The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-29 00:00:00

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the duties on rum and h elands should t.e extended to
spirits distilled in this country, arid that they saw n
reason why foreign traders should possess any advan-
tage over our home manufacturers. The Right Hon.
Gentleman was certainly a very einncal Chanceiler of the
Exchequer; for whenever it suited }nns to argue against
the colonial distillers he then endeavoured to show the
Rouse that the leakage and wastage was next to no-
thing; but when he wanted to avoid putting the British
distillers on an equality with the colonial and foreign
distillers, he ?hen immediately discovered that the leak-
age and wastage was exceedingly large. It reminded
One of the fable of the Satyr and the Traveller; for the
Right Hon. Gentleman could warm his hands and cool
his porridge with the same breath. But thsre was no
doubt upon this point, for they had the authority of an
Act of Parliament as to the amount of leakage and
wastage in the case of foreign spirits. By th.e Bth and
9th of Victoria, cap. 91, see. 22, the allowance for
wastage was, one gallon for every 100, tor six months;
three gallons for every 100, from six to eighteen months;
five gallons for every 100, from eighteen mouths to two
Years; six gallons for every 100, from two years to two
Years and a half ; and so on. All that the Irish dis-
tillers asked for was to be treated with equal justice
With the foreign distillers, and that they should have
the same advantages which the foreign distillers ea-
Mr. REYNOLDS said that :the Bill did not go far
enough, and that if the Right Hon. Gentleman should
refuse his assent to the motion of the Hon. and Learned
Member for Kerry, he would inflict deep injustice upon
the distillers of Ireland and Scotland. As to what the
"Fi to the revenue would be, the calculation was very
Much guess work ; but if the storing of spirits were en-
couraged, the consumption would be increased, and so
far the revenue also. Coupling the Bill with the Rum
Duties Bill, it seemed clear that the Government were
sacrificing the interests of Ireland to those of the West
"▪ "'es- If spirits remained in bond for seven years, the
colonialcolonial manufacturer would have an advantage equal to
q• Per gallon. If the Government persisted in their
refusal of the claim in question, they ought to take out
Patent for making converts to repeal ; distillers who
had been opposed to repeal were beginning to say that
it
a_ was folly to expect justice from an English Par-
-6 Tent.
r. MACGREGOR considered the Bill so important
t 0 his
°is. constituents, and the delay of it so prejudicial,
that he
hoped, whatever might be its defects, the House
Would go into Committee at once. The concessions and
alterations made since its introduction had been gene-
rally satisfactory ; and, in the last week of a long ses-
°Tn, the real question was, whether the Bill was to be
he
P "°II.Y rejected or not ?—(" No.") At the same time,
'loped to see, eventually, an equalization of the duties
on hoe,
e.e.made spirits.
he ee•
`"'r. RUME would give his vote on the principle that
stae Jailed to see equality between the foreign and the
s producer.
ar.`4lonel DUNNE looked upon this measure as giving
advantage to the producer abroad over the home-
Manufacturer.
to Ma!' DUNCAN considered it to be not fair and honest
Manufacturer in this country, and was surprised to
hear it advocated by an Hon. Member for Glasgow.
The House then divided, when the numbers were—
For the instruction to the Committee 37
Against it
Majority —39
The Bill then passed through Committee, and the
4ePort was ordered to be received to-morrow.
14The Consolidated Fund Bill and
methse Exchequer bills
"di were each read a second ti, nd ordered to be
esiasmitted to-morrow.
COPPER AND LEAD DUTIES BILL.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER moved
that the abovenamed Bill should be read a second time.
1/Lord G. BENTINCK said, that in the absence of the
nn. Member for Bodmin, it became his duty to move
that this Bill be read a second time on that day six
Months, and he was induced to take that course for
eee'reral reasons. In the first place, it was indecorous and
enfitting, that at the very moment when the Govern-e
3,:itleeent was confessedly almost in a state of insolvency,
--t"`i Was obliged to borrow 2,000,0001. sterling in order
t° make up the deficiency for the year, the Chancellor of
tee Exchequer should squander away a part of the solid
venue which was raised on the industry of foreigners.
