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fh Spirits, and Starch, charged with Duty, mount of the Additional Duties in the last

No. VI.

To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament affembled. The humble Petition of the Corn Distillers in and about the City of London.

Sheweth,

THAT your petitioners have embarked very confiderable capitals in erecting buildings, and providing utenfils and materials, for carrying on the corn diftillery, under the fanction of the laws.

That your petitioners, though few in number, comprife, in importance and extent of their manufactories, upwards of 11-12ths of the whole diftillery of England: the proportion paid by the London diftillery the last year, ending 5th July, to the public revenue, being nearly as 310,000l. to 25,000l.

That, alarmed at the furprifing decreafe of, and impending ruin to, a trade of fo much importance to the landed intereft, as well as to the revenue of this country, your petitioners have endeavoured to investigate the causes of its late rapid declenfion; and the deeper their refearches, the more they are induced to impute it to the fraudulent practices of the finuggler and illicit trader.

The corn diftillery, which, upwards of twenty years ago, was a market. for, and took 500,000 quarters of corn annually, has not, of later years, made a demand for more than, 150,000 quarters.

The great encouragement to the increase of agriculture, and the refulting benefit to the landed property, under the former ftate, are too obvious to fuffer the late deftructive change to pafs unnoticed.

With respect to the revenue, your petitioners conceive it will be found, on inquiry, that about the year 1750, when the impofts or duties upon corn fpirits were only about 121. per ton, the corn diftillery yielded a revenue to government of about 500,000l. annually; and, to come nearer the present time, that in 1778 the duties amounted to 540,000l. and upwards.

In 1779, 1780, 1781, and 1782, additional impofts were laid on, with a view to aid and increase the revenue, and fuch increafe was estimated at upwards of 130,000l. additional yearly revenue; yet, in the year 1783, it will be found, that the whole produce of the diftillery was about 335,000l. only.

Thus, instead of the promised increase of revenue by the additional impofts, this one article of British manufactory, which, in 1750, at an impoft of about 121, per ton, produced 500,000l. in 1778, at an impoft of 491. per ton, produced 540,000l.; in 1783, at an impoft of 621. per ton, produces only 335,000-which is 165000l, fhort of what it was in 1750, and 340,000l. a year fhort of the promised increase.

Your petitioners, in the courfe of this enquiry, have every reafon to believe, that it is not from any decrease in the confumption of fpirits in England that this change arifes: on the contrary, that the demand and confumption have greatly increased; and that this material deficiency of the public revenue is owing to the introduction of foreign fpirits by the fmuggler, and by the illicit trade of fecret manufactories in Great Britain, and other evasion of duties. And your petitioners have submitted this short sketch, or comparative view of the past and present state of the corn distillery, in order to fhew, that in VOL. XIV.

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proportion

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proportion to the increase of the impofts, fuch has been the increase of the bounty or profit to the illicit trader, that the temptation exceeds the force of all our restrictive laws; and what was intended as an additional aid to government, has operated in dimunition of the revenue, by encouraging fraudulent practices, and in effect prohibiting the fair trader.

That, although your petitioners conceive themfelves entitled to the protection and encouragement of the Legiflature, it is not their interefts alone that are at ftake. The corn diftillery is evidently of great national importance and the defalcation of the revenue calls not more forcibly for the interpofition of the Minifter, than the revival of a failing market for our staple, the corn trade, and averting the injury to the landed property, call for the attention of the country gentlemen.

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The protection of the fair trader-the increase of his manufacture-the ends. of government with respect to revenue; and the maintaining or increasing the value of the landed property, being, as your petitioners conceive, infeparable from their interests.

Your petitioners, therefore, humbly pray,

That this important matter may be taken into confideration, and that relief may be afforded,

Whether by fuch a reduction of the late unproductive impofts as may remove the temptations to the fraudulent and illicit trader, and confequently render farther reftrictive laws unneceffary;

Or, by more effectual restrictions, and better enforced regulations, fuppreffing the frauds, and making these additional imposts answer the ends for which they were laid on:

Or otherwife, as in your wisdom fhall feem meet.

BELLS, GOSSE, and BENWELL,

COOKE, WILBIE, SAYER, and SMITH,

CURRIE and BYLES,

JOHNSON, PAYNE, HODGSON, and SNAITH,

LE FEVRE, HATCH, and SMITH,

LIPTRAP, MILWARD, and COTTERILL,

METCALFE and Company,

DAVID ROBERTS and Company.

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REPORT of the Commiffioners of Excife, upon the Petition of the Corn Distillers.

THE Commiffioners of Excife beg leave, in purfuance of an order of the Committee appointed by the honourable the Houfe of Commons, to enquire into the illicit practices ufed to defraud the revenue of this kingdom, to submit to the confideration of the Committee the following obfervations upon the petition prefented to that honourable House by the corn diftillers in and about the city of London.

That the landed intereft, the commerce, and the revenue of the kingdom, ́ derive great benefit from the corn distillery, is a fact that cannot be doubted;