The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-16 00:00:00

THE SUN,`-.'.LONDON, TURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 16, 1861.

IMPERIAL' PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS-YESTERDAY.

The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the woolsack
at five o'clock.
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC POOR.

The Earl of WICKLOW presented a petition from
Essex complaining that Roman Catholics were not on the
same equality with Protestants in workhouses.

PRIVATE BUSINESS.

The Dublin (City) Steam Packet Company's Bill was
read a second time ; and the Grand Junction Water Bill
and Swansea Gas Bill were read a third time and passed.

POST-OFFICE SAVINGS BANK BILL.

This bill was brought up from the Commons and read a
first time. The second reading was fixed for this day week.

LUNACY REGULATION BILL.

On the motion that their lordships. o into committee on
this bill,
The LORD CHANCELLOR stated the alterations he
had felt called upon to make on this bill. It was proposed
that there should be two medical visitors, but the noble
earl (the Earl of Shaftesbury) had suggested that there
should be but one, and he thought that suggestion
was a good one, and therefore he proposed that the bill
should be altered to that effect. He thought that one ade-
quately remunerated medical gentleman was far preferable
to two whose remuneration was not at all of a certain
nature.

The Earl of SHAFTESBURY said he felt flattered by
the adoption of his suggestion.
The Marquis of WESTMEATH thought that the law of
lunacy required great amendmeni.

The house then went into committee.
COMMITTEES.

The Mutiny Bill, the Marine Mutiny Bill, Exchequer
Bills Bill, and the Consolidated Fund (£3,000,000) Bill
passed through committee.
Their lordships then adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.--YESTERDAY.
The SPEAKER took the chair at 4 o'clock.
PRIVATE BUSINESS.
The following bills were read 'a third time and passed :
Clifton and Durdham Downs (Bristol) ; Garston and
Liverpool Railway; Inverness and Aberdeen Junction
Railway ; Inverness and Aberdeen Junction and Inver-
ness and Nairn Railway Companies Amalgamation ;
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (Branches to Shaw-
forth, &c.) ; Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (Extension
to Settle); London and North Western Railway (Eccles,
Tyldesley, and Wigan) ; Marlborough Railway ; Midland
Railway (Additional Powers) ; and Midland Railway (New
Lines).
The Inverness and Perth Junction Railway Bill was
considered and ordered for third reading.

The following bills were read a second time :—Clitheroe
Gas ; Portsmouth Water ; Price's Patent Candle Company ;
Thames Embankment.
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPLAINS IN PRISONS.

Mr. DENMAN drew the attention of the house to an
error which had been committed in the votes relative to a
petition which he presented last week from the inhabitants
of Tiverton. The petition was against the appointment of
Roman Catholic chaplains and schoolmasters in work-
houses, and was correctly described in the newspapers ; but
in the votes it was represented as being in favour of " the
full exerse by Roman Catholics of their worship in pri-
sons," which was directly contrary to its prayer.
Mr. NEWDEGATE complained of a similar mistake in
reference to a petition which he had presented.

GALW AY CONTRACT.
Mr. BAXTER moved for copies of all correspondence
between the Treasury, the Post-office, and the Atlantic
Royal Mail Steam Ship Company, since the Ist day of pep-
tember, 1860, with reference to the conveyance of the mails
between Galway and America ; and of all reports made by
the Admiralty Surveyors on the vessels hitherto employed,
or to be employed, on that line.—Ordered.
EAST INDIA (CULTIVATION OF INDIGO).
Mr. LAYARD moved an address for copy of despatch
from the Secretary of State for India in Council to the Go-
vernor General of India in Council in the Judicial Depart-
ment, No. 63, dated the Bth day of April, 1861, on the
cultivation of indigo in the districts of the lower provinces
of Bengal.—Ordered.
COAL AND WINE DUTIES CONTINUANCE BILL.
In reply to Mr. L. KING,
Mr. CLIVE said that this bill would not be proceeded
with this evening, in consequence of the illness of his right
hon. friend the Home Secretary, but it would stand first on
the list for Friday next.

