The Sun.
London, England, 1834-08-27 00:00:00

which the trade of weaving princip vails. The
potato-flour prepared by the process in question is pro-
duced in a highly purified state ; and, independently of the
supply of paste to the weavers, the manufacture is consi-
dered as promising, in consequence of the nutritious par-
ticles of the root being concentrated in a higher degree than
had been obtained by previous attempts, still more important
national advantages, from extending and improving the pre-
paration of the potato as an article of food, and more espe-
cially from reducing it into a state in which, as we were in-
formed, it might be preserved for almost any length of time.
It was also stated that the manufacture had proved emi-
nently successful for the object for which it was primarily
undertaken, and that the paste prepared from it was found
to answer the purpose• of the weaver in all respects as well,
and in some better, than when prepared from the article
of foreign production for which it was substituted ; the de-
mand for this description of flour is stated to have been
in consequence rapidly increasing, and to have led to pre-
parations for the establishment of the manufacture on a very
extended scale, both in Scotland and Ireland, at the period
when (a short time before the date of our examination into
this subject) the manufacture was wholly suspended by the
interference of the Board of Excise. This interference
is represented to have been caused by the attempt
of a bleacher in the north of Scotland to make this
potatoe-flour the means of a fraud upon the Excise, by
claiming, in respect of a quantity of such flour used
by him for the purposes of bleaching, the drawback to
which he would have been entitled if he had employed
for that purpose a corresponding quantity of duty-paid
starch. This latter article, as is well known, is applied
to the various kinds of linen or cotton cloths in their finished
or manufactured state, and although it may be produced
from the same materials, it is in a state of preparation quite
distinct from that of the paste and size applied to yarn pre-
viously to weaving ; and it is further stated that the potatoe-
flour could not by any degree of preparation be made to
answer permanently and effectually as a substitute for
starch, on account of some of the inherent qualities of this
kur, and more especially on account of its tendency to at-
act moisture ; at all events, we believe it has not been
asserted that the potatoe-flour produced in the establish-
ment to which we refer bad been, or was intended to be,
employed for any other purposes than those to which we
have already alluded—namely, .as an article of food, and

for preparing the yarns of the weaver. The Board of Ex-
cise, however, felt it to be their duty to send a notice to
the manufacturers of potatoe-flour requiring them to " take
out licences as makers of starch, and henceforth to conform
to the starch laws in the manufacture of potatoe-flour."
The consequence of this order, as we have stated, has been
the total suspension of an important and improving branch
of manufacture in the district where it was peculiarly re-
quired; and in tracing the further effects of this suspension
will be found an illustration of the various kinds of incon-
venience to which we have adverted, as arising from the
imposition of taxes upon useful manufactures ; for it is ap-
parent that in the instance before us there has been a check
on invention and improvement, a check on the most econo-
mical mode of producing an article of general consump-
tion, a consequent increased price and diminished con-
sumption of that article, an immediate loss on capital to the
proprietor, and a loss of employment and means of sub-
sistence to the workman—the litter will be seen by the
evidence to have already occurred to a considerable amount.
" It may perhaps be remarked, that cases similar to that
to which we have just referred, and others which might be
brought forward, in proof of the assertion as to the injury
arising to the manufacturers by being subjected to excise
taxation, are of an unusual and peculiar character, and that
they occur under circumstances of too limited and partial
application to be made the foundation of an assertion of so
general a nature. To this objection it may be replied, that
the evils to which we have alluded, as being incident to the
excise taxation of manufactures, are inherent in the princi-
ple of all taxation of manufactures, are inherent in the prin-
ciple- of all such taxation, and in their general effect are
unavoidable, although they may vary in their degree and
mode of pressure under different circumstances ; and it may
be added, as a position of equally general application, that
the evils are in all respects greatly increased through the
attempts which are so frequently made to obtain a large
amount of revenue by fixing the rates of duty immoderately
high. Amongst the inevitable consequences of these high
rates of duty may be ranked the following, which cannot
fail to be considered as so many additional evils beyond
those to which we have already referred as incident even
to moderate degrees of taxation :-Ist, multiplicity and
complexity of regulations ; 2dly, severity of penal
enactments and prosecutions ; 3dly, increased vigilance
and closeness of inspection of the trader, and conse-
quently additional interference with the trade ; 4thly,
the various kinds of vexation and annoyance to the
trader necessarily attendant upon this severity of re-
gulation and closeness of inspection ; sthly, the temp-
tation and encouragement to a system of evasion of
duty by those who are fraudulently disposed, and the
consequent injury to the fair trader ; 6thly, the temptation
held out and the numerous opportunities afforded for the
corruption of officers ; 7thly, the inevitable increase in the
general expenses of collection ; Bthly, the failure in the at-
tempt to obtain an amount of duty in any degree commen-
surate with the rate of taxation imposed or equivalent to
what the article might be made to produce under a more
more moderate and better adapted rate.

