GENERAL HISTORY. 



[61 



proposition — the auction duty — 

 which he had calculated at 

 100,000/. and which having aban- 

 doned, it became necessary for him 

 to supply the consequent deficiency 

 in the consolidated fund. The 

 total sum, therefore, that it became 

 requisite to raise by permanent 

 taxes, was nearly a million of 

 money, viz. 870,000/. to be applied 

 to the sinking fund ; and 100,000/. 

 the deficiency occasioned by the re- 

 linquishment last year of the auc- 

 tion duty. For the purpose of pro- 

 viding the last-mentioned sum, it 

 was his intention to propose to the 

 committee an additional duty on 

 tobacco equal to that imposed on 

 it last year, which duty he would 

 estimate at 100,000/. although pro- 

 bably it would produce more. He 

 was not aware that this new tax 

 would occasion any inconvenience ; 

 or at least he was persuaded that 

 it would cause as little as any that 

 couldbedevised. With regard to the 

 greater sura of 870,000/. the prin- 

 cipal tax that he meant to propose 

 to meet it, was an increase of the 

 custom duties. He thought this 

 would be infinitely preferable to 

 any augmentation of the assessed 

 taxes, or of the stamp duties, which 

 had lately been so much increased. 

 As the most convenient mode, he 

 proposed to raise the sum oF 8 or 

 900,000/. by a general increase of 

 those duties, with certain excep- 

 tions. These exceptions were the 

 duties on tea, sugar, wine, raw 

 silk, and cotton wool. On the 

 other articles which paid custom 

 duties he proposed an increase of 

 25 per cent. No such general 

 augmentation had occurred since 

 ISO*, and only one partial and 

 ■mall increa.se in 1805. Under 

 the existing circumstances of the 



country this would be compara- 

 tively little felt. For the country 

 had, until recently, been so much 

 excluded from foreign trade, that, 

 until lately, all foreign articles had 

 come to our markets, what with 

 the difficulty of transmission, the 

 charge of freights, &c. under an 

 augmentation of expense, greatly 

 exceeding the proposed rate of 

 duty. Many circumstances had, 

 however, recently combined to 

 render those articles at the present 

 moment cheaper to the consumer, 

 even with the increased tax, than 

 they were last year without it. 

 He would estimate the amount of 

 the increase of the custom duties, 

 at from 850 to 900,000/. In ad- 

 dition to this, however, he meant 

 to propose a slight augmentation of 

 the excise in a particular bfanch of 

 it. He proposed that this should 

 take place on French wine*, an 

 article of mere luxury, entirely 

 confined to the higher orders, and 

 if checked in the importation, or 

 wholly shut out, he should con- 

 sider it to be a national advantage. 

 On French wines, he proposed to 

 lay an additional excise duty of 

 13d. a bottle, which would be 

 about 18d, to the consumer ; a tax 

 that could not be considered very 

 burthensome to the countrx'. 



The produce he estimated at 

 30,000/. no very important sum, 

 and one indeed which it would 

 hardly be worth while so to raise, 

 were not the subject itself one so 

 proper for taxation, that even were 

 it likely to produce less, or were 

 the consumption to be so diminish- 

 ed as to impair the existing pro- 

 duce of the duty upon it, he should 

 still feel it to be incumbent upon 

 him to make his present proposi- 

 tion. The estimated produce, 



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