The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-15 00:00:00

Now the.total amount which you receive from the auction
duty in England, Scotland, and Ireland, is about
300,000 L There is no duty, the remissi.o of which could
iu my epiniou, lead to so great a reduction in
the expense ;:f collecting. There is ilesys,
think, which is so objectionable in principle
as a duty on the transfer efprisperty. To select one par-
ticular mode of transferring property, quite independent
of conveyances, which apply to all transfers Mt
pri perty, and to subject that to duty, Is a course
open to grave objections ; and 1 do hope that I have
satisfied the House that although there is no demand
far this reduction, and although articles might be selected
upen which a reduction would be more popular, yet
looking comprehensively at the interests of property, and
considering the benefit which is conferred on a great
commercial and nettsufactitring country, by facilitating
the transfer of property, you could not confer
a gra rater advantage upon the United King-
dom, if you selected other duties in preference to
that which is thus proposed to be reduced to
the amount of 300,0001.—(hear, hear.) Every
auctioneer is, under the existing law, compelled to take
out a licence. In the first instance he takes out a general
licence of 5/. If be is afterwards called on to sell any par-
ticular article which is not included in that licence
there is then a demand made upon him for another
licence of 51.; and, consequently, there are auctioneers
who pay 251 for licences, because some articles are
expeSed to sale by auction, where they have to officiate as
auctioneers, which are not covered by the general auction-
duty. Now I propose, instead of the principle of requiring
separate licences, to enable auctioneers to dispose of
every description of property by taking out one licence.
I propose to fix the amount of that license at 15/. ;
thus enabling the auctioneers who take it out to deal in
every description of property. I think it is probable
that the number of auctioneers will be increased by the
reduction of the duty. The present number of auction-
eers amount in the whole, I think, to about 4,000. A li-
cence duty of 151. will raise a revenue of 60,0001., subject,
of course, to the reduction in the present auction duty.
I do not believe that one general licence of 15/. would be
.felt at all as an onerous impost, while I think it probable
that the number of auctioneers would increase. We
propose, therefore, to reduce the duty upon auctions,- and
to substitute for the present system'of licensing one uni-
form licence, the maximum cost of which will` be. 151
With • respect to the article of glass, I must say'
that it is one which has especially occupied my
attention. The du;y upon glass has been dotibled since
'lBl5, -and I think I can show, with respect
to this amide, there a-re grounds or exemp-
tion more than can be alleged for almost
any- other article. Without regard to the esti,•
which' might-make "out for the removal of this
tax, if there were an abundant revenue, -- there
are no other articles entitled to a preference.
In the first place, let me recite some of the objections to
this charge. The amount of tax is 2001. or 300/ per
cent. upon the value of the article ; for instance, the tax
was one shilling per foot, and a manufacturer was asked
what, he could supply the articles for, if the duty were
taken off ; and he answered, that he could sell it for 3d.,
or at any rate the price would not exceed 4d.—(Hear,
hear.) We must not estimate this burden at the
mere asnount.—(llear, hear.) There is no duty which
requires, in order that it may be levied, such a system
of perpetual and such vexatious superintendence.—
(Hear, hear, hear.) Now, con-pare the expert of glass,
which was subject to this vexatious, and necessarilly
vexatious regulations—compare it with the export of an-
other article, which has the good fortune to be ex--
cepted—earthunware. The export ofearthenware last
year amounted to 750,000/., whereas the export of glass.
which was subject. to the duty, and subject
to this constant interference with the process
of manufacture, amounted only in the course of the last
your to 388,0001.—.(Hear, hear.) But I wish to state
also another most important fact. There is no Excise
duty on the manufacture of glass in France, in Belgium,
or in Bohemia ; and in Bohemia the manufacture of
glass is brought to the very highest perfection. The
discoveries of chemistry were applied without restric-
tion to the improvement of the manufacture,'
and owing to the skill to which they had
attained, the mast beautiful colours were produced.
