1831.] Europe, and the British Parliament. 251 



one of the oddest modes of administering to national prosperity that ever 

 entered into the ministerial brain. Were not our streets sufficiently 

 infested with tobacco already ? is there not a cigar in the mouth of three- 

 fourths of our shopkeepers ? and how were we to call the further 

 propagation of this national nuisance a public benefit ? But if Lord 

 Althorp thought that he could draw into the revenue the sum now paid 

 to the smugglers, he was mistaken. No contrivance of his could bring 

 it down to its price on the French coast, whence a puif of wind and three 

 hours sail will bring it into England. If we are to be told that the 

 poor man's comforts are to be attended to, we say that the use of tobacco 

 is one of the most injurious presents that can be made to the poor man, 

 or to the rich. That it undoubtedly enfeebles the bodily health in a 

 remarkable degree, dozes the understanding, and where much used, 

 destroys all inclination to the active pursuits of either mind or body. 

 It is a minor kind of opium, and like it, however comfortable to those to 

 whom use has made it second nature, is productive of diseases of the 

 lungs, and of general debility, itself amounting to disease. If legisla- 

 tors have found it their best policy to substitute mild liquors for gin and 

 other deleterious excitements, notwithstanding their productiveness to 

 the revenue, we might understand the wisdom of Lord Althorp's policy 

 in laying a triple tax on an offensive, and even an injurious article ; 

 certainly not in taking it off, while there were so many others on which 

 any degree of alleviation would be received with national gratitude. 



The whole amount of the relief to the public on these various items is 

 estimated at 4,160,000. ; of loss to the revenue, 3,200,000. The loss 

 Lord Althorp proposed to make up by an equalization of the duties on 

 wines, which he would change from 7s. 3d. for French, 4s. lOd. for 

 Peninsular, and 2s. 3d. for Cape, to 5s. 6d. ; by an addition to the 

 timber-duty, by which that on the load of European timber will be 

 raised to 50s., and on the load of Canadian, to 20s. ; a new duty of Id. 

 per Ib. on raw cotton imported, with a drawback of equal amount ; a 

 tax on steam-boat passengers, where the distance does not exceed 20 

 miles, Is., from 20 to 30, 2s., above 30 miles, 2s. 6d. ; 10s. per cent, on 

 the actual sale of landed property, and 10s. per cent, on the actual 

 transfer of funded property. The whole calculated amount of these 

 new taxes is 2,740,000. The rise on Cape wine is since withdrawn. 



Great discontent had arisen with respect to the tax on the transfer of 

 funded property ; and it was subsequently withdrawn, on the ground 

 of its being a breach of faith with the public creditor The tax on 

 steam-boat passengers has also excited some animadversion. But if 

 there must be taxes, we scarcely know where one could be better placed 

 than on steam-boat passengers. The cheapness of passage from Ireland 

 has overflowed the entire west of England with the rambling Irish, who 

 came nominally to work, but really to beg annually in England. The 

 price of their passage is said to be often as low as three-pence a head ; 

 and as the journey and voyage are made much more for the sake of the 

 adventure, than from any real necessity, we should by no means regret 

 any impost which could stop the incursion. The whole affair is looked 

 upon as a frolic by the Irish population, a gay summer excursion, while 

 it actually reduces them, in a multitude of instances, to the most 

 miserable destitution, crowds the roads of England with them as beggars, 

 and, in not one instance out of a hundred, sends them back a shilling 



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