cent. thus making about 30 per cent. out leaving any trace almost of what has difference in favour of the rich above been doing. The next facility arises the poor consumer. In addition to out of the remission of the candle duty. this, I need not observe to your Before that remission the candle-melter Lordship that, the labouring man must was, as your Lordship knows, subjected necessarily use more soap than he who is to the same strictness of excise suveilexempted from the duties of the work- lance as the soap-maker. This, howshop, the warehouse, or the manufac- ever, is no longer the case-where no tory, nor has he the same means with duty is obtained, the excise, though the rich of keeping his children clean, nominally surveyors, are not so in any and therefore, the cleansing material is efficient reality. The candle-maker to him far more a necessary of life than deals in tallow, the great component to the rich. I now turn to the second part of soap, and is generally a retailer branch of my subject, the facilities for of soap with his candles. There is nosmuggling which exist under the present thing to prevent his having alkali on his most imperfect andinefficient regulations. premises with perfect legality and even They are innumerable, by one who has without suspicion; his utensils may be not had the advantage of practice to applied to soap boiling as easily as to enable him to complete his list-and melting tallow; and I need not tell your many as they are your Lordship need Lordship that the trade of smuggling not doubt they will be taken advantage soap is to a lax conscience far preferable of when it is considered, that, at present, to that of making candles at any profit by smuggling a single ton of hard soap now to be obtained by such trade. The in a week, any person may nett a clear inference is obvious. income of 1,200l. per annum-and so The great injury to the honourable on in proportion. If human nature soap-maker, however, arises out of the were even better than it is, my Lord, it miserably inefficient regulations of the would be folly to expect that tempta- excise itself, which seem framed to apply tions like these will not be too often to those who stand least in need of yielded to, and I shall, therefore, insist them, and to give every chance to the no further on the absolute necessity of probable evader of the law. curing, or attempting to cure, the imper- According to the present usage, those fections of the present system, as soon houses, the scale of whose business as they can be pointed out. The great presupposes a payment of considerable facilities for smuggling soap, have arisen, duties, are very properly strictly and I beg your Lordship to observe, from the perpetually watched. An assistant is reduction of the salt tax, the tax on constantly stationed on the premises, brimstone, and the candle duty, added the guager is seldom absent, and the to the inefficient regulations of the ex-district supervisor suffers no day to pass eise. Before the remission of the salt tax, without seeing that all is going on as it hard soap was necessarily made nearly al- should. together from barilla and kelp, wood ashes being generally far too dear to be much employed; and these substances, embarrassed the smuggler by the refuse they leave, which he could neither keep nor get rid of without great difficulty and suspicion. Since, however, the decomposition of common salt by means of oil of vitrol, has opened out the manufacture of British barilla or rather soda, a fine alkaline salt of great strength and without refuse can be used-and by this means a fraudulent maker may finish the boiling of soap in a few hours with With the smaller manufac tories, however, this is not the case. There is no stationed assistant on the premises, which are visited only at intervals of several hours, and the routine of the business carried on therein is consequently only imperfectly known to the surveyor. Now, my Lord, taking into consideration the temptation described, the ease by which in a few hours a making may be finished, taken out, and fresh materials, having exactly the same appearance, substituted-I ask you, my Lord, is it either foolish or uncharitable to suppose that such must hard soap for the English market, upon which the drawback has been obtained. sometimes be the case? Certainly not, I suppose that the soap exported to Ireneither is it to suppose that men of good land never comes back again, and that property are less likely to enter into a the steam-boats which bring over Irish trade with dishonest motives than those paupers do not also bring over other destitute of it. Quitting this part of forbidden articles, equally injurious to the the subject, however, I shall now de-revenue? They do, my Lord; and many scribe some of the other facilities for a herring barrel and many a linen bale