Mr. Helms on Tuesday made an attempt to anticipate the
Budget by a resolution condemning the Brewers' licence. This licence, which was put on in 1862 instead of the hop-duty, and now yields £450,000, presses, he said, with unequal weight on the large and the small brewers, and is killing the latter out. They pay a fixed sum, and of course every barrel they make bears more duty than every barrel made by the great brewer. The consumption of beer, too, is not increasing as it should, and Mr. Helms attri- buted that to the licence. Sir Stafford Northcote, in a reply which obtained Mr. Gladstone's decided approval, showed that the reduction in the small brewers began before the licence was imposed, and was a natural consequence of the better article which their capital enabled the big brewers to give ; but admitted that a grievance existed, and promised to remedy it when he brought in his Budget. Mr. Helms was not satisfied with this, but took a division, and was beaten by 203 to 83. A curious feature in the debate was a protest by Mr. Bass against being taxed at alL Why should he be asked to pay £14,000 a year, more than any other tradesman 7 There are no reasons except that the State must have revenue, that it must get revenue by taxation, that it is good to tax luxuries before necerfarieg, and that it is best to tax those luxuries in which desreese, and not increase, of consumption is desirable. But then those reasons seem sufficient.
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