COMMISSION OF EXCISE INQUIRY.

A VERY complete Digest of the first Ten Reports of the Commissioners of Excise inquiry, of which Sir HENRY PARNELL is Chairman, has

just been presented to Parliament. We have more than once drawn attention to several of these documents ; and in No. 332 of this journal the subject of the duty on British Spirits was especially adverted to. The publication of the Digest suggests a more extended notice of the labours of the Commissioners; and the following summary Of the result of their inquiries, as far as they have proceeded, will put our readers in possession of some useful and important facts in regard to the opera- tion of the Excise-laws.

The principal subjects of the Reports are Tea, Wine, Tobacco, Foreign Spirits, and British Spirits. A very considerable portion of the Excise establishment appears to be rendered necessary by the superintendence and control exercised by the Excise over the dealers in these articles, a control which occasions a great extent of interference with the private concerns of those dealers. The Commissioners observe, that this interference cannot be justified except on strong grounds of expediency; and that these grounds can only consist in the further security to the revenue, which has only been presumed to be necessary on the supposition that the regulations of the Customs and the vigilance of the officers, more especially of the Coast Guard, maintained at an expense of half a million, may be successfully evaded.

The nature of the Excise interference is—lst, That every dealer shall make an entry of his premises. 23. That he shall take out a licence ; 3d, That he shall enter all sales in books provided by the Excise ; 4th, That none of those articles, except in small limited quantities, shall be moved from one place to another without a written authority, called a permit: and .5th, That an account of the stock of every dealer in these articles shall be taken by the officers of Excise, at certain short intervals of time, generally twenty.eight days. The extent to which the public are interested in getting rid of these

regulations, whether with reference te the heavy expenditure caused by them, or to the trouble and vexatious inmaisition into the private con. eerns of the dealer they give rise to, is amply illustrated in the various Reports. We proceed to notice the principal subjects, in the order of the Reports.

Tea. According to the evidence of the deniers and the officers of Excise, it appears that the entries and checks required by the Excise not only afford no means of preventing fraud, if fraud were intended, but that the Excise permits themselves are made use of by the smuggler to cover his illicit trade ; while they are productive of great inconve- nience rind hindrance to business, amounting in some instances of ex- tensive dealers in the country, in a certain degree, to a suspension of ' trade.

Wine. The Excise regulations are found to be altogether inefficient. As in the case of tea, the checks provided are entirely useless ; and the almost total cessation of the smuggling of wine (eighteen gallons only having been seized in four years and a half) has rendered the abolition of Excise regulations perfectly necessary and safe. Tobacco. In consequence of the great profit which the smuggler is able to make by the evasion of the present duty of 3s. a pound—a duty which is 900 per cent. on the value—smuggling is still carried on to a great extent. After a full examination into the practical effect of the Excise regulations, the Commissioners found the evidence conclusive that they afforded no efficient control over the manufacturers and dealers ; and that when tobacco is once successfully smuggled on the Coast, in defiance of all that the Customs department can do, the powers of the Excise are perfectly incapable of preventing it beings brought into consumption. The Commissioners point to a reduction of duty as the only effectual preventive against smuggling of tobacco. Brewers' Licences. Although the duty on beer has ceased, the Ex- cise survey of the brewers has been rendered even more extensive, the objects intended to be accomplished thereby, being more effectually to secure the collection of the duty on malt, hops, and licences. The Commissioners recommend the total abolition of the survey, as furnishing no security whatever against fraud. To provide for the col. lecting of the licence-duty, which is now calculated according to the quantities of malt used by the brewer, on an allowance of one barrel of beer to two bushels of malt, they suggest the adoption of the Acts in force in Scotland whereby the brewers are enjoined at the end of every month to make a return, accompanied with a declaration of its truth, of all ale or beer which they shall have made or brewed in that month preceding.

In the Sixth Report, after noticing their recommendation of the Beer survey, the Commissioners give their opinion, "that if tea, wine, to- bacco, and beer, were exempted from Excise control—that is, ir.it were no longer deemed expedient to survey time stocks of 101,687 dealers in tea of 2126 dealers in wine, of 167,102 dealers in tobacco, and of 39,868 brewers' making in all 310,783 dealers ; or to prepare permits for the removal of all tea, wine, and tobacco, or to keep accounts of all surveys and permits, or to do a variety of other business which fulls on Excise-officers—a sum not far short of 100,000/. a year ought to ba saved. The number of surveys may be estimated at several (15) mil- lions, of permits issued at 1,657,959, and of books of entry at 778,988."

