A notion is pretty general in Great Britain that the Irish poor are exceedingly ignorant. But this is by no means the case. If elementary knowledge, or the being able to read, write, and perform ordinary arithmetical operations be regarded as education, it is more generally diffused in Ireland than in England. "Where, in England," asks Mr. Bicheno, "could the Ordnance Surveyors find persons among the lowest class to calculate the sides and areas of their triangles, at a halfpenny a triangle, as they do in Ireland, and abundance of them?* The Irish are honourably distinguished by their desire to possess information, and by the efforts they have made to acquire it. But until within these few years their education was very defective indeed; and the books that were used in schools were not unfrequently of the very worst description. We believe, however, that these have now nearly disappeared; and the school books published by the Kildare Street Society, and the other school books usually met with in Ireland, seem to be not merely equal, but very decidedly superior to most of those used in schools in Great Britain. It is not the ignorance of the people, but their destitute situation, and the violence so frequently done to their feelings and to their sense of justice, that are the grand sources of the crimes and disorders that have so long disgraced Ireland.

CHAPTER II. REVENUE AND EXPENDITure.

SECT. I. Revenue.

In early times the sovereigns of England, like those of most other feudal states, were the greatest landholders of the kingdom; their revenues consisting principally of the rents, services, &c. derived from their own lands, and partly of the fines, compositions, and other payments derived from the lands of others. But in the course of time the estates of the Crown were mostly alienated; and the diminution of the royal revenue thence arising being coincident with increased demands for the public service occasioned by the progress of society, and the consequent greater expense of government and defence, it became necessary to explore other sources of revenue. early times it was usual for parliament to make grants of tenths and fifteenths; that is, to grant to the Crown a tenth or a fifteenth part of all the moveable property belonging to the subject. But there can be no doubt that they were but very imperfectly collected; and that the Crown never received anything like the real amount of the grants made by parliament. The other ancient levies were of the nature of a land-tax; being called scutages, when laid on the tenants of knights'

* Mr. Bicheno's Report on Poor Laws, p. 41.

In

fees, hydages when laid on the occupiers of other lands, and talliages when laid on cities and boroughs. But these having gradually fallen into disuse, were followed by subsidies. The latter were not immediately imposed upon property, but upon persons in respect of their reputed estates, after the nominal rate of 4s. in the pound for lands, and 2s. 6d. for goods; and for those of aliens in a double proportion. The existing land-tax grew out of the subsidy scheme; having originated in 1692, when a new assessment or valuation was made, by which a subsidy or land-tax of 1s. a pound produced 500,000l. a year of revenue. (See Blackstone, book i. cap. 8.)

But these resources were but limited, and comparatively inconsiderable; and for a long time past the duties of customs and excise have formed the principal branches of the public revenue, and the only ones, indeed, by which we have been enabled to meet the immense expenditure of modern times.

Customs. From a very distant period customs-duties have been charged on most articles imported into, or exported from, the country; and though inconsiderable at first, they increased, with the increase of civilisation and commerce, till they long ago formed one of the most copious sources of the public revenue, and have now attained to an extraordinary magnitude. The king's claim to the customs duties was first established by stat. 3. Edward I. The various duties were collected, for the first time, in a book of rates, or tariff, published in the reign of Charles II. But there is hardly a year in which the customs-duties do not undergo considerable variations. It is now the practice to consolidate the different acts imposing or varying the customs-duties before they become inconveniently numerous; and tariffs, or tables of duties, drawbacks, &c., are annually published for the convenience of merchants and others. We have subjoined a statement of the existing duties on the most important articles.

Owing principally to the vast increase of the commerce, wealth, and population of the country, but partly, also, to the increase of the rates, the progress of the customs-duties has been quite extraordinary. The revenue derived from the customs-duties in 1596, in the reign of Elizabeth, amounted to no more than 50,000l. In 1613, it had increased to 148,075l., of which no less than 109,572l. was collected in London. In 1660, at the Restoration, the customs produced 421,5821.; and at the Revolution, in 1689, they produced 781,9877. During the reigns of William III. and Anne, the customs-revenues were considerably augmented, the nett payments into the Exchequer in 1712 being 1,315,4221. During the war terminated by the peace of Paris in 1763, the nett produce of the customs revenue of Great Britain amounted to nearly 2,000,000l. In 1792, it amounted to 4,407,000%. In 1815, at the close of the war with revolutionary France, it amounted to 11,360,000l.; and in 1834 it produced 20,108,7037., of which Great Britain furnished 18,364,6667., and Ireland 1,744,0377.