THE BUDGET.
The house having resolved itself into Committee of Ways
and Means, Mr. Massey in the chair,
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER rose, amid
some cheering, to make the financial statement for the year.
The right hon. gentleman said :—Mr. Massey—The retro-
spective portion of the statement I have to submit to you is
the most unfavourable—indeed, I may say it is the only un-
favourable statement of account—that it has ever been my
lot to lay before the House of Commons. For that as well as
for other reasons, the Committee will, I hope, forgive me if
I invite their attention somewhat at large to its details.
Whatever we may think of the legislation of last year, we
must all concur in the opinion that it was no ordinary year
in the financial history of this country. It was a year in
which the house gave its sanction to that great instrument,
the treaty of commerce with France—(hear, hear) ; it was
a year in which we received a remission of our hereditary
burdens, through the diminution of the charge vu debt,
such as we probably shall never receive again ; it was a
year in which the controversy with respect to Protection,
which so long agitated the country and disorganised this
house, was at length finally wound up, for it closed without
leaving on the Statute Book of the United Kingdom one
single protective duty of more than nominal amount. (Hear,
hear.) It was also a year of the highest taxation and of the
greatest expenditure that has ever been known in this
country, unless in the midst of an European war; and,
finally, it was a year marked by a succession of seasons—the
spring, the summer, the autumn, and the winter—the most
unfavourable with which it has pleased Providence to visit
us for the course of about half a century. (Hear, hear.)
The questions, I may further observe, which were debated
in this house during last session were questions of no ordi-
nary moment, from whatever point of view we may look on
them. The issue which they raised was no trifling issue.
In one of the besutiful tragedies of Schiller, Mary,Queen of
Scots, is made to say of herself, " I have been much hated,
but I have also been much beloved ;" and I think I may
with equal truth say that the financial legislation of last
year met, on the whole, with signal support from the great
body of the public opinion of this country, while I do not
mean to contend that it was not, upon the other hand, un-
acceptable to many. But, be that as it may, I feel bound to
admit that although the financial proposals of the Govern-
ment were last Session fully and minutely canvassed, they
were fairly and in no factious spirit discussed within these
walls. In taking a retrospective view of these measures it
will be my duty to lay before the Committee, as far as I am
able, the whole material facts exhibited by the financial
history of the past year ; and while I cannot but doubt
that I must perform that task most imperfectly, yet I need
hardly say that the shortcomings in that respect with
which I may be chargeable will not be owing to any want
of will or effort on my part. I may add that in making this
statement I hope to be seconded in my desire to afford the
fullest information to the house, by the kind assistance of
hon. members on both the one side of it and the other.
(Hear, hear.) I shall first, then, submit to your notice the
estimated and the actual expenditure of the past year. The
expenditure which was estimated and provided for in the
regular votes for the year, and entirely apart from the Act
which was passed towards the close of the session for erecting
with borrowed money certain fortifications, was £73,664,000;
and, inasmuch as the Act relating to fortifications was by
common consent treated as a matter entirely distinct from
the ordinary financial arrangements of the year, I will not
further refer to it, except casually on one or two points,
in the course of my observations to-night. The estimated
expenditure was then, as I said, £73,664,000, while the
actual was £72,842,000, thus, as is apt to happen at a time
when great warlike preparations aro in progress, following
closer on the estimated expenditure than is usually the case,
but still falling considerably short of it, and showing a dif-
ference of £822,000 in favour of the former. Into the de-
tails of the expenditure for the last year I do not mean to
enter, but this I may say,—that while there was a consider-
able saving on the estimate for the collection of the re-
venue, and a certain amount of saving on other estimates,
there was a considerable overcharge for the navy, resulting
from the settlement of the accounts of former years ; so that
the sum of £822,000 which I have mentioned as represent-
ing the balance in our favour as between estimated and
actual expenditure is almost entirely due to the vote of
credit taken for the prosecution of military operations in
China. That vote, which I submitted to the house last
July, amounted to £3,800,000, while the expenditure
amounted only to £3,000,000, a fact which ought to be
sufficient to convince the house that any man laboured
under a delusion who supposed that it was the object of the
Government last Session to invite the sanction of the house
to what they believed to be an inadequate provision for the
military operations in which there was a prospect of our
becoming engaged. I have, I may add, somewhat over-esti-
mated the balance remaining to us on the China vote, for
it is in point of fact somewhat less than £800,000; but,
passing by that point, I shall proceed to the examination of
the revenue of the past financial year—a subject in dealing
with which the committee will, no doubt, follow me with a
greater degree of interest. That subject I will endeavour
to place before you in all the various lights by which, so far
as I am able to form an opinion, I may be able to increase
your means of knowledge with respect to it. I will first
compare the revenue of the last with that of the previous
year; then with the actual expenditure of the year itself;
and, finally, with the Estimates framed at the commence-
ment of the year. The two last of these modes of compari-
son will render the committee assistance in forming an opi-
nion as to how far the Government exercised a sound judg-
ment in the calculations which they made; but I may
observe that the first mode of dealing with the point—that
is to say, comparing the revenue of the last with that of the
previous year—is one of the greatest interest, regarded as a
means of exhibiting the condition of the country. In 18N

