324 Proceedings of the British Association for 1850. 



which amount would yield 50 per cent, above the cost of the tobacco 

 as imported, and the duty paid thereon, — a moderate increase to de- 

 fray all the expenses of manufacture, and the charges attendant upon 

 the retailing of an article nearly the whole of which is paid for in 

 copper coins. There can be no reason to suspect that the amount 

 can bo at all overcharged, which leaves no larger margin than this 

 for the gross profits of 209,537 persons, the number which, in the 

 year 1848, took out and paid for licenses to deal in tobacco and snuff, 

 in addition to 642 persons licenced to manufacture those articles. 

 It must be remembered, that with regard to two of the three articles 

 the expenditure for which Mr Porter had endeavoured to estimate, 

 an indefinite sum should be allowed for the quantities illicitly pro- 

 duced and imported, but as to the amount of which it is altogether 

 impossible to form any trustworthy estimate. We know, however, 

 from the seizures and discoveries that are continually made, that a 

 very large additional amount must be drawn from the pockets of the 

 people in order to compensate for the risks of the smuggler and the 

 illicit distiiler. 



If it be conceded that the sums here brought forward are justified 

 by the facts and calculations on which they are based, it would ap- 

 pear, that the people, and chiefly the working classes of England, 

 Scotland, and Ireland, voluntarily tax themselves for the enjoyment 

 of only three articles, neither of which is of any absolute necessity, 

 to the following amount : — 



British and Colonial spirits . . . £20,810,208 

 Brandy, 3,281,250 



Total of spirits, .... £24,091,458 

 Beer of all kinds, exclusive of that brewed in 



private families, ..... 25,383,165 



Tobacco and Snuff, 7,588,607 



£57,063,230 



At the beginning of this paper it was remarked, that the amount of 

 money expended upon articles which, like spirits, beer and tobacco, 

 are not of first necessity, forms a measure of the prosperity of the 

 nation and of the ability of the community to bear those national 

 burthens which cannot be avoided. — a remark the justice of which 

 hardly admits of question ; but it would by no means follow that the 

 diminished use of the three articles named would afford proof in it- 

 self of lessened means of comfort on the part of the working people, 

 and of diminished prosperity in the nation generally. On the con- 

 trary, if it were seen that, as respects gin and whisky, the two and 

 one-third gallons consumed in the year in England — the eleven and 

 one-sixth gallons so consumed in Scotland — and the three and a-half 

 gallons consumed in Ireland, by each adult male, were diminished to 

 one-half those proportions, while a larger sale should be effected of 



