On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Harch 3, 1860.J The Leader and Saturday ...
-
. THE PW WINE DUTIES. WITH the details o...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The Intentions Of France And Russia. /Ce...
despotism holds in its crumbling hands the keys of the temples of peace and war . ' . - . ¦
Harch 3, 1860.J The Leader And Saturday ...
Harch 3 , 1860 . J The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 201
. The Pw Wine Duties. With The Details O...
. THE PW WINE DUTIES . WITH the details of the Budget , into which the House of Commons has entered in the week , Mr . Gladstone ' s difficulties have begun . The broad principles involved in accepting or rejecting the treaty with France , as a whole , ensured for it unexpected and overwhelming majorities . On the one hand , the Commons had offered to them , on broad free-trade principles , the extension of commerce and the diminution of national animosities ; the probable reduction of expenditure at no distant day , and the increase of prosperity to abate its evils -while it lasted . On the other , they were offered the rejection of the treaty , the increase of national animosities , the certain
augmentation of expenditure , and a denial of the extension of commerce , which makes even extravagance bearable . Between these questions the great majority of the House of Commons could not hesitate , and the bait of . a present denunciation of the income-tax was spurned . It is plain , from the votes of the House , that free trade , and a determination to avoid unnecessary expenditure and national quarrels , have taken a deeper hold of the public than ordinary politicians are aware of ; and the exulting ministers , as well as the defeated Tories , were astonished at the large majorities which supported the Budget and rejected a motion that recognised the necessity of increased expenditure , Tlie bulk of the members for the large ¦ towns and the
manufacturing counties—whether ranged under Tory or Whig banners- — only spoke the sentiments of the nation at large in saying No to the ' motions of Mr . Du Cane and Mr . Disraelt . So far as the Budget is founded on the principles of promoting and facilitating commerce , its success is assured . Mr . Gladstone succeeded , too , on Monday' in passing the second resolution , which regulates the wine duties . The first , as our readers will recollect , related to chicory , arid was adopted when the Budget was proposed . It is a good sign of his ductility in future- ^ -when he is opposed on the registration of goods and " warehouse taxes—that the resolution as passed varied
considerably from his original proposition , He has substituted eighteen degrees for fifteen degrees as the proof strength of wine to come in at one shilling per gallon duty , and he substitutes the first day of January for the first day of-. April , 1861 , when the one shilling duty shall come into operation . Both these increase the advantages ' of the reduction of the . duty ; the former by enlarging the " quantity ' of ' wine which may coine in at one shilling 1 only , and the latter by shortening the time during which the three shilling duty is to be paid . According to practice , the instant a resolution concerning a reduction or imposition of
duty is assented to by a committee of the House of Commons , it takes effect ; and , therefore , from Monday last the duty on wine was practically reduced to three shillings per gallon till the 1 st of January , 1861 , and then to one shilling per gallon on wine containing less proof spirit than eighteen degrees , measured by Sykes's hydrometer ; to Is . 6 d- on wine containing less proof spirit than twenty-six degrees , and to 2 s . on wine containing less proof spirit than forty degrees . If it be stronger than this , it will come in only on paying spirit duties . So the wine duties maybe regarded as now settled ; and the public has to ¦ estimate tho consequences in future of this new arrangement .
Under it a portion of the lighter wines of France and of ' the Rhine , including some which are most highly prized , will be charged " per gallon Is . duty ; other light wines , of the same and other countries , will be charged Is . 6 il ., while the greater portion , of tlie -. vinos of Spain , Portugal , the south of France ; and the other countries bordering on the Mediterranean will be subject to the 2 s . duty . This distinction depends entirely on the quantity of alcohol in each gallon of wine . It will affect the wines of different countries according to their qualities , not on account of the place they come from . It appears strange thai : the quantity
of alcohol in wine , which , except to be distilled , is no test of its value , should be taken ns the test for tho payment of duty . TIir very finest and best of the French and llhonish winos will come in at the low duty ; on tho rough strong wines , which are likely to bo most suitable to the ' pockets aiid palates of tho multitude , tho highest duty will be levied . This seems a fiscal injustice , moro calculated to check the consumption of wino by the people than augment the revenue . Apparently strange and unjust , it is diotatod by a stern necessity , born of other - strange and unjust fiscal regulations .
