324 CULTURE, MANUFACTURE, ETC., OF TOBACCO. 



tobacco revenue of France was only £4,285,000 ; but if 

 equally productive with ours, it ought to have been 

 £5,572,300 ; so that France loses by its grasping, and 

 by its trimming with rustic proprietors, above a million 

 and a quarter a year ! In England it amounted in 

 customs, in the same year, exclusive of excise, to 

 £4,425,040, or close on four and a half millions. This 

 exceeded the sugar duties by £575,350, and was larger 

 than the customs on any one article, tea excepted — as 

 great a fiscal, and indeed social curiosity as itself; for 

 this last amounted to £5,471,422, being £200,000 above 

 the excise on malt, long the prime prop of the British 

 Treasury. 



But our British duty sins most wofully by excess, and 

 has perseveringly done so now for thirty long years. The 

 duties are, on leaf or unmanufactured tobacco, 3s. lfd., 

 on snuff 6s. 3f^., and on cigars, or any manufactured 

 article other than snuff 9s. 5-f-cZ. per lb. The average 

 price of leaf tobacco may be fairly taken at 5d. per lb.; so 

 that we have here a duty on the cost value of 758, which, 

 after deducting a handsome sum for a legitimate tax, 

 leaves a very broad margin for smuggling and adulter- 

 ation, both of them so extensively practised that some 

 have estimated the amount to equal one-third part of 

 the legal consumption. Of course, on a mere luxury 

 the tax may fairly be made as high as is compatible 

 with security from smuggling and adulteration ; but 

 anything beyond this point is a premium to the smug- 

 gler and adulterator, an injury to the fair trader, and a 

 loss to the Exchequer. — Examiner, Jan. 17. 1852. 



