The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-20 00:00:00

Expenditure.

Funded. Debt, including New Loan ....
Unfunded De'it . . . •
Permanent charges on Consolidated Fun
Army ........ . •......X28,717.000
Navy • • • • • 16,568,001
Civic........ •• • 6,,,00,C00

Charges of collecting the Revenue..."
Vote of Credit • •• • • • • .... • • •
Loan to Sardinia ......... .. • • .

Total expenditure .....

27,635,C0')
1,025,000
1,7)0,000

44,115,000
4,588,000
2,000,000
1,030.000

£•32,113,09G

Net.

27,635,000
1,023,001
1,750,0iA1

44,115,000

2,000,030
1,000,000

£77,525,000

I will now state the charge of collecting the revenue, in
order to obviate any objection which my hon. friend the
member for Lambeth may raise. The charge for collecting
the revenue is 4,558,0001. Leaving this out of the question,
including
the amouni; of expenditure to be provided for,
the one million for the loan to Sardinia, is 75,525,000/.
That sum will cover the entire estimated service for the
ceming year; but, as may easily be conceived, it is diffi-
cult, if not impossible, to make a correct estimate of the
cost that will be incurred in transporting our army from
the East, and defraying various demands which may arise
in the change from a state of war to a state of peace. I
shall therefore be prepared at a later period of the session
to make appliceeien—not because I have any reason to
anticipate that the estimate will be exceeded, but
simply as a measure of precaution—to the house to
pass a vote of credit to the extent of 2,000,0001.
That will make a total estimated expenditure, including
the two millions as a c eatingeney, of 77,525,000'. I will
now state the estimated revenue for the current year, and
it will not be necessary for me to trouble the committee in
detail with the estimates of all the different branches of
taxation. I will confine myself simply to those taxes of
which the rates have been altered during the war, those
being. I apprehend, the taxes to which the principal atten-
tion of the committee will be directed. I will begin with
the income tax. The income tax is continued for this year
and for another year. (" Oh," and laughter.) It is conti-
nued for the present year during the existing law, and in
dealing with the revenue I propose to confine myself entirely
to the year ending lst of April next. The income tax is
continued till that time at ls. 4d. iu the pound. The pre-
cise words of the act are, " During the present year and
until the 6th day of April which call first happen after the
expiration of one year from the ratification of the treaty of
peace, and no longer." I therefore estimate from the in-
come tax for the ensuing year a gross sum of 16,355,0001.,
and a net sum of 16,030,0)01. I will now pass to the war
duties on tea, sugar, and coffee. Those duties stand on a
different footing from the income tax. They were to con-
tinue till the sth f April-12 months from the date of the
definitive treaty of peace. The date of the definitive treaty
of peace was the 30th of Starch, and therefore those duties