we had a year of which I may say alf the eirCtinfstances
were favourable to the revenue. So favourable were they,
indeed, that on the 10th of February, 1860, I, proceeding
on the estimates framed in the public departments, told the
House of Commons I anticipated more than a balance of
revenue and expenditure after provision for a certain amount
on account of the war with China. When, however, the
31st of March came there was a balance in our favour—to
nominally a greater extent—but in reality to the extent of
£1,200,000. In 1863-61, on the contrary, we had a
year in which the supply of the fruits of the earth
was stinted, and which may be looked upon a's one of
the severest within the memory of any living man.
The revenue of 1859-60 was £71,089,000, and the revenue of
1860-61 was £70,283,000. There is an apparent decrease of
£806,000; but I hope the committee will not think I an
trifling with their understandings when I point out to them
that one of these years was materially shorter than the
other. (A laugh.) The revenue of this country is in the
gross about £200,000 a-day for every paying day in the year,
but that part of it which depends strictly upon operations
from day to day may be stated at £lOO,OOO a day. The year
1860-61 was, for every practical purpose, shorter by three
days than 1859-60. It was shorter in this way :-1859-60
was a leap year, which accounts for one day, and 1860-61
was in the predicament—most happy with reference to our
other interests, but not favourable to the interests of the
revenue—of both commencing and ending with a Sunday.
(A laugh.) By means of this extra Sunday there was a
loss of a clear day's pay; and the third day is accounted
for by the circumstance that in the course of the year
1860-61 there fell two Good Fridays. (A.laugh.) After say-
ing, however, that two Good Fridays fell to our lot in the
course of 1860-61, I may mention to the committee that in
the present year, 1861-62, there is no Good Friday at all.
(A laugh.) The deduction of three days, representing re-
venue to the amount of £300,000, shows a real diminution
in the revenue of 1860-61 as compared with 1859, 60 of
£506,000, or, in round numbers, £500,000 ; and that, upon
the whole, is a fair comparison. I have endeavoured to
examine with all the care in my power, and what I find is
this :—we remitted taxes last year to the extent of
£2,900,000, :or, in round numbers, £3,000,000; but what
with the income tax, the additional spirit duty, and the
minor charges we imposed taxes as nearly as possible to the
same amount. So far, therefore, the balance was not dis-
turbed. There was one other point, however, which might
have disturbed it. It was this—in both years we made some
draughts upon temporary resources. In 1859.60 we had
£856,000 from the retrenchment of the malt credit, and we
had likewise the sum of £250,000 in the shape of the repay-
ment of a debt from Spain, making together £1,106,000. In
1860':61 we expected to make a larger demand upon tem-
porary resources. We were to have £300,000 from the hop
duty; but that sum entirely disappeared, partly by, the
failure of the crop, and partly by the necessity of postpon-
ing the payment upon the reduced crop. We were to have
£1,100,000 on account of the malt duty; but that sum,
owing to the disastrous circumstances of the harvest,
shrank into £778,000. We got £250,000 from Spain, a
payment equal in amount to that made in the previous
year; so that, as compared with L 1,106,000 of temporary
resources in 1859-60, we had £1,028,000 in 1860-61: It
is, consequently, fair and just to say that the absolute
revenue of the country, after making every reasonable de-
duction, diminished under the circumstances of the last
year by about £500,000. (Hear, hear.) I must confess,
when I consider that the bad season of last year certainly
did not represent a loss to the revenue upon the whole of
less than from £2,000,000 to £3,000,000, that I cannot but
regard with satisfaction the fact that the country exhibits a
teal deficiency in the yield of its taxes to an extent not ex-
ceeding, but rather falling short of £500,000. (Hear, hear.)
Let me now compare the revenue with the expenditure of the
country. The expenditure of 1860-61. was £72,842,000, and
the revenue, as I have said, was £70,283,000, showing upon
the face of the figures a deficiency of £2,559,000. But this
account likewise requires verification. In the first place, a
sum of £288,000, or, in round numbers, £300,C00, out of
the £2,559,000 belongs in every substantial respect to the
account of 1859-60. There was a payment made by the
State on account of drawback to the holders of certain stocks
of wine. It was estimated and allowed for by me in the
accounts of 1860-61 at £350,000, and was so taken by the
house at the time when the financial statement for that year
was laid before it. Of course that money went into the
balances of the country as part of the surplus revenue, and
it was merely owing to a legal technicality that we were
obliged to charge it in 1860-61. It is a legitimate deduction,
having nothing to do with the real deficiency of 1860-61.
The deficiency is thus reduced to £2,271,000, or, in round
numbers, £2,250,000. It will be recollected that last Session
we dismissed the subject of provision for expenditure with
a deficiency; but, in July, when we had before us the esti-
mate of the charge for the war with China, the Government
proposed, and the house agreed, I think, without opposi-
tion, that a portion of that charge should be defrayed
from taxes, and a portion should be taken from the balances
in the Exchequer, which were well able to bear it.
£1,416,000 was the sum in the.original estimates of expen-
diture for which we made no provision; in other words,
that was the amount which we were to take from the
balances in the Exchequer. If we deduc that sum of
£1,416,000 from £2,271,000, representing the actual defi-
ciency, it follows that the real deficiency over and above