Duties on British Spirits. By the Act 4 Geo. IV., c. 94, the duty on Irish spirits was reduced from 4s. 104d., and on Scotch spirits from 5.5. 31d. to 2s, a gallon, English wine Measure, or about 2s. 44. a gal- lon Imperial measure; "a change," the Commissioners observe, "the beneficial effects of which in the great object of suppressing illicit trading, by enabling the legal distiller to carry on his trade in competi-

tion the illegal trader, were found in both divisions of the king- dom to surpass the most sanguine expectations;" and they regret that any attempts should have been since made to bring back the duty to- wards its former rate.

English Distilleries. From 1790 to 1819, the rate of duty was 3s. 4d., when it was brought up to the maximum rate of us. ftd. per gallon, at which it remained till 1826; when, in consequence of the satisfactory results which had attended the diminution of the duty in Scotland and Ireland in 1823, the duty was reduced to 7s. a gallon : the effect of which change was aim increase of more than double the number of gallons brought to charge in 1826 than in 1825, and an average increase of revenue, amounting to 30CF,0001. in the three years succeeding the change as compared with the three years preeeding it.

In 1830, an additional Gcl. per gallon was added to the duty in all parts of the kingdom ; the effect of which in Ireland and Scotland, but especially in Ireland, has been an alarming revival of illicit trade, and a consequent diminution of the quantity brought to charge. In England, the trade of distillation is an admitted monopoly, having been for a number of years confined to about the same number of distille- ries as at present, viz, twelve only : the amount of duty paid by them in the year ended .5th January 1833 having been 1,420,525/. 10s. ; whilst in Scotland, the number of licensed distillers for the same year was 260, and the amount of duty 1,329,844/. Ss.; and in Ireland, the number of

distillers 87, and the amount of duty 1,541,7671.; the distillers in th

i e latter countries being in general the individuals who send the spirits into consumption, the taste or habit of the people having led them td prefer the spirit in its simple and pure state, as extracted from the grain; whilst in England, on the contrary, it is not palatable until compounded with and disguised by the addition of other ingredients, by which the rectifier has been constituted the individual who finally sends the spirits into consumption.

With regard to the existing regulations, legislative interference is deprecated by the English distillers and the officers of Excise : none, therefore, is contemplated.

It appears that so far as "licensed distillers" are concerned, only three prosecutions for smuggling or violation of the revenue laws' have taken place during the last ten years ; and it is considered that great protections against evasions of duty, and great facilities in the collection of the revenue, are afforded by the circumstance that the trade in England is confined to a few large and responsible capitalists. The evidence and the number of recent prosecutions against illicit distillers show that smuggling and evasion of duty are carried on to a great and increasing extent, more especially in London and the large' manufacturing towns: a fact not to be wondered at, when the facility with %vhich spirits can be made, the difficulty of detection, and the peat temptation cauaed by the high duty are considered.

Scotch Distilleries. The duty on opirits in Scotland is 3s. 4d. per gallon. The Commissioners class the spirits made in that country under three different heads,—lst, Spirits for Exportation to England; 2d, Malt Spirits ; 3d, Grain Spirits.

Under the first of these heads, the Scotch distiller complains of the permission enjoyed by the English distiller of varying the gravity of their works after they are removed from the maslistun or underback ; whilst the Scotch distiller is restrained, under a heavy penalty, from laving them of a gravity which should exceed by more than 3lbs. the gravity at which he had given notice to work. The London distillers represent the privilege to have been granted to them as necessary to their mode of working ; whilst the Scotch and Irish distillers state the permission to have been surreptitiously introduced into the Act of Par- liament. Provision, it is stated, will be made for this point in the new Distillery-bill.

The Scotch distiller is charged at present with the high English duty on the whole quantity of spirit skipped fur England, without any al-

lowance for loss or waste during the voyage ; but the Commissioners recommend that relief should be granted, and that the English duty should be charged only on the quantity landed. The last grounds of complaint on the part of the Scotch distillers are the existing restrictions against shipping spirits in less quantities than eighty gallons. The Commissioners recommend that this limitation should be reduced to twenty gallons ; and that the notice for taking spirits out of bond should be reduced from forty-eight to twelve hours. The second head, "Malt Spirits," involves many important consi- derations, in a country in which that description of spirit has been long established as the national beverage.

Up to the year 1823, the greater part of the supply appears to have been in the hands of the smuggler ; the average number of gallons brought to charge in the five years preceding that year baying been 2,184,608 gallons per annum ; whilst in the five years succeeding 182:3, they amounted to 4,957,803 gallons per annum.

The result of the measures by which the duty on spirits was reduced from 6s. 2d. to 2s. 4d. per gallon, and the drawback on molt used by distillers increased to Is. 2d. per gallon, was the almost total suppres- sion of illicit distillation, and the establishment of numerous licensed malt-stills in districts were not a single legal distillery had previously existed.