will continue for ono year feom the 30th of March last, and
until the following sth of April, that is to say for another
' year. The date of the treaty of peace makes the duration
of those duties as short as it is possible. The duty on tea,
' which will continue under that act till the sth April next,
is ls. 9d. per 15.; under the present law the duty will be,
from April, 1857, to April, 1853, is. 31. per lb.; and after
April, 1858, it will be fixed at Is. per lb. With regard to
sugar the regulations are somewhat different. Common
brown Muscovado is subject to a duty of 13s. 91. per cwt.
till April, 1857. then the duty till April, 1858, is lls. Bd.,
and after that period it is 93. GI Coffee is subject to a
duty of 41. per lb. afterwards. Now, with reference to
the continuance of those duties at their present amount
during this year, I will take the liberty of calling the
attention of the committee to a statement which appears
to me satisfactory, both in a fiscal point of view and also
as regards the habits of the population of this country. In
1835 the quantity of tea taken for home consumption was
36,574,0001b5. In 1835 the quantity had risen—perhaps
it will be sufficient if I read the millions—it had risen to
14,001,0001b5. ; iu 1852, to 51,030,0001b5, ; in 1853, to
53,000,0001b5. ; in 1354, to 61,000,0001b5. ; and in 1855, to
63,090,0001b5. (Hear, hear.) Therefore the committee
will observe that, notwithstanding the increase of duty in
the last year, and notwithstanding the various circum-
stances which might have led to a diminished consumption
—*such as the increased price of food and higher taxation
luring the war—the consumption of tea has continued to
increase. Of coffee the number of lbs. taken for consump-
tion in 1835 was 23,030,000 ; in 1845, 34,000,000; in 1853,
33,000,900; and in 1855, it had fallen to 35,000,000; but
still it is much in excess of the consumption in 1835. I
wi:l now state the amount of sugar consumed, indicating,
to a great extent, the same habits. Taking refined and un -
refined sugar together, the amount taken for consumption
in 1835 was 4,800,000 cwt. ; in 1852 it was 7,172,000 ; in
1853 it was 7,487,000; in 1851 it was 8,332,000; and last
year it was 7,547,000. With regard to molasses, the quail,
tits taken for consumption in 1835 was 763,000 cwt. ; and
in 1855, 020,000 cwt. Therefore with regard to those arti-
cles of tea, coffee, and sugar, notwithstanding the increase
of duties imposed during the war, the consumption on the
whole has been in a satisfactory state, and indicates the
advance of temperate habits. I now come to the articlo of
spirits, upon which an increase' of duty has taken place
during the last year. The duty on spirits in England and
Scotland is Bs. a gallon ;in Ireland it is Gs. 2d. The spirit
duties I believe were never in a sounder state than they
are at present with regard to the relations between the
three kingdoms, with regard to the drawback, and also as
to the question of malt distillation. That is a subject
which has always caused great embarrassment in the re-
gulation of the spirit duties. The committee will, I think,
concur with me in thinking that we are justified in the
present state of the revenue in obtaining from spirits as
large an amount of revenue as they will yield, provided we
do not incur the danger arising from illicit distillation.
Perhaps the committee will allow me to read the opinion of
a writer on that subject, in whose school of finance I con-
fess I am not a disciple, and whose evidence therefore I am
the more ready to avail myself of. I mean Sir Archibald
Alison, the well-known historian. He has filled a judicial
office in Glasgow, and has had an opportunity of observ-
ing the operation of the spirit duty. lie says—
" To assert that the increased consumption of spirits by the
working classes is favourable to their morality is so strange a
doctrine, and so contrary to universal experience, that it ap-
pears almost inconceivable it could have been hazarded in any
intelligent assembly. Since the duties on spirits have been
reduced a half, the consumption of them has been increased
above 200 per cent., and the proportion consumed per head
advanced in the same proportion—facts which go far to ex-
plain the contemporaneous duplication of crime during the same
period. As to the cessation of demoralisation by illicit distilla-
tion and smuggling, it is areal benefit, but it is dearly purchased
by the wholesale demoralisation of so large a part of the
working classes by the facility of obtaining ardent spirits.
There is more crime, domestic unhappiness, family feuds and
social demoralisation produced in Glasgow by cheap whisky
in one month than ever was by smuggling over all Scotland
in 10 years. There is no person practically versant with the
details of both, as the author has been for 20 years, who will
maintain a contrary opinion. There is no such fit object of tax-

:Won, in an indirect form, as ardent spirits, because the ad-
dition which the increased duty makes to the price of the
article, when taken in moderation, is so small as to be trifling
even to the humblest consumer, while the addition to the
public revenue is immense, from the vast numbers who par-
take of the comfort. It is on the drunkards alone it falls as a
serious burden."

