The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-16 00:00:00

THE TEA DUTY.—(Meeting this Day.)

This afternoon a public meeting of the importers of
and dealers in tea was held at the London Tavern,
Bishopsgate-street, to protest against the proposed reso•
lution of the Chancellor of the Exchequer by which the
war-duty is to be retained upon that important artiele of
general consumption, contrary to tlai- Act of Parliament
of 1855 ; Mr. 51,.ff at, M.P., in the oi,air. There was
a very full attendance, considering the short notice of
the holding of the meeting.
The CHAIRMAN expressed regret at the short notice

of the meeting which had probably prevented many of
the large importers of tea from attending it, but
be was enabled to state that they cordially agreed with
the obj-ct of the meeting. It was a case of great
emergency, as the whole question of the financial State•
ment of the Chancellor of the Exchequer would come on
for discussion that evening in the House of Commons.

He expressed his astonishment at the resolution of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, which broke the pledge

of the Government and threw over the -act of
Parliament in reference to the tea duty which
would be as vexatious as possible to the trade, and in a
manner injurious to the revenue of the country. It un-
settled everything connected with the tea trade and
settled nothing.
Mr. GlLmorat moved the following resolution :
" That the meeting has heard with extreme surprive
that the proposition of the Chancellorof the Exchequer by
whichthe war duty is to be continued upon tea, contrary to
the pledge involved in the act of Parliament of 1855, upon
the faith of which all existing contracts in that important
trade have been made ; and while protesting against
this breach of public faith, this meeting expresses an un-
qualified reprehension of the manner in which this in-
fliction is proposed to be levied, as being alike disadvan-
tageous to the interests of the revenue, the trade, and
the public."

The hon. gentleman, in moving the resolution, said that
the money that had been taken out of the pockets of the
people by the unsettled state of the duty was incalculable
and the vexation to the trade bad been no leas. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer had shown himself no man
of business, or he would have given encouragement to the
trade. So far from the stocks of tea being small there
were 87 million lbs. in this country ; but it was true
that the quantity on the way to this country was very
small.

Mr Lowooor. +I Encsf;on, and said that the

changes made in the tea duty during the past four years
had upset the arrangements of the trade, and had mint
materially interfered with the interests of the country
traders, who had purchased largely, on the understand•
ing that at the end of the war the duty would be re-
duced to is. 3d. per lb.
Mr. Alderman SIDNEY supported the resolution, and
said that if the tea trade was better represented in the
House of Commons the Chancellor of the Exchequer
would not have dared to take such liberties with the
trade. The change proposed by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer would add 4d. in the pound to the duty in-
stead of reducing it 2d. as he had state 1, because by the
aot it should have been reduced from ls. 9d. to is. 3d,
per pound, now the war was at an end, whereas the
Chancellor of the Exchequer only proposed to reduce the
duty from is. 9 !. to is. 7d. per pound.
Mr. TWINING moved the next resolution :
"That a committee be appointed to confer with the
Chancellor of the Exchequer upon the subject of the
meeting, and to take such steps as may be deemed ne•
cessary to obtain a more equitable and less inconvenient
arrangement."
rhe meeting had shown that the arrangement of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer failed in equity and
convenience, and he saw no reason why the tea
trade should be made the scapegoat to carry off
some imaginary deficieucy of the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer on his proposed concession on the income
tax. The consumers of tea would be in reality
the greatest sufferers from the unsettled state
of the trade, owing to the alterations in the tea duty.
He moved the committee as follows :—Messrs. Moffatt,
Rowson, Gilmour, Ashton, Chapman, Sidney, Abber-
held, Thompson, Ewart, Cassel, Twining, Smiths
Harrison, Lowcock, and Langton.
Mr. RewsON seconded the motion.
Mr. WALKER said that the resolution was not strong
enough ; it ought to call on the Chancellor of the Ex•
chequer to carry out the provisions of the act of Parlia
ment.

The CHArremAx said that the committee had considered
that, and would act on it ; but half a loaf was better
than no bread.
The resolution was then carried unanimously.
Thanks were voted to the chairman, and the meeting
adjourned till 12 o'clock to-morrow.