TO THE EDITOR OP TICS SPECTATOR. 224 April 1853.
Sra—Greatly admiring Mr. Gladstone's Budget as a whole, and trusting that any factious attempts to defeat its main _provisions will be resented as a treason against the community, / own that there are some details in it which I do not like, or at least upon which I wait to hear the explanations of the Chancellor. One is, that I doubt whether it is not better to announce a. definite period for the complete reduction of the Tea-duties, and to let them, drop at once to the lowest point intended. A long notice is desirable, but the successive reductions will interfere much with the operations of the tea-trade every spring for three months.
The other point is the Licences to dealers in exciseable articles increasing with the rent of their premises. This will act as a double Income-tax, if not more heavily, on large dealers in those articles. But something depends on the way the rent is estimated : e. g. a large grocer in the country deals In tea, &c., tobacco, &c., hops, &c., and manufactures soap and candles ; now, is he to pay for four licences, (for his four branches of exciseable cote- modities,) each estimated according to the rent he pays for premises in which he carries on four combined businesses? If so, he wilt pay 30 per cent sometimes on his rent; which would be a monstrous extortion. B.
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