We have particular facilities in this country for
the manufacture of glass ; we have a great
command of labour and of coal, and we
should be able net only to enter into compe-
tition with foreign countries, but we should be
able to beat them. What is the fact? That there being
now no duty on glass in Belgium, Bohemia, and
France,. there is no necessity fur interfering with
the process of manufacture. What has taken place in
this country ? A great import of foreign glass into the,
bonded warehouses of this country, and that foreign
glass thus brought into bonded warehouies is afterwards
exported being liable to no duty, and after all this the ex-
porters beat us, not only in foreign countries, but
even in our own colonies. I think I can make out a
case without referring to details. But really theseare most
important questions. It is curious to observe the pro-
gress—the gradual increase of the export of foreign glass
over the export of our domestic manufacture. For the
last seven quarters I have closely observed the glass
manufacture and the gradual increase of foreign
glass brought into bonded warehouses, and afterwards
exported from this country, as compared with glass
the produce of our own industry. Is it not a strong
fact, , and does it not demonstrate the pelicy of si ime ne w
arrangement in the excise regulations of this country ?
(lean) If we permit this article to be manufactured
duty free, it is very hard to foresee to what perfection
the manufacture of that beautiful fabric may be brought,
considering how much it admitted of the applica-
tion of capital and skill.- When a balance-spring
for a chronometer. is -.made _ in this country it
is made of glass, • .at . least of late years, it
being fOun 1 so much superior to steel for such purposes.
It has a gra aver power of resisting the alternations 01
heat and cold, and maintaining its specific gravity. The
manufacture of glass requires so much skill on the
part of the workman, that I do not believe under-
the present system •f restriction recent discoveries-
could be well applied. A chronometer, with a glass
balmier-spring, during the late Administration,
had been sent out to the North Seas, and exposed with
nine other chronometers to the cold of that
climate, and the result of that experiment
wws reported to be in favour of the chronometer which
had the glass balance-spring as compared with
the nine others. So much for the application of
-glass to articles of the utmost delicacy.
lint glass has also been applied to another and very
different purpose. It has been manufactured
into pipes used for the conveyance of water, at
a cost of 30 per • cent. less than .pipes made
of iron ; they will bear great external pressure ;
they are covered with bitumen, and when used for the
conveyance of water, so far as purposes of health are
concerned, glass pipes are entitled to- the preference.
This has been done where the excise duties on glass have
been removed. Now take all the articles thus
ranged between these • two extremes, between the
balance-spring of the chronometer and- -the pipe for
conveying water, and I ask if it is not difficult
to say . to what purposes the manufacture
may not be applied ? But now we collect
our duty on flint glass at an expense of not
less than 57 per cent. on the whole amount col- .
lected, and it is necessary, in order to prevent
fraud, to have' a series of most minute regulations
with respect to melting the glass and the annealing,
with notices to the excise-officer of every
process which make the application. of ingenuity
and skill almost impossible. But relieve it
altogether from these difficulties, as in Bohemia,'
France and Belgium, give full and unrestricted
play to the capital and enterprise of ' this
country, and with its peculiar facility for
obtaining materials, its command of alkali and of coal,
I believe that this country may supply almost all the
world with glass, or at least enter into active competi-
tion with' other countries for supplying it. There
are many other arguments I might bring forward, but I
do think I have shown, in the case of glass, so far as
the manufacture of glass is concerned, that there
are peculiar reasons for reducing the duty
on it. Now a case has been made out for the
remission of the window-duty. But take the
case of glass, and see what a touch greater effect
the reduction of the duty on glass will have on 'the
comfort of the labouring classes titan a reduction of the
window-duty. It is estimated that in Great Britain
there are 3,500,000 houses : of these not more than
500,000 -are charged with the window-duty
therefore, there are 3,000,000 of houses which
require glass to be used in them, and which, by the
removal of the tax, would benefit by the whole amount
of the remission. I am afraid I am wearying
the House by these details, but I wish to satisfy these who
hear me that these remissions are not made from any
desire of courting popularity, but that there is good and
substantial cause which leads me to adopt the
reduction of this duty.—(lmmense cheerima)
Then, if we look to the improvement of art, what a
greatencouragement it will give to the art of engraving if
We reduce the duty on plate glass. Then, if we look
to the consideration of health, of what immense import-
ance is the article ofglass. Nothing prevented the passage
of heat like glass. Tho passage of heat through a single
plate of glass, compared,_ with its passage thfough two