The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-03-26 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL. STANDARD.

twice ns high as the actual .rent paid for the acre. This tax
was ruinous' to the agriculturists,. and he trusted that the go-
Yernment would consent to a revision. He concluded by mov-
ing for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the malt ditties.
Major BEAUCLURK seconded the motion. He Was eonrinced
-that unless the, house determined to repeal some tax of this
kind, which produced a large revenue to the government, and
thus compelled the government to find some means of reducing
its establishment to a level with its income, the session would
pass away without the slightest relief from their present burdens
being afforded to the people, The existing establishments -of
the country were framed upon too large and too liberal a scale,
and in endeavouring to reduce them within reasonable limits he
was proving.himself a true friend to the monarchy and to its
legitimate interest. In his opinion, it would have been much
better had the hon. baronet deferred this motion until the bud-
get had ben opened by the noble lord opposite; but as the hon.
baronet had not done so, he was bound by a sense of duty to his
constituents to give to the motion every support in his power.
- Lord A LTHORP said that the point on which the hon. and gal-
lant officer had just touched in the conclusion of his speech was
the point which 'he wouldpress upon the hon. baronet as the rea-
son for not acceding to his present motion. The hon. and gal-
lant officer had declared that in his opinion, this motion ought
not to have been brought forward until after the budget; and in
that declaration he (Lord Althorp) fully concurred. When he
had been 'pressed by hon. members upon the repeal of other
taxes, he had made the same statement which he should make
now, that, as in a short time he should have an opportunity of
stating the view which he took of the finances of the country,
the sum total of the estimate of the year, and the amount of re-
venue which it was probable would be received, it would behest
to defer till that time the consideration of the taxes which it
would be most expedient to take off. He hoped that the hon.
baronet would not think him guilty of any discourtesy, which
he could assure the hon. baronethe had no intention of display-
ing towards him, if he said that the present was not a fit moment
to moot the repeal of the duties upon malt. The amount of
those duties in the last year was £4,200,000. The noble lord con-
cluded by moving, that in the original motion all the words after
the word " that" should be left out, and that there be inserted
in their stead that " the order of the day should be now read for
the house resolving itself into a committee of the whole house
upon the Irish Disturbances Bill."—(Loud cries of hear.)
Mr. BARING said that the house must admire the ingenuity
with which the noble lord had endeavoured to get rid of the
present motion, and to bring the government business under
the consideration of the house. He (Mr. Baring) thought it
desirable that the Irish bill should be gone into with as little
delay as possible;_ but still he could not help thinking that the
hon. member for Birmingham had not been treated by the noble
lord with that courtesy which was due to every gentleman who
brought forward an interesting and important motion. , He
was of opinion that no good would be effected by appointing a
committee to inquire into the causes of the general distress
existing among the industrious classes, but he thought that
much good might be derived from the discussion which must
take place upon the motion. There was a general idea pre-
vailing throughout the country that the distress arose from the
present state of the currency, and the discussion was likely to
generate sounder notions upon that point that those which ex-
isted at present. In speaking of the repeal of the malt-tax—a
tax which in 1830 had produced a revenue of £4,Boo,ool)—it
was impossible not to see that the house could not dispose of so
large a sum without looking to the whole -financial condition of
the country. They might as well look at the assessed taxes by
themselves as at the malt-tax by itself; and he knew that there
were some gentlemen who did take that insulated view of the
different taxes against which their constituents protested.
What be had always feared would come to pass under the
altered system of our representation had now actually taken
place. The metropolitan districts being near neighbours to
the noble lord, and reckoning among their representatives some
of the noble lord's colleagues, entered into his anti-chamber in
strong bodies of delegates and representatives, and with an in-
fluence which was hard to resist, and which was scarcely just to
the rural districts. The noble lord should recollect that there
were other districts besides the metropolitan, and he (Mr.
Baring) could assure him that if deputations to the 'Treasury
were now to be the fashion, his constituents from Essex could
easily fill Downing-street with those carts on which the mea-
sures of the noble lord and his colleagues had recently imposed
a heavy and an unexpected tax. He thought that a committee
composed of gentlemen usually living in the country, and well
acquainted with its internal condition, might make a useful
report on the various points to which the hon. baronet had
alluded, and might thus enable the house to deal better with
this question whenever the noble lord should come forward with
his view of the finances. (Hear.)
Mr. HUME wished his hon. friend the member for Lincolnshire
would withdraw his motion for the present, and give them a
more favourable opportunity of discussing this question ; for
in that case he would prove beyond all dispute that the repeal
of this tax was not a question of revenue. He was not in-
clined, any more than the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to
part with £4,000,000 of revenue, unless sufficient grounds were
adduced for it; but in the present case he was inclined to think
that a reduction of duty would not lead to any reduction of re-
venue. In the year 1785 the duty'on malt was only 10s. 6d.
a-quarter. In proportion as the duty had been raised since
that time had the consumption of malt been kept down, so that
in 1830 there was only an additional consumption of 200,000
quarters, although the population in the interval had increased
from 8,000,000 to 14,000,000. Had there been the same pro-
portion of malt used by the population of 1830 as was used by
the population of 1785 there would have been upwards of
6,000,000 of quarters, instead of less than 4,000,000 of quarters
used in the year 1830. (Hear, hear.) What he should por-
pose upon this subject was, that the duty upon malt should be
reduced from 20s. Bd. a-quarter, its present amount, to 16s. 6d.
a-quarter, its amount in 180'2, when an addition was made to
it, and made to it expressly as a war tax. If such an altera-
tion were made in the amount of duty, he thought that the
consumption would speedily rise up to 6,000,000 of quarters,
and if that should be the case, we should have nearly £4,000,00(1
of revenue from this tax, at the same time that we had a greater
consumption of malt. He implored his hon. friend not to put
the house to the inconvenience of dividing upon this question,
when the house was not prepared to discuss it properly.
Mr. WarteuraoN said, that friendly. as he had always been,
and still continued to be, to the reduction of taxation, he should
on this occasion vote against the motion of the hon. baronet,
and with the noble lord opposite, and for this reation,—that
very few persons expected this question to be brought forward
on the present evening, and that -the raising of it could not meet
with that attention which its importance deserved. (Hear, hear)
Besides, he would not vote for the repeal of the malt duties,
unless they either reduced or took off altogether the duty on the
importation of foreign barley into this country; (hear, hear,)
for otherwise the repealed duties would not go into the pockets
of the consumer, but into the pockets of the barley grower, or
at any rate of his landlord. (Cheers.) He would not, how-
ever, enter into that question now, but would ask the hon. baro-
net to consent to withdraw his motion for the present.
Sir E. KNATCHBOLL asked the hon. member for Lincoln-
shire whether, in the present temper of the house, he thought
that this question, important as it was to the agriculturist—im-
portant as it was to the consumer-=important as it was to all
classes of the people of England, ought now to be pressed to a
division ? (Hear, hear.)
Sir WANG it UT said, that under existing circumstances he
felt that be could not do better than accede to the suggestion of
his agricultural friends. He would, therefore, withdraw his mo-
tion.for the present, with the full understanding, however, that
if the Chancellor of the Exchequer did not hold out some hopes
in his budget of reducing the malt duties, he should be at liberty
to bring it forward again.