EXCISE DUTIES BILL. (Hansard, 26 May 1854)

MR. J. D. FITZGERALD
moved, as an Amendment, to leave out in several parts of the schedule the words "on or," the effect of which would be to cause the additional duty on whisky to be levied as in the case of the other articles of the Bill, "from and after," and not "on or after," the 8th of May. The hon. Member said, that, although the alteration was but slight, still, if not adopted, it would give rise to much irritation, as on Monday, the 8th of May, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer made his statement, large spirit contracts had been entered into by persons who were wholly unaware of the additional duty; and, as whisky was the only article in the present Bill which was made the subject of retroactive legislation, he trusted Government would accede to his Amendment.

§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER
was sorry that it would be utterly incompatible with his duty to consent to the proposal of the hon. and learned Gentleman. In the present instance, the principle upon which the House uniformly acted had been pursued, namely, to make duties chargeable on the day on which the Chancellor of the Exchequer made his statement to the House. If the proposal of the hon. Gentleman were assented to, 1027 see what would be the effect. The financial statement was made at five o'clock in the afternoon, and the increased duty would not be chargeable until midnight. As soon, therefore, as the intentions of the Government became known information of them would be instantly conveyed by electric telegraph into every part of the United Kingdom, and the spirit dealers would have some hours during which they would be able to make contracts at the old rates to the extent of many hundreds of thousands of pounds. The Government, in refusing the proposal, were therefore able to entrench themselves, not only behind a precedent, but also behind reason.

§ MR. V. SCULLY
thought the Government could only entrench themselves behind a precedent, and that only a bad one. The same principle, however, had not been extended to sugar and molasses.

MR. J. D. FITZGERALD
could not concur in the statement of the right hon. Gentleman. The duty was paid, not with reference to the date of the contract, but at the time at which the spirits were taken out of bond. Now, the Budget was not proposed until seven or eight in the evening, whereas all the bonded warehouses in the empire were closed at three.