A PROJECTOR'S BUDGET FOR 1857.

CUSTOMS REFORM.

Wnxis Sir Robert Peel developed his extensive scheme of com- mercial reform in tiff, few persons gave him- credit for having commenced a great work. The ousted Whigs were not in a hu- mour for looking favourably at' any Government measure. To make out a bad case against Ministers was their sole cue for the moment, and therefore, instead of discussing the merits of the new Tariff, they dwelt with all the exaggerated fervour of an angry Opposition upon the .hardships of the proposed Income and Property tax. The Free-traders hailed the concession made to their principles with mild approbation, but their attention had been mainly directed to the oppressive working of the Corn-law, and they were very much dissatisfied with the new sliding scale. Even in 1844, after the reformed Tariff had been two years in operation, and when Lord Dalhousie, then Vice-President of the Board of Trade, was claiming a fair trial for the new system from the Opposition in the House of Peers, the Earl of Wnxis Sir Robert Peel developed his extensive scheme of com- mercial reform in tiff, few persons gave him- credit for having commenced a great work. The ousted Whigs were not in a hu- mour for looking favourably at' any Government measure. To make out a bad case against Ministers was their sole cue for the moment, and therefore, instead of discussing the merits of the new Tariff, they dwelt with all the exaggerated fervour of an angry Opposition upon the .hardships of the proposed Income and Property tax. The Free-traders hailed the concession made to their principles with mild approbation, but their attention had been mainly directed to the oppressive working of the Corn-law, and they were very much dissatisfied with the new sliding scale. Even in 1844, after the reformed Tariff had been two years in operation, and when Lord Dalhousie, then Vice-President of the Board of Trade, was claiming a fair trial for the new system from the Opposition in the House of Peers, the Earl of Clarendon ridiculed the notion of trying to satisfy the ne- cessities of the country with " a trumpery reduction of duties Upon a few trumpery articles of foreign produce," pr of limit- ing the application of the principles of free trade to " the im- probable importation of a few quarters of Canadian wheat, or of some halt-dozen experimental Holstein oxen." How far the Whigs of the present day are prepared to go in the direction pointed out by Sir Robert Peel, remains to be seen. If left to themselves, I am afraid they will not show much earnestness in the cause of Customs-reform ; nor does it seem as if the Free trade party eared much about urging them to carry out those alterations of the Tariff which the late Member for tamworth left only half-accomplished. One cause of the apathy with which the Rouse of Commons looks upon any suggestion for the extension of the principles of Free-trade is the present disorganized ' state of the Opposition. Were the independent Free-trade Members of Parliament half as much in earnest for a liberal measure of commercial reform like the one I hale proposed, as they were for the abolition of the Corn-law, they would not find much difficulty in persuading Ministers that it must be carried. But in order to make them bestir themselves and unite heartily, together for any such pur- pose they must be made to feel that they have something else to do than merely go down to the House and watch an opportunity for finding fault with Ministers. If their constituents are too much taken up with their own business affairs to watch what their representatives are about, I see no hope for the present, un-. less it be from the interference of that " Vigilantie Committee" in the City of which Mr. Roebuck has been appointed chairman. If he and they can frighten or provoke-the " independent" Mem- bers of the House of Commons into a' wholesome conviction of their dependence on the good-will and confidence of their consti- tuents, we may expect to.see some improvement before long. But this is a digression. The gross produce of the duties of Customs last year was 22 615,708/. ; the chief portion of which was levied upon the fol- lowing seven articles— Tea t 55,312,203

Sugar 5,373,649 Tobacco 4,871,416

Spirits 2,463,061

Wine 1,886,099 Coffee 547,889 Timber 476,838 £19,045,056

The following table of the real value of our imports of the above articles last year will give some notion of the rate of taxa- tion levied on them.

Tea £5,216,502 .

Sugar 11,006,303 Tobacco 1,544,636 Spirits 2,194,422 Wine 3,072,224 Coffee. 1,693,235 Timber 7,447,149 £32,174,471

From the comparatively moderate range of duties on coffee and timber, the scale rises, as will be seen from the above figures, to. upwards of 100 per cent on tea and spirits, and more than 200 per cent on tobacco.

Of the remaining three millions and a •half which make up the total amount of Customs-duties, the items which yield the largest sums to the revenue are—silk-manufactures, gloves, corn, butter, cheese, cocoa, fruits, and pepper. The amount levied on the first of these—silk-manufactures—was 228,149/. • but that was made up of a number of smaller sums on gauze, rbands, &c., ranging. from 24831. to 87,216/. In the class of leather-manufactures some of the articles enumerated figure for very trifling sums. The whole of the duty received upon women's shoes was only 811., upon. children's boots and shoes 131.

