§ Lord Francis Egertonrose to present a petition, signed by seventy of the largest paper-manufacturers in the kingdoms, some of them his own constituents, and paying, he believed, more than half the whole amount of revenue flowing into the Exchequer under that head. They were anxious that the case they had to present to the House should be considered at the present moment, thinking, as he presumed correctly, this was the period when the attention of the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer should naturally and peculiarly be directed to the financial arrangements of the year. They had reason, in common, he believed and hoped, with the public at large, to suppose that the revenues of the country offered some prospect of enabling the right hon. Gentleman to effect a reduction in imposts to some considerable amount, and they wished to show to the House the reasons they had for supposing that their case yielded perhaps to none in urgency, and possessed claims on the attention of Government which could, whether in justice or expediency, be postponed to no other. The petition contained three principal grounds of complaint;—first, it complained that the amount of duty imposed on this manufac- 871 ture was exorbitant; secondly, that the mode in which it was imposed was peculiarly oppressive to the manufacturer, encouraged fraud, led to the depression of the fair trader, and the defalcation of the Exchequer; further (and this was a circumstance which he was sure would meet the full and favourable consideration of the House), the petition complained that the tax was in its nature opposed to the extension of literature and the general diffusion of knowledge. With regard to the exorbitancy of the impost, it was sufficient to say, that contrary to the original intention of the Legislature, which in the reign of Anne, first enacted duties on the manufacture of paper, the ad valorem amount of the duty pressed most heavily on the inferior articles of the first class paper. Now, the notion he bad naturally entertained of the first class paper was, that it described the superior quality used for the nobler purposes of writing and publication; but not so,—in the first class was included every description of paper, other than brown paper, made of one particular material, tar rope, from which the tar had not been extracted; and the second class was confined to that made exclusively of old ropes or cordage. The object of the Legislature in the classification was to simplify them, but the mode which they adopted for that purpose had since turned out to be impracticable and absurd. The circumstances connected with the manufacture of paper and the manner of its manufacture have greatly changed since the Act first passed. That which was once a cheap and abundant material for making the second-class paper—he meant old rope, from which alone the law allowed that class to be manufactured—was now scarce and expensive, having more than doubled in price in a few years. This was owing to two causes—partly to the comparatively small wear and tear of rope in time of peace, and partly to the great extent to which iron cable was HOW used instead of rope. It was well known that other materials were introduced into the manufacture, which, though they made paper equally good, made it at a much lower price, in consequence of the cheap rate at which those materials could be purchased. It was well known to all who were connected with our cotton manufactures, that in every factory there was a vast quantity of waste or "refuse" cotton, of which hitherto no other use had been made than that of wiping up the oil which happened to drop on the floors on rubbing it from the machinery. The 872 amount thus rendered almost valueless was about 1–12th of the whole of the cotton used. Some time back a gentleman applied this refuse to more useful purposes, and it was found to be available as a material in the manufacture of this second class paper, thus adding to the temptation to fraud on the part of the manufacturer, and occasioning a considerable loss to the revenue. It had been long notorious that the Act of Parliament which was intended to regulate the manufacture was constantly evaded by the use of articles other than those which that Act prescribed. It was well known that among the manufacturers in Scotland scarcely any tarred rope whatever was used in the manufacture of second-class paper. In Ireland, there was another article which, might be used with good effect in the manufacture of paper—he meant the refuse of flax, which, if the Act were modified, might be brought into immediate use. Many hon. Members were not perhaps aware, that though the materials with which second-class paper was directed to be made were as dear, and in some instances dearer than those from which the first-class paper was produced, the duty on the latter was 3d. in the pound, while that on the former was only l½d. He would beg to refer hon. Members opposite to the 14th report of the Commission of Excise Inquiry, at the head of which was the name of a Gentleman for whom all who knew him must have the highest respect, and whose name was a high authority for the correctness of the statements to which it was attached—he meant Sir Henry Parnell. If hon. Members would refer to that report, they would find that every page of it bore testimony to the frauds which were committed on the revenue in the manufacture of paper. These frauds were not unknown to the revenue; yet, though they were altogether ruinous to the fair trader, the Government had not yet done anything to remedy the evil. The gentlemen who had intrusted him with the charge of this petition had urged him to press the subject on the immediate consideration of Government, with a view to an immediate revision of the Acts under which the manufacture of paper was carried on. To show how injuriously the present state of the law operated to the fair trader and to the public, he would mention one case which was mentioned in the 14th Report to which he had already referred, A Mr. Phipps had entered into an agreement with the Navy Board to sup- 873 ply a certain quantity