THE WINE-TAX.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
Sin.,—When the general admiration at tlis stroke of financial genius has subsided, Cassandras will have a good time. Better, therefore, to prophesy as soon as possible. " Bread " and "wine," being the old-fashioned necessaries, not luxuries, it is difficult for old-fashioned people to see the difference between a tax on one and a tax on the other. But the House seems to have received it with admiration. The supposed blow at "the classes" has delighted "the masses,"—from a Conservative Chancellor, too ! And the temperance bodies are rejoicing in a great victory for "the cause." A truly all-round stroke, this. What does it mean? To the rich men, who pay ever so much a dozen for their wines, nothing. Or they would not stand it. To those who do not drink wine at all, nothing either. To the enor- mous number of the well-to-do and despised "middle class," everything. They drink the light, sound wines, for health and for economy. Beer is too heavy, without constant physical exercise ; spirits are "the devil in solution." The light " ordinaire " champagnes, recently introduced at prices from 24s. to 36s. a dozen, are a panacea of life to many of them, and they are gone. Twenty per cent. is too much to pay, even for State usury.
The result seems plain ; and the temperance bodies, earnest, I believe, as they are, will, unless I am very much mistaken, realise their mistake shortly and sharply enough. The new Budget simply puts a premium on the most destructive " liquors " in the world, at the cost of the most innocent. It is the triumph of brandy. Since the days of the "Decline and Fall," I do not believe a more pernicious tax has been invented. Perhaps it is but another sign that those days are but being repeated in another Empire. This is a sumptuary law, and a tax on luxuries. Surely it might be confined to wines above a " necessary " price.—I am, Sir, &c.,
[We cannot agree with our correspondent. Sparkling wine is a luxury, and a luxury on which 20 per cent. is not too high a tax. We regard the tax with the utmost complacency.—En. Spectator.]
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