QUESTION. (Hansard, 24 February 1860)

§ Mr. T. DUNCOMBE
said, he would beg to ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer to state, Whether he means to pro-pose the Resolution on the Spirit Duties on Monday next He also wished to know whether he will have any objection to postpone the first Resolution, which relates to Wine, until the question of the amount of the Spirit Duties has been decided. The two questions were so mixed up that it was impossible to come to a satisfactory arrangement with regard to the Wine Duty previously?

§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER
said, he could not accede to the appeal which had just been made to him. With regard to the wine duties, it was true that under certain circumstances the duty on wine must be affected by the duty on spirits; but, in his opinion, those circumstances with reference to the state of the British wine trade were so improbable that he did not feel that they constituted an element of discussion. The intention of the Government to propose the alteration of the duties on wine and spirits, in the terms of the Resolution now on the table, was so thoroughly understood by the public that it would be very inconvenient to deviate from that resolution, and accordingly the Government intended to proceed with the Resolution in Committee on the Customs Acts on the first day that they found themselves at liberty to do so. With regard to the second Resolution—that relating to the duty on spirits—it was their intention that it should be taken immediately after that on wine. He was now in a position to state the precise terms in which the duty on spirits would be proposed, and which varied somewhat from the wording of the Resolution as standing on the books. The Resolution would, of course, be printed and circulated immediately; but he took that opportunity of reading it, in order that it might be made known at the earliest possible moment:— That the duty on foreign spirits, excepting rum, shall be at the rate of 8s. 6d. per gallon; 1706 the duty on rum, whether colonial or foreign, at the rate of 8s. 3d. per gallon; and the duty on British spirits of all descriptions, at the rate of 8s. 1d. per gallon. The House would perceive that the existing difference between British spirits and colonial rum—namely 2d. a gallon—would be retained; and the difference between British spirits and all others, excepting rum, would be fixed at 5d. To make the information complete, he would state that it was the intention of the Government, in consequence of the disadvantage under which the British distiller laboured in endeavouring to manufacture spirits for the foreign market, to propose a limited allowance on the export of British spirits over and above the amount of export duty ruling; that allowance was as follows:—On raw and unrectified spirits, 2d. per gallon; on rectified and potable spirits—that was, spirits prepared for consumption—3d. per gallon.

§ SIR FITZROY KELLY
, in reference to what he now understood would be proposed, asked whether it is intended on the Resolution relating to the Duty on Wines, to raise the general question as to the reduced Duty, and the application of the alcoholic test?

§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER
I am not aware that any part of the Resolution will require to be changed. In point of fact, there will be no difficulty, because the question respecting the application of the alcoholic test, as it is called, has no reference at all to any change that will come immediately into operation, but entirely to changes that will be proposed at a later period. It will be quite open to any hon. Gentleman to vote on or discuss the question of the reduction of the duty on wine to a uniform rate of 3s. per gallon, without prejudice to the other portion of the Resolution, which is founded on the scale of the alcoholic test.

§ MR. T. DUNCOMBE
thought that with regard to the spirit duties the statement of the right hon. Gentleman was not quite satisfactory. With the intervention of Sunday, the distillers would only have one day to consider the alteration that had been proposed almost at the eleventh hour. He hoped that this part of the Resolution would be deferred till that day week, or Thursday, and the discussion on the other parts of it might be taken in the interval.

§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER
I wish to meet, as far as I can, the convenience of the hon. Gentleman; 1707 but the only concession the Government can make, with a due regard to the exigencies of the circumstances, is this:—I will take the Resolution respecting manufactured goods as the second, immediately after the Resolution on the wine duties; and the Resolution on the spirit duties shall be taken last in the order. I do not mean the last of all the Resolutions, but the last in order of those involving the changes in our Customs required to satisfy the terms of the Treaty entered into with France.