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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



tificate to sportsmen is to be graduated down from £S 

 to £1, according to the period of the year at which it 

 is taken out. Only about 34,000 certificates are now 

 taken out annually. Eatinghouses, or any room, shop, 

 &c., where victuals or refreshments are sold to be con- 

 sumed on the premises, are to pay a licence of 10s. or 

 £\, according as the rental is above or below ^^25. 

 This will include pastrycooks and confectioners a,s well. 

 These may also be granted a licence for the sale of either 

 beer or wine at £3 or £4: 10s., if above or below a .£25 

 rental, or at £b or £8 respectively for the sale of 

 both beer and wine. A registration fee of Id. is to be 

 charged on every package or separate article imported 

 or exported, 'i'his is anticipated to yield j£300,000. 



In future, Mr. Gladstone informs us that the bulk of 

 the Customs revenue will be derived substantially from 

 fifteen articles. " There will be a relief from indirect 

 taxatioft of about .£4,000,000. Out of that, £1,000,000 

 paper duty will go directly to stimulate the demand for 

 rural labour. £1,800,000, or the greater part of 

 £2,000,000, under the French treaty, will in every in- 

 stance strike at differential duties, and will be the 

 means of removing from the tariff its greatest, perhaps 

 its only remaining deformities. There will be on the 

 British tariff, after the adoption of these changes, 

 nothing whatever in the nature of protective or dif- 

 ferential duties, unless you apply that name to the 

 small'charges which will be levied upon timber and 

 corn, which amount in general, perhaps^ to about 3 

 per cent. With that limited exception, you will have 

 a final disappearance of all protective and differential 

 duties, and the consumer will know that every shilling 

 he pays will go to the revenue, and not to the domes- 

 tic, as against the foreign producer. You will have a 

 great extension and increase of trade, you will have a 

 I'emission of the principal restraints upon travellers, 

 and a great reduction in the expenses of the Customs 

 and Excise departments. The immediate reduction in 

 the Customs department will be £50,000, in the Ex- 

 cise £86,000 ; and the ultimate reduction upon the 

 expenses of the departments I expect will be somewhere 

 about £150,000," 



We now come to speak of the French commercial 

 li'eaty, and of the changes of duties contemplated 

 thereby. And firstly, the concessions of France are 

 very prospective instead of immediate. While we are 

 to liberate forthwith almost all the articles shipped to 

 this country by France, we are to receive no conces- 

 sions until July, October, and December respectively 

 this year ; and for some we are put off till June next 

 year. 



France is very happy to take our raw materials of 

 which she stands in need at once, but our manufac- 

 tures, which are to compete with those of her own 

 people, she puts off to a more convenient season, say 

 next year. Our coal and coke slie will admit on the 

 1st of July, at a duty of 15 centimes the 100 kilo- 

 grammes ; iron and steel in October, and tools and 

 machinery in December; but flax and hemp manu- 

 factures are deferred till June, 1861, and all other 

 articles till October, 1861. Of coals we now ship to 

 France about H million tons, of iron and steel about 

 100,000 tons, machinery and tools to the value of 

 £250,000. 



The duties on our goods are hereafter not to exceed 

 30 per cent, ad valorem. 



We may find increased vent for our linen and cotton 

 yarns in France, but we shall also find them outbidding 

 us for increased supplies of all the raw materials for the 

 leading textile manufactures. Although the home con- 



sumption of linen is very great in France, yet they will 

 soon be able to rival any country in Europe, and com- 

 pete successfully in the markets of the world. The 

 home consumption is estimated at fully seven yards for 

 each person. The annual value of the finer yarns we 

 at present ship to France is about £1.'J0,000. The im- 

 ports of cotton last year into France were upwards of 

 3,000 tons beyond those of 1858. The number of 

 factories in France is three times as large as in Great 

 Britain, although they are less productive from 

 the different proportions of machinery and moving 

 power, and the absence of the bones and sinews of 

 manufactures — coal and iron. But increased supplies 

 of these from our own ports will greatly advance her 

 progress as a manufacturing power, while she has cheaper 

 labour also at command. Four or five years ago there 

 were 13,000 factories in France devoted to textile manu- 

 factures, employing upwards of 707,000 persons. 



And in what has been covenanted for us with France, we 

 are to sacrifice the interests of all our manufactures, for 

 we scarcely believe that we can compete in many of 

 these with France, especially in silk and leather work. 

 " We undertake to abolish immediately and totally all 

 duties upon all manufactured goods. There will be a 

 sweep, clear, certain, and absolute, of manufactured 

 goods from the face of the British tariff." 



The duty on foreign brandy is to be reduced from 

 15s. to 8s. 2d. a gallon, to the great consternation of the 

 British brandy-distiller, who has worked up, of late 

 years, a trade of one million gallons a year. Wine is to 

 be reduced from 5s. lOd. to 3s. a gallon, and in April, 

 1861, to 2s., Is. 6d., or Is., according to strength. 

 That the cheap introduction of some of the conti- 

 nental wines will be an improvement upon much of the 

 so-called Cape wines sold, we are free to admit. 

 Whether the production can be stimulated so as to meet 

 an increased demand, or whether the British taste will 

 again be led to indulge in these light wines to any great 

 extent, remains to be seen. 



There are numerous articles of French manufacture 

 which will be greatly influenced by this new treaty, if 

 carried into force. But on many we cannot now touch. 

 The reduction of the duty on manufactured corks, 

 gloves, and straw-plaiting is deferred till the 1st April. 

 Of corks the quantity imported in 1858 was 452,3651b3., 

 of which 295,4831bs. were taken for home consumption. 

 The great bulk of these (409, OOOlbs.) came from France, 

 and the remainder from Spain and Portugal. The duty 

 on the raw material has been removed these five years 

 past ; and 6,000 or 7,000 tons of this bark are now 

 brought in. Of gloves we already import about three- 

 and-a-quarter million pair, almost entirely from France, 

 at a duty ranging from 2s. 5d. to 4s. 8d. per dozen pairs. 



The imports of straw-platting, &c., for the last two 

 years have been on the average about 145,000 pounds 

 weight, assessed chiefly at the duty of 23. per pound, 

 and a small quantity at 6d. per pound. The revenue 

 brought in by this has been under £14,000. The more 

 valuable kinds have come in from France and Tuscany ; 

 and the former sent us the largest proportion. But with 

 the removal of the duty we have no doubt greatly in- 

 creased imports will come in from Tuscany, that is, if 

 fashion be directed in this line. Few persons probably 

 have any conception of the great extent of this national 

 industry in Tuscany, where it forms the chief article of 

 export. The value of these exports in 1855, reached 

 £23,186,672, of which£l5, 834, 507 washats,£7, 158,060 

 plats, and £30,553 the raw material. The attempts 

 made in other countries to produce this peculiar kind 

 of straw have hitherto failed. 



