The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-07-22 00:00:00

A general meeting of the wine and spirit trade of this
port was held at twelve o'clock yesterday, (Monday,) in
the Clarendon Rooms, for the purpose of taking necessary
measures for the protection of their interests. There was
not a very numerous attendance, but nearly all the large
importers were present. The chair was taken by Wm.
Dixon, jun., Esq., president of the Association of Wine
and Spirit Merchants.
The CHAIRMAN said the first object of the meeting was
to obtain a return of the duty paid upon small packages
of wine between the 22d January, when an order from the
treasury put a stop to the exemption for waste, and the
Bth of April, when, by reiterated remonstrances, they
succeeded in getting the exemption restored. The se-
cond object was to have placed under legislative protec-
tion the immunities which they had succeeded in obtain-
ing bit by bit ; not only, indeed, to place,those immuni-
ties under legislative protection, but also to exempt from
the payment of duties the whole of the waste and evapora-
tion in spirits and wines whilst under her Majesty's locks,
as well, also, to get quit of those fiscal impediments which
clogged and retarded the commercial operations of the
trade. In one word, the trade of this port sought to be
placed on the same footing as that in London. Too long
had they submitted patiently to play " second fiddle " to
London ; too long had they been subjected to unfair tax-
ation and bowed with patience to the yoke which, with
oppressive weight, had been unjustly inflicted upon them.
He said " unjustly," because they were called upon to
i n
the London
bins.
without greater scale
single
le
valid o fdu
reasonty beingthan assignedthe
tice. What difference did it make, as regarded revenue,
whether wines and spirits were imported into London or
pay
a g
the outports? A fallacious reason had been given for
the favour shown to London, namely, that the bonded
stores there were surrounded by walls, and that the im-
ports therein deposited being so protected, did not expe-
rience the wastage that occurred in the outports, which
did not possess these impervious mural protections.
When invidious and injurious distinctions were made, it
was only natural to expect an endeavour should be made
to ascertain whether what was assumed was the fact ; in this
instance it could readily have been done, and on reference
to the Custom-house books it would have been found that
the wastage in these favoured London stores was greater
by two per cent. than at the port of Liverpool. (Hear.)
So conclusive was this fact, that Lord Althorp, when
Chancellor of the Exchequer, said he would grant the
treasury minute for a return of the duty whenever it was
applied for; and further, when Lord Sandon referred in
the house to the same documents proving this, the go-
vernment granted permission for the outports to be
placed with regard to colonial spirits upon the same foot-
ng as London : namely, entire exemption from duty on
wastage in bond. But the object was to obtain an exemp-
tion from payment of duly upon the wastage of all wines
and spirits in bond. Since November, 1833, when the
exemption in favour of brandy was conceded, the trade
had fared somewhat better ; but they bad paid the duty
for the previous eleven years, and, he contended, they
were as justly entitled to the return of that duty, as they
were to twelve 'peace to a shilling. The ground upon
which the duty had been charged had been proved, by
the evidence of the Customs' books to be untenable,
hollow, and not to be maintained. This, however, was
not the time to enter upon that subject, but when the
time did arrive he would gladly devote the energies of his
mind to obtain a restitution of what, he did not hesitate
to say, had thus been wrongfully abstracted from their
pockets. It would be recollected that on the 10th of
August, 1814, the committee of the association memorial-
ized the Lords of the Treasury to return the whole of
the duty on the waste upon wines. The scale of allow-
ance was totally inadequate. No reply was received, al-
though two letters were written, until the 22d January
last, when a treasury minute came down, cutting off the
allowance upon small packages which had before been
granted. The committee immediately remonstrated, and
on the Bth April they received a document which seemed
to give general satisfaction, covering the whole of the
natural waste upon wines, and certainly restoring what
had before be. n taken away. He conceived, under these
circumstances, they were fully entitled to a return of the
duty which they had been compelled to pay. It might
appear a very small matter, but he knew one house
where it amounted to above £3O. On the 11th
April, 1845, a memorial was sent up to the Treasury re-
questing the return of the deities so over paid in reference
to the scale laid down for Lont'on ; and on the 11th May,
following a letter was received from Mr. Cardwell, under
secretary of the treasury, stating that the application had
been laid before the lords of the treasury, and he was
commander'. to say that their lordships declined to antho-
rize a return of duty upon wipes which had been removed
from the custody of the officers of the customs. The
chairman then referred to the second object of the meet-
ing, and stated that on the sth of April, 1844, a meeting
of the committee of the association was held, at which it
was unanimously resolved " that it is highly desirable to
endeavour to obtain during the present session the inser-
tion of a clause in some-public bill before parliament, the
effect of which should be to place under legislative en-
actment the immunities now granted by the Lords of the
Treasury to brandy, namely exemption from payment of
duty on wa-toge and natural evaporation whilst under
her majesty's locks." This was asking for that which
was done in the case of rum. The chairman then read a
long letter he had addressed to Lord Sandon, setting
forth the grounds, principally those of justice, upon which this claim was urged by the Liverpool trade, arid be men-
tioned—to prove that he had comparatively little interest
iu the matte:—that in the case of his own house the whole
amount t ken into stock was taking the acnual average,
of rum 220 gallons, brandy 114 gallons, other spirits 276
gallons, and wine 196 gallons. Alter that it appeared
there had been a good deal of correspondence between
Lord Sandon, Mr. Wainwright of the Liverpool office (in
London,) and the chairman, with the view of procuring
an interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in
order to impress upon his mind the equity of the applica-
tion, but the Chancellor, it appeared, declined the pro-
posal, and the matter rested in this state till about a fort-
night ago, when he (the chairman) perceived that Sir
Robert Peel had announced his intention to bring for-
ward, during the present session, a bill to consolidate
the various customs' regulation acts of the last 13 years.
He instantly wrote to Lord Sandon expressing his con-
viction that a more favourable oppportunity could not
occur for making, by legislative enactments, the duties
upon brandy, geneva and wines payable only upon the
quantity delivered for consumption ; and stating he did
not apprehend much opposition from the right hon. bart.,
as the principle had been expressly recognised with
regard to rum by the 3 & 4 Wm. IV., c. 57, section 19;
and that the same principle was applied in the case of
brandy, geneva, and wines by ordersof the Treasury Board.
To this letter he had received a reply from Mr. Wain-
wright, which letter was the principal cause of the meet-
ing being held, as it was desirable to know what the trade
would do under present circumstances. The Chairman
then read Mr. Wainwright's letter, which was dated the
16th inst. It stated that Lord Sandon had received the
Chairman's letter, and his lordship desired a letter to be
enclosed, which lie had received from the private Secre-
ary of the Chancellor of the Exchequer as follows :
" In reference to Mr. Dixon's letter of the sth inst. I
am desired to state in reply, that the. Customs bill to be
introduced is proposed to be a consolidation of the
Custom's lass, and it is not intended by the government
to introduce any new provision into it as to warehouses
not of special security. '—'tA hy, this was the very point
he (the Chairman) had began by demonstra ting to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer at his interview with him in
August, 1843, when he proved that the warehouses in
Liverpool were superior in point of safety to those in
London. Yet here came an under-secretary saying that
because the Liverpool warehouses were not of special
security this reasonable request could not be granted !
If Sir Robert Peel intended his proposed bill to be per-
fect and conclusive : and if the request could be shown to
be an improvement he could not refuse to acceed to it,
but if the trade sat down without making an effort now
any application afterwards would come from them with a
very bad grace.
Mr. BRANDRETH remarked that the government did: not
seem to be aware of the difference between practical and
theoretical security. They seemed to think that theo-
retical security, in the case of London, was as good as
practical security in Liverpool. The security in Liver-
pool was, for all practical purposes, as good as that in
London.
Mr. GARDNER stated that a legislative enactment to
the effect sought for, would save much trouble. Not a
week passed but application vvs made to the collector
here, for allowance on extra wastage in brandies, and
they were instantly granted.
The CHAIRMAN had no hope from the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, but he was satisfied that in ten minutes
Sir R. Peel would he convinced of the justice of the appli-
cation. If the exemption was made by law in favour of
rum, why not in favour of brandy ?
Mr. GARDNER pointed out that the present system
was an impediment to business, besides causing great