what was anticipated in 1860-61, and what was sanctioned
by Parliament, is £855,000 ; and certainly in a year
of charges so heavy, and of receipts so unusually
stinted with reference to the power and resources of the
country, I do not think that is an unsatisfactory result.
(Hear, hear.) I come now to that which has more to do
with the question of the judgment that the House of Com-
mons may be disposed to pass upon the Government—l
mean the comparison between the revenue of the year and
the estimates of that revenue which were laid before the
house last session. I shall not refer to various and, happily,
contradictory complaints that were made from different
quarters—some alleging that the estimates of the revenue
had been outrageously swollen through the partial senti-
ments of the Government, and others asserting, with equal
confidence, and, I have no doubt; equal sincerity, that an
improper reserve had been exercised in the preparation of
the Estimates, in order to mislead the house. The revenue
as estimated was £72,248,000—the actual revenue
£70,283,000, the difference £1,965,000, or, in round num-
bers, £2,000,000. Let me ask the particular attention of the
Committee to the constituent elements of this sum of
£2,000,000, becouse they are material as throwing light not
only or mainly upon the conduct of the Government, or
even the wisdom of the proceedings of Parliament in a par-
tieular session, but upon a number of questions of permanent
interest and importance in connexion with the welfare of
the country. To bring clearly before the mind of the Com-
mittee the manner in which the difference of £2,000,000 has
arisen, I shall first deal with all branches of revenue in the
gross which are of the least importance—all branches,
namely, except the two great branches of Customs and
Excise. Stamps, taxes, income .tax, the Post-office, Crown
lands, and miscellaneous receipts were estimated to yield
£27,457,000. They actually produced £27,542,000, showing
an excess of £85,000. (Hear, hear.) Some heads were
£50,000 above the estimate, others were £50,000 below it ;
but we may overlook these details, satisfied with the fact
that the whole of these branches of revenue yielded as
nearly as may be what they were estimated to produce.
A word in passing on the subject of the minor duties, not
because they form a vital or important part of this question,
but because there is some misapprehension with respect to
them. When they were originally proposed to Parliament
in February they were expected to yield about £900,000;
but in the course of the session an important change was
made in them with a view to the relief of the trading com-
munity, upon whom several of them immediately fell ; and
the consequence was that the ultimate estimate of the yield
of these duties, after taking credit for a number of small
adjustments, was about £590,000. One of the duties—that
upon chicory—remained in abeyance during the greater part
of the year in consequence of the largeness of the stocks
which had been imported into this country, and which,
having been imported free of duty, were naturally enough
exhausted before the duty-paying stocks were brought into
the market. It should likewise be borne in mind that the
Act for the granting of wine licences was passed only last
year, and although I must say it was passed with as much
expedition as was consistent with the consideration that so
important a subject demanded and received at the hands of
the house, yet it was not possible to get it into full opera-
tion until the end of the summer and travelling season, so
that up to the close of the financial year it has had only a
very partial effect. In other respects I don't know that the
produce of these minor duties was materally different from
the final form of the financial estimate. I come now to the
revenue of the Customs and Excise. And first of all I must
warn the committee that the revenue of the Customs as it
stands in the figures that hon. gentlemen have seen in the
public journals is too favourably represented. The Customs
were estimated to yield £23,430,000. They actually yielded
£23,305,000; that is, there was an apparent deficit of
£135,000; but although that difference is a decrease, yet
substantially it may be said to represent equality. If, on the
ono hand, we allow for the shortness of the year, and on the
other for the effect that happened through the diminished
payments into the Excise, you may say that the revenue of
Customs yielded as near as possible what it was estimated
to yield. But then it is material to observe that in all
cases of this kind the revenue of the Customs profited un-
unduly at the cost of the Excise. When we have a bad year
the meaning is we have bad seasons ; when we have bad
seasons the meaning is that the produce of the earth is less
abundant than usual. If the produce of the earth is less
abundant than usual, more must be imported from abroad,
and though little of it comparatively is subject to duty, and
none of it to a high duty, yet, of course, that virtually tends
to remove certain dutiable articles from the region of the
Excise, and bring to the credit of the Customs whatever tax
may thereby have been received. Sir, that is particularly re-
markable in the present case, so far as regards the great in-
stance of corn. We call, and not unjustly, our duty on
corn a nominal duty, and yet the yield of that nominal duty
in the year just expired was £866,000. Sir, the amount of
that duty I regard with the greatest dissatisfaction. Every
pound we receive from corn over and above the regular duty
upon it reminds us that the harvest has so far fallen short
of what is necessary to supply the average wants of the
country. It tells a melancholy tale in the first instance of
that deficient yield of our teen soil, and in the second place
it tells of £2 or £3 withdrawn and withheld from the
revenue in the shape of a narrowed consumption of the coq-
forts and luxuries of the people. On corn there is all il-
-

