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

TOBACCO DUTIES.

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 much
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
not dispute for a moment that it was the duty of every
Chancellor to attend to the revenue. There were far
more seizures of tobacco than any other article, for, by
the return of May 1846, there were 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 ; in 1845 there were
132 ; and in 1846 there were 155. In Scotland, in
1843 there were 37 convictions ; and from that time to
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 •f things. Then 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 sailors 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 be
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 from 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 discover 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 shops where it was retailed to the
public, and it was quite impossible for the excise to
exercise over those houses a proper surveillance.
It was true that the number of seizures had
been latterly on an increase. The total 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 amount
which was introduced into the country in an illicit
manner. In the evidence which was given before the
Committee of Investigation, it appeared that 40,0001b5.
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 tobacco 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 inducements 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 boatmen
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 case 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. HUME 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
principle of free trade properly carried eut 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 HUN. MEMBER 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.

RAILWAY COMMITTEES.

(YESTERDAY).

HOUSE OF LORDS.
Room A.

A select Committee on the Midiand and Eastern Counties
Railway (Cambridge to Weedon) and the Blacksluice
Drainage Bill, met in Room A (New Houses of Parliament)
at eleven o'clock this morning. The members are Lord
Beaumont (Chairman), and Lords Foley, Penshnrst, Ran-
funky, and Munster.
Their Lordships first took the case of the
BI.ACIESTATICE DRAINAGE.

The case was opened by counsel for the promoters, and Mr.
Cnbitt was called to give the engineering evidence. A
witness was also examined on general points, and the Bill,
being unopposed, was passed.
MIDLAND AND EASTERN COUNTIES
(CAMBRIDGE TO WEEDON).

Mr. Sergeant Wrangham and Mr. E. James, appeared for
the promoters; Mr. Austin and Mr. Calvert for seventy-two
petitioners against the Bill.
Mr. Sergeant WRAIIGHAM opened the case for the pro-
moters. Their Lordships were aware that the network of
railways which was now spreading itself through the eastern
counties of England, concentrated at Cambridge.
They were also aware that the lines connected
with the London and Birmingham line con-
centrated at Weedon. Now, the object of this line was to
connect these places with one another by the most direct line

Ipossible under the circumstances. The length of the line
was thirty-eight miles. Commencing at Cambridge, it
crossed the London and York at St. Neots, and joined a
branch of the London and Birmingham at White-mills,
at somewhat less than ten miles from Weedon, to which
place that branch afforded a direct communication. It had
originally been proposed to carry the line up to Weedon; but
this being objected to by the London and Birmingham Com-
pany, it had been given up, and the making of the line from
White Mills to Weedon was left to them. The line would
afford an almost direct communication between Oxford and
Cambridge, which had been proposed by a line that came be-
fore a Committee of their Lordship? House a short time
ago, but which could not be effected by that Bill, it having
been reduced by amendment to a mere local line from
Hitchin to Royston. The present Bill was only opposed by
one petition, that of seventy-two owners and occupiers of
land, for whom his Learned Friend Mr. Austin appeared.
That opposition was, in reality, on the part of the Eastern
Counties Railway, as, he thought, their Lordships
would very soon perceive. Many of the petitioners
had been settled with, and many (he believed thirty)
had signed a petition, in which they begged leave to
withdraw their opposition, saying that they were not aware
of the contents of the petition when they signed it, and
indeed they thought at the time that it was a petition in
favour of the line. That petition had not yet been presented,
but would be in a day or two.

Mr. Sergeant WRANGHAM then proceeded to call witnesses
on the part of the promoters.
Mr. Blyth, engineer to the line under Mr. Miller, gave the
usual engineering evidence—the works were all of a light
character, and there were no considerable engineering dim.
cultiee.
Several other witnesses were called and examined, but the
case was suddenly checked by the absence of witnesses, and
the Committee rose before three o'clock, and adjourned till
to-morrow.

Room B.
The Committee met this morning at eleven, the Earl of
Lon9dale in the chair, Lord Hawarden, the Earl of Warwick,
the Earlof Ellenborougb, and the Duke of Grafton present.