MINOR ARTICLES, UNIMPORTANT IN POINT OF HEIRSDE.
Starch £75,504 34d. per lb. Stone Bowies 3,054 5s. per ewt. not exceeding two quarts measure. Sweets and Mead 2,350 6d. per gallon. Vinegar 19,313 2d. per gallon.
These items show the inconsiderate manner in which taxes have heed imposed or maintained. The two last were among the earliest article subjected to excise; and on their original imposition, Sweets might have yielded more, and both might have been an object in the financial state of affairs. That necessity has long since passed away ; and had the House of Commons been competent to its functions, both would have
been abolished years ago. It is to be hoped that no time will now be lost in remitting the whole. The inconvenience to the manufacturer
is just the same as if the revenue produced were ten or twenty times the amount. The cost of collection is, comparatively, a great deal more; and Stone Bottles, Vinegar, and Mead, are most probably collected at a loss. It is obvious, on inspection, that this most be the case with the two latter. If we suppose the duty on Gin to be collected at the usual Excise percentage, it costs nearly 5d. a gallon ; the charge on Irish Spirits (we have no means of separately getting at the Scotch) is 2d. a gallon ; and the whole duty on Vinegar is only 2d., not to mention that large amounts are managed much cheaper than smaller. This duty is, im-
ported the excuse for keeping up a heavy protective one on the m- ported article.
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