A financial document has ...
The Times, 1824-10-13T00:00:00

A financial document has been published (in addition to those which we insertcd yesterday), giving the detailed produce of the Excise duties for the year andl quarter end- ing loth of October, 1824; and comparing it with the pro- duce of the preceding year, andl corresponding quarter of 1823. The comparison is somewhat clheckered ; exlhibit- ing here an increase, and there a defalcation. The activity of trade being shown by the transfer of property, we find that the Auction Duties within the last twelve months have risen above 50,0001., or almost 25 per cent. on the duties of 1823. Beer has experienced a falling off in the year of about 1,2001.-and in the quarter of so much as 43,0001.; andl this not accounted for by the alteration of the law . as have British Spirits, in the year, of 386,0001., though in the quarter an increaseof,4,000l.; while Foreign Spirits pre- sent an excess for the whole year of above 300,0001., and for the single quarter of nearly half that sum, or inore than 140,0001. We are not of the opinion of a Roman Emperor, that one tax is equally innoxious wvith another, however emr,inently offensive the source from which it may flow; and we therefore do not congratulate the country, that a cur- tailed enjoyment of English beer has been succeeded by excess in the use of foreign spirits. The tax on Bricks and rTiles has advanced from 360,0001. to 420,0001. per annum- a strong indication that money abounds, and that of the former channels for employing it, some have been consider- ably narrowed. The rent for houses is that species of rent Nvlhiclh has suffered as yet the least abatement from a change in our national circumstances, and offers therefore, to men of capital, for the present moment, a favonrite field of speculation. The tax on CandIles has increased about 4 per cent.-a pleasing symptom of comfort amnong the people; and the more so, because the consumption of oil and of gas-light has at the same time extended throughout the middle classes, so as, cwteris paribus, to pro(luce a sen- sible effect upon the gross amountof the duty. Coffee and Cocoa have fallen off in the last quarter upwards of 10,Oool. Cider, Perry, &c., have likewise diminishied. Glass has vielded, in the shape of duty, an increase of above 80,00ol. within the year-a pro(ligious spectacle to that order of great men vho play the necessary, albeit humble part, of laureats to His Majesty's Exchequer, that the consumption of glass should have increase(d at home, where it is secured by a rigid monopoly, while the samc article is undersold abroad by those who nieitlher pay the taxes nor the wages to wiiel our Englishi nmanufacturers are subjected! In Hides and Skins there is an improvement of 8 per cenlt. oni the amount of the former year's dluty-an improvement not imnprobably assistedt by the repeal of the leather-tax. In the article of Licences there appeats a considerable increase withinl the last quarter. In MIalt, a great and striking improvemenlt, amountinig in the quarter to no less thanl 167,0001. The Salt-tax for the quarter has produced very nearly three-fifths of the correspon(ling quarter, 1823; not- witlistanding, that the tax was reduced in the proportion of above six-seventlhs. The tax on Soap has diminislhed( con- siderably within the last quarter. TIte imposts on Tea, which produced in the wlhote year an increased revenue of upwar(ds of 60,0001., have fi/llen o,f within the quarter by above 40,0001. Tobacco and Snuff are becoming rapidly less productive th e loss on the year was 41,0001.-on the single quarter 29,0001. Wine, which on the wlhole year exhibited an improvement of 51,ooo0., leaves a deficit of nearly 21,000l. on the quarter. Such are tht principal hcadls of the Excise, of which we have quoted the seve- ral diffierences and fluctuations, as put for th by thossv whose intercst it is to excite the public confidence in their rnea- sures. The fact is, that we are now under a course of ex- periment, whichl it might be rash as well as uncandid to disturb by premature aniinadversienis. In our own mninds there is no shadovw of doubt, that if fairly tried, tbe reduc- tion of duties will become a fruittill spring, not only of re- lief and prosperity to the nation, but-what, perhaps, more commonly fixes the attention of a Miniister-it will prove to tht convictioni of all the world, the surest m ethod of increasing the amount of the very taxes thus nominally diminished. The details of tlie Irish Revenue have not yet been laid before the public; buf we are desired to antici- pate from them a favourable result.