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

MALT DUTY.

,

The following are extracts from the evidence a liven
by Charles Barclay, Esq., before the Select Com= :ta.tee
of the House of Lords, appointed to inquire into awe_
burthens affecting real property (which evidence hi 16
just been issued by order of Parliament):—
" Charles Barclay, Esq., called in and examined. •
" You are well acquainted with the operation of the.
malt duty?—l am.
"Do you think the malt duty causes a great diminu-
tion in or restricts very much the demand for bailey 7
To a small degree, I presume, it must, by increasing the
price.
" Supposing the malt duty to be entirely taken off,
could you give any idea of the diminution in the price of
beer that would be produced?—Yes, it would be a half-
penny a quart; a quart now selling for 31rd.
" You are speaking of a particular kind of beer ?
Yes, porter ; it is the common drink of London.

" Beer, of course, almost amounts to a necessity with
the mass of the population ?—The common drink of
London is porter, which is sold at 3id. a quart.
" In consequence of the reduction of a halfpenny per
quart, you imagine there would be a considerably in-
creased consumption of porter ?—I should not call it a
considerable, there would be an increase.
" Can you give any idea what that increase would
amount to? No; but it may be estimated, because, in.
the year 1829, the beer duty was taken off of 10s. a
barrel, and there.was a considerable increase upon that
occasion in the consumption in London.
" What was the diminution per barrel when the duty
was taken off ? It was 12s. ; the duty had been only
10s., and we took off 12s.

What would that be in the quart ?—A penny.
That was in the year 1829 ?—Yes.
It came into operation in the year 1830 ?—Yes.
" Was there any great difference in the consumption
between the year 1829 and the year 1830 ?—I cannot
tell you upon any great scale. I can tell you as far as
my own brewhouse is concerned ; I think it was one-
third more.

"Therefore do you draw the conclusion, that if the
reduction of a penny per quart increased the demand
by one-third, a reduction of a half-penny would increase
it one-sixth ?—lt is a fair inference ; but when I look at
the return of the malt duty Ido not see how that increas*
could be made up.
" Are you not aware that the malt duty has not in.-
creased in proportion to the general increase of the
population?—lt is worse than that, because I hold itt
my hand a return of the malt duty since 1834 and I
see the duty charged was 5,500,000 quarters in 1837;
and in 1844 it is only 4,600,000 quarters.
" To what do you attribute the falling off of the malt
duty ?—First of all, beer is almost entirely exploded
from the tables of gentlemen's families. I remember
30 years since there was strong ale and bottled stout at
dinner, and now it is hardly ever seen, and there is no
3,000 or 4,000 gallons of October ale brought into our
cellars. I have a cellar made for that purpose, but there
are now only three or four barrels of beer in it, and a
little porter. Then another thing is the price of wine,
I was talking to a person who is a great maltster, and he
was speaking of the custom of his family, whichtis very
general ; they drink wine instead of beer—Marsala, and
all those cheap wines. Then there is coffee ; and there
is in every public-house now soda-water and ginger-beer,
and various other liquids. The people are certainly a so-
berer set, take them altogether. They do not drink so much
beer; they drink other things. I do not know whether year
lordships were aware of the extra tax that was laid em
barley at one time, in the year 1803, when the malt duty
was put on the last time. Every quarter of malt paid
a duty of 345. Bd., from which three barrels and a half
of beer were brewed, paying a duty of los. per barrel.
Thus the whole duty of malt and beer on a quarter of
barley up to the year 1816 was 31. 9s. Bd. per quarter.
" Then the present duty is about one-third the ante-
cedent duty, taking the beer and malt together ?—Yes,
it is now 21s. Bd.
" But the consumption, instead of keeping pace with
the reduction of the duty, on the contrary, has rather
diminished ; and that, you think, has been from the
causes you have stated ?—I imagine those to be the
causes. Mr. Goulburn has often asked me about it, and
I never could account for it in any other way.
"In your opinion, who pays the malt duty ? Does it
fall solely on the consumer of beer, or does it fall upon
the brewer and the farmer ?—I should imagine upon the
consumer of beer.

" Entirely ?—Yes, I think so.
" You said that if foreign barley were admitted you
should make use of it ; why would you make use of it ?
—Because I imagine we should get it cheaper.
" Have you made any calculation to what extent you
would be likely to get foreign barley, of the same
quality, at a cheaper rate ?—I have not. i have upon
wheat imagined the difference, but not bailey, but I
should say, 3s. or 4s.
"Of the same quality ?—Yes, I should think ; be-
cause my calculation is, that wheat will be about 7s. a
quarter cheaper in consequence of the alteration of
the law.

" You are aware that the proposed alteration is a re-
duced duty for the next three years, and perfectly free
trade afterwards ; do you apply your observation to the
perfectly free trade or the intermediate stage,?—Per-
fectly free trade.
" What do you call the present price of wheat ?—I
believe it is about 58s.

" Then it might come down to about 51s. ?—Yes.
" Can you state at all what are the relative qualities
of foreign barley and of the barley which you at present
buy for the use of your house 7—l have seen it; but my
son, who is now the manager of the brewery, spoke of it
as being quite as good as some of the home-grown
samples.
" You are aware that maltsters giving bond for the
payment of their duties are allowed eighteen months'
credit now for those duties ; in the event of their selling
within eighteen months, do they not obtain a supposed
return of the duty which they have not paid?—A great
portion of the maltsters are supplied with capital from
that cause.

