438 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



second ; while the poor man living upon hard-earned bread had 

 no place at all in his thoughts. He (Mr. Beckett) could not 

 understand a man's being called a free-trader and placing such 

 hign reatrictious upon agricultural produce. Mr. Gladstone 

 held the British farmer up to ridicule, dangling him before the 

 House of Comraous as a person in most prosperous circum- 

 stances ; but atth'.ugh Mr. Gladstone called the farmer his 

 friend, he (Mr. Beckett) would much rather have had proper 

 consideration as regards the repeal of the malt-tax 

 than high-flowing professions of friendship. Mr. Glad- 

 stone drew his conclusions very fallaciously from the 

 income-tax returns, the tax paid in schedule B be- 

 ing in proportion to the rent, and being paid whether 

 the farmer had a profit or not. Many of those present know 

 that lately they had not received a shilling of interest for 

 money invested in agriculture. He thought it a great pity that 

 the repeal of the tax should be compromised (and he differed 

 with great diffidence from a gentleman of the experience and 

 learning which characterized one of the members for Suffolk, 

 who had proposed such an arrangement) by a paltry Is. 

 per qr. upon foreign malt brought into this country. Farm- 

 ers ought to show that they were not disposed to compromise 

 the matter by less than a reduction of half the present duty, 

 the repeal of the whole to follow when the Emperor of the 

 French and Italians could settle their knotty differences. 



The resolution was put and carried. 



Mr. R. Haward, of Spexhall, next addressed the meeting 

 at considerable length, reviewing the rise and progress of the 

 tax — in consequence, as he argued, of useless wars — from the 

 reign of William HI. to the present day. Proceeding nesct to 

 the consideration of the effects of the tax upon the agricul- 

 tural interest, Mr. Haward adverted to the experiment made 

 by Mr. Hudson, of Castleacre, as to the relative advantages of 

 feeding cattle with malt and feeding them with barley. Mr. 

 Hudson fattened three beasts with barley and three with malt, 

 and the latter made £2 per head more than the former. It 

 had been stated that barley was better than malt for feeding 

 stock, and an experiment had been put forward which was 

 made by an eminent Scotch chemist at the request of the Go 

 vernment of the day. This Scotch chemist, a Dr. Thompson, 

 was requested to feed some stock upon malt and barley, and 

 instead of, as any man of business would have done, putting 

 up some beasts and sheep, and trying them with equal quan- 

 tities one with another, he put up a couple of cows, and fed one 

 upon barley and the other upon malt. The cow fed upon 

 barley gave more butter and milk than the other; and one 

 might naturally suppose it would be so, because those who had 

 kept a dairy of cows knew that if they were fed upon too 

 large a quantity of saccharine food they would not get on. 

 Yet Dr. Thompson's authority was put against Mr. Hudson's 

 and Mr. Smith's, of Exmoor, in Devonshire. A small quantity 

 of malt was generally used with the prize animals at the 

 Smithfield Shows, as it was found to put a better face upon their 

 meat and finish them off better ; and the three malt-fed beasts 

 of Mr. Hudson, when shown in Smithfield, were selected as 

 superior to those fed upon barley. If, then, it was convinc- 

 ingly proved that malt could be used to advantage in fatten- 

 ing cattle, why should British farmers be compelled to forego 

 the use of an article which they grew themselves, and which they 

 could manufacture themselves but for the duty ? This year 

 there had been a great deal of inferior barley which the malt- 

 sters could not buy in consequence of the duty, but much of 

 it might in the absence of the duty have been used for fatten- 

 ing purposes. Yet the foreigner was actually allowed to fat- 

 ten his beasts with malt, and bring them here duty free, to 

 compete with English cattle ! He was a free trader, but he 

 was opposed to command meat coming in duty free, while such 

 an exorbitant tax was put upon English malt that farmers 

 were compelled to buy foreign articles. Only a few counties 

 in England produced fine malting barleys ; a better article 

 would always, under natural circumstances, command a better 

 price; and why [should the malt duty interfere and prevent 

 the barleys of Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Hampshire, and 

 one or two more districts obtaining the price they ought to 

 have ? He had no objection to the reduction of duties upon 

 foreign wiues and spirits ; but if the object was to throw beer 

 on one side altogether, let it be stated openly ; let the pro- 

 moters of such a system say at once, " We wish that foreign 

 wines and spirits should take the place of British beer ; you 

 i-ngUsh farmers are nobody, and let your barley go just any- 



where." The prohibition up&n foreign malt was now re- 

 moved, but all he asked for was a fair field and no favour. 

