TOBACCO. 



597 



pounds per head; while, in England, if vre were to judge from the amount on 

 which duty is paid, it is considerably less than one pound per head. 



Assuming the actual consumption at only 45,000,000 lbs., or two pounds per 

 head, we believe that a reduction of duty to Is. per pound would so effectually 

 destroy the illicit trader, that the revenue would gain by the change, not only 

 by bringing upwards of 30,000,000 lbs. under duty, which at present escape, 

 but by the great increase of the consumption consequent upon the encourage- 

 ment given to the fair trader. 



We would not, however, treat the question merely as a matter of revenue. 

 We would strongly represent the injustice which this exorbitant duty inflicts 

 upon those who pursue a legitimate trade, by enabling the smuggler to lessen 

 the extent of their transactions by more than half what they would otherwise 

 be ; and we would further earnestly urge upon your consideration the demoral- 

 ising tendency of such a systematic and extended violation of the law, not only 

 upon those engaged in the illicit trade, also upon those parties who are 

 found to connive at the practice from a sense of the gross injustice and impolicy 

 of a duty so disproportioned to the value of an article of such extensive 

 onsumption. 



We would refer to the opinion of a committee of the House of Commons on 

 the growth of tobacco in Ireland, in 1840, as follows : — ' That it further ap- 

 pears, from the evidence, that smuggling of foreign tobacco is at present 

 carried on to a great extent, and that all the measures now adopted, at great 

 expense to the country, are and will be ineff'ectual to repress it so long as the 

 temptation of evading a duty equal to twelve times the value of the article on 

 which it is imposed, remains.' 



We beg, therefore, respectfully to express our opinion, that if the duty on 

 tobacco were reduced to one shilling per pound, it would be alike beneficial to 

 the interests of legitimate commerce ; to the consumers, who consist almost 

 entirely of the poorer classes ; to the revenue, by increasing the productiveness 

 of the duty, and by greatly diminishing the expenditure so ineffectually incurred 

 to suppress the illicit trade ; and to the general morals of society by removing 

 a powerful inducement to infringe the laws. 



The imports of all kinds of tobacco for the last five years have 

 been as follows : — 





1848. 



1849. 



1850. 



1851. 



1852. 





lbs. 



lbs. 



lbs. 



lbs. 



lbs. 





31,090,360 



41,546,848 



35,166,358 



31,061,953 



33,205,635 



Manufactured and suuif ... 



1,512,714 



1,905,303 



1,557,518 



2,331,886 



2,930,299 





35,603,07-i 



43,452,154 



38,723,876 



33,393,839 



36,135,934 



Gross duty received 













1848. 



1849. 



1850. 



1851. 



1852. 





£ 



£ 



£ 



£ 



£ 





4,267,579 



4,328,217 



4,337,258 



4,386,910 



4,466,533 





97,655 



96,814 



92,873 



98,858 



94,293 





4,365,234 



4,425,031 



4,430,131 



4,485,768 



4,569,831 



The amount of tobacco consumed is so limited that the trade 

 will not admit of an excessive growth. In tlie two most thickly 

 populated countries in Europe — France and England — not more 

 than a certain quantity finds its way there. In Erance the trade is 

 monopolised by Government, which gives out contracts to deliver 

 a stipulated quantity at certain prices ; in England the duty im- 

 posed is so enormous that only a limited quantity of certain 

 descriptions can be imported without risk of loss. In G-ermany and 

 Holland, where the trade is more extensively carried on than else- 

 where, the daty imposed is almost nominal, and all classes of their 

 citizens are enabled to use the weed at prices very little higher 

 than its first prime cost. The tobacco trade constitutes so large 



