The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-17 00:00:00

parcel, however small in bulk or value ; that the
paper, when manufactured, was subject to detention
on the premises, for the purposes of the exciseman,
for no less than eight and forty hours.—(Hear, hear.)
Many of those who then heard him might have known
what it was, when visiting the Continent, to have been
detained, if only for a few hours, in consequence of the
delays caused by the passport system, now, be rejoiced
to say, passing away, in consequence of the moral mo-
mentum, if he might use such an expression, of the rail-
way train. But the law with reference to the duty on
paper compelled him (Mr. Cowan) to detain his goods
upon his premises for as long a time as would be occu-
pied in sending them to London and back.—(Hear, hear.)
Was such a system as that to be continued ? a system,
which, after all, was more calculated to invite frauds
than to check them. The reports of the Excise Com-
missioners themselves had gone far to prove that the at-
tempt to prevent fraud by means of stamps a,-111 labels
had, on the contrary, led to frauds through the medium
of successful imitations; and as some proof of this, he
held in his hand a letter from an extensive paper manu-
facturer, who had obtained information as to a system
of fraud that was openly, and no doubt largely, prac-
tised. What he was referring to had taken in the
sist, r kingdom, and he hoped that Hon. Members from
that country would not impute to him any ill-feeling
against their countrymen if he ventured to trouble the
House far a few moments with the details of this trans-
action. The person who had written this letter to a fiend
of his said:—

" I am the person who sent seven loads of paper into
, with the same wrappers. It was long elephant.
When the first load, which was regularly charged, went
away, I sent a woman with a cloak to the stationer. As
soon as the paper arrived, several hands were put to to
untie it with all possible expedition. The wrappers were
tied up in bundles and handed to the woman, who made
the best of her way to the mill, where we had a load
ready of the same weight and prepared exactly to the
Fame pressure, so that the wrappers exactly fitted. To
work we went with all hands we could manage, tying up,
and by the time the carter arrived were almost ready for
him. But during the time of tying up we had always
watchers out at every inlet to the premises, and if an
officer made his appearance, we put the loose covers
away into a secure place; and as we always took the
numbers progressively, we entered in the sending•away
book all the numbers we had hid—the numbers we had
tied up were standing as not being sent. But it did not
often happen that we were disturbed by an officer. The
supervisor was more troublesome. Mills more distant
from could not run so often. They convey their
wrappers by gig or car, or by a man on horseback. This
is now almost the only way in which it is done. There
is only one mill round about that ventures to send
any out without covers."

