§ The house went into a committee on the Irish Excise and Custom-house Officers' bill.
§ Mr. Fitzgerald opposed it on the ground that the bill created an additional and unnecessary expence, at a time when every such expence ought cautiously to be avoided. It increased patronage. Though a commissioner could not himself sit in parliament, his father, his son, or his brother, was eligible. At a period like the present, when the means of taxation were so exhausted, that the right hon. the chancellor of the exchequer for Ireland had been under the necessity of recurring to the hearth money, a tax that had been formerly repealed by the Irish parliament, it became doubly expedient to guard against a waste of the public money. When the right hon. 130 gent. who now filled the chair of the house of commons, was secretary in Ireland, he had proposed several regulations in the offices of the revenue, which had they been acted upon would, he was convinced, have produced the happiest effect; but the increase of commissioners was not one of those measures; and had that increase been necessary, it would scarcely have escaped the discernment of that right hon. gent. On all these accounts he should move, that the chairman do leave the chair.
§ Mr. Foster replied to the observations of the hon. gent. so far from the measure being merely expedient, it was absolutely necessary for the proper collection of the revenue; and the expence would be amply repaid by the increase of revenue that must follow; though the bill would create an apparent additional expence of 1000l. a year to each commissioner, yet the effect of the expected to be an increase of from 40 to 50,000l. annually in the revenue of the customs. In 1662, in the reign of Charles II. the number of commissioners was fixed at that at which it now stands, seven for the customs, and five for the excise; and could it be said, that the addition of two to the last-mentioned department was an enormous addition? He denied that he had been obliged to have recourse to a renewal of the hearth tax. This insinuation had, he knew, been thrown out in Ireland, for the purpose of exciting the lower orders to discontent; but it was unfounded.—After a few words from Mr. Fitzgerald, and some observations by sir J. Newport and Mr. Ormsby in favour of the bill, and by Mr. Latouche against the bill, Mr. Fitzgerald's motion was put and negatived. The bill passed through the committee, and the report was ordered to be received on Thursday.