For a lengthened period customs-duties were charged indifferently on all sorts of commodities, whether exported or imported; the duty on wool sent to the Netherlands, France, &c. being then, in fact, the principal item in the customs-revenue. But for a long time past they

have been almost exclusively laid on imported articles; those laid on exports being, in most instances, imposed rather to check or prevent the exportation of the articles, than in the view of raising

revenue.

Were this the proper place for such investigations, it might be easily shown, that moderate customs-duties are about the least exceptionable of all taxes. They are collected with the greatest possible facility, involving no inquiry into the circumstances of individuals, as is the case with taxes on income or property; nor any interference of any sort with the processes carried on in the arts, as is the case with certain excise duties. By allowing imported goods to be lodged in bonded warehouses under the joint locks of the king and the importer, the revenue is protected without its being necessary for the importer to pay the duties till the goods be withdrawn for consumption; so that but little additional capital is required to be at the command of the importing merchant, because of the articles in which he deals being subject to duties, and but little addition is, consequently, made to the price of the goods on account of the profits accruing to the dealers on the duties.

Customs-duties should not be carried to such a height as to give any overpowering stimulus to smuggling. They then contradict and defeat the very purpose for which they are intended. Our finance ministers have not, however, been sufficiently alive to this obvious consideration. There can be no articles better fitted to bear customs-duties than tobacco and spirits; but the duties with which they are loaded are so extravagantly high that they occasion a great deal of smuggling with its accompanying crime and demoralisation, and would certainly be a good deal more productive were they effectually reduced. The existing duties on brandy and geneva are, perhaps, the very worst in our tariff; but they would be about the very best were they reduced from 22s. 6d. to 8s. or 10s. a gallon.

As already stated, the net customs-revenue of 1834 amounted to 20,108,7037.; and we will venture to affirm, that no equal amount of revenue was ever raised in any country, or in any period of time, with so little difficulty and inconvenience. The assessed taxes, exclusive of the land-tax, produced, in 1834, 3,458,7667.; and no one familiar with the facts can doubt that their payment produced more irritation, and was regarded as a greater burden by the public, than the payment of the customs-duties, though the latter brought between six and seven times as great an amount of revenue into the coffers of the Treasury.

The customs revenue of 1835 was collected in Great Britain at a charge of 51. 17s. 24d. per cent. upon its gross produce; and in Ireland at a charge of 127. 5s. 24d. on ditto.

Excise Duties. The next great branch of the public revenue consists of inland, or excise duties, that is, of duties charged on certain commodities produced or manufactured at home.

Excise duties were introduced into England by the Long Parliament in 1643; being then laid on the makers and venders of ale, beer, cider, and perry. The royalists soon after followed the example of the republicans; both sides declaring that the excise should be con

tinued no longer than the termination of the war. But it was found too productive a source of revenue to be again relinquished; and when the nation had been accustomed to it for a few years, the parliament declared, in 1649, that the impost of excise was the most easy and indifferent levy that could be laid upon the people. It was placed on a new footing at the Restoration; and notwithstanding Mr. Justice Blackstone says, that "from its first original to the present time, its very name has been odious to the people of England" (Com. book i. c. 8.), it has continued progressively to gain ground; and is at this moment imposed on several most important articles, and furnishes nearly a third part of the entire public revenue of the kingdom.

The prejudice in the public mind to which Blackstone has alluded, against the excise duties, seems to depend more on the regulations connected with their imposition, than to the extent on which they have sometimes been carried. The facilities of smuggling, and the frauds that might be committed upon the revenue, unless a very strict watch were kept, have led to the enactment of several rather severe regulations. The officers have been empowered to enter and search the houses of such individuals as deal in excisable commodities at any time of the day, and in most instances, also, of the night. And the proceedings in cases of transgression are of such a nature, that persons may be convicted in heavy penalties, by the summary judgment of two commissioners of excise, or two justices of the peace, without the intervention of a jury.