crease of £366,000.r,'0ver an strove the sum of £500,000,
" a
which I take rightly to represent the average revenue,
£54,000 was received on sugar used in breweries, to supply
but very partially the deficiency caused by the miserable
failure of the crop of barley. £47,000 was received on hops,
arising in the main from a similar cause. - These three
items together make a difference:of £467,000, which comes,
as I say, unlawfully to the credit of the Customs, and which
represent snore than the corresponding prejudice to the
Excise. It is worth while considering the importance of
this subject, if the Committe will allow me, to exhibit it to
them somewhat more in detail. If I take three great articles
paying. Customs' duty which together yield no less than
£17,000,000,—1 mean the articles of tea, sugar, and tobacco,
—the revenue from these three articles during the past
financial year, notwithstanding the growth of the popula-
tion in numbers, was entirely stationary ; tea showed an
increase of £5,000 ; sugar an increase of £lB,OOO ; and
tobacco showed a decrease of £21,000, showing an increase .
on the balance of £2,000. But then, as I have already said,
£54,000 was received on sugar used in breweries as a sub-
stitute for malt ; so that the actual decrease was £52,000 on
these three great articles so immediately connected with the
comforts of the community, and the amount of revenue on
which formed a measure and atest of the degree in which
those comforts are enjoyed. The Committee will, no doubt,
like to know what has been the effect of the changes which
took place in the form of reductions on important articles of
Customs' duty. All I can say must be by way of general
description as to the operation of these changes, having re-
gard to the narrowing power of consumption which we may
trace throughout all the figures of Customs' and Excise
during the year. And we find, I must confess, under the
circumstances the result has been not unsatisfactory, cer-
tainly less unsatisfactory than the figures which I have just
given to the Committee. I reserve for separate considera-
tion the articles of spirits and wine. I take together all the
other articles on which duties were reduced in the last Ses-
sion of Parliament, of which the principal was timber. The
total amount of reduction onthese articles last Session was
£663,000. The total loss to the revenue was £529,000. Thes e
has been a recovery by increased consumption amounting
to £124,000, but I havenodoubt it would have been greater
had the circumstances been more favourable. With regard
to spirits imported from abroad, the Committee will observe
that we made two changes last year in opposite directions.
We began, in February, 1860, by abolishing the differential
Customs' duty on spirits, although a small difference re-
mained to mark the proved] cost of Excise regulation. The
amount of reduction on brandy was £446,000, but in July
we laid on an additional duty on foreign spirits of 2s. per
gallon, which was estimated to yield £lOO,OOO ; so that, in
point of fact, the balance of relief we gave on the article of
spirits was only £46,000. We surrendered £16,000 of reve-
nue. Then, taking all the three descriptions of revenue
together, the result was that the increase on Geneva was
£67,000, on rum £193,000, and on brandy there was a dimi-
nution over the whole year of £lBl,OOO ; so that there was
an actual gain of £79,000 on spirits, together with a relief
from taxation of £46,000. But the most important and in-
terestingof the changes made last Session with regard to its
effect, both on the revenue, and likewise on the consumption
and condition of thepeople, was that which was made on the
duties on wines. I will endeavour to state thd facts to the
committee without any unneeessary waste of words, but with
that klness and clearness essential to appreciate the substan-
tial results. With regard to that particular alteration of Cus-
toms' duty my belief is that when you compare the new
system with the old we may say that tbat change, of all the
changes which were made in Customs' duties, was in the
first place the most difficult to make on account of the ad-
ministrative operations necessarily attending it ; it was,
secondly, sure to be the slowest in working out its full re-
sults; and, thirdly, I believe it was perhaps the very best.
(Hear, hear.) The loss I anticipated upon wine—that is
the amount of relief caused by the reduction of that duty—
was £830,000. The actual loss has been £493,000. (Hear,
hoar.) In point of fact, of all the articles in the tariff—l
am now speaking of revenue—wine is the only one that has
faced the unfavourable circumstances of the year, and has
made to us a better return in point of duty than even when
I was anticipating average circumstances I ventured to sup-
pose. (Hear, hear.) The utmost reduction of the loss T
ventured to state to the house was from £330,000 to
£515,000 by the increase of consumption ; wine, and wine
alone, has done all, and more than all I anticipated, and
the actual loss is £493,000. (Cheers and cries of Hear,
hear.) We began, as the Committee will recollect, with
mere reduction of duty; we have ended the year with the
initiation in full of the new system of charging the duties
which was contemplated and provided for in the Act of last
year, and since a new system of charging the duties began
the delicacies I think, speaking roughly, have been nearly
double of what they were under the former system.
Whether they will continue at so high a figure I don't
pretend at this moment confidently to predict, but I have
no doubt whatever they will continue at a very satisfactory
rate of increase, both as regards the consumption of the
country and as regards revenue. I will give to the Com-
mittee very briefly the figures as regards importation. In
1859-60 wine, other than French, was imported to the ex-
tent of 8,021,000 gallons. French wine was imported to the
extent of 1,155,000 gallons, and here I ought to say I think
the importation has in some degree increased by the fact