of sheathing paper, for which the duty was 21s. per cwt; but another party came and made an offer to supply the quantity at 2s. per cwt. less than that which Mr. Phipps had mentioned. It was stated to the Navy Board, that the party who had made the smaller offer manufactured his from inferior articles, and paid only 14s. per cwt., while Mr. Phipps paid the full duty of 21s. per cwt. It was added, that the lower tender could have been made only by an evasion of the Act; but the Navy Board said, that they must take the article they wanted where they could get it cheapest, and in consequence Mr. Phipps, the fair trader, went to the wall. Another point of view in which he was anxious to present this subject to the consideration of the House, and which was sufficient to arrest its best attention, was the effect which the state of the law produced on literature- On this subject, they had the evidence of several gentlemen very extensively engaged in printing cheap literary works, such as Mr. Parker, Mr. Rees, and Mr. Knight. The last named individual, whose exertions had done much to diffuse useful knowledge in the country said in his evidence that the present laws relating to the duties on paper pressed hard on the class of cheap publications, that the duty varied from 1s. to 2s. 8d. on the octavo volume, and that, in fact, there was no profit on these cheap works, unless there was a sale of from 40,000 to 50,000; but if the duties were modified and equalised, the same work would produce a considerable profit with a much more reduced circulation. But there was a hardship upon printers and publishers in respect of this excise duty which did not press on other classes of the community who were subject to the excise. While others were allowed to pay the excise on the article as they wanted it for consumption—that was, for sale—the printer or publisher was in the first instance, obliged to pay the whole duty; and if he sold only a very small portion of the work, the loss of the duty on the remainder must be his. This pressed with great severity on publishers, and was a serious check on the diffusion of works of information and entertainment amongst the people. Another point to which he would beg the attention of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was the duty on stained paper. The addition of 1s. per pound, in addition to the 3d. already imposed, was, he was sure, no increase to the revenue. He would 874 not say what means the right hon. Gentleman had to gratify the prayer of the petitioners for the reduction of the duty, for, whatever side of the house he might sit at, he was not disposed to embarrass any Government by calling for any reduction of revenue which the country might not be able to afford; but he joined the petitioners in expressing a hope and belief that the reduction for which they prayed would not prove in the result a diminution to the revenue. Various cases could be mentioned in which the reduction of the duty produced an increase of revenue by the increased demand for the article. The most simple and effectual remedy would be, to equalise the duty by removing the higher. The petitioners, he thought, had peculiar claims on the attention of Parliament. Some of the most ingenious inventions in machinery had been made by some of them, and applied to the manufacture of paper. Their prayer was a most reasonable one. They prayed the House "to take immediate steps for relieving them from this state of things, so deeply injurious to their interest, and also, in a great degree, affecting the workmen in their employ, and those in many branches of business connected with their manufacture, and they have no doubt that the result of the reduction recommended, will, as the Commissioners of Excise Inquiry anticipate, nearly double the employment of productive industry in this manufacture, and others dependent upon it, thereby preventing any permanent diminution of the revenue." In conclusion, the noble Lord earnestly entreated the serious attention of the House to the prayer of the petition.
§ The Chancellor of the Exchequersaid, that he did not rise to offer any objection whatever to the case which the noble Lord had so ably stated on behalf of the paper manufacturers. His noble Friend had omitted nothing which could excite the attention of the House and the Government to it. The fact was, that the subject was at the present moment under the consideration of Government, and if he omitted to enter into the discussion of the question at the present moment, it was not because he did not attach importance to it, but because he thought that nothing could be more injudicious than the premature disclosure of the intentions of Government with respect to the fiscal regulations which were to affect any branch of our manufactures. He trusted the House would rest satisfied with the assurance that the subject 875 was now under consideration. At the commencement of the financial year, which would be early in April, when he had to bring forward the general statement as to the finances of the country, he should be enabled to state to the House the course which the Government would follow on the subject to which the petition referred, as well as other matters connected with the revenue of the country. The Government had been called upon to consider the claims of various classes of the community with respect to exemption from, or a modification of certain taxes, and when the proper time to which he had referred cause, he should be prepared to state the course intended to be pursued. It would be the care of Government to apply any surplus revenue which might be disposable to those reductions which were most likely to be beneficial to the country. He hoped his noble Friend would not think he undervalued this subject if he refrained from going into it at present.
§ Mr. Greenethought, that whether they looked at the ordinary duty of 3d. in the pound on the additional duty for stained paper, the tax as at present imposed was most objectionable. In its moral effect on literature it might be called a tax on the raw materials of knowledge.
§ Petition to lie on the Table.