PARLIAMENTARY REPORTS. 387 



stated by your Committee in their fourth Report, it may fairly be 

 ejfpected that the whole revenue will not only attain, but consider- 

 ably exceed, the amount at which it has been taken by your Com- 

 mittee. 



With a view to ascertain the probability of this point, your Com- 

 mittee have had under their consideration the accounts of the nett 

 produce of the Excise, exclusive of the war duty on malt, in Great 

 Britain, in the years and quarters ended the 5th January and oth 

 April 1818, as compared with the same in the years and quarters 

 ended the 5th January and 5th April 1817; and having perceived 

 that, in these accounts, the articles most prominently deficient were 

 those of malt and beer, they called for an account of the malt duties 

 received in the years 1812, 1813, 1814, 1815, 1816, and 1817, 

 exclusive of the war duty upon malt, which has since expired ; and 

 they likewise called for an account of the nett produce of the duties 

 on beer in the same periods. 



From these documents it appears, that the ^^^^ i?i3*^..°?.^^''c',482,086 

 produce of the Malt Tax, according to the isu !!.... slgsSloss 



average of the three years which preceded the ^^^^ 3,iofa,4gT 



very unfavourable harvest of 1816, amounted £.8,342,098 



to 2,847,366/., whereas the actual receipt, in Average .... 2,847,366 



the year ended the 5th April 1818, was only I'g^^.opo 



1, 954,090/. This leaves a difference of ciffcreuce.. 393,270 



893,276/. upon this head alone ; a difference 



which, when it is corisidered, in conjunction with the defalcation of 

 the beer duty measured by the same average, and amounting to 

 451,949/. (a considerable proportion of , Jt^'^^"''^- 



1 • 1 ^1 ■. -1 1 '^ ^ \ Average of 3 years, > o -r:; ^fii 



which must be ascribed to the same cause), ibis, i8i4,& 1815,5 -'""'•*"^ 

 will account for a deficiency more than equal ^^dlS'sApram's,'! 2,333,412 



to that of the whole nett revenue of Great ' — : 



Britain, in the last year, under consideration, ^jJ.Q^S 



below the estimate of the Committee, viz. Deficiency Mait Duty.. 893,2-0 



1,245,000/. ^" BeerDaty..J51^ 



It is scarcely necessary for your Com- £. 1,345,325 



tiiittee to remark, that the depression which has continued to 

 aflFect these particular duties, after other parts of the revenue, 

 arising from consumption, have been rapidly returning to their 

 average productiveness, is one which the course of the seasons 

 sufficiently explains, and may be expected to repair ; so that, if there 

 is no reason to apprehend a falling off in the other articles subject to 

 excise duties, below even their present amount, it may fairly be 

 presumed, that the public income will maintain itself to the extent 

 of the estimate of the Committee ; while, on the other hand, every 

 improvement of the remainder of the excise duties, will have the 

 effect of carrying it beyond that estimate, in whatever degree such 

 improvement may take place. 



la this view, the several accounts of the excise revenue, now 



2 c 2 before 



