The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-07-02 00:00:00

SINGULAR PORTUGUESE REPROCITY.

It is a fact, perhaps not generally known, that some
years ago, in retaliation against a measure brought for-
ward by the late Lord Sydenham (then Mr. Poulett
Thomson) to equalize the duties upon French and Portu-
guese wines, the Government of Portugal seized hold of
the opportunity of imposing an export duty of £5 a pipe
upon all Portuguese wines coming to Europe, leaving,
however, untaxed such wines as were shipped to the United
States and other countries across the Atlantic. The ope-
ration was cunningly performed, although undoubtedly
levelled against Great Britain exclusively, our own coun-
try being the chief consumer of Portuguese wines. There
are two rates levied, it seems, upon distinctiue classes of
wine. The approved wines for export pay a sort of local
impost, whilst those set apart for home consumption pay
nothing. A further export tax is levied upon the approved
wines shipped to Europe, making, in all, somewhere about
£5 to £5 per pipe. A practice has, therefore, grown u p
of shipping such wines to the United States, or Canadian
ports, from whence they are reshipped to Great Britain,
in order to save the direct export duty, whilst, however,
the expenses incurred are rather large. It is suspected,
moreover, that some of the unapproved wines, upon which
no local duty is paid, find their way to America for reship-
ment. A regulation has been recently issued from the
Portuguese authorities, by which the owners of wines
shipped to America must give a bond that such wines
shall remain in warehouse there for four months pre-
viously to being brought to Europe, thereby incurring the
expense upon the transaction.
It is a little singular that such an unfair tax upon the
British consumers of Portuguese wines should escape the
prompt notice of the legislature in these days of recipro-
city and free trade. It Portugal is allowed to raise a ma-
terial portion of her necessary revenue out of the pockets
of the British consumer, why not the countries of the
north of Europe, or America, do the same, by laying an
export duty upon their grain or cotton ? tThe one is no
more defensible than the other would be ; and the case,
as regards Portugal, is the more annoying, inasmuch as
that country, in addition to having cost us a large amount
of blood and treasure to preserve her territory from foreign
aggression, had been up to the time of Whig domination
at home, a valuable consumer of British goods. We
recommend this subject to the notice of parliament and
the public. It is far more worthy of such notice than the
petty debts due from Greece to Jews and others, of which
we have constituted ourselves of late the collectors,
vi el armis.

SHIP DAMAGED BY LIGHTNING.—Letters received
from Falmouth mention a serious accident to an emigrant
ship, on Thursday last, off the Eddystone Light ifouse,
by lightning. The vessel was a Norwegian barque, with
200 passengers, bound to Quebec. About three o'clock
she encountered a fearful storm of lightning and thunder,
in the course of which the electric fluid struck the main
mast, splitting it into fragments, and knocking down
several of the crew who were on deck. Many of them
were most seriously injured. The vessel immediately put
into Falmouth to make good the damage.