the next place, this measure was another step in the
thirdly,
of direct, as opposed to indirect taxation; and,
it was objectionable, because it would deprive
the miners of Cornwall of the protection to which they
Were entitled at the hands of the Government.—(Hear,
ieneatrda
,lphipeintagx which it was proposed to throw away
time" of finance, amounted to 6 per
frt- eid valorem ; but, although it was a small duty for
te foreigner to pay, it concerned the subsistence of
more than 22,000 British labourers, who, with their
fate: •
uies, represented nearly 100,000 souls. The men-
sure doubtless would confer a boon on the smelters, but
their situation was not one which demanded peculiar'
;consideration, for at the present moment the difference
In price between copper ore and copper was 22 per
"lit. The smelters, however, were powerfully repre-
sented in the House of Commons; hence the favour
yen them at the cost of the poor miners. Mr. Alder-
man Thompson who was extensively engaged in that
uranch of fade, bad assured him that the effect of
the present measure would be merely to put the
amount of the tax pronosed to be repealed into the
pockets of himself and his co-manufacturers without
being of the slightest benefit to the country.—(Hear,
"ear.) Our colonies, also, were interested in this ques-
tion, and if he failed to induce the House to reject the
Rill on the second reading, he would propose in Com-
mittee that copper ore the produce of a British colony
should be imported duty free. A few weeks ago the
Under-Secretary for the Colonies
had referred to
to South
Australia as a colony which
in prosperity. The exports fromAusmtraadleia
to the value of 312,8381. and therapid progress
amounted
ore which came from that colony
wvaalsuietoosf,otohoet,cobpepinegr
one-third of the whole. The lion. Gentleman had
spoken of the great happiness and content of our colo-
nies, and he trustsd that the Government would not drive
them into a state of discontent by cutting off from them
this lucrative branch of trade. No less than 800 miners
bad already emigrated from Cornwall, in order to work
the Australian mines, and numbers of Irish poor might
be also sent out to assist in raising the ore. Let not the
Government, then, surrender the trade of which Australia
Was the prosperous site, to the Cubans and Chilians. lie
had stated the other day that the price of copper ore in
Cornwall, at the end of the last Midsummer quarter, was
11 per cent. lower than it was at the commencement of
the year. He had stated also that it was lower by 18
Per cent, than it was in 1847, and 25 per cent. lower than
the average of the last fifteen years. The effect of that
reduction in the price of copper ore on the wages of the
' 'miners in Cornwall was equal to 17s. Id. on every ton of
ore raised. The quantity of ore annually raised in Corn-
We
was about 50,000 tons, and about 22,000 persons
Wp'e employed in raising it. He regretted to say that
t
• eonditiox and prospects of the Cornish miners were
Most deplorable. The Noble Lord here referred to an
extract from the Cornwall Gazelle of Friday last, con-
taining a most distressing account of the crops, and went
°n to say that he was afraid the Government might ex-
Peet to find another Ireland in Cornwall, if, in the hour
°l,f their struggles under the dispensations of Providence,
they took from them any portion of their profits
mining operations. Ile asked the Noble Lord
-er he was prepared, for the sake of carrying out a
41iserable abstract principle, to run the risk of reducing
the„, People of one county of England—a people as re-
markable for their attachment to the Crown and their
Peaceful conduct as for their industry—to the wretched
clie in which he found the people of Ireland? If
shove did 1109 he would do it to promote the interests of
• . ese who had invested their money in foreign mines.
° doubt the House, would be told that the smelting
trade of the country was leaving it, and that this Bill
:is the last resource for the prevention of so great an
hi:4 Rut if any such statement was abou to be made,
denied that it had any foundation whatever in truth.
Re
t,found that even this year, which was not remarkable
fr briskness of trade, the import of foreign copper ore
aeeeded by upwards of 2,000 tons the importation of
ormer year. And if it should one said that the
fromrl tis!! Miner had a great protection in the cost of freight
bee?lk-;iiha, he would ask whether the smelters of Swan-
itl %ad not a still greater protection in the difference
t 0 thtPrice of coal, coal being at Swansea 4s. a ton? As
he 1l eereturns made by the Board of Trade, he thought
queeatj,a right to complain of them. They were fre-
fetvoureedwtrlsong, and it always happened that their errors
Merit.' that side of the argument which the Govern-
that espoused. It had been contended, on the other side,
should ‘,"e importation of copper ore was falling off,f, we
• du"ttnerel'ore permit foreign ore to be imported ree
lietesole Now, from the returns presented to both.
%epee -°I Parliament by command of her Majesty, it
Meta! ithe
leviered that during the six months ending in July,
onth- quantity of copper—that was, the weight of
mported—was 1,319 tons. Durin, the first six
lOrth :8 Of the presentyear that was the weight of metal set
that
will the return signed "A. W. Fonblanque." Though
a ectnal
the as the return, there was every reason to think that
It quantity of metal imported was 5,395 tons.
the appeared .that the quantity of copper ore imported in
oontsiet six months of the year 1846 was 25,035 tons,
pestodni(r3lg 5,162 tons of metal, that in the corresponding
eraeted f 1847 the ore was 18,896 tons, the metal ex-
-4,017 tons ; in the one case yielding 20 per cent.
No▪ 'wuPd tter from every ton of ore ; in the other 21 per cent.
Boardoar
one quantity of ore from which, according to the
traded Trade returns, 1,319 tons of metal were ex-
rat, or fru no less than 27,155 tons of ore, being at the
:estrous our per cent. That, if true, proved a most dis-
thet n•
ltrade. condition of the But, it appeared to him
for to tae
.ars returns there was a most grievous error,
Yor e
ne could understand how the copper ore should
- yield
year, ers,2o and 21 per cent., yet, in the present
and he would
only at the rate of four per cent. ;
roan 1.143 w he wouldask, were 100,000 English-
to
as thicism
"• he had just to suffer n account of such blunders
vote for the resol these that
? It was upon such misrepre-
that the House had been induced to
of August, ution ; and it was now, in the last days
stripped of all whenits
the
bankrupt Excheqsuer, House of Commons had been
caiindependence,led upon
to that they
throw
awwa
ye withr4eooo o
and to go upon the Stock Exchange, and there, at the
loss of 23,000 L, sell s t k which the Government did not
posses. arra' ode
aways tax Is Hethe Government for throwing
difficulty,
Chan and
es
or f had hitherto been collected without
to such
as inducing the House to consent
\when examined, turned ose uon statements whi
ctiear, hear. lobolout to p
be misrepresentations.ch,
) The
Vaal the Bill be read Lord concluded by moving
months. a second time that day six
Mr. WYLD seconded the motion. His reason for
taking this course was, be
ineut had brought it forward tuse her Majesty's Govern-
session, and because the at such a late period of the
no distant day, be reduced
people of Cornwall would, at
to a state of utter ruin. The
eceenty of Cornwall had been
date for its mieerala. Dar' known from the earliest
in, late years a large and
important interest lead sprung
13,000 were solely dependentup, and a population of
on the prosperity of the