smuggling, which spring from the pre- (in appearance), are well loaded with sent erroneous system, and I crave your Lordship's attention to the regulations as to drawbacks, which are unquestionably the means of introducing frauds innumerable. Your Lordship is aware that in Ireland no soap duty is paid at all, and that of late years the full drawback of 281. per ton has been allowed upon all hard soap exported from England to Ireland, as if Ireland were a foreign country. But this is only one kind of drawback, there is a second sort to be considered. Upon all hard soap used in the milling of woollen cloths, &c. three-fourths of the duty are remitted, and the drawback is obtained by the exhibition of invoices which were formerly verified on oath by the manager or one of the managers of the manufactory, and now are by the The first effect of this has been to add manufacturer himself. Now, my Lord, to the miseries of unhappy Ireland, by it is evident that by exhibiting false indestroying the soap trade there altoge- voices drawbacks to a considerable exther. And how this happens, a little tent may be obtained upon soap which explanation will make very evident. I never even existed; and if there be such have already stated that, the nett duty a thing as a roguish soap-maker or clothreally paid upon soap is about 26s per manufacturer, is it possible, does your cwt. The drawback, however received, lordship think, to suppose that they is 28s., so that here is a clear bounty of have not found this out? two pounds per ton in favour of the En- So much for drawbacks, I trust I have glish manufacturer and against the Irish. pretty clearly shown the evils resulting Your Lordship will perhaps ask how it from them, and I am now to trouble happens that this bounty does not ex-your Lordship with the system of certi terminate the soap trade in all foreign ficates. At present, with every parcel countries as it does in Ireland, and the of soap sent out by the manufacturer question is a natural one: but your Lord- there goes a certificate, specifying the ship must remember that in exporting weight, &c., and soap sent from a masoap to really foreign countries, the in-nufactory without this is liable to seizure. direct taxes on soap, that is to say, the tallow duty of 31. 2s. per ton, and the barilla duty of 21. per ton, the palm oil duty 21. 10s. and the cocoa nut oil duty 21. per ton, that on rosin as a component of rough turpentine, which are not drawn back, neutralize the effect of this bounty when English soap is brought in competition with foreign soap, which is made of untaxed tallow or untaxed olive oil, (of which last article the English soap made is most foolishly deprived by a prohibiting duty for the advantage of Russia), and untaxed barilla, &c.; while in Ireland, where these taxes are paid, the bounty acts to the destruction of the Irish soap-maker. But this is only a small part of the evil. Does your Lordship This is very well in appearance, but on the other side it also happens that soap which has a certificate, nobody thinks of seizing, and as there is nothing to prevent the certificates from being got back again, and as it is an easy thing to alter a date, so it turns out that one certificate may cover more than one parcel of soap, and this without chance of detection, as the excise keep no stock account, and have no check of any sort upon the manufacturer; in this matter, thus the certificate is a cover, and not a preventive of fraud, and as at present managed, is evil unmixed, and not productive of any benefit to anybody but the dishonest. Such, my Lord, is the situation of the situation which seems to unite every- I have now arrived, my Lord, at the difficult part of my subject. It is always easy to describe evils, but often hard to find the cure. Can I find a cure for these? To say that I can, would be arrogance extreme, to say that I am willing to try, may be allowed to pass, at all events, for nothing worse than well-meaning officiousness. If your Lordship could for a moment be supposed to condescend to ask me what course I should take to cure those evils, I should at once reply-first, diininish the temptation to smuggle; next, increase the preventives of smuggling. If the duty on hard soap, from threepence per lb., were at once struck down to a penny per lb., two-thirds of the temptation would at all events be extinguished at a blow, and the public would be benefited to the extent of about 2d. per lb. upon every pound of hard soap used that is to say, brown soap would be nearly one-third cheaper than it is now, a great boon to the poor man. If the allowance made to woollen manufacturers, &c. upon the soap they use in milling were put an end to, the Government would be a gainer to the extent of one-fourth of the amount of that impost; as these manufacturers would then pay a penny where before they