"That is, in fact, an introduction of so much Govern-
ment capital in aid of the private capital of those indi-
viduals?—Yes.
"Your great establishment is insured is it not ?—Yes.
" Have you any objection to state to what amount?—
I suppose about 300,0001. or 400,0001.
Do you think that the great London brewers would
be benefited, or otherwise, by a repeal of the malt duty T
—I should think they would not be benefited, because we
must lower our prices; and, as a matter of trade, you
take everything at a per centage; therefore, if we are to
sell a barrel of beer for 275. instead of 335., it would be
no benefit to us.
" Would it not let in a larr competition of smaller
dealers ?—No ; they cannot beat us. At the time that
the duty was taken off beer, when Mr. Goulburn brought
in a Bill to throw the trade open, I believe my neigh-
bours hardly believed me in the House when I got up
and expressed my satisfaction at the measure, and said
that we were not at all afraid of those beer-shops. The
effect of it was with us comparatively trifling. There
was a sum of money lost, but nothing to signify.
" How would it be with the great maltsters; would it
be for their interest to repeal the whole of the duty?—l
do not know that it would. The reason I should give
is this—That the duty increasing the price of the malt
gives a greater power to the great capitalist. Ther;:t-
fore, the little maltsters would lose the benefit which
has been mentioned, of having capital supplied them by
the duty; and the great maltsters would not have the
advantage which they get from their capital.
" You are of opinion that repealing the malt duty
would be a great loss to the revenue, and that that loss
would not be compensated by a sufficient advantage to
the consumers of beer in the country ?—That is my de-
cided opinion.
" Do you generally purchase the barley, and turn it
into malt, or do you allow your inaltster to purchase for
you ?—We use about 120,000 quarters of malt, rather
more, and we buy above 30,000 in the market ; all the
rest is made by our agents, and we have persons in
various parts of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Hertfordsbire, to
purchase barley and to make malt.
" Do they buy barley for you, subject to your ap-
proval ?—No ; we trust to our agents. They buy the
very best description they can get. They have a com-
mission of 2s. a quarter for making and for their at-
tendance.
The only barley that comes at all for consumption
into the great breweries is the best class barley ?—I
think generally so.
" Is that owing mainly to the amount of the duty
which is paid upon malt, which would press so much
more heavily on the inferior kind than upon the better
kind ?—Yes. I have stated, and I believe it to be so,
kat inferior barley would not bear a hea:ier duty."

ITERTFORD.—A NEW USE HAS BEEN SI:G(IEBI7ED FOR
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAI'IL—A child was accideOtally
drowned in the New River at Ware on Wednesday, and on
the body being recovered the usual means were employed tC
restore animation. The little sufferer was revived sufficiently
to recognise his friends, but soon afterwards expired. In
reference to this a correspondent of the local paper sug-
gests that " had the surgeon been called earlier the chances
of perfect restoration of the patient would of course have
been proportionately increased; but the purpose of my ad•
dressing you, Mr. Editor, is to call the attention of the
faculty to a resource of the highest importance in all cases
of suspended animation from drowning, apoplexy, or
phisaxation, which is that of properly-directed cur-
rents of galvanism, easily to be derived from the tele-
graphic conductors at every station, if persons attached tcs
the establishment would humanely consent. Dr. Rodin, of
Paris, has by recent trials of galvanism restored persons pro-
nounced by the most intelligent medical men perfectly dead ;
all previous attempts at resuscitation—such as warmth, fric-
, tion the appropriate administration of carbonate of ammo-
nia (a most efficient stimulus in such cases) proving ineffec-
tual. It is, therefore, desirable that our medical professors
take a note of this discovery, and lose no time in endeavour-
ing to arrange with the telegraphic directors, that they shall
be at liberty at each station to have the condudjng wires .
and apply them to patients in cases requiring this kjnd of
electricity. Such an application of the telegraphs will far
exceed in utility the working of the pendulums, and acia
another triumph to the discover of the important means
transmitting to an immeasurable distance with the velocity
of lightning, thus verifying the observation of Dr. Franklin,
when asked the utility of a new discovery—" What defyou
expect from a new born child ?"
A CAB-DRIVER KlLLED.—Yesterday morning, about
two o'clock, a cab was overturned in the Hampstead-road
near Chalk Farm-lane, by running on a bank by the road-
side, and the cab-driver was pitched front his seat into the
road, and tilled instantaneously. The poor fellow was found
lying with the shaft of the cab resting upon him, and he did
not move after he was discovered. It is supposed that ho
was returning from setting down a fare at Hampstead, and
that having fallen asleep, the horse, which was a blind one,
ran on to the bank.

FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE LEEDS AND THIRSK RAIL-
WAY.—On Tuesday morning a man named Russell was acci-
dentally killed by a fall of earth at Kirskill, where a large
bill is being removed, to make the embankment across the
valley of the \Vital fe. A great number of men are engage d
on the spot, but no one else suffered serious injury but de-
ceased, who was so much bruised by the falling earth that he
survived only a few moments. Russell was a middle-age d
man and married.—Leeds 4/2414cm-en