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cretionary power of the officer. For at prefent, the diftiller is the only dealer in fpirits, either domeftic or foreign, who is obliged by flatute to reduce his commodity by water to a particular standard, which is tried by the hydrometer; and the fmalleft variation betwixt the inftruments conftructed in Scotland and thofe conftructed in England, have occafioned large quantities of Scots fpirits to be feized in the Thames, upon a variation of fomething under two per cent. and spirits, to the value of many thousand pounds, have been detained for months, to the no fmall lofs of the trader; first, in being disappointed of his market; fecondly, in the out-lay of a very great part of his ftock; and thirdly, in being taken off his bufinefs, obliged to go to London, and remaining there a confiderable time, foliciting the reftitution of his spirits, and which is at laft obtained, only upon the condition of fatisfying the perfon who had made the feizure. We ought not to omit mentioning, that in a tranfaction of this kind, the present fecretaries of the treasury (our author relates it to their honour) were fo fenfible of the hardship, that they generously refufed to take their common fees of office, when the orders for reftitution paffed through their hands. The fallacy of the hydrometer, as a regulator of taxation, is forcibly evinced in the fubfequent paffage.

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That legiflators must be ftill more fhort-fighted, impolitic, and unprovident, who attempt to afcertain the quantum of the tax to be levied by an inftrument, the ftandard of which depends merely on opinion, is fufficiently enough defined in no act of parliament to fet the trader on his guard, and which philofophy itself cannot afcertain; for the hydrometer varies with the accuracy of the artift who makes it, with the dexterity and long practice of the officer (often a very young, aukward, and unexperienced one) who ufes it, with the climate of different latitudes, and with the weather in the fame day in the fame latitude. Even the degree of warmth of the hand in holding the veffel which contains the fpirit, will make a difference in the effect of the hydrometer. One of the first judges in Europe of the powers of nature and of art in chemical operations, I mean Dr. Black, profeffor of chemiftry in Edinburgh, gave in evidence in the court of Exchequer there, in a trial, the iffue of which depended on the truth of the hydrometer, that if it was corroded, it would be lighter, and make the fpirits appear weaker; that, if hurt even by a dimple, it would fink and make the fpirits appear ftronger; that its accuracy, unaccompanied with a thermometer, could not be trufted; and that it was poffible to put ingredients into the liquor to flop its 'operations altogether.'

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The fecond advantage refulting from our author's plan, is. that the quality of corn-fpirits would be improved. This

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effect requires fome explanation. At prefent, a diftiller pays by the wash, viz. five pence on the gallon. In order to leffen the duty, he makes the wafh as faft, and confequently as ftrong as he can; by which means he is neceffarily injured both in quantity and quality. If he was left at liberty to make the wath as weak as he pleafed, which would be the confequence of a tax by the ftill, he would obtain two gallons more of spirits on a quarter of grain. The quality would be amended in a yet greater proportion; for fpirits are fofter or harther to the taile, in proportion as the wash is ftrong or weak. In thefe loffes of the individual, our author justly obferves, that the public lofes in the fame proportion by wafte, and the depreciation of a great national commodity.

The third advantage enumerated is, that the fmuggling of foreign fpirits will be prevented.

There is one, and but one way, fays the baronet, to prevent the fmuggling of foreign fpirits, which is to make our own fpirits cheaper than foreign ones. At prefent, the distiller pays -five taxes: one to the king; a fecond to his fervants, to bribe them not to inform the officer; a third to the officer not to inform his fuperiors; a fourth in the lofs of time to himself, his fervants, and work, in performing fome parts of his work, not when he pleafes, but when the officer pleafes; and a fifth, in the expence, lofs of time, and vexation which falls upon him, when difputes happen between him and the excife, which are confiderable, even when he is fuccefsful, but are often attended with his ruin, if judgment goes against him. The extent of fines and forfeitures, with the expences accompanying them, are, I am afraid, far more confiderable than the nation has any idea of. A great fhare of them goes to the officer; in Scotland a fmall fhare to the king, but of which he gets nothing; and all of them are real taxes on fome body or other. Now, if the amount of the last four of thefe five taxes were thrown into one bag, I imagine they would far outweigh the fifth in another bag. But collect the tax by the fill, and the manufacture will pay only one tax inflead of five.'

A fourth advantage is, that Britain, inftead of importing foreign fpirits from abroad, will export her own to foreign countries; by which means her fhipping, as well as her manufactures, will be increated. Our author obferves that the Dutch pay the English tax of 138. 7d. and 16-20ths upon British coals ufed in their diftilleries, befides the prime cot at the coal hill, carriage to the fea, freight, commiffion, infurance, and carriage from the fea; all which added together, bring them about a thousand per cent. dearer than we pay for them. They purchafe malt from England, in which, in addition to its original price, there are added the various expences juft now mentioned relative to the article of coals:

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notwithstanding which difadvantages on the two great mate rials employed in the manufacture of fpirits, the Dutch are enabled to make this commodity of our own grain, and to fmuggle it, with profit, on our own coafts. This is a most convincing proof of impolitic laws, and certainly calls aloud for their amendment.

Sir John Dalrymple next enumerates the advantages which will accrue to the landed intereft from the propofed plan. The advantages of a diftillery on a farm are fpecified to be the following: it fattens many oxen and fwine, by which the price of butcher's meat is kept moderate, for the benefit of the labourer, and the cheapnefs of labour. It fupplies food for the horfes and cows (and, as our author has experienced, even to the theep) of the farm, by which it leffens the expence of draught in the firit, and of butter, milk, and cheefe, in the fecond cafe. It raifes a quantity of manure for the land. The crop which it chiefly requires is barley, and the cleaning the Land neceffary to prepare it for barley, makes it produce for the crop of that year, and two crops after it, more than it would have produced in the common way of culture in half a dozen. To all thefe confiderations is to be added, that it prefents a market to the farmer which he had not before.