paid only three-farthings per lb. continued to carry on his trade, to find two sureties in 500l. each that he would not again commit the offence. I have reason to believe, my Lord, this plan was partially acted upon when the remission of the beer duty occasioned temporary over-supply of excisemen. The result was, that the duty upon soap was in that year increased 50,000l., and that about a twelfth of that increase was paid by the house to which I, your Lordship's humble correspondent, am attached; and that I am ready to prove that the greater part of the increase which we paid was in consequence of orders from the towns and districts of Hull, Selby, and York, in which towns and districts several smuggling houses were broken up, or temporarily suppressed, in consequence of the experiment which I had recommended. Taking the effect of all these measures, it is clear that smuggling would receive a check, that would go far to extinguish it; and that this joined to the increase of consumption, would make up, to a great extent, the loss in revenue arising from striking off twothirds of the tax. It has been asserted to me, by one who had opportunities for knowing, that the soap smuggled, compared to the quantity that paid. duty, was at as one to two. If anything like this be the truth, it must be clear to your Lordship, that the gain upon this would at once bring the revenue up to the pitch of three-halfpence per lb. upon the quantity that is now paying duty. What the increase arising out of increased consumption would be, it is inpossible for me even to guess, but I am sure that it would be great. At present to buy soap sufficient for a working man and his family, would make a: hole in his income, for which cleanli-; Fami In addition to this I should at once lies, on the average, are of five persons, "VERSAL SUFFRAGE, AND "VOTE, BY BALLOT." away with a twelfth or thirteenth of his " ANNUAL PARLIAMENTS, UNIwhole weekly income, and yet this quantity for an artisan, his wife, and his three children, is far from sufficient. If he bought 2lbs. under the reduced duty, the gain to the revenue would be considerable. Whether this duty of one penny per pound on hard soap could be levied in poor, miserable, maltreated Ireland, it is not for me, but for your Lordship to say, but if it could, I firmly believe the Exchequer would lose little by the proposed change. (From Cobbett's Magazine.) the mouth of Chorabus is translated The saying which VIRGIL puts into by DRYDEN aptly enough to have been studied as a motto for the Whigs: "Let fraud supply the want of force in war." But the Trojan leader, along with his host, was the victim of his own stratagem; and the Whigs are likely to share In conclusion, I would beg leave ear-a like fate unless they change their nestly to press upon your Lordship the mode of warfare. This line naturally policy of extinguishing the duty upon comes to memory on reading some artithe various vegetable oils which may be cles which have appeared of late in the used in the manufacture of hard soap, Edinburgh Review; which articles exespecially olive oil. It is known to hibit the most arduous rumagings of your Lordship that the soaps of France man's brain to find reasons, that we ever and Spain, indeed most of the conti- saw in our lives. The object is, to show nental soaps, are produced by the union that further reform in the House of of olive oil with alkali, and that the Commons is not necessary; and it is but olive may be grown to an interminable just that as many as possibly can should extent, not only in the warmer climates do these articles the honour of reading of Europe, but in America, Asia, and them; because, if the writer have not Australia. Why then, I ask, should this made out the case upon which he country be solely dependent on Russia pleads, he has at least given one of the for the principal constituent of her soaps, finest specimens of what it is to exhaust tallow? or, why should tallow be al-all a man's powers of arguing on one side lowed to supplant, in England, the ve-of a question; he is the most laborious getable? why should this be? especially and perspiring drudge of faction that when all consider that the supply of ever took the implement of Grab-street tallow from Russia must soon find its in hand. The Ballot, in particular, limit, and be inadequate to meet the increasing demand for this country, in which (I state the fact to your Lordship with poignant feelings of grief, but it is a fact which I have means superior to those of most men in this country of knowing), the supply of home-produced tallow, in proportion to the population, is every day decreasing, because, my Lord (I must speak out), the labouring classes are unable to live as they ought to do upon butchers' meat. I have the honour to be, my Lord, your Lordship's obedient servant, THOMAS DOUBLEDAY. seems