Hear.) Such aro tho opinions of a man who, havins. paid

much attention to the ;abject, deliberately gives hissuf-
frago in favour of a moderately high duty on spirits. I
will now refer to a similar comparison to that which I in-
stituted in respect to tea, sugar, and coffee, and it will be
seen that when appli,:d to spirits and beer it produces a
different result. That result is not so favourable in a

financial point of view ; but I am sure that it will be heard
with unmixed satisfaction by those who consider the moral
habits of the population. In 1335 the quantity of British
spirits consumed was 24,710,203 gallons, in 1845 it was
'23,122,538 gallons, in 1852 it was 25,200,879 gallons, in
13 3 it was 25, 021,317 gallons, in 1854 it was 25,883,534
gallons, and in 1855 it was 21,957,275 gallons. Now, lest
the committee should think that that diminution is owing
exclusively to the duty and not also to the improved habit':
of the people, I would call their attention to a similar
comparison with respect to beer. In 1835 the total quan-
tity of beer consumed was 16,330,010 barrels, in 1845 it
was 14,925,113 barrels, in 1852 it was 16,766,285 barrels,
in 1853 it was 17.181,033 barrels, in 1854 it was 16,136,893
barrels, and in 1855 it was 15, 181,5;-0 barrels. The con-
sumption of boor, therefore, has remained very nearly
stationary since the year 1835. There is another cause of
an accidental nature which produced some effect on the
produce of the spirit ditties in the year which has
just passed, and which may continuo to operate in the pre-
sent year, which diminishes the duty; but which is never-
theless, an advantage to the spirit trade, and which in-
creases also the demand for articles from which .Briti.,3ll
snirits are made. I allude to the failure of the wine crop
abroqd for several
years, and to the consequent diminution
in the quantity of brandy produced on the continent.

That diMinutioia has led to a large increase in the export of
British spirits to the:continent; and that export, of course,
raises the price of spirits in onr market, although it pro-
duces no benefit to the revenue, inustrittch as spirits expor-
ted to the continent are either exported out of bond with-
out duty or entitled to a drawback. In 1353 the total
quantity of spirits exported from the united kingdom to
foreign parts was 931,210 gallons ; in 1851 that quantity
had risen to 749,959 gallons ; and last year the quantity
had increased to no less than 4,26'4,697 gallons. That
large quantity exported 'must have produced a consider-
able effect on the home trade on spirits. I now come to the
article of malt. Tho war duty on malt differs both from
the income tax and from the duty on colonial produce. It
was continued during the present war and until the f.ith of
July next after the ratification of a definitive treaty of
peace, and no longer. That duty, therefore, will cease
nearly at the earliest period at which it was possible that it
should terminate, inasmuch as the ratifications of the treaty
of peace were exchanged in the present quarter, and the
July first ensuing falls at the end of this quartet. The war
duty is 4s. a bushel, and it will fall on the let of July next
under the present law to 2s. Bd. a bushel. This, however,
does not measure the entire loss which the revenue will
suffer in consequence of the reduction ; for it will be ne-
cessary, in accordance not only with former precedents but
also with equity, to allow a drawback on all stocks in
hand ; and that drawback is estimated by the most ex-
peri.mcelt officets as likely to amount to a sum not very
far Biwa of 1,030,000/. That repayment will have to
be made during the present year ; and we shall, there-
fore, lose not only the increased war duty on malt
from the lit of July next, but we shall also lose pro-
bably not much less than 1,003,000/. in the repayment of
duty upon stock in hand. With regard to the malt duty, it
must be admitted that the falling off in the oonsumption
appears to indicate that the pressure of the duty has to a
considerable extent affected the consumption of the article.
Some effect, no doubt, is to be attributed to the price of
barley during the last year ; but I think that the figures
which I am about to read to the committee will show that,
perhaps, the diminution of duty which will take place, un-
less it ph,uld be arrested, will net very materially increase
the consumption. In 1835 the quantity of malt brought
jute charge in this country was 45,8j2,051 bushels; in 1845
that quantity had fallen to 36.545.990 bushels; in 18-i2 it
was 41,071,633 bushels; in 1853 it was 41,9',32,178 bushels; in
Mi it NM 3L>,512,727 burjiolsi and 411655 it WM 33,579,381,