The advantages which will accrue to the revenue from this plan, are defcribed by our author as extremely important. The expence of collecting the revenue of the diftillery will be diminished; frauds against the officer will be rendered almost impoffible and the revenue will be increased. According to an eltimate made by fir John Dalrymple, upon principles which difcover great information, the fum, of which government has been annually defrauded, in this department of the revenue, amounts to about two millions fix hundred thoufand pounds. The fum, fays our author, may appear enormous: but the bufinefs of the British diftillery is far greater than ministers and treasury-boards have hitherto been permitted to know.'"

Some objections which may be made to our author's plan, he afterwards anfwers in fo clear and fatisfactory a manner, as tends ftrongly to enforce the opinion of its great utility to the public. We cannot conclude our account of this Addrefs' without obferving, that it abounds with important information refpecting the revenue of the diftilleries; that the facts adduced by fir John Dalrymple merit the most attentive enquiry; and that the whole is written with fuch ardour as is fuitable to the recommendation of a plan affirmed to be so interesting and advantageous to the nation; a plan which, tending to fuch an extraordinary improvement of the revenue, must afford a powerful acceffion to the other means that have lately been adopted for this purpofe.

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An Effay on the Population of Ireland. By the Rev. 7. Howlett.. 800. 15. Richardfon.

ON a former occafion, Mr. Howlett favoured the public with his fentiments refpecting the population of England, and he has now turned his attention towards afcertain ing the ftate of the fifter kingdom in this particular. He obferves, it is a fingular circumftance, that Dr. Price, who is fo confident that the returns of the English hearth-tax (though now difcontinued about ninety years), when compared with the prefent returns for the window-tax, though of a kind totally diffimilar, are a fatisfactory ground from which to compate, the population of England and Wales, fhould, at the fame time, be equally confident, that the returns for the Irish hearth-tax, though continued nearly upon the fame footing from the Revolution to the prefent day, and therefore properly comparable together for different periods within the compals of this interval, do not, however, enable us to judge either of the progrefs or actual ftate of the population of Ireland. This affertion, Mr. Howlett continues to remark, appears ftrangely inconfiftent; and that, when we come to examine the fact, we find the truth to be just the reverfe in both inftances. He contends that the English returns, as far as the doctor has ftated and confidered them, fcarcely afford any information on thefe fubjects; while thofe of the Irish, on the contrary, are as full and complete to the purpose, as any thing of the kind can well be. Dr. Price's account of the latter is cited in the following words:

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The Irish returns to the hearth-tax afford no documents. from which a judgment, tolerably correct, can be formed of the progress or present ftate of the population of Ireland. All that is known from them with certainty is the yearly produce of the tax; the average of which being for the last five years to 1781, £60,643, makes the number of hearths, (at 2s. per hearth,) to be 606,480. It is fuppofed that a house may be allowed for every two hearths, and that one-third of the houfes are excused on account of poverty; and on thefe fuppofitions the number of houfes will exceed 400,000. and confequently the inhabitants will be about 2,000,000.'

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On this paffage Mr. Howlett obferves, that, admitting the principal fact afferted to be true, that nothing can be known with certainty from thefe returns but the annual produce of the tax, the hypothetical reafoning grounded upon it is the moft inapplicable that can be conceived. Instead of there being, as is fuppofed, two hearths upon an average to a house, there are actually very little more than one and three-tenths; VOL. LXI. June, 1786. G&

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and instead of one-third of the houses being excused on account of poverty, there is fcarcely one in twenty-fix. Mr. Howlett obferves, that both these affertions might be proved, if neceffary; but the leading fact being falle, the hypothefis applied to it is of no confequence. In confirmation that the leading fact is fuch, he prefents us with the following intelligence, fent him by the right hon. Mr. Beresford, first commiffioner of the Irish revenues,

I obferve, fays he, from your letter, that Dr. Price af ferts that nothing is here known with certainty but the produce of the tax. This affertion is certainly ill-grounded; for I take it for granted that a man of Dr. Price's liberality of sentiment does not mean to quibble by adhering to the literal sense of these words; but must intend to be understood, that in Ireland we have not any return made of houses, but that we compute the number of them from the number of the hearths returned, or from the amount of the tax; but the fact is, that the hearth-money collector is ordered by his inftructions to go, at a certain time of the year, and make an actual survey of his walk, inferting in a ledger for that purpose, the number of houfes in each parish, &c. and then, after the walk is thus furveyed, he is to go it over again, and collect the tax; and, if in fuch fecond round he fhall difcover any new houfe not before difcovered, he is to enter it in his ledger. Besides these precautions, we have a fuperior officer called a fupervifor, who has generally about four collectors under him, except in cities. It is this officer's duty to furvey at least one walk in a year, and to make a return of his furvey, which is intended as a check. It is clear then that there is a return of houses made in each walk, and that each walk certainly contains as many houfes as are returned, and it is also to be observed, that all computations made from the number of the hearths, or the amount of the tax, unconnected with other information, muft be extremely erroneous; because it is by concealing the former, and diminishing the latter, that the hearth-money collector is enabled to commit frauds. He may make a true return of the number of houfes, and yet retain a confiderable proportion of the tax by a falfe return of the number of hearths; whereas if he returned the true number of hearths, he could not defraud, He is interested, therefore, in making a falfe return of hearths, but has no motive to make a falfe return of houfes. a 29.5b volili chất lo 10.tus on T

From this account, Mr. Howlett obferves, it is extremely clear that an actual return of houses is constantly and regularly made; and though this return be not perfectly correct, yet, in all probability, it cannot be greatly deficient. So that what

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Dr.

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