—(Hear, hear). His Right Hon. Friend had referred in
a masterly way—(l.lear)—to many of the various restric-
tions which, in one way or other, operated against the
manufacture of raper: and he (Mr. Cowan) held in his
hand an address to George 111., which had been up-
wards of fifty years ago printd upon paper made of
straw; and he was sure that it was only owing to the
incubus of the duty on paper that that species of ma-
nufacture did not exist in England at the present day.
—(Hear.) When he stated, however, that the cost of
the raw material was 2s. per cwt. and that the duty
upon the same was 14s. 9d.—(Hear)—he said enough
to show the inducement held out to the commission of
fraud, and that the slow progress of this manufacture in
this country was not to be wondered at. The Honour
able Member here also referred to several specimens of
paper which had recently reached him, and all of which
were manufactured from indigenous vegetable materials,
not hitherto employed in this country, though in others
they were used in the paper manufacture.—(Hear.)
They were composed, he added, chiefly of straw and
cereal plants; and he was persuaded that were
it not for the incubus he had already referred
to, .they would be able to claim the support
of the Protectionist Gentlemen opposite in favour of a
new branch of native industry in the prosperity of
which they would have a peculiar interest. Free trade
was nothing short of a mockery in this country so
long as this system of oppressing any interest was kept
up.—(Hear, hear.) His Right Hon. Friend bad spoken
of the exportations of paper from this country, but no
such article could be found in the retarns relating to
our exports. He had been at the trouble of making an
analysis to show the infinitesimally small amount which
paper formed as a general article of export from this
country, even to countries where he knew there was a
great consumption in that article; and, in doing so,
nothing had surprised him more than to find that, as re-
garded Brazil—a part of that new world called by Mr.
Canning into existence to redress the grievances and to
receive the produce of the old—the quantity imported
into that country (Brazil) did not exceed in value 4,000/.
Let Hon. Members remark what was said in a letter
which had been received by the house with which he
was himself connected. It was dated Rio Janeiro, on
the 21st of February of the present year, and the pas-
sage to which he referred was as follows:
" We note your wish to make a further trial of our
market, and nothing would give us greater pleasure could
weleafely recommend your doing so; but ,although against
our own interest, this we cannot do, as long as expe-
rience and close watching of the operations in the article
of paper has convinced us it is impossible for you to
compete with the French and Italians, who almost en-
tirely supply our market."
(Hear, hear.) He had been much disappointed at the
little progress they had been able to make towards con-
vincing the Government on this subject of the paper
duties in the various deputations which for many years
past he had accompanied to Downing-street, and at the
little sympathy they appeared to meet with at their
bands. Mr. Crompton, on the last occasion to which
he referred, laid many grievances before them in con-
nexion with all/relit parts of this question, and particu
larly with re ference to the contrast of the position of
those manufacturers who employed water in their manu-
facture with that of those who did not; but they were
al nays, like an ancient people named in the book of
Exodus, sent back whenever they complained, " to their
burthens." The Chancellor of the Exchequer told them
that "he could not afford it;" but ho trusted that the
result of this debate would be that they might be in-
duced to take this subject into the r serious considera-
tion with a view to afford the manufacturers of this ar-
ticle, at no distant day, that relief to which they were
so justly entitled.—(Hear, hear.) The Hon. Gentle-
man, atter some further remarks, concluded by second-
ing the motion.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said
that he did not intend to make any objection to his
Right Hon. Friend bringing fur ward this motion, and
the more so as it had afforded him the opportunity of
listening to so able a speech as he had delivered on the
subject—(Hear, hear)—but he did object to his putting
arguments into his mouth which he had never used, and
which he was not now disposed to use, against the re-
peal or reduction of these duties. eby no means
should, on that occasion, nor had he ever before done so,
go into any defence of the abstract merits of this or of
any other set of taxes that pressed heavily on the people;
and he trusted he had shown ere this, that whenever he
could remove a tax that pressed upon the people tie had
endeavoured to do so. It was but a very short time
since it was stated to the House that there would be a
portion of the revenue of the country which he thought
might fairly be devoted to the remission of taxes. He
then stated the taxes which he thought it would be
most expedient to remit; and he did nut think that the
proposal he had made had been received with dis-
satisfaction by the House generally; and he could
only say that the coarse he bad adopted then he
should be 'prepared, under similar circumstances, to
act upon in future.—(Hear, hear.) When there
was a surplus, he had dealt with it in such a
way as he thought would be best calculated to promote
the benefit of the country generally; and be objected to
the principle of a Chancellor of the Exchequer being
called upon to pledge himself to the reduction or repeal of
any particular tax before the period arrived when he
should be able to judge of the expediency of doing so.
He thought it was far better not to commit himself by
any arguments against this or any other tax, looking at
each and every tax, in regard to the circumstances con-
nected with it, at such time as it might be in
his power to attempt its reduction. He thought,
be repeated, that it was far better to leave
all such cases utterly unprejudiced till the time
when he, in the position he occupied, was in possession
of such a surplus as he might be enabled to deal with in
the remission of public burdens. With respect to this
duty on paper, he must say, however, that on the pre-
sent occasion, as on former instances, he had been riot a
little surprised at the complaints that were made of the
injustice and pressure of the excise regulations. And for
this reason, that the excise upon paper did not interfere
in any way with the process of its manufacture. It was
constantly stated, and with much force he admitted, that
the excise on malt, on spirits, on bricks, and other
articles, interfered with the process of manufacture, so
as, in a great degree, to prevent experiments and retard
improvements in the manufacture of the articles. Bat
what was the opinion of the Excisq Commission in re-
spect to paper ?--an opinion delivered by Sir Henry
Parnell, the chairman, than whom there was no greater
friend to freedom from restrictions of this nature in that
House.—(Cheers.) It said, " Unlike other commodi-
ties, the processes of this manufacture are exempt frome
Excise interference, to which exemption the Commis-
sioners attribute the great progress made in the modes
of manufacture, and the great improvement in the ar-
ticle itself, arising from an extensive introduction of ma-
chinery, by which the processes of making and drying
were so combined and expedited that a quantity of paper
could now be completed in a few days which formerly
would have occupied, perhaps, as many months." The
Commissioners said that the absence of excise interfer-
ence was the distinguishing mark of the excise duty on
paper, and to that was attributed all the great improve-
ments which had been made in paper, and its now greater
cheapness; and yet it was this particular excise which was
now singled out by Hon. Members to be assailed as the
most unjust, the most obnoxious, and the most vexatious
of all the excise duties.—(Hear.) When het year he
had the honour of seeing the deputation of paper manu-
facturers—to which the Hon. Member (\lr. Cowan) had
alluded, as having received a most discouraging answer,
referring them to the absence of any surplus—be (the
Chancellor of the Exchequer) naked them whether it was
to interference with their manufacture that they ot -
jected, or whether he could in any material degree
tale its processes. What was their answer? They said
that the excise did not interfere with their manufacture,
that what they requires was the abolition of the duty
altogether. It was true that the Hon. Member did not
complain of the weighing of the paper. When the
paper was completely made and was ready to be sent
out to purchasers, it was weighed by the excise officers,
and for that purpose the neauulactirrer was obliged to
keep it a certain time on his premises. The deputetion
from the north, however, even when invited to state
any regulation which interfered with their business,
did not complain of this delay, but pressed for the ab-
solute repeal of the duty alone. The Honourable
Member for Edinburgh went on to complain of the
heavy burden the duty was upon publications ; but