
From the 22d of September to the 25th of November,
forty-four vessels have arrived in London alone, with
entire cargoes of new currants, the total quantity of
which cannot be less than 7,000 tons. Of these vessels,
43 were British and 1 Greek. The quickest passage was
made in 29 days, and the longest in 77 days.
The price opened, on the 22d of September, at 565. per
cwt. for Patras currants, and on the 6th of October at
545. per cwt. for the first arrival from Zante. Since then
the prices have continued very steady at 565. for Patras,
and 555. for Zante and Cephalonia fruit. Quite a new
feature in the trade was that seven or eight of these car-
goes were sold by the Greek consignees to London
grocers and speculators while they were afloat, to be de-
livered on arrival.

Nevertheless there must be at least 3,000 tons of cur-
rants now in London for sale, part of which will no
doubt be put up to auction. With the forty-four car-
goes already arrived, and a few more on the voyage to
London, there can be no fear of a scarcity of currants,
even for the most inordinate wants that may arise for
Christmas. A great many cargoes have also reached
Liverpool, Bristol, and other outports.
The total crops of currants this season in the Morea,
Zante, Cephalonia, and Ithaca, are estimated to have rea-
lised 49,000,000 weight, or about 21,875 tons. This is the
largest total crop of currants ever before produced, and

it is stated that -about three-fourths of it would come to
this country. The general quality, owing to rain
damage, is not fine. It is a singular fact that the coun-
tries which produce this enormous quantity of currants
do not themselves consume a hundred tons. What
would the poor Greeks and lonians do if John Bull was
by any chance to discontinue the use of currants? Why,
they and their Government revenues would be ruined,
as the growers could not find any other market for all
their produce, and the treasuries would be minus the
chief source of their assets, the duties levied amounting
to about 18 per cent. on the export value.