INHABITANTS CONSULTED IN POLITICAL MATTERS. 319 



&quot; The duty at 12| cents would be ... $250,000 



&quot; Less interest on the amount expended for the pumps, with 

 their necessary repairs and engineer s salary, over and above 

 the sum received for pumping, say . . 5,000 



&quot; Superintendents , commissioners , inspectors fees, and the 



office, with other charges, .... 10,000 



15,000 



&quot; Balance to be paid into canal fund, . . . $235,000 



&quot; Suppose, again, that 1,500,000 bushels are annually consumed 



within this state, the duty would be . . g 187,500 



&quot; The dealer s profit (to cover losses, &c.) will be 25 per cent, 46,875 



&quot; Amount paid on domestic salt by the consumers within the 



state, ... . 234,375 



&quot; The consumers of foreign salt within the state owing to 

 this duty, are compelled annually to pay an extra price for 

 that article, in the above proportion, and on 1,000,000 

 bushels, of 56 Ib. each (the lowest quantity at which it can 

 be estimated) is ..... 156,250 



$390,625 



&quot; Thus the 8234,375 paid into the canal fund, costs the 

 people, and they are principally the farmers and the labour 

 ing classes, $390,625, or, in other words, they pay directly 

 and indirectly more than two dollars for every one dollar that 

 that fund receives from the duty a fund, too, that does not 

 need it, as may be seen by the report of Mr Stilwell to the 

 Assembly in 1833, No. 268. If, instead of an insidious im 

 post, the sum received into that fund were even paid by a 

 direct tax, the cost to the consumers would not be one-fourth 

 the amount that is now drawn from them. 



&quot; It can be satisfactorily shown, should the object in view 

 be attained, that the immediate extension of the markets to 

 vast districts of country, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, 

 Illinois, the Canadas, and some of the Eastern States, which 

 have hitherto drawn their supplies from other sources, and 

 the consequent enlargement of the manufacture, upon which 

 about one-half of the duty would continue to be paid, with a 

 great and certain increase of canal tolls, will preserve the 

 canal fund undiminished, and probably exceed at once the sum 

 that would be obtained by a continuance of the duty at its 

 present high rate. 