Altogether the present Tariff contains 230 classes of goods which pay duties, and these include 466 items. Before Sir Ro- bert Peel commenced the work of Customs-reform duties were levied upon no fewer than 1052 articles. Nearly six hundred of these have been already swept away, and of those that remain the greater portion might be abolished without any serious loss to the revenue. Last year, the total produce of the duties on163 of these minor articles was only about 152,000/. It would he diffi- cult to determine what rule has been observed in repealing and retaining duties. In the reformed tariff of 1846, for example, I find that citrons and cucumbers preserved in salt cannot be im- ported from any foreign country without paying a duty of 5 per cent on their value. Why retain any duty at all on articles so insignificant? Verjuice, another item of agricultural produce, is made to pay 88s. per ton ; but as I cannot find that we import any of that austere commodity, which the French manufacture from unripe grapes, the amount of the duty may not be deemed of much consequence. What merchants complain of, however is the vexatious operation of a large number of the duties, which tend, in many instances, to stifle what might become a thriving branch of trade were there no troublesome revenue-officer in the way. The general principle of the Tariff of 1842 was to reduce the duty on raw materials to about 5 per cent, to limit the highest duty on partially-manufactured materials to 12 per cent, and on complete manufactures to about 20 per cent. In 1846 the duty on the latter class of goods was further reduced to 10 per cent. Of course this was agreed to without much complaint from the landowners, because they were to be protected by a sliding scale which was to give them an average of 54s. per quarter for wheat. Nov, however, that the duty has been reduced to ls. per quarter on wheat-2. little more than 2 per cent—the manufacturers can hardly set up any claim for such an amount of protection as is still maintained on various articles. The only effect of such duties is either to

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foster some branch of trade in this country for which France, Germany, or Switzerland has special advantages, or else to give a certain degree of monopoly to the manufacturers, and thus prevent that healthful competition which, is the life-blood of manufac- turing • skill and commercial enterprise. The old argument in favour of protection to manufactures, that the cost Of living is mach higher in this country than on the Continent, cannot be brought forward now, seeing that in France, of whose rivalry they were most afraid, the cost of living is quite as high as it is in England. The agriculturists could give some striking illus- trations of the benefit they have derived from those Free-trade measures of Sir Robert Peel by which they were so greatly alarmed. They have now had a pretty fair trial of Continental competition, and although Lord Clarendon's " half-dozen experimental Holstein oxen " in 1844 have multiplied into a goodly herd of horned and other cattle,* the farmers have had as good a market for their beeves during the last few years, and as high a price, as ever they had under protection. Even as re- gards the produce of our Colonies, about which there was so great an outcry at first, as if they would be utterly ruined if our ports were thrown open to foreign nations, experience has proved how.

* In 1855 our imports of living animals were as follows—

Oxen and fulls 63,685 Cows 10,063 Calves 23,777

Sheep : 156,646

5,996

Fv—ine and Hogs 12,171 little foundation there was for all those predictions. The pros- perity of our Colonies has been much more rapid under the opera- tion of a Free-trade policy than it ever was under the Protective system.* The wool trade furnishes a remarkable example of this. In 1844 the duty of 9s. 4d. per hundredweight on foreign wool was repealed, in spite of the gloomy Rrognostuations of the Duke of Richmond, who was greatly afraid of the effect of foreign- competition on our Australian trade. The result has shown how completely he was mistaken. In 1844 our total im- portation of foreign and colonial wool was 65,713,761 pounds ; of which little more than one-third came from Australia, India, and the Cape of Good Hope. Last year we imported 97,853,739 pounds of wool ; and of that increased quantity 74,619,213 pounds, considerably more than two-thirds of the whold, came from our own Colonies while the supply from the Continent, notwithstand- ing the abolition of the duty, has fallen to little more than one-

half' of what it was in 1844. '

Looking at these facts, and taking into account the numerous ad, vantages which our farmers our artisans, and our capitalists enjoy compared with their Continental rivals, I am unable to conceive why there should be any opposition to the complete repeal of all remaining protective duties on agricultural produce or manufac- tured goods. The time has come for such a measure of Customs- reform ; and were that accompanied by a reduction and simplifi- cation of the duties imposed for the sake of revenue, we should speedily witness a still more rapid increase of the national wealth, and thereby render the trade and commerce of the country still more secure from dangerous reverses. The only objection which is likely to be brought against such a scheme of fiscal and commercial reform as the one I have ung- gested, is the danger to which it would expose the national credit. How is the large deficit in the revenue from all these reductions to bemade up ? That is the query which naturally occurs to every one, and to that query I shall endeavour to give a satisfac- tory reply next week.

* The West Indies may be said to form an exception; but in their case it : was not Free-trade which gave the blow had they been exposed to nothing more than fair competition, the West India planters would have had no reason to complain.