 He was not afraid of foreign farmers. The improved mode of 

 agriculture, and the quantity of stock now bting kept, must 

 convince those who had seen the continent, and noticed the 

 manner in which foreigners cultivated their lands, that Eng- 

 lishmeu had nothing to fear from foreign farmers, so long as 

 they were placed in an equal position with them. This was 

 not, however, the case at present. The malt duty was always 

 allowed upon all beer exported ; and why should the foreigner 

 have his beer free of malt duty, while the Englishman was 

 compelled to pay a heavy duty upon it? As regards the la- 

 bourers, the tax must be considered a tremendous hardship ; 

 now, instead of having a glass of good beer, they mi^ht be 

 sometimes seen running to a pond to queLch their thirst! If 

 there were no malt duty there would not be adulteration as at 

 present, but they would be able to have a good wholesome 

 beverage at their homes, greatly to the comfort of themselves 

 and their families. He might be asked how he was going to 

 prove that adulteration prevailed; but it had been stated, and 

 never contradicted, that in 1799 the London brewers used 

 more barley than they did in 1830, although in the latter yeaif 

 they produced 1,000,000 barrels more beer. To bring about 

 this result there mu9t_have been awful adulteration (laughter.) 

 It had been stated that the people had now become more fond 

 than formerly of tea and coffee, and that the consumption of 

 malt would never rise to its former point ; this might be true 

 to some extent, but he believed the people of England still 

 loved a glass of good beer, and that a reduction of the duty 

 on malt would lead to a vastly increased consumption, and con- 

 sequently to a greater demand for barley. Adverting to the 

 success which had attended the agitation for the repeal of the 

 window duty, the corn laws, the newspaper stamp, &c., Mr, 

 Haward argued that the malt tax was as unfair as any of these 

 imposts, and that although nothing would probably be got 

 this year in the way of its abatement, if an agitation was com- 

 menced and continued another year something must be done. 

 If the matter was kept steadily before the public the tax 

 would be got rid of. Meetings should be got up in every 

 market-town, and paid agents should be employed to go into 

 the manufacturing districts, and explain to the people why 

 they were prevented having a good class of beer they would 

 then, he was sure, unite with the agricultural interests in op- 

 posing the tax, and it would fall to the ground. An Anti-Malt 

 Society should beorganized in London, and a good fund raised 

 to enable it to work effectively. The resolution submitted by 

 Mr. Haward was to the effect " that petitions in accordance 

 with the foregoing resolutions be prepared for signature in as 

 many parishes as possible, and that a committee be appointed 

 to carry the suggestion into effect." Mr. Haward before re- 

 suming his seat stated that fifty petitions with 3,000 signa- 

 tures had been sent up from the Blything Union (ap- 

 plause.) 



Mr. Packard seconded the resolution, which was put and 

 agreed to. 



Mr. Hawkins said he supported Mr. Cobden in hia free- 

 trade efforts, and Mr. Cobden promised that if free-trade iu 

 corn could be obtained, he would assist the farmers to get the 

 malt-tax repealed. Sir Robert Peel also said, if the corn laws 

 were once repealed, the repeal of the malt-tax must follow ; 

 but some farmers had up to the present time clung to 

 the malt-tax as a remnant of protection. It might be asked 

 what tax could be substituted for the malt duty ; but that was 

 not the farmers' but the Chancellor of the Exchequer's busi- 

 ness. The question for the farmers to consider was, whether 

 free-trade having reduced the price of wheat 8s. or 10s. per 

 qr., they could afford to tell their barley at the same price as 

 before, especially as a more expensive preparation was re- 

 quired for barley than for any other crop. He agreed with a 

 former speaker, that last year a good deal of barley, which 

 had not been used, might have been made into very decent 

 malt, if the farmer had been left to himself. It was no use 

 for farmers to wait till their landlords came forward ; their 

 rents had not decreased, but the tenant's profits had seri- 

 ously diminished, and it was doubtful whether they would be 

 able to hold their own. No farmer, if he had to sell, in the 

 ordinary run of years, could afford to sell his barley at 10s. 

 or 123. per coomb. As to the antiquity of the tax, if antiquity 

 was to be the rule, the Chancellor of the Exchequer had better 

 revive the poll-tax, since the population had greatly increased 