that the changes in the law were. made some two months
before the end of the year. The total importation of wine
was 9,176,000 gallons. In 1860-1 the importation of wine
other than French increased from 8,021,000 to 9,878,000,
while the importation of French wines increased from
1,156,000 gallons to 2,631,000 gallons. (Hear, hoar.) The ,
total importation was thus 12,509,000 against 9,176,000
gallons in the preceding year. The increase upon
French wine was 1,476,000 gallons, or 127 per cent.,
while the total increase of all wines was 3,333,000 gal-
lons, or 36 per cent. I must here observe, as I have
done on other occasions, that it will take a long time
to work out the full effects of the changes we have made
in the duties upon wine, for I think the lessons of for-
mer experience distinctly teach us that such will be the
wise. I believe it would be in the power of any ingenious
person who made adequate research int, the subject, to
write an exceedingly curious tract upon the history of the
taste for wine in this country. The changes which that
taste has undergone have been wonderful, but substantially,
we may say, and I hope the hon. member for Norfolk will
not be shocked by the assertion I am about to venture, we
may say that in the really "good old times" of "Morrie
England,"—a period sufficiently remote from our own to
merit the application of that laudatory epithet —in those
times the prevailing taste in this country was for light
wine. The taste for wine has been materially connected
with the course of politics. The Revolution of 1688, and
especially the Hanoverian Succession, and the wars with
France, greatly altered the taste of this country as to wine.
I' believe it is a fact that the University of Oxford, with
which I have the honour to be intimately connected, actu-
ally petitioned Parliament against the grievance of the
levy of a heavy duty upon light wine, which compelled
them to drink port. (Laughter.) It is impossible to over-
look the, application of the example to our legislation of
last session. There is an interesting work, which no doubt
many hon. members have road, which describes the state of
things in Scotland a century back. Dr. Alexander Carlyle
may be said to have been a gentleman clergyman of the
Church of Scotland. Ido not mean to say a word against
his character, but it is quite evident to anybody who peruses
his memoirs that whatever his pastoral qualifications may
have been, he added to them a perfect acquaintance with
the science of good living. (Laughter.) Nothing can be
more interesting than the frequent notices which are inter-
spersed here, there, and everywhere throughout his pages
of the uses, merits, and the prices of different kinds of wines,
but I think it is an important fact that this gentleman puts
it upon record that the hotel price of claret in Edinburgh
100 years' ago at a club with which he dined—wine with
which he was satisfied, and, therefore, with which I think
any one of us would be satisfied—(a laugh)—the hotel price
of that wine was 18s. per dozen. (Hear.) This is a matter
upon which it may take a long time to develops any modifi •
cation likely to take place in the taste of this country. I
cannot avoid mentioning to the committee some information
which I received a few weeks back from a deputation which
attended me upon this subject. The deputation was com-
posed of persons who, I believe, were keepers of eating-
houses with beer licenses, in the eastern part of the metro-
polis, who had likewise taken out wine licenses. They gave
me the joint results of their experience, and it contained one
element of comfort for the hon. gentleman opposite, who, I
know, has a strong opinion upon the subject of light wines
and powerful wines. (Laughter.) They said the effect of
taking out wine licenses was, that from 5 to 10 per cent. of
their entire takings or sale consisted of wine which they sold
at Bs. per gallon as draught wine, and which was formerly
not to be had except in bottle. I believe the lowest price of
wine was 35. per bottle, or 18s. per gallon. That deputes ion
likewise communicated to me another fact which I confess
I learnt with much interest—viz., that but a small propor-
tion of the wine sold by them was consumed upon the pre-
mises, the chief part being fetched for the houses of the poor,
and as far as they knew was principally for the use of the sick.
(Hear.) They also said, and the hon. gentleman opposite
will hear this with satisfaction, that the wine in demand
with them was entirely and exclusively strong wine, and
that no symptoms of vacillation in favour of weak wines had
yet appeared. (Hear, hear, and a laugh.) I know that
rumours have gone abroad upon the subject of the system
now in operation for testing the duties upon wine, and I
have to say upon that point, in the first place, that I think
the Department of Customs deserves credit from the com-
mittee for the energy, intelligence, skill, and desire to meet
the convenience of all parties with which they have applied
themselves to the introduction of a new and undoubtedly at
first a difficult system. But I have further to say upon this
subject that the results of the system are satisfactory, and
that we are convinced that it will be effectual for its main
object, and that it deserves to be firmly and resolutely sup-
ported by the house. It may be true that a portion of it
may be found less favourable than was hoped and expected
by the French wine growers for the introduction of their
wine. It is likewise .true that Ido not pretend to represent
that in all its details the system is perfect, but I do say
that its inconveniences aro few as compared with its ad-
vantages, and I think the committee will amt
feelat it
would be absurd to attempt to ascertain and nd
those minor defects that may be found in the law as to
the precise adjustment of the scale until we have had such
experience that when we do touch them we may be sure
to touch them satisfactorily and effectually, and that we
shall not be reduced to the necessity of amending and
cobbling our own Work from year to year. Ido not think,

