§ I have now completed the review of the Customs Revenue, and I turn to the Excise. The Exchequer receipts from the Excise were £26,800,000 last year, against an estimate of £25,950,000, and Exchequer receipts in 1894–95 of £26,050,000. The two main heads of Excise are, of course, beer and spirits. The net receipts from beer last year were £10,719,000—an increase of £617,000 over the net receipts of 1894–5; 32,973,000 barrels of beer were brewed —an increase of 1,591,300 over the previous year. I think every one who has considered the question at all is aware of the remarkable cheapness of the materials for brewing in the past year. The barley-malt and hops—so dear to my hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk— 1060 and the other materials which go to the manufacture of beer have been wonderfully cheap, and the mild winter has largely stimulated the consumption of beer. In my belief, brewers have never had a better year, and I hope the Committee will bear that in mind when I come to a later part of my statement. [Laughter and cheers.] The net receipt from British spirits was £15,603,000, an increase of £334,000 over that of 1894–5. A considerable part of the increase does not really belong to the year, for it is due to the delay in the payment of the duty on spirits, owing to the anticipation of the removal of the extra duty. But since the second quarter of the year— the receipts of which were augmented by that fact—the receipts from spirits have proved stationary, and I cannot say that I think this really an increasing Revenue.