For the more easily levying the revenue of excise, England and Wales are divided into about fifty-six collections, some of which are called by the names of particular counties, others by the names of great towns; where one county is divided into several collections, or where a collection comprehends the contiguous parts of several counties, every such collection is subdivided into several districts, within which there is a supervisor; and each district is again subdivided into out-rides and foot-walks, within each of which there is a gauger or surveying officer.

Some excise duties, that were justly objected to, have been repealed within these few years; and, with the exception of the duty on glass, which interferes injuriously with the manufacture (see antè, p. 124.), we are not sure that there is one of the existing duties that can be fairly objected to on principle, though the rate of duty might, in some instances, be advantageously reduced.

It has been said that the excise duties "greatly raise the cost of subsistence to the labouring classes." But this assertion has really no foundation. In 1834, the excise duties in Great Britain (excluding tea carried to the customs in the course of that year) produced 12,554,6097. Now, of this sum, the duties on spirits, malt, and licenses, produced 9,450,1687.! In fact, the only excise duty that can be said to fall on a necessary of life, is that on soap, which produced in 1834 (in Great Britain) 736,112/.; and as the population of Great Britain amounts at present to above 17,500,000, the soap tax cannot, at an average, impose a burden of 10d. a year on each individual. If we estimate its annual pressure on a labouring family

of five persons at 2s. 6d., we shall not be within, but beyond, the mark.

The only taxes, in the various departments of the revenue, that can be truly said to fall on articles necessary to the labourer, are, besides soap, those on tea, sugar, and a few others. We incline to believe that the duties on tea and sugar, which are the most important, might be materially reduced without affecting the revenue; but, however that may be, it cannot be truly affirmed that they entail any grievous burden on the labouring classes.

Even though they were not required by the public exigencies, the duties on spirits obstruct a pernicious habit, and should not be given up. They are the best of all possible duties; and the only thing to be attended to in their imposition, is not to carry them to such a height as to defeat their operation by encouraging smuggling. We have yet to learn, supposing they are not carried beyond this limit, that a single good objection can be made to these duties.

The obscurity and complexity of the excise laws has been justly complained of. It is needless to say, that they ought to be brief, clear, and level to the apprehension of every one. But, so far from

this being the case, they are, in most instances, lengthened, contradictory, and unintelligible. We believe there are at this moment some 40 or 50 acts in existence having reference to the glass duties, and from 25 to 30 having reference to the paper duties, and so for the others; and it is all but impossible for any one to tell what the law really is on many points, so that the trader is left at the mercy of the officers, and a wide door is open to favouritism and fraud. This disgraceful state of things might, however, be easily remedied by getting the Treasury or the Excise to prepare a short abstract of the law as to each duty, drawn up in the clearest and least ambiguous manner possible, and without any of that verbosity, repetition, and technical jargon that infects acts of parliament, and renders them all but incomprehensible to ordinary persons. A manufacturer abiding by this abstract should be held to have abided by the law, and should not be further questioned on the subject. A measure of this sort might be easily carried into effect. It would be an immense improvement; and would go far to obviate the only good objection to the excise duties.

The capacity of a tax on a commodity to raise a revenue, depends partly on the nature and extent of the demand for the taxed article ; and partly on the means of preventing its being smuggled or the duty evaded. Every tax, by raising the price of the article on which it is laid, has a tendency to bring it within the command of a smaller number of purchasers, and to lessen its consumption. An individual who might be able and disposed to pay 1s. a bottle of duty on wine, might neither have the means nor the inclination to pay 2s. or 3s.; and, instead of being augmented, the revenue might be diminished by such an increase of duty. And hence, whenever the duties on commodities are raised beyond certain limits, which, however, it is impossible to define à priori, seeing that they necessarily vary according to the description of commodities on which duties are laid, the varying