t804. On the Malt Tax. 



49 



The IVriter of the folloiving Paper considers the Far7?2er'',T 

 Magazine as by far the most useful Periodical Work 

 which has appeared iii this country, on the subject of 

 Agriculture, As there are above Four Thousand Co- 

 pies of it dispersed over the Kingdo??i, he gave his AISS. 

 to the Proprietor of the Magazine, who, in return, fur- 

 nishes him with Copies, to be sent to Meiiibers of Parlia- 

 ■ment. If any Ge?itleman tvish for more information, he 

 will give it cheerfully, as fir as he is able ; and, as he 

 has given his ow?i name to the public, he hopes that those 

 who differ from him in Gpi?iion, will also avow their 

 names; or^ if they write anonymously^ that they will 

 express themselves in temperate language. When men are 

 united in their wishes to promote the good of the Publ'.c, 

 differences in matters of opifiion may be inaintaincd ivith 

 mutual esteem, and in the language of good humour, 



FOR THE farmer's MAGAZINE. 



A general view of the taxes on Malt, as imposed both in Eng* 

 land and in Scotland, By George Skene Keith, D. D. mini- 

 ster of Keith-hall and KinkelL 



As it does not appear to me that the real merits of the dis- 

 pute, respecting the proportions of duty to be paid for Englisli 

 and Scotch maltj have been properly understood, I shall endea- 

 vour, in this paper, to give a comprehensive and impartial view 

 of the subject. For this purpose, I shall, 



I. Give a short sketch of the history of the malt tax, as far 

 as regards the proportion of the duty imposed on English, com- 

 pared with that on Scotch malt. 



II. State some facts respecting the different values of Eng- 

 lish barley, compared with Scotch barley, and with Scotch bear 

 or big : and also of this last compared to Scotch barley, 



III. Offer some remarks on taxing malt in general; And, 

 JV. Offer some remarks on the proportion of taxe^ that 



should be established between English and Scotch malt, whe- 

 ther from barley, or from bear or big. 



- x\fter which, I shall give, in an appendix, a particular ac- 

 count of a number of experiments which I made last summer, 

 in order to ascertain, by distillation, the comparative values of 

 different quantities of malt, made from Scotch bear or big, and 

 both from Scotcli and English barley. 



I hope, that if these different divisions do not enable me to 

 exhaust the subject, they will at least assist the reader's me- 

 inory, will point out to him where any particular topic is 



VOL. v. NO. xvir. P ' handled, 