the time has yet arrived, nor that it will arrive in the pre-
sent year, of any change at all. When it does come I hope
such minor changes as are required may be made, but I am
quite sure that when they are made the conduct of the Go-
vernment of France in respect to the commercial treaty and
the adjustment of its own laws will not be forgotten either
by the''} resent or any other Government of England.
(Hear.) So much, then, for the revenue from Customs, but
there still remains to be considered the Excise revenue for
the past year. The revenue from Excise was estimated in
1860 to be £21,361,000. Instead of that amount it was
£19,435,000, showing a deficit of £1,926,000. In point of
fact, if the members of the committee will be at the pains
of comparing the deficit upon the Excise with the entire
deficit upon the aggregate revenue as compared with the
estimates, they will find that they correspond within a few
thousands. The deficit upon the Excise arises upon three
articles, first hops, which was estimated to produce £870,000,
while it really yielded only £580,000, a deficiency in round
numbers of £300,000. The next item is malt, which was
estimated to produce £6,900,000, but which yielded only
£6,116,000, or a deficiency of £BOO,OOO. The third article
is spirits, which was estimated to produce £10,150,000, but
which actually yielded but L 9,210,000, or a deficit of £96,000.
Thus the deficiencies upon these three artioles together re-
present the source and form part of the failure of the re-
venue of the year to reach its estimated amount. As• for
the hop duty, that is accounted for in a manner so plain
by the immediate operation of the season that I need not
detain the committee upon that point. The whole duty
chargeable upon British hops was £70,000, instead of
£300,000 which was estimated for the year, because two
years' crops are included in the £BOO,OOO which I have
mentioned. And of that £70,000 it became necessary for
the Government in the exercise of its discretion to allow
the payment to be postponed, so as to pass into the next,
financial year. Thus £300,000 was disposed of. As to
malt I am sorry to say that the £BOO,OOO I have men-
tioned can scarcely be said to represent the whole evil.
There is no doubt the relation between the consumption of
beer and malt, although an essential relation, is not one
which takes immediate effect, but still it is un-
doubtedly true that with a favourable year we ought to
have had a considerable advance in the consumption of malt
and of beer, because malt has been benefiting for some time,
especially in Ireland, by an increase in the spirit duties,
and the sale of beer must have benefited materially during
the last year throughout the three kingdoms, inconsequence
of an increase of duty upon spirits without any correspond-
ing increase in the duties upon malt. It is one main com-
plaint of the distillers of spirits, than whom I never had the
pleasure of meeting with a more intelligent body of British
merchants or tradesmen—it is one of their chief complaints
that they are taxed so inadequately in proportion to the tax
on malt. The alcohol in pure spirit pays 10s. to 10s. 6d.
per gallon, the alcohol in wine pays 6s. to 75., and the al-
cohol in beer pays but Is. 10d. per gallon. That is an
immense discrepancy which continues when we consider
the tax in relation to its value. The tax upon beer may be
said to bo from 18 to 23 per cent. ; upon wine—that is, the
only wine that can ever be expected tvompete with beer—
it is from 25 to 80 per cent., while the tax upon spirits is 5
times that amount, for it is hardly less than 400 per cent.
But the committee will be anxious to hear what is to be
said with regard to the spirit duties. We anticipated an in-
crease in the revenue from the duty recently imposed on
spirits of £350,000 ; there was altogether a diminution in the
actual yield, of the spit* duty, as compared with the esti•
mate, of £900,000. Looking at this result, I cannot say that
at first sight it is satisfactory; bat it is a result that de-
serves the careful attention of the committee, and it is one
that will reward that attention, because the question of the
augmentation of the spirit duties does not refer exclusively
to any particular Ministry or Government. The proposal
we made last year was made with a general belief that the
result—at least the momentary and immediate result—
would be, in some degree, uncertain. We were all desirous
that the duty on this particular commodity should be carried
to the highest practical point. In laying before the commit-
tee the exact st'tte of the case, I must observe that the whole
duty on spirits yielded £OOO,OOO less than the estimate, and
£500,000 less than the same duty in the year before. I will
now entreat the committee to accompany me for a moment
while I exhibit the results of the spirit duty on the year
when broken into two parts, and the committee will be
not a little surprised at those results. The first part of
the year is from the Ist of April to the 14th of July,
when the addition to the spirit duty was not known, or per-
haps not dreamt of ; the second part of the year is from the
16th of July to the 31st of March, when the addition to the
duty had been made. From the figures I shall lay before it
the committee will see that a very considerable decline was
in operation before the duty was changed, and that the de-
cline was checked, and there was even some degree of abso-
lute increase afterwards. Especially is this the case if we
take England alone, for both in Scotland and Ireland social
causes are at work that have caused a pretty steady decrease
in the consumption of spirits. (Hear, hear.) But I will
give the exact case of. England first, and that of the United
Kingdom as a whole afterwards. In England the spirit duty
received between the let of April and the 14th of July—
[An hon. member on the Opposition benches here made
some observation.] I hear a voice say, "It is all details."
Certainly it is all details. (Cheers.) lam in the hands of
