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THENEW WINE DUTIES: .
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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.
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despotism holds in its crumbling hands the keys of the temples of peace and war . ¦ ¦ "
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"IITITH the details of the Budget , into which the House ot W Commons has entered in the week , Mr . Gladstone s difficulties hftve begun . The broad principles involved m 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 / . nmrnviTna « riiir »> i maVps pvpti fiYt . rfivao-nnce bearable . lietween which makes even extravagance bearable , isetween
commerce , 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 hrge majorities which supported the Budget and rejected a motion that recognised the necessity of increased expenditure . The bulk of the members for the large towns and the manufacturing counties—whether ranged under Tory or Whig bannersonly spoke the sentiments of the nation at large in saying No to the motions of Mi \ Du Cane and Mr . Disraeli . So far as
the Budget is founded on the principles of promoting and facilitating commerce , its success is assiired . . 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 , and 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 lias 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 come in at one shilling 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 , frpm 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 eigliteen 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 the consciences in future of this new arrangement . Under it a portion of the lighter wines of France and of the TtMne , 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 cl ., while the greater portion of the wines of Spain , Portugal , the . south of-Francc , and the pther 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 plane they come from . It appears strange that the quantity of alcohol in ' wine , which , exocpt to bo distilled , is no tost of its value , should be 'taken as the test for the- payment of duty . The very finest and best of the French and llhonish wines will como in at the low duty ; on the rough strong wines , which arc likely to be most suitable to the pockets and palates of the multitude , the highest duty will bo levied . This seems a fiscal injustice , more calculated ' to check the consumption of wine by the people than augment the revenue . Apparently strange and unjust , it is dictated , by a stem necessity , born of other strange and unjust fiscal rogufntions .
The Chano ; eli , oii of the Exchequer avowed that the adjusting of these duties was " one of the moat difficult questions of iiscal and commercial law Ue 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 revonue ,
between £ 14 , 000 , 000 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 oa all kinds of wine , but could 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 oii wine proportionate not to its value as wine * but to . the quantity of alcohol it contains . This seems refining overmuch ; but a subtle mind like that of Mr . GtLadstone ' 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 £ 5 00 , 00 0 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 a vast deal of time over a whole cargo ; and the regulation , \ vill be an impediment to the trade which Mr . Glad stoke pretends to facilitate . The more important consideration , however , is that-every species of skill at the command of the State to detect imposition , will be at the service of individuals to practise it . In the long run , private interest , for ever wakeful , is siire to triumph ; and . as sure as the C u akc : £ i / lok of the Exchequer by his regalatioris creates a bounty on the 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 Bank parlour or at the . Custom-house , discounts it in some way or other , for its own . advantage , generally turning from the . State into its own pocket some expected benefit . A regulation similar to that concerning wine , was introduced not many years ago to levy the duties on sugar . The qualities of this commodity are more perceptible and more easily ascertained than the quantity of spirit contained jn wine ; yet sugars of the same qualities arc 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 and ovt and the nature of wine are duly considered , it may be concluded that a considerable importation of spirits disguised as wiuewill ensue The clever and ingenious men who carry but a false system with the greatest care and in the most logical order , are ' sure to make its imperfections , and its evils most conspicuous . The . reduction of the wine duties had become absolutely , necessary , the adaptation of thorn to the spirit duties wan equally necessary ; and this , effected with so much ingenuity by Mr . Gladstone , seems very likely to lead * at no . distant day , by an equally urgent necessity , to the abolition of the spirit duties . The questions have already arisen , What is wine , and what is spirits ? With the progress ' of art the difficulties of answering these questions will , increase day by day . Very soon tho law officers of the Crown will find themselves in the same perplexity with regard to wine and spirits a a they were in with regard to the question what is a newspaper , and ^ vhat is paper ? They will be unable to define thqm , except ; by some scientific or artistic distinction which , would remove to experts from men of business the duty of determining the nature of the commodities in which they deal . This would hardly , be homo . It is the repetition . of the blunder already committee ! in taxing newspapers ami paper , and will lead to tho ' same result , tho abolition oi a duty , which can only be preserved by suck means . Thoso poi'sons who for moral rather than fiscal reasons have strenuously supported this fiscal enormity will , wo presume , find consolation iu this prospect j since it is now proved that to preserve heavy spirit duties has kept wwo out ot use , and has promoted tho consumption of a more dojetorious intoxicating liquor . Mr . Gi ^ dstonb ' s minute regulations . uhdut wine sooni to us not likoly to attain his object . Sucooas in tho House of Commons is very different from successful lofflsJulion , He 1 ms only a choice of difflouHU » . To reduce the duties on , wine , mid " so permit tho now stifled commerce of JLnglnna .
Untitled Article
March 3 1860 . 1 The Leader andSaturday ' Analyst . 201
Thenew Wine Duties: .
THE- NEW WINE DUTIES : .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 3, 1860, page 201, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2336/page/5/
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