The Chancellor of the Exchequermoved for, and obtained leave to bring in a Bill to empower the lords of the Treasury to exonerate those distillers of spirits from sugar from the excess of the duties to which they were liable in consequence of the expiration of the act of the 48th of the King above the duties improved by the said act. This, he remarked, would enable them to go on with their distillation upon a fair and impartial footing.—This Bill was afterwards brought in, read a first time, and ordered to be read a 2d time to morrow.—The right hon gent. then moved, That the Resolutions entered into by the House, on the 12th of. March, should be read; which being done, he said it was not his intention to take the House by surprise, by making any proposition on this subject now. He wished merely to give notice, that he should to morrow move for leave to bring in a Bill to lay a duty on distillation from grain, in the same manner as if the Bill had passed. He was desirous of doing this, that he 1150 might take the amount into his calculation, for the supplies of the year. It was also his intention, in order to correspond with these duties, to propose a remission on our spirits at home, which would put them on a level with foreign spirits. He did not intend to lay any duty on rum, and should propose to make an alteration in the intercourse between this country and Ireland, and to lay a countervailing duty on the spirits of the latter country. If he was not prepared to offer his full plan to-morrow, he would at least come forward to obtain a suspension of this intercourse for six weeks or a couple of months, till the same could be matured.
§ Sir J. Newportacquiesced in the propriety of the proposed plan.