GENERAL HISTORY. 



[81 



ample had been followed. He 

 had always regretted the neces- 

 sity of augmenting the malt duty; 

 but it was to be remembered, that 

 he had never had but a choice of 

 difficulties. The deduction fiom 

 the revenue, including the repay- 

 ment of duty on stock, in the 

 hands both of distillers and 

 maltsters would be, he feared, 

 300,0001. ; other small duties re- 

 pealed would make a total diminu- 

 tion in the revenue of 350,0001., 

 and when the committee recol- 

 lected that the whole of the nett 

 payments into the exchequer 

 in the last year amounted to 

 o, 345,8461., he was sure he 

 should not be charged with esti- 

 mating the annual produce of the 

 revenue too loosely when he took 

 it at (;,000,000l., he feared rather 

 that he should be accused of an 

 excessive estimate. He thought 

 himself giounded, however, in 

 hoping for what must be the in- 

 crease of more than half a million 

 from that improved system of col- 

 lection which was visible in every 

 department, and for which the 

 chiefs of departments deserved the 

 greatest praise — [Hear, hear! J. 

 He covdd not better exc-ite that 

 industry, or stimidate th.at exer- 

 tion than by showing to the dif- 

 ferent boards that parliament 

 looked to them to prevent, by their 

 exertions, the necessity of fresh 

 taxatioji, and he knew that he did 

 not reckon on their exertions in 

 vain. There was no princii)le 

 more important to be kept in 

 view, particularly in Ireland, 

 than that it was better to collect 

 your old taxes well, than to de- 

 lude tlie j)ublic by suggesting 

 new and unpio(kictiTe imposts. 

 He did not found his estimate of 

 Vol. LVIH. 



revenue solely on a vague expec- 

 tation of its prodace ; the assess- 

 ments principally of the inland 

 taxes had been fonocd upon a 

 more correct system, and in no 

 branch of our levenue had a col- 

 lection been more improved. He 

 expected in the present year a 

 great increase from those duties, 

 and without referring to the ex- 

 cise revenue, or to those disputed 

 questions connected with the dis- 

 tillery, which he purposely avoid- 

 ed, because they were likely to 

 become the topics of discussion at 

 another and a more convenient 

 time ; it must be obvious to every 

 man that if the practice of illicit 

 distillation should be checked in 

 some degree (he was not sanguine 

 enough to hope for its immediate 

 extinction) the excise revenue 

 would become the main source of 

 our contribution. He did not 

 fear either, that the internal diffi- 

 culties of Ireland would press so 

 heavy as in the last year, a year 

 of sudden and unexampled dis- 

 tress. That distress was e;vsily to 

 be traced in the diminished con- 

 sumption of some of the most 

 jiroductive articles, not only in 

 our excise but in our customs 

 also. He hoped that our horizon 

 was brightening a little, and that 

 he might be justified in the esti- 

 mate of six millions which he had 

 assumed. The produce, besides, 

 of the (piarter to the 5th Apiil 

 last had considerably exceeded tha 

 corresponding period in the pre- 

 ceding year. — He had omitted to 

 refer to stamps ; which he ought 

 not, ;xs the increase had been con- 

 siderable in that branch of the 

 revenue. 



The right hon. gentleman pro- 

 ceeded to state the charge on the 



[G] treasury 



