The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-04-04 00:00:00

11013 SE

.ca tor certain returns respecting the
.pirit distillation in Ireland, with the view of
alteration of the act passed last session, by

Lord WicKtow m

law to regulat

:ome tax, an additional duty was ird-
upon spirits of Irish manufacture. He gave ministers
lit for this substitution, but their measure had, in its
ration, proved most unfortunate. It was fraught with in-
ice, it had failed as a source of revenue, and it had produced
ce and immorality to a most alarming extent. The amount
of duty had been increased, upon the plea of assimilating it
with that paid by the English and Scotch distillers ; but as
the drawback duty which by the bill was taken from the Irish
spirit was continued to that produced in Scotland, the latter
possessed an advantage which has enabled it to supplant its
rival in every foreign market. It has been calculated that
the increased duty would produce £250,000, the experience
of the year had given only £40,000, of which no less than
£25,000 had been paid during the first quarter, while the low
duty only was exacted. This, however, was not the worst of
the evil. A low duty was the only effective check upon illicit
distillation, and since the late addition the number of offend-
ers against the revenue laws had been in several counties
more than doubled, while the utmost exertions of a vigilant
magistracy and police, backed by all the assistance in regular
troops which England could afford, would be insufficient to
suppress the practice, so long as the high duty afforded a
bounty to the illicit distiller.

The Duke of WELLINGTON regretted that Lord Wicklow
should have brought the subject in its present shape before
the house, instead of communicating privately with the go-
vernment his reason for supposing that the measure had
operated injuriously. He believed that the extreme cheap-
ness of oats and fuel had contributed much to the increase of
illicit distillation ; but still the number of offenders, although
greater than that of the previous year, was considerably less
than it had been four or five years since, under the lower
duty. The more temperate habits of the Irish population
also had greatly lessened the consumption of ardent spirits,
and in that manner occasioned a falling off in the amount of
revenue collected.

Lord MONTEAGLE denied that the question as to draw-
backs had been settled last session to the satisfaction of the
distillers ; and proceeded to show that an increase of duty
upon Irish spirits had been uniformly followed by a falling
off of revenue and general demoralization. He would prefer
a tax upon property to a duty which augmented crime.
Lord FITZGERALD said, if he believed that to the increased
duty was to be attributed all the evils which had been enu-
merated, the increase of illicit distillation, the increase of
crime, and the demoralization of society, he should not for
one moment contend for the retention of that increased duty.
He did not think, however, that it had led to any material
increase of illicit distillation, nor was there a particle of evi-
dence to show that it had produced the other mischievous
effects which had been charged to its account. The govern-
ment was not prepared to abandon the experiment. which
was still in the course of trial ; but he' had no objection to
the papers moved for, in no hostile spirit, by the noble earl.
The Earl of WICKLOW replied, after which the papers
were ordered, and their lordships having disposed of some
routine business, adjourned.