The injurious consequences that have resulted from the diminution of the malt drawback in 1832, to the extent of Cid. a gallon, by which the duty has in effect been increased from as. 4d. to 3s. kW., are fully described by the Commissioners and illustrated by extracts from and references to the evidence given before them, showing the stimulus which has thereby again been given to smuggling ; it appearing that in some districts " maltsters who had entered to make malt for the entered distillers had withdrawn their entries, and made entry to make malt for general purposes, all of which is sold to the smuggler ;" and that in some of the Highland stations, which from 1823 to 1831, had been supplied with whiskey from the legal distillers, such supply had almost entirely ceased in consequence of the revival of smuggling.

The Commissioners do not submit any specific recommendation in reference to the malt drawback, but quote the resolutions of the Select Committee of the House of Commons- 1st. That the present system of allowing a dranback on malt spirits drools great opportunities for fraud. "2s1. That in any manner of reducing or repealing the malt dranback. due precau- tion be taken to prevent the revival of illicit distillation ;" —as showing the difficulties attending the question, on which extensive differences of opinion are entertained ; the Highland distillers maintain- ing that the very existence of their trade depends upon the continuation of their allowance; whilst the abolition of it accompacied by a reduc- tion of the duty on spirits generally is recommended by the distillers of Edinburgh. The Commissioners suggest the expediency of waiting the result of the reduction of duty which they recommend, before any interference is made with the malt drawback.

The Commissioners recommend that the reduced duty of Is. lid, on bere and bigg (an inferior sort of barley), should be attached to malt made froor that description of grain, Wherever it may have been pro- duced; and they further recommend the restoration of the old law under which distillers were empowered to work alternately from malt *r grain, upon giving six days notice to the Excise. We have already adverted to the great revival of smuggling conse- quent upon the increase of duty, and the taking off sixpence from the malt drawback. An impression is entertained that in some of the ex- tensive legal distilleries considerable evasion of duty takes place. The smuggling across the Border is carried on to a trifling extent, in con- sequence of the number of officers employed in its prevention—fifty- six—at an annual cost of 9,920/.

The exportation of spirits from Scotland to Ireland has nearly ceased within the last year and a half, in consequence of the recent increase of duty, which has enabled the illicit distiller of Ireland to supplant Scotch whiskey in the market. In the exportation to foreign parts, there has been a gradual increase in the last ten years, amounting in 1833 to 24,462 gallons of malt, and 679 gallons of grain spirits : and there is reason to believe that this export would be very greatly in- creased were the Scotch distillers relieved from the restrictions under which they labour, in regard to the exportation of whiskey in quantities adapted to "ship stores," as well as to private consumption. Per- mission to warehouse Scotch spirits in England, at Liverpool for in- stance, under bond for exportation, with the previous payment of the English duty, would greatly promote the foreign trade in spirits.

Irish Distilleries. The increase in the quantity of spirits after the reduction of the duty in 1823, from 5s. nd. to 28. 4id. a gallon, is as follows.

Gallons.

In 1823, the quantity was 3,590,376 1824, 6,690,315 1825, 9,262,744

And in like manner a gradual falling off has been the result of the increase of the duty in 1830 to 3s. 4d.

The universal and alarming extent to which illicit distillation has

prevailed in Ireland, especially since the duty was raised, has satisfied the Commissioners that the only remedy consists in the reduction of the duty to the former rate of 2s. 4.24. a gallon.

The Ninth Report of the Commissioners relates to the duty upon vinegar, the abolition of which it recommends.

The Tenth Report relates to the Irish Malt.duty. The result of the evidence shows- 1st, That illicit malting prevails to n considerable extent. 2d, That the revenue is defrauded annually to the extent of 60,000/. 3d, That the entered maltsters cannot continue to carry on their business with profit unless they have recourse to evasions of duty. 4th, That the illicit practices now going on will rapidly spread over the whole of Ireland, unless the Legislature interfere and apply a proper remedy. The subject of the Malt-duty in each part of the United Kingdom will form the subject of a future Report. In that relating to the Irish Malt-duty the Commissioners confined themselves to the points necessary to enable the Government to bring in a bill for the remedy of the illegal practices mentioned, had it been deemed practicable to do so pending the period which must necessarily be occupied in preparing a general and final measure.

Before closing this summary, we beg to bear our testimony to the ability and distinctness with which Mr. HARRISON, the Secretary to the Commissioners, has condensed the mass of information collected in the Inquiry. It is from his digest that we have been able to compile the present statement.