" Every one of the evil consequences of which the enu-
meration is above given, will, en an investigation of the
cases in which they have arisen, be found to have been
either wholly produced, or at least produced in an aggra-
vated degree, by having carried the rates of duty too high.
All experience of this mode of taxation has proved, that as
to every article which is the object of it, there is a certain
limit to the amount of duty which cannot be exceeded
without creating such a temptation to its invasion altoge-
ther, or in part, as to call for that multiplicity of regula-
tions, restrictions, and penalties, and the various inconve-
niences resulting from them, to which we have above ad-
verted, and also to an evil attended with consequences more
extensively injurious than them all, in the effect produced
upon the general habits and morals of the people by any
cause which leads them to an habitual and almost undis-
guised practice of violating any branch of the law.
" In proof of the above positions we can confidently refer
to the results of all former inquiries into the operation of
the.excise law in the various parts of the kingdom, whether
carried on by commissioners specially appointed, or by the
commissioners or officers of the excise. It appears, how-
ever, that the evils to which we have alluded have of late

years been greatly mitigated and reduced by the improve-
ments which have taken place in the nature and application
of the regulations relating to exciseable articles—in the ge-
neral character and conduct of the various descriptions of
officers employed in the department—and also in the gene-
ral conduct and mode of dealing of the manufacturers or
traders who are subject to the regulations.
" Notwithstanding, however, these recent improvements,
which our examinations in the three divisions of the king-
dom have shown us to be most extensively beneficial, it ap-
pears to us that there is much which may still be done in
order to promote the object of bringing our system of ex-
cise taxation into a state as sound mid satisfactory as the
objections inherent in all such systems will permit.

' In concluding these observations, which have been
suggested by our examination into the general nature and
tendency of the present system of excise laws, considered
as a system of taxation, and which are submitted as intro-
ductory to this our first report on one of the excise
growing duty trades,' we beg leave to state, that in al-
luding to the injurious effects on manufacturing industry
arising from the operation of these laws, we have not
merely relied upon the probability of such being the result
as a theoretical conclusion almost necessary, but that the
actual existence of these injurious effects has in many in-
stances been fully substantiated by evidence collected in the
course of our recent inquiries, and that in other cases
where injury to the trade or manufacture is not found as
the direct result of excise regulations, their tendency to
produce such consequences will be sufficiently apparent
from the examinations taken in various parts of the king-
dom, to which we shall have to refer."

MEETINGS OF CREDITORS AT THE COURT
BASINGHALL-STREET, TO-MORROW

(From the London Gazette.)
W. A. Bazett and Co., merchants 4 alcutta
DIVIDEND. a.

NV. Boys, wine merchant, Eastbourne, Sussex ; ii

Cork papers mention that two gentlemen, each six
feet five inches high, have been appointed High Sheriffs there.
High Sheriffs indeed

SPIRIT OF ENTERPRISE.—There is now in ope-
ration on a low ledge of rocks running out into the sea, about
half way between the towns of Marazion and Penzance, in the
Mount's Bay, a small copper-mine called Wheal 'Mexico,
which, at high water, is fully fifty fathoms from the shore ; the
shaft or opening by which the miners descend to their work is
cut through the rock, and only defended from the force of the
waves of the Atlantic Ocean by a wooden frame built around
the aperture. At present the underground work is stopped,
but men are busily preparing for the erecting of a steam-engine
on the beach to drain off the water from the mine, which now
comes so quick upon them that by ordinary methods they can-
not clear it away so as to continue searching for ore; they are
also building a more substantial frame around the shaft. When
this is in a regular train, and the business of the mine going
on, it will be an object worthy the attention of' the tourist, and
will repay the trouble of an excursion to the spot. Not many
years since a mine similar to this was worked at about two
miles distant he
from t present one; it turned out very rich,
and would, perhaps, have continued so to this day, had not an
American ship, in a gale of wind, driven on the erections and
destroyed the labour of the enterprisinc, individuals by whorl%
it was carried on. The fear of a similar occurrence taking
place, and a want of union among the proprietors, put a final
stop to this singular work.