the commit tee as to the degree of detail it will sanction. It
is my duty to give them; but it is not my duty to force any
details on the committee beyond its disposition to receive
them. (Cheers.) Sir, I look on this question as one of very
great fiscal importance. (Hear, hear.) In England, then,
—presenting the countries in their order—the spirit duty re-
ceived in 1859-60 was £1,203,000; the amount received in
1860-61 was £1,045,000, showing a decrease of £158,000.
This was the general operation of the duty in England be-
fore the additional duty was dreamt of. Then, taking the
part of the year from July 16 to March 31, when the addi-
tional duty was in operation, the amount received in 1859-60
wait £2,991,000, and in 1860-61, £3,245,000, or an increase
under the new duty of £254,000, which very nearly corres-
ponded with the estimate we made. (Hear, hear.) In Scot-
land there was a large increase before July, and a small in-
crease afterwards. In Ireland there was a decrease before the
spirit duty was altered and a considerable decrease afterwards.
In the United Kingdom there was a decrease of £634,000
before the duty was changed, and an increase of £90,000
after the 14th of July. These comparisons are of them-
selves valuable as far as they go, but the operations of the
spirit trade itself are such as to materially bewilder and de-
lude those who endeavour to understand them without the
advantage of a long experience. In 1869-60 there was an
extraordinarily large delivery of spirits, from an anticipa-
tion of an increased duty. This very materially diminished
the productiveness of the duty in 1860-61. By the returns
of the Board of Inland Revenue it appears that in 1860 duty
was paid on 3 million gallons of spirits, and in 1861 duty
was paid only on 2 million gallons ; this decrease of 1 million
gallons represents a duty of £500,000. (Hear, hear.) This
has been the case with every augmentation of the duty since
1853. In 1853, in 1854, in 1855, successive augmentations
of the duty were made. They all, in the first year, produced
a loss by exhausting the duty paid on stocks ; and where
the duty made such a large proportion of the cost, it told
severely on the revenue returns immediately after the aug-
mentation of duty. We approved an additional duty in
1853 ; in 1854 I had the honour of proposing to the house
an augmentation, from which the return estimated was
£476,000 ; we did obtain from it £590,000, but this aug-
mentation was a small one, and the result is an exception
to the rule. In 1854-55 a second augmentation was pro-
posed, from which the estimated return was £450,000 ; the
amount obtained was £373,000. In 1855-56 the right hon.
baronet the Secretary for the Home Department proposed
a third augmentation. Thatwas expected to yield £1,000,000;
the actual return was £707,000. Lastly, the right hon.
gentleman opposite (Mr. Disraeli) proposed an augmenta-
tion of the Irish spirit duty, on which the return expected
was £500,000 ; but in the first year it only yielded £85,000.
But in the second year this £85,000 rose to £304,000. The
experience, therefore, of all changes of this kind shows that
some time is required to bring them into regular operation.
But I am bound to say, after examining the snbject with
great care, and all the inquiry into details I could possibly
make, that I am convinced the experiment is likely, even
in a fiscal point of• view, to be successful, while on social
considerations it will be beneficial. It may diminish the
consumption of spirits, and I sincerely hope it may ; but it
has not yet given rise to the only evil we have to apprehend
—an increase in illicit distillation. (Hear, hear.) I have
here the returns, though not beyond the end of 1860, of the
number of convictions and commitments to prison in each,
of the three kingdoms of persons charged with keeping
illicit distilleries in the years 1859 and 1860, or in the
first nine months of the fiscal year of 1860, compared
with the corresponding nine months of the year pre-
'ceding. In each of the three countries there has been a
considerable diminution in the number of convictions and
punishments, especially in Ireland, where the probability
of the evil arising was the greatest. In England the num-
ber of persons committed to prison in the first period was
54 ; in the second period it fell to 39 ; in Scotland the num-
ber of commitments were 6 in the first period, and 5 in the
second ; in Ireland the detentions in the first period wore
1,829, and the convictions 101; in the second period the
detentions were 918, and the convictions fell to 84. The
machinery of detection employed in Ireland is so-efficient
that the reports of the constabulary sent in to the Govern-
ment may receive the most complete reliance. (Hear,
hear.) No doubt the competition of wine may have had
something to do with it ; but that can only have been slight
and ,insignificant. The consumption of malt liquor has
more to do with the decrease in the consumption of ardent
spirits-;
• certainly there is a change that, in its social
,
aspect, must be viewed with satisfaction. (Hear, hear.)
These are the facts with regard to the spirit duty that I
bate ventured to lay before the Committee. And I pur-
pose to say one word of the general plan of the legislation
of last year, because there are those who think that a na-
tural fear may be entertained that the House of Commons
has departed from its ordinary practice, and in some degree
shrunk from its duty, in consenting to have recourse to
temporary resources, instead of meeting the expenditure
of the country from an adequate amount of taxation, and
from that exclusively. I think, Sir, I may really say that
no one is more anxious than myself to invite and stimulate
this House on every occasion to the greatest exertions for
the purpose of maintaining the credit of the country on the
only secure foundation of an equal balance between income
and expenditure. I thick it is quite impossible in dealing
with the arrangements of particular years to omit all re-
gard to, the peculiar circumstances of the time and to the