to have given him the horrors ;and no reason that he can here find con. is so contemptible but it becomes a weighty fish in the Reviewer's net. The readers of these articles should, at the same time, turn back to another which appeared in the same Review in the year 1807, where they will see the question of reform handled in an equally masterly way (the labourer's task then being to show that no reform at all was necessary), and wherein that question was set at rest after the manner of Mr. Canning's setting-at-rest for paper-money : that is to say, so that it might only become a subject of livelier agitation at a future day. Perhaps some will say, that it is unfair to compare things which occurred so long ago with those occurring so lately, that the Elinburgh Review's article of 1807 ought now to be 66 mere matter of amusement for political | fore, to subimit our observations to the antiquaries, and that it should already judgment of all moderate reformers; as be classed among things which con- a pretty numerous class of the nation noisseurs consider as of the "true an- are called. tique," and, consequently not to be In doing this we shall confine ourlooked upon as at all applicable to our selves as nearly as we can to the stateown time. We should think, however, ment of our own views, independently that this cannot be admitted in fairness; of what has been said by those with because, while the Reviewer of Edin- whom we disagree. The invitation, burgh is one of great penetration and however, which the sophistry of the foresight, it is for the same faction, and Edinburgh Reviewer gives to expose to gain or keep the same profits in him, is almost irresistible. But we place, that he has all along been at have no room to notice him more than work. Besides, the difficulty of dis- generally to see through him comtinguishing between what is too old to pletely, one must read all he says; so apply and what is not, has been more we recommend our readers to look at strikingly proved by what this Reviewer the two last of his numbers, and essaid only a few weeks ago compared pecially at that for January, in which, with an event that has taken place even among many other things equally since that we mean, the bitter taunt shameless, he says, in speaking of the of the Whig Reviewer at the Tories, Ballot, "The Ultra Tories have charging them with having incited the " brought many ills upon their country; Radicals to further reform, in order to" they, and their natural allies, seditious produce a revolution, coupled along" mobs, in both parts of the empire, with the fact that the Tories and Whigs may possibly add this to the catahave, since the date of that taunt, made logue." The term "Ultra Tory," up again, like true brothers, and are at taken with those others which the conthis moment making a joint stand fusion in public opinion has given birth against the Radicals! Thus much let to," Ultra Whig,' ""Moderate Whig," us say, at the outset of our notice of" Ultra Radical,' "Moderate Radical," further reform, just by way of a com- &c., shows that the two pure factions pliment to the consistency of its Whig that have been co-operating so long, opponents. are nearly at an end; and that, if men The above is, to some, a frightful would make any distinction between title to write under. But we prefer politicians as respects their principles, taking this to anything of the inore it must now be between honest men moderate sort, if it be only out of further and rogues, whatever name they give compliment to the Whigs: for this, themselves; and this Reviewer seems "Annual Parliaments, Universal Suf- to claim a distinguished rank among frage, and Vote by Ballot," is only the the latter of the two. The Whigs, to extreme wish of a power, the influential charge the Tories with sedition; the fear of which brought the Whigs into Whigs, who bullied the Tories out of place, and placed a reforming Chancel-place so short a time since, and thrust lor on the woolsack. We were at first themselves in, by calling this same going to address ourselves, under this "seditious mob" to their aid! The head, "To all honest Whigs;" but the Tories had the odium of holding all words were no sooner down, than we nominal power when the popular irrupstarted at the sight of them, and ran tion took place; and now the insolent our pen through them; not choosing Whig talks as if he (the rogue!) had to seem as if promising a string of no hand in bringing about that condition ironical jokes upon a serious subject, of the people which gave rise to the which our readers might naturally think necessity of compliance with the peowe were doing if they saw us connect-ple's demands. But did not the Whigs ing the idea of honesty along with the help to do all the worst acts of oppres name of Whig. We shall prefer, there- sion and cruelty: did, they not, par |