, Tho . CnANOEU . au of tho Exchequer avowed that the adjusting 1 pf these duties was ' one of the most difficult questions of fifioal and commercial law he ever had to deal with , " and that he " was driven ' into the adoption of Varying duties because wine has spirits mixed with it both before ' and after it reaches this country , and because the State levies n large amount of revenue ,
between J 14 , OO 0 , 0 OO and £ 15 , 000 , 000 a-year , on malt and on spirits imported , and spirits made in this country . He admitted the desirableness of levying a small and unvarying duty on all kinds of wine , but coiild not do so without exposing spirits * on which a high duty is levied , to an unfair competition with the spirits contained in wine . He is obliged , therefore , to levy a duty on wine proportionate not to it ' s value as wine , but to the quantity of alcohol it contains . This seems , refining overmuch ; but a subtle mind like that of Mr . Gladstone ' s delights in
detecting . such fine analogies and distinctions '; and he readily adopted , if he did not suggest ; the argument against a low uniform wine duty , which he puts into the mouth of the distiller and the importer of spirits . He . would readily , he said , sacrifice £ 1500 , 000 of revenue to give fair play to the wise plan of reducing wine duties , but he cannot risk-the- immense revenue levied on malt and spirits . He-adjusts , therefore , nicely , as he thinks , his proposed duties on wine to the alcohol contained in it and contained in spirits , so that he may not ruin the State and ruin the distiller by putting an end to drinking gin and . brandy .
In practice his plan will encounter many difficulties . Already it happens that wine which cannot be imported if it contains more spirit than forty -three degrees , is admitted at one port by . the Custom-house test , and rejected at another . But our officials , borrowing a . plan from France , are now to undertake by a . rapid distillation to ascertain the . quantity of . spirits in all wine imported , and it will-only take half an hour to prove each cask . Half an hour for each cask will .. consume u vast deal ' of time over a whole ; cargo ; and . the regulation will be- an impediment to the trade which Mr . Gladstonk pretends to facilitate . T he in ore important consideration , however , is that every species of skill at the will be at the service of
command of the State ' to detect imposition , individuals to practise it . In the long run , private 'interest , for ever wakeful , is sure to triumph ; and as sure as . the Chancellor . of the Exchequer by his * regulations creates a bounty oivtrie surreptitious introduction of . spirits , so sure will he provoke . the commission ¦ of this fiscal offence , and . so . sure will the duties be evaded , There is no regulation ' concerning the sinking fund , the payment of the dividends , . or any . matter ., be it ' what it -may , prospectively determined by . the .. Government , but private interest on " the Stock Exchange , or in the liaiik . parlour or at the Custom-house , , discounts it in some way or other , for its own advantage , generallv turning from the State into its own pocket
some ' . expected benefit . A roguhiLiou similar to that concerning wine , was introduced not many years ago to levy the duties on sugar . . Tim qualities of . this ' commodity are -more perceptible and liiotv easily ascertained than the quantity of spirit contained in wine ; yet sugars of the same qualities nre entered at different , ports at different duties , and sugars of different qualities are charged the same duties at different ' times and places . There is not only by the sugar duty system great difficulties imposed on trade ,-but it also gives rise to fiscal injustice ) and fraud ; When the progress of science mid art and the nature of wine arc ; duly considered , it
may bo concluded that u considerable importiil ion - of spirits disguised as wine will ensue , Tlie : clever and . ingenious men who carry out a false system with the greatest care and in the most logical order , arc ' sure to iniikc' its imperfections and its evils most conspicuous . The . reduction of the wine duties had become absolutely necessary , tho adaptation of them to the spirit duties was * equally necessity ; and this , effected , with so much ingenuity by Mr . Gi , a . i > stonb , seems wry likely to lead , nt no distant day , b y au equally urgent necessity , to-tho abolition of the spirit duties .
The questions have already arisen , "What is wine , and what is spirits ? With . the m-ogrcss ' d art , the difficulties of answering these questions will increase day by day . Very souu the law officers of the' Crown will find themselves in the same perplexity with regard to wine and spirits ns they wore in with regard to ihu question what is a newspaper , and , What is paper ? They will hn unable to dellno them , except by aomo scientific or artistic distinction which would remove to expertn from nk-n of business the duty of determining tho nature of the eounnodiliea in which they deal . This would hardly bo boruo . It is tho repetition of the blunder and will luau
already committed in taxing newspapers and paper , to the ' same result , the abolition of a duly ,, which can only be preserved by such means . Those- persona who lor moral rather than fiscal reasons have strenuously supported Una fiscal enormity will , we presume , find consolntion in this prospect ; mimco it is now proved that to preserve heavy spirit d ' ntius has kept wine out ol use , and 1 ms promoted thu consumption of a more . deleterious intoxicating liquor . Mr . . aLADsroNK's-minulu regulations about wino seem tons not likely to utUiln his object , biicouw i » tho House of Oounnous is very different from successful iotfislaUon . He has only a choice of difllpulties To ^^ J ' ? . ' ^ on wine , nudao permit tho now stifled oomiuoroo oi JJaiglund
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), March 3, 1860, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03031860/page/5/
-