The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-15 00:00:00

TOBACCO DITTIES.

Dr. BOWRING rose to call the attention of the
House to a return, No. 295, moved for by Mr. Hume,
and ordered to be printed on the 11th May last, exhibit-
ing, in a record of nearly one hundred folio pages, the
miseries and the crimes created by the enormous duties
levied on tobacco. The duties at present levied upon
this raw article were enormous, amounting to as muss
as 300 or 400 per cent. A motion to reduce the duty to
a very small amount had been only negatived, upon a
former occasion, by a majority of one—that one was the
Chancellor of the Exchequer. He (Dr. Bowring) did
n( t dispute for a moment that it was the duty of every
Chancellor to attend to the revenue. Their were tar
more seizures of tobacco than any other article, for, by
the return of May 1i46, there mire; 538 seizures of
tobacco, 171 of spirits, of tea 11; of silk 10, and 25 of all
other articles. With regard to the convictions before
magistrates. there were in England, from the Ist of
January in 1843, no less than 430 convictions. In 1844,,
there were 583 ; in 1845, there were 702 ; and in 1846
there were 872, being an increase of cent. per cent.
since 1843. In Ireland, in 1843, there were 61 convic-
tions ; in 1844 there were 149 ; is 1845 there were
132 ; and in 1846 there were 155. In Scotland, in
1843 there were 37 convictions ; and from that time toe
1846 there were 204; giving, on the whole, an increase
generally of 250 per cent. during the last four years.
But he did not mean to trouble the House at any length
with the details of the cases of injustice he had cited.
If Hon. Members would turn over the leaves of that vo-
luminous and persuasive document which had been laid
on the table on the subject, they would be better' con-
vinced than they could be by any language of his, of the
huge and increasing amount of offences which grew out
of the existing state •" things. Tarn there had been a
great increase in the number of vessels engaged in the
tobacco trade. 19,564 vessels, of about altogether four
millions of tons, were engaged in the trade ; in the Ame-
rican and Baltic trade 145,386 tons of shipping ; and if
the s tilers engaged in these ships each took—and no
doubt they did-301bs. out of these stores, the amount
introduced, independent of the coasting trade, would he
nearly three millions of tons. Some was also brought
to the shore in boats, and landed in the various rivers ;
and no doubt large quantities were taken frocis the ves-
sels and landed in the night time. Even large quantities
were deposited on the banks of the Thames, and brought
into the very heart of the city in open day.
Smuggling existed in almost every quarter of England ;
it employed the wealthy and influential as well as the
poor. He knew it was very difficult to di-cover how far
it was carried on, but the general opinion was that the
, amount of tobacco smuggled was fully equal to that
which paid duty. He believed that there was in this
' metropolis 130,000 shaps where it woe retailed to the
public, and it was qui'e impossible fer the excise to
exercise over those homes a proper surveillance.
►t was true that the number of seizures had
been latterly on an increase. The tow.' amount
seized within the last two years was 266,321
pounds, which showed a great increase on former
years, but it was nothing in comparison to the am:omA
which was ,introduced into the country in an ilhs"it
manner. In the evidence which was given before the,
Committee of Investigation, it appeared that 40,0001bss
of Dutch snuff was annually introduced which never paid
duty, and, indeed, he believed that Dutch snuff, of which
a great quantity was used in this country, almost
never paid any excise duty. He admitted that
the article of tobatcs was a proper article for
the imposition of a duty; but he thought
these duties should not be so high as to have the effect
of maximising the motives and inaucements of the smug-
gler. The continuance of these high duties had a very
injurious effect on the morals of the people, he believed
there was scarcely a sailor who was not either a user or
importer of illicit tobacco. The number of boatin(n
who did not avail themselves of the opportunity of smug-
gling tobacco was exceedingly small. Altogether 478,042
persons were probably engaged in defrauding the revenue
with respect to tobacco. On these grounds he
did think he had made out a ease for a
searching inquiry by the house; and he appealed to the
Noble Lord, whose benevolence was proverbial, to turn
his serious attention to the subject when revising, the
import duties, and he hoped the relaxation he recom-
mended would take place, although some loss might
possibly be sustained. He appealed also to the Right•
Hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer to give his atten-
tion to it, and concluded by moving the adoption of the
motion.

Mr. BUMF, seconded the motion, and earnestly ap-
pealed to the Noble Lord to give the tobacco duties his
most serious consideration. He should not consider the
rinciple of free trade properly carried out unless a re-
vision of those duties took place, a reduction of which
he believed would prevent great immorality in the
country.
The motion having been put by the Speaker,
Mr. STAFFORD O'BRIEN rose to address the
House, when
An HON. MENZIER remarked that there were not forty
Members present.
Strangers were ordered to withdraw, and there being
but thirty- four Members present, the House adjourned
until twelve to-morrow.