Mr. Carterpresented a Petition from Portsmouth and Portsea, against the opening of the Trade in Beer.
The Marquis of Chandospresented a Petition from owners and occupiers of land of a hundred in the county of Buckingham, praying for a reduction of the Duty on Malt. The noble Lord expressed himself pleased with the reduction of the Duties on Beer; but still he must say, that unless the tax on Malt were also repealed, the farmer would not get that relief which his condition required. If the Malt duty had been taken off instead of the Beer tax, the advantage to the community would have been greater. He hoped that a motion which stood on the Orders on this subject would be pressed; and that if Ministers were not prepared to repeal this tax this year, they would announce their intention of doing so next year.
Mr. Heathcotecontended, that the repeal of the Duties on Beer would give relief to the poor; and that, with the abolition of the present licensing system, would do away with the monopoly of the brewers, who had not reduced the price of Beer though the duty on and price of barley, had been nearly doable their present amount. The reduction of duty since the peace had been from 4s. 6d. to 2s. 6d., and barley had fallen from 65s. to 25s. the quarter; but the diminution in the price of Beer was next to nothing. The wholesale article, or rather the raw materials, were cheap, while the retail article was both dear and bad. As a remedy for this, he recommended the abolition of the Beer monopoly, which would probably allow some of the advantages of the reduction of taxation to be reaped by the poor, and not be wholly engrossed by the great brewers. If the Malt tax were repealed, he believed that they would benefit by that more than the people.
§ Mr. C. Calvertsaid, he was satisfied that the reduction of the duty on Beer would do much good, but he could not concur in what had been said with respect to the Licensing System, He was sure 621 that the consumption of Beer would not be increased 100 barrels from one end of the kingdom to the other, by throwing open the trade, but it would have the certain effect of ruining thousands of industrious persons who had vested their property in public-houses. A more industrious and deserving class did not exist, and it was too bad that they were all to be knocked on the head, and their prosperity ruined, by a measure of very doubtful benefit to the rest of the community. He wished to see the effect of the reduction of the duty on Beer tried for two or three years before the trade was thrown completely open. If at the end of that time the expected advantages of abolishing the Beer tax were not realized, the trade might be thrown open; at present that would have no other effect than to ruin thousands of industrious families.
§ To be printed, as was a similar Petition, presented by the noble Lord, from another hundred of the county of Buckingham.
§ Lord Eastnor, in presenting a Petition from the publicans of the city of Hereford, praying that the trade in Boor might not be thrown open, observed, that the petitioners stated to the House, that they would most certainly be ruined by a measure, from which they did not believe the community would derive any benefit. Their sufferings too would be greater than those of the licensed victuallers in the Metropolis, because their properly depended more on the exclusive privileges they enjoyed. They had embarked their capital, they staled, in the trade, under the existing laws, supposing that as long as they conducted themselves with propriety, those laws would not be altered to their injury. Their conduct had been approved of by the magistrates and clergy of Hereford, and he must say, it would be very unjust for the House to impose a loss on them for the supposed advantage of other persons. They were subjected to having soldiers billeted on them, and various other burthens, for which their license was scarcely a compensation. They had in general paid considerable sums for their premises, and they could but expect, if the measure they prayed against were passed into a law, that they should be utterly ruined. The noble Lord, in conclusion, expressed his approbation of the conduct of the Ministers in diminishing taxation, and his hopes that the country might derive all the advantages they ex- 622 pected from their measures. Petition referred to the Select Committee on the Beer trade.