annoyance

The CHAIRMAN here alluded incidentally to Mr.
Wainwright's valuable services in their cause.
After some conversation upon the necessity of a depu-
tation being sent up, a motion was made by Mr. JOHN
SMITH, and seconded by Mr. BROUGH, that the chair-
man be requested to proceed to London as early as con-
venient, to forward the objects of the meeting.
Mr. R. W. PRESTON explained, that the great object
of the deputation would be to obtain the insertion, in some
legislative act, of that which now depended upon the ca-
price of the Lords of tile Treasury. What was now
granted to the trade, in the matters spoken of, was not
granted because it was the law of the country ; it de-
pended upon a mere order from the Treasury, and the
same power that granted the order could refuse it. An
act of abstraction on the part of any one unprincipled
dealer, might cause the Treasury to withdraw such orders
altogether, thus making all to suffer for the delinquency
of one ; but if it were part of an act of parliament, not
all the caprice of the Treasury or the Customs, could
alter the law.
Mr. J. SMITH—It would also dispense with daily
memorials ; which, at present, are a great source of
trouble to us.

The motion was then carried unanimously.
On the motion of Mr. R. W. PRESTON, seconded by
Mr. WM. PRESTON, it was also resolved, that Mr.
Moore, the Chairman of the Bristol Association, be re-
quested to join Mr. Dixon, as the deputation to London.
The meeting then separated, after a vote of thanks to
the chairman. The resolutions will be found advertised
in another column.

THE EXPERIMENTAL SQUADRON.—The West Indian
Steamer, Tweed, whose arrival we have announced in
another column, passed the British Fleet off the Land's
end on Saturday at noon. A three-decker (supposed to be
the Queen) was first, and the Admiral's ship second. The
particulars of the